The body is first in the order of conditioning – our work, personality, nature, community, moral life, imagination are all aspects of our body’s conditioning. In addition, we are the products of atavism, the inherited characteristics from our parents. However, the body is completely relative to the spiritual soul which finalises us and brings true…
Pere Marie-Dominique Philippe described the body as ‘The substantial conditioning of the human person’. We have no experience outside of our bodies, so in one sense we only exist – we are only able to say ‘I am’ – in union with our bodies. But if we ask the question: ‘What is the purpose of…
Beginning with the judgement of existence ‘this is’, and discovering the reality of existence outside ourselves, enables us to affirm the metaphysical, objective, reality of ‘I am’. ‘I am’ becomes therefore more than I am conscious of myself being, and leads onward to the discovery of my radical autonomy. More than this, I discover I…
Beyond all determinations, which describe our form, there is a more profound level of being which is described by ‘act’. As human beings we have the capacity to choose, and this implies a capacity to choose an ‘end’, in other words to choose our ‘finality’. To what principles or persons is our life ordered? Our…
What is ‘that-which-is in so far as it is’? This question is concerned with the judgement of existence. It leads further to such questions as: Can the matter which exists be described solely by its form? Or solely by its actions? Or both? Or is there something more ultimate than both these? Aristotle used the…
‘First Philosophy’ was the term used by Aristotle to embrace the study or search for what is absolutely first, or ultimate. In more recent centuries the term ‘Metaphysics’ has tended to replace the term ‘First Philosophy’, but it is concerned with the same aim – to go beyond the characteristics of man to the question…
Aristotle’s contribution to our notion of the human person was and still is, fundamental. He considered the relationship between nature and the person, and concluded that the person is not simply a natural being, similar to plants and animals, due to his ability to choose. In contrast to the natural world, human beings have the…
“Psychology is generally understood as one of the most important forces in contemporary society, as such it is useful to trace its modern history in order to truly grasp modern psychology’s current directions. During the first half of the 20th century, American psychology was dominated by two schools of thought, behaviourism and psycho-analysis. While both…
Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe, the founder of the Community of St John, wrote the following lines in the first chapter of his book entitled ‘Retracing Reality’: “The search for wisdom has become particularly difficult in our time. The cultural milieu in which contemporary man lives does not favour it. The search for such wisdom is considered…
We are pleased to be able to publish this series of talks given by Fr Thomas Dunton of the Community of St John to novices of the Community based at their priory in Princeville, Ohio, USA, on the subject of the Human Person. In this first talk entitled ‘An Introduction to a Philosophical Gaze on…
THE INSTITUTE OF ST JOHN 