Josef Pieper on the Spiritual Life

Nathaniel A. Warne

Description

Warne’s original study provides an insightful analysis of the role of contemplation and creation in the thought of Josef Pieper, illustrating the importance of this practice to earthly happiness and human flourishing.

What is the relationship between creation, contemplation, human flourishing, and moral development? Nathaniel Warne’s Josef Pieper on the Spiritual Life offers a sophisticated answer to this question through a systematic analysis of philosopher Josef Pieper’s (1904–1997) thought. Warne’s examination centers on the role of contemplation and creation in Pieper’s thinking, arguing that contemplation of the created order is a key feature of earthly happiness. By emphasizing the importance of contemplation, Pieper illustrates the deep interconnections between ethics, creation, and spirituality. For Warne, to posit a binary between the contemplative life and active life creates a false dichotomy. Following Pieper, Warne claims that theology and spirituality cannot be bracketed from ethics and social action—indeed, our lived experience in the world blurs the lines between these practices. Contemplation and action are closer together than are typically assumed, and they have important implications for both our spiritual development and our engagement with the world around us. Ultimately, Warne’s emphasis on creation and contemplation represents an attempt to resist a view of ethics and the spiritual life that is divorced from our environment. In response to this view, Warne argues that we need a renewed sense that creation and place are important for self-understanding. Contemplation of creation is, fundamentally, a form of communion with God—we thus need a more robust sense of how ethics and politics are rooted in God’s creative action. Taking Pieper as a guide, Warne’s study helps to deepen our thinking about these connections.

How do we prevent ourselves from becoming tied to the work-a-day world? Pieper admits that he has no good answer, or at least no easy answer. We cannot have leisure without an overhaul of our current assumed culture and approach to the world. We simply no longer have a category for valuing things that are not useful; activities which have their ends in themselves. “If leisure is not conceived as meaningful in and by itself, then it is plainly impossible to achieve.” The best answer he can give is celebration of a feast, which offers repose, ease from drudgery and exertion, and rest from everyday work. But our celebrations fail because we fail to proclaim the goodness and approval of the world; of creation. We must learn to love ourselves and to love the world around us. “Leisure depends on the precondition that we find the world and our own selves agreeable.” But the next step is the important one. “The highest conceivable form of approving of the world as such is found in the worship of God, in the praise of the Creator, in the liturgy. With this we have finally identified the deepest root of leisure.” A secularization that does not see the world as sacred, diminishes the world’s importance for the spiritual life, or closes its eyes to the realities of climate change has robbed us of our ability to experience genuine self-love, celebration, and happiness.

There is no doubt that given our twenty-first century context creating the conditions for contemplation have become incredibly difficult. Our political, economic, and social surroundings are continuously working against our developing of habits that would lead to genuine theoria physike, and thus to earthly human flourishing.

Cornel West has poignantly noted that one of the major reasons America is “sick” is the “materialism which is really very much tied to corporate media in the various ways in which it produces its weapons of mass distraction that try to pacify and to render the citizens sleepwalking by means of stimulation and titillation.” Pieper has provided some thoughts on how we can generate a context suitable for this deep kind of spiritual growth and contentment. Through participation in arts like music and poetry, or in our worship and celebratory feasting; or through prayer, meditation, or simply just being out in and observing nature, we can engender a flow of life open to this spiritual and contemplative vision. These are all connected and provide a context on which genuine theoria physike can take place. At the festival we need the power of remembrance and the arts. Without these there is no true celebration. “A feast without song and music, without the visible form and structure of a ritual, without imagery and symbol—such a thing simply cannot even be conceived.” Art and festival start out as flowing from existence and are something out of the ordinary; they are not part of the work-a-day world. The praise of the world that is at the heart of the festival is made perceptible to the senses through the arts. Also, as briefly discussed in chapter 6, the festival is a stepping out of time and reaches the one who celebrates to their soul. In this way the festival is both “the remembrance of primordial bliss” and at the same time the anticipation of our happiness and fulfillment in the future. “The fine arts keep alive the memory of the true ritualistic, religious origins of the festivals when these begin to wither or be forgotten.”

