Dietrich von hildebrand biography of martin

Now von Hildebrand claims that everything of value — not just works of art — gives off some beauty, has something of the radiance or fragrance that we call beauty. He is led to take very seriously the affectivity of the person — the heart. He goes so far as to say that the human person is not distinguished from other animals by intellect and will only; equally important is the heart.

The traditional view is that our affective energy originates out of our bodily life and is at first unruly and disordered; and that this energy gets ordered and channeled by our intellect and will. But von Hildebrand thinks that this view fails to do justice to our affectivity. If you are, for example, filled with heartfelt gratitude for some deliverance, your gratitude is not just your will ordering some amorphous affective energy.

No, the gratitude you feel is from the beginning engendered by your understanding of some great good for yourself and is thereby rightly ordered from within. Thus von Hildebrand holds that we have three centers of personal life, and not just two: besides intellect and will, there is the co-equal heart. I can will the good of another as much as I like — if I do not also take some affective delight in the other, I do not really love the other.

When something discloses itself to you in its beauty, you do not just cognize the beauty, or just will to act on behalf of the beautiful being; you take delight in it, you are affectively moved by it. If we human persons live amidst beauty in the way that von Hildebrand thinks we do, then we cannot fail to be affectively related to the world. His stress on beauty in his vision of the world corresponds to his stress on the heart in his vision of the human person.

He holds that love is not only a commitment of the will. He holds that love is what he calls a value-response, that is, a response to some perceived excellence or goodness in the beloved person. It is of course not just some one excellent quality of the other that awakens my love, but a certain excellence of the beloved person as a whole.

Love is, then, not blind; it is not a vital energy that breaks out irrationally; it rather responds to the beauty experienced in the beloved person. He had grown up with no religious formation, but he was early on strongly drawn to the Catholic Church, into which he was received in at the age of It was Max Scheler, the great German philosopher, who set him on his path to conversion by calling his attention to the saints, such as St.

Francis of Assisi. It was above all the radiant supernatural beauty that von Hildebrand found in the saints that moved him to convert and that sustained his faith for the rest of his life. The beauty of the saints was for him a radiance or fragrance of their holiness. If we are looking for moral orientation, or for the reinforcement of a beleaguered faith, we will find in von Hildebrand much that illumines our understanding.

No one aside from young Dietrich, the only son after five sisters, was religiously-minded. Let me share just one brief story which illustrates his deeply religious being, even long before he converted to Catholicism. When Dietrich was 8 years old, one of his sisters took him to see the Cathedral in Milan. This was a purely aesthetic trip, to see an artistic masterpiece.

As they were walking through the Cathedral, little Dietrich insisted on genuflecting before all of the many side altars. His sister became irritated, telling him to cease this meaningless performance or they would leave immediately. Yet even as a young child, Dietrich felt convinced he was acting rightly, much as he revered his sister.

This independence from outside influences was typical of my husband. As a young student of philosophy, Dietrich one day made the acquaintance of the great German philosopher Max Scheler whose writings, by the way, were to have a great influence on the future John Paul II. One day, quite out of the blue, Scheler said to von Hildebrand, "the Catholic Church is the true Church".

Dietrich was taken aback. Having for so many years lived in Florence, he had surprisingly never met a Catholic. But then Scheler made a key statement through which, unwittingly Scheler opened for his young friend the path to conversion. He said, "The Catholic Church produces saints". Scheler then spoke about the saints and powerfully sketched the personality of St Francis of Assisi.

The book consists of 35 chapters, each of which focuses on a different aspect of the Christian life and the process of transformation. Von Hildebrand argues that the goal of the Christian life is not simply to follow a set of rules or to achieve a certain level of moral perfection, but rather to be transformed from within and to develop a deep personal relationship with God.

He stresses the importance of cultivating virtues such as humility, faith, hope, and love, and of seeking to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of our spiritual growth. Throughout the book, von Hildebrand draws on the teachings of the Bible, the writings of the saints, and his own personal experiences to offer insights into the spiritual life.

He emphasizes the need for prayer, meditation, and self-examination, and he encourages readers to seek out the guidance of spiritual directors and to participate in the sacraments of the Church. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item.

Italian-German American Roman Catholic philosopher and author Florence , Italy. Margarete Denck. Alice M. Continental philosophy Phenomenology Munich phenomenology Personalism. Biography [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Key philosophical ideas [ edit ]. This section relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources.

Realist Phenomenology [ edit ]. Categories of Motivation [ edit ]. The Heart [ edit ].

Dietrich von hildebrand biography of martin

Transformation in Christ [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. This list is incomplete ; you can help by adding missing items. March Books [ edit ]. Critical studies and reviews of Hildebrand's work [ edit ]. Ethics [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. By Kate Veik. Tags: Dietrich von Hildebrand , Nazism , Hitler. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. Our mission is the truth.

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