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Personalism in Christian Social Thought and The Denial of Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Mary Pepper
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‘The name (Personalism) was bom of a response to the expansion of the totalitarian drive, against this drive, in order to stress the defence of the person against the tyranny of apparatus.’

‘Just as, fundamentally, it is recollection and interiority, Personalism is at the other end of the scale from narcissism, individualism and egocentricity. It brings the whole of its weight to bear in the direction of the most obvious aspiration of modem man, whether this be called collectivist or communal.’

(E. Mounier What is Personalism? 1946. p 113 and p 176)

‘Insofar as man by his very nature stands completely in need of life in society, he is, and he ought to be, the beginning, the subject and the object of every social organisation ... There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of the human person, who stands above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable.’

(Vatican II. Decree on the Church in the Modem World.

Gaudium et Spes).

Thanks to the Gospel, the Church has the truth about man. This truth is found in an anthropology that the Church never ceases to fathom more thoroughly and to communicate to others. The primordial affirmation of this anthropology is that man is in God’s image and cannot be reduced to a mere portion of nature or a nameless element in the human city.... This complete truth about the human being constitutes the foundation of the Church’s social teaching and the basis also of true liberation. In the light of this truth, man is not a being subjected to economic or political processes.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 64 , Issue 754 , April 1983 , pp. 148 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 1949 letter. Quoted in Candide Voix, ‘La Pensée d'Emmanuel Mounier’ 1960.

2 Maritain, J.. Scholasticism and Politics. 1940Google Scholar. See Ch. 3.

3 Title of an article about Esprit, written by Michel Francois in France Observateur, 2 April 1959. Quoted in Bosworth, Catholicism: Crisis in Modern France, Pourceton 1962CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Domenach, J. M.. Emmanuel Mounier. Paris 1972. p 153Google Scholar.

5 Oeuvres de Mounier t. 4. Paris. Seuil. 1963Google Scholar.

6 Mounier, E. Be Not Afraid London 1951Google Scholar. English translation of La Petite Pear du XXe Siecle and Qu'est‐ce que le Personnalisme by Cynthia Rowland. p 131.

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9 ‘Leçons de l'Emeute ou la Révolution contre les Mythes’Esprit March 1934.

10 Be Not Afraid p 117.

11 J. Hellman Mounier and the New Catholic Left.

12 Hellman. op. cit. p 207. Letter of December 1944.

13 Be Not Afraid pp 186‐7.

14 W. Rauch Politics and Belief in Contemporary France 1932‐1950. The Hague, 1972. p 148.

15 Hellman op. cit. p 228.

16 Hellman op. cit. p 233.

17 Esprit February 1950. ‘Fidélité’.

18 Mulhern, F. The Moment of Scrutiny. New Left Books 1979. p 185Google Scholar.

19 F. Mulhern op. cit. p 233.

20 Rauch. op. cit. p 311.

21 Ambler, R. & Haslam, D. (ed.) Agenda For Prophets London 1980 p 141Google Scholar.

22 J. L. Segundo The Liberation of Theology. p 218.