Creating art and celebrating the festival is not necessarily about morality, and true art is not focused on making a livelihood. Rather the activity of the artist is a pursuit which finds its meaning through the perfection of the work itself. The process that does take place in the artist, also takes place in those who observe or hear the art itself. The one who truly looks, hears, smells, and tastes is kindled into the contemplation of creation. Art invites the person to truly and leisurely take in the presence of God in the art. We can think about this from two perspectives. On the one hand, the one creating a painting, and on the other, the one who is observing the painting. The artist, in painting the flower, or sculpting the human figure, perceives with new eyes a wealth of reality and acquires the capacity to be riveted and enthralled in the richness of the object. The artist, when really looking at the object of their study, deepens their gaze so that they have a fresh look at the phenomena being presented to their gaze and an openness to all things. On the other hand, the contemplative gaze does not stop with the artist, but also affects the viewer; the one who really and intensely engages with the work of art. An artist does not need to paint something that is a photographic imitation of reality in order for such description to help the viewer contemplate an archetypical pattern that firstly resides in the divine essence. It prompts the viewer to connect to the archetypical patterns of the ideas in the divine mind that are veiled within reality. The contemplative look of the simplex intuitus receives and perceives more than appearances. Art that springs from contemplation makes visible what not everyone sees. In seeing, our ability to see is amplified. Further, as the viewer of the painting, when we engage in contemplative looking at the rendering of the thing through the eyes of the artist, we can also be drawn into the divine life. This leads to another, but equally important, aspect that this painting brings to our attention when put in the context of the divine ideas, creation, and contemplative looking, “Art is a medium of what no tongue can utter.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Part I

1. Creation and Contemplation

2. Creation and the Divine Ideas

Part II

3. Happiness and the Human Person

4. Cardinal Virtues and the Active life

5. Hope, Love, and Faith

Part III

6. World, Leisure, and Festival

7. Philosophy and Teaching

8. Relearning to See

9. Where Do We Go from Here?

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Philosophie de la religion
• Christian Theology
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Theology
• Spirituality
• Systematics
• Meaning
• Ethics
• Catholic
• Creation
• Christianity
• Happiness
• Contemplation
• Labor

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268204921
• Langue: English

Extrait

Josef Pieper on the Spiritual Life
NATHANIEL A. WARNE
Josef Pieper on the Spiritual Life
CREATION, CONTEMPLATION, AND HUMAN FLOURISHING
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2023 by the University of Notre Dame
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022949496
ISBN: 978-0-268-20493-8 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20495-2 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20492-1 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
Երախտագիտութեամբ կը նուիրեմ մեծ հօրս՝ Հարոլդ Ադիշեանին
For my grandfather, Harold Adishian
CONTENTS Acknowledgments Part I: God and Creation ONE Creation and Contemplation TWO Creation and the Divine Ideas Part II: Contemplative Vision and the Moral Life THREE Happiness and the Human Person FOUR Cardinal Virtues and the Active Life FIVE Hope, Love, and Faith Part III: Creation, Contemplation, and Civic Life SIX World, Leisure, and Festival SEVEN Philosophy and Teaching EIGHT Relearning to See Epilogue: Finding Contemplative Fulfillment in the Here and Now Notes Bibliography Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been almost eight years in the making. There are so many people who encouraged me and offered helpful insights while writing this book. Chief among these was Benjamin DeSpain. Ben not only introduced me to Pieper in early 2013, but nearly every page of this book demonstrates the fruit of our long discussions on St. Thomas, Pieper, Platonism, and contemplation. I am also thankful for the encouragement and friendship of Adam Willows, Matthew Crawford, Robbie Griggs, and Todd Brewer. Thanks to Christopher Insole for friendship, a guiding hand, and encouragement that a book on Pieper was worth writing. My sincere thanks also to Gilbert Meilander, who took time out of his own busy research schedule to meet with me and talk about Pieper. In the early stages of my writing and research, Gilbert’s encouragement to show readers how Pieper’s thought has deeply practical implications for theology and ethics shaped the direction of the research.
I am grateful to those who were part of the Virtues and the Practice of Science project held in the Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing at the University of Notre Dame. Thanks to Rebecca Artinian-Kaiser, Dori Beeler, Louise Bezuidenhout, Celia Deane-Drummond, Darcia Narvaez, and Timothy Riley. Emily Dumler-Winckler was a wonderful officemate and conversation partner during this time. She consistently asked hard questions that forced me to consider the real-time, practical implications of Pieper’s thought. I also had the enormous privilege of working for a year in Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. My heartfelt thanks to Clemens Sedmak for his mentorship and encouragement. He urged me to read broadly in the areas of political theology and Catholic Social Teaching, which shaped my reading and understanding of Pieper himself. I would also like to thank a small group of Notre Dame faculty called writers@work for reading portions of part III of the book and giving helpful suggestions for developing Pieper’s thought in the context of modern discussions of labor and justice. My thanks to Dan Graff, Tom Stapleford, Margaret Pfeil, Valerie Sayers, Eric Bugyis, Kevin J. Christiano, Kelli Reagan, and Joshua Specht. My appreciation also to the Political Philosophy and Religion working group, especially Anne Jeffrey, Toni Alimi, Ryan Davis, Mary Nichel, Jonathan Tran, Mark Satta, and Jessica Flanigan.
My sincere gratitude also goes to Lewis Ayres, Karla Bellringer, Matthew A. Benton, Anna Blackman, Jay Brandenberger, Andrew Byers, Douglas Davies, Patrick Grafton-Cardwell, Kirsten Guidero, Jimmy Haring, Franklin Harkins, Christopher Juby, Tom Kimber, David Lincicum, William Mattison, R. Michael McCoy, David Newheiser, Simon Oliver, Adam Powell, Emanuele Ratti, Alec Ryrie, Adam Schaeffer, Samantha Slaubaugh, Robert Song, Medi Volpe, and Clift Ward. Many of the above read significant portions of the book at various stages and gave helpful comments. I am also thankful to the faculty and students at Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation. I must also acknowledge St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mishawaka for their encouragement and support in the final stages of writing this book.
I am thankful for the support of Stephen Little at University of Notre Dame Press for his encouragement throughout the process of writing the book and his belief in the project from the very beginning. Thanks also for the guiding hand of Eli Bortz. Blind peer reviewers gave encouraging and helpful comments on how to sharpen the overall argument of the book, for which I am thankful. I am also very thankful to Rachel Martens for her help with the manuscript. Portions of the epilogue and chapter 7 were published in the Journal of Moral Education , Theology, Philosophy and the Sciences , and Studies in Christian Ethics , though they appear in revised form here.
This project would not have been possible without the support and love of my partner and friend, Charissa. She patiently listened as I recounted to her what Pieper was teaching me about God, contemplation, and creation, and offered me her helpful insights and challenges.
PART I

