CU Theses
Pages
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- “It is not Good for Man to be Alone”: The Concept of Human Relationship in the Work of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI and its Implications for Ordering Man’s Loves
- Across the ages, ethicists and theologians have debated whether particular, preferentialloves draw men away from perfect communion with man and God, or whether it is precisely these loves that somehow lead to a universal communion beyond themselves. This thesis brings Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s concept of human relationship to bear on the debate. Throughout his work, Ratzinger/Benedict develops the concept of person as relation. This concept is grounded first in the Trinity and then analogously applied to men as imago dei. Drawing on this concept, Ratzinger/Benedict makes significant statements about both man’s need for his fellow man and the impossibility of true communion among men without relationship to God. Even so, he rarely directly addresses questions about preferential loves or friendship. This thesis looks at Ratzinger’s notion of person as relation and some key writings on interhuman relationship to outline his understanding of interhuman relationship, especially friendship. This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter lays out the notion of person as relation as found in Ratzinger’s “On the Understanding of ‘Person’ as Relation” and Introduction to Christianity. The second chapter examines specifically human relationality. Thefirst half deals with the human person’s foundational relation to God, and the second half looks at how Ratzinger/Benedict understands interhuman relationality as interconnected with and inseparable from the human-divine relationship. The third and final chapter applies Ratzinger/Benedict’s understanding of human relationship to the question of friendship and whether it is a part of universal communion or a distraction. In addition to the texts examined earlier in the thesis, this chapter further illuminates Ratzinger/Benedict’s understanding of human relationality by drawing on The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood, Deus Caritas Est, and several homilies that speak of Christ’s friendship with the Apostles. Based on an examination of Benedict/Ratzinger’s understanding of human relationality, this thesis proposes that authentic preferential loves among human persons are actualizations and realizations of relationship and a participation in the full communion of heaven. To be a person means to be in relation, and to be a human person means to exist in relation with all one’s fellow man and with God. Relationship with God is inseparable from relationship with man. The whole of humanity is bound together in Christ. Even so, Ratzinger emphasizes that each human person is unique and historically situated. Therefore, on the way to loving God and all men completely, each human person develops historically situated particular loves (philia). These particular and personal loves are a realization of the kind of love with which the human person will love all other human persons in heaven. Thus, Ratzinger/Benedict’s concept of human relationship leads to a harmony between particular loves and universal love., Theology, Ethics, Spirituality, Benedict XVI, Friendship, Person, Preferential love, Ratzinger, Relation, Moral Theology/Ethics, Degree Awarded: M.A.--Moral Theology/Ethics. The Catholic University of America
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- Yves Simon on the Relationship Between Liberty and Authority
- In this thesis, I argue that Yves Simon’s theory of liberty and authority offers a promising alternative to classical liberalism as a framework for democracy. While liberty and authority are often construed as opposites, Simon argues that when they are rightly understood, they are found to “cause and guarantee one another.” The first chapter of the thesis discusses Simon’s definition of liberty as “superdetermination,” which is based upon the will’s natural orientation to the good. A right understanding of liberty represents the first step in reclaiming the cause of freedom. The second chapter defines and clarifies the principle of authority and its correlate, the principle of autonomy. On Simon’s view, authority arises not out of human fallenness, but the perfection and plenitude of common life. The common good, that is, a common life of virtue shared by a community, can only come about if authority and citizens alike will the common good in their respective capacities. Authority’s essential responsibility is to care for the common good by promulgating generally applicable rules, for only through such rules can we translate the abstract notion of the common good into something concrete, particular, and actionable. Once the role of authority is established, freedom re-enters the picture, now understood as the principle of autonomy. Autonomy is the kind of free activity proper to a rational subject that is functioning as a part within the broader whole of society. This principle is the source of social plenitude, which is in turn the source of authority. This principle can also help address a possible objection to Simon’s view, namely the potential for conflict between authority and citizens. Armed with these distinctions, we can now see how liberty and authority mutually cause one another. The second chapter will conclude with some remarks about a possible ambiguity of the nature of the common good, i.e. whether the common good is a normative ideal which we can never fully realize or an exhaustive set of social realities. A careful reading of Simon helps to resolve this ambiguity. If Simon is correct and the common good consists in the life of a community, then it cannot be purely an ideal. It must necessarily involve some degree of materiality and particularity. Although Simon’s theory of liberty and authority remains viable, his work has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. The conclusion considers a possible explanation for this oversight and discusses the present status of the question in Catholic circles. , Philosophy, Aquinas, common good, political philosophy, Simon, Thomas Aquinas, Yves Simon, Philosophy, Degree Awarded: M.A.--Philosophy. The Catholic University of America
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- X-rays and Their Physical Character
- by Joseph R. Plante., Typescript., Thesis (M.A. or M.S.--Physics)--Catholic University of America, 1917., Bibliography: leaves 42-43.
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- Workmen's Compensation
- by James Ambrose Losty., Typescript., Thesis (M.A.--Philosophy)--Catholic University of America, 1918., Bibliography: leaves 56-57.
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- Wordsworth's Indebtedness to Vaughan
- by Victor Stanley Baril., Typescript., Thesis (M.A.--English)--Catholic University of America, 1924., Bibliography: leaves 41-42.
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- Wine
- by William E. Lawler., Typescript., Thesis (M.A. or M.S.--Biol.)--Catholic University of America, 1917., Bibliography: leaves 34-35.
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- William Llyod Garrison
- by Matin Henry Higgins., Typescript., Thesis (M.A.--Philosophy)--Catholic University of America, 1917., Bibliography: leaves 37-38.