Karol Wojtyła: A Thomist or a Phenomenologist?

Abstract

Although the figure of St. John Paul II is known worldwide, he still remains so rich that not everything about him has been discovered or said, at least in their proper proportions. He is known above all as the Pope who led the Catholic Church for almost 27 years, as one who worked diligently for peace in the world, and as the author of many important ecclesiastical documents. But he was also the author of many books and poetical works and a superb speaker who could reach millions of hearts and minds the world over. He is less well known as an intellectual, as a thinker, and as a philosopher. But it was in this last field, still as Karol Wojtyła, that he dealt with some very important issues, addressing them in lectures, discussions, and articles. The recovery of his strictly philosophical contributions is worth undertaking, because they enrich not only philosophy itself but—to the degree that Wojtyła’s philosophy is a universal philosophy—they enrich both Christian and general culture. Wojtyła’s philosophical writings are not among the easiest to read. This is not something unusual: philosophy is a difficult discipline. Some authors, however, are nevertheless particularly difficult. In Wojtyła’s case, it is a matter of a kind of intellectual concentration that a given text demands from a reader. It is a kind of concentration acquired