God and Creation
CHAPTER ONE
Creation and Contemplation
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
—Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
In the early twentieth century, openly socialist Helen Keller was unreservedly scorned by the newspaper Brooklyn Eagle for her activism. Where at an earlier time the Eagle and its editor Mr. McKelway had treated Keller as a heroine, they later chalked up her political positions as a defect of her being both blind and deaf. When her rebuttal to these statements was rejected from being published in the Eagle , she responded in the New York Call , writing:
Oh, ridiculous Brooklyn Eagle ! What an ungallant bird it is! Socially blind and deaf , it defends an intolerable system, a system that is the cause of much of the physical blindness and deafness which we are trying to prevent. The Eagle is willing to help us prevent misery provided, always provided, that we do not attack the industrial tyranny which supports it and stops its ears and clouds its vision . . . . If I ever contribute to the socialist movement the book that I sometimes dream of, I know what I shall name it: Industrial Blindness and Social Deafness . 1
In one sense Keller is addressing concern about the many workers that became physically blind due to their working conditions. She is, however, also accusing the Eagle of another kind of blindness, a moral blindness. She is using her own physical impairment to highlight the Eagle ’s moral disability. Similarly, twentieth-century Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper in a short essay entitled Learning to See the World Again writes, “Man’s ability to see is in decline.” 2 He continues, “To see things is the first step toward that primordial and basic mental grasping of reality, which constitutes the essence of man as a spiritual being.” 3 Reflecting on the healing of the blind man in the Gospel of John chapter 9 in another essay, Pieper writes, “What becomes clear in the end is that a person can be blind while enjoying good vision.” 4 Both Keller and Pieper are exposing a cultural decline that comes from a spiritual and moral blindness. There is indeed a connection between the world, our engagement with it, and ethics.
This book is about contemplative vision and creation in the thought of Josef Pieper. By connecting contemplation and creation, this book argues that ethics, even theological ethics, should be rooted in a robust engagement with the created order. Even though it is diminished in this life, contemplation of the created order is nonetheless the key feature of earthly happiness. An emphasis on contemplation illuminates a deep connection between ethics, creation, and spirituality. The binary between the contemplative life and active life creates a false dichotomy between the two. Theology and spirituality cannot be bracketed from ethics and social action. Our lived experience in the world blurs the lines between these. Contemplation and action are closer together than are typically assumed. Both have important implications for how we develop spiritually as well as how we engage the world around us as agents and citizens. This way of thinking about contemplation is meant to extend to every person and not just those situated within certain contexts, like a monastery or university. Contemplation is not exclusively for the homo theoreticus , but for all as homo sapiens. 5 Moral and spiritual human flourishing are directly related to our ability to see the created world rightly and truly.
One of the major contentions of this book is to rethink the connection between contemplation, creation, and human flourishing alongside a theologically and metaphysically rich anthropology. In a sense, this is an argument for the necessity to slow down and smell the roses. At the heart of this argument through the work of Josef Pieper is the conviction that we should contemplate and that such contemplation is important for earthly human flourishing. This emphasis on creation and contemplation as being essential for moral and spiritual development is an attempt to resist a view of ethics and the spiritual life that is divorced from our environment. We need a renewed sense that creation and place are important for self-understanding. The God who shows up in creation, as well as in the church and in the Eucharist, matters for how we live and is significant in helping us make moral decisions. The fact/value distinction, the breaking apart of the “is” from the “ought,” which D. Stephen Long has described as significant in twen