Description
Book SynopsisPieper collects his contributions to radio programs and to a number of journals and periodicals. The book also includes a selection of notes and comments. The contributions fall into two main groups: the period which encompasses the immediate pre-war period as well as the war period itself, and the post-war period up to 1953.The reader becomes witness, first, to Pieper’s problems with the National Socialist regime and, second, to his problems with the ensuing challenges to religious life as it is exposed to increasing secularization.
As with his later works, Pieper draws on traditional wisdom which, for him, dates back to Plato and Aristotle, and in these contributions we also see his early preoccupation with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. The normal boundaries between philosophy and theology are here not clearly drawn. Pieper is preoccupied with the mystery of our world and its importance as a source of symbols signifying deeper levels of reality. He sees the sacraments as achieving their fundamental effect from divine intervention, but he also highlights the need for careful observance of the rituals, so that their meaning is not obscured. Proper execution of the sacrament should enable the faithful to enjoy the existential fruits of their participation in the ritual.
This work manifests the organic cohesion of Pieper’s thinking, and it reflects his profound awareness of the role to be played not so much by the professional (academic) philosopher as by the existential Philosophizer.
Table of ContentsContents
About Listening and Philosophical Interpretation
I
Knowledge and Freedom
On the Desire for Certainty
Is there a non-Christian Philosophy?
Mystery and Philosophy
Philosophy and the Common Good
Soliloquy about Hope
Chivalry as a Soldier’s Stance
What each one of us should do
On Private Property
Brief Information about Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas as Teacher
“I have absolute security”
Experiment with Blindness
II
“Work – Free Time – Leisure
How does a person learn to see again?
New encounter with a poem
On Music
III
The Greater World
Comments on the missionary situation of the Church in Germany
On the TV Transmission of the Mass
Priesthood and Sacrificial Worship
Footnotes on the Lord’s Supper Tract in the Summa Theologica
Creation and Sacrament
Symbol and trappings
Endnotes
Index
