Karol Wojtyla

The Catholic University of America Press is honored to publish the English Critical Edition of the Works of Karol Wojty?a/John Paul II. Under the auspices of an international editorial board, the English Critical Edition will comprise more than 20 volumes, covering all of John Paul's writings and correspondence in the years before and during his papacy. This collection is essential for several reasons. First, gaining access to the saint's writings has posed significant challenges. Except for official papal addresses and documents preserved and disseminated by the Vatican, St. John Paul's works have been published in a large number of different venues, often with limited dissemination. Many documents need a new translation. In addition, English-language audiences have faced the challenge—even in the case of published texts—of dealing with several languages, various translations, and textual idiosyncrasies. The second volume of the series presents Wojty?a's lectures at the Catholic University of Lublin and his works on Max Scheler. This volume consists of three parts: Karol Wojty?a's lectures at the Lublin University from 1954 to 1957 (during three academic years); Wojty?a's articles related to the ethical issues discussed in the Lublin lectures; and his habilitation thesis on Max Scheler, from 1953, with other essays related more closely to Scheler's thought. As was the case with Volume 1, Volume 2 also relies on the original manuscripts and typescripts of Wojty?a's works. These original texts were compared with the Polish published editions, and all significant differences between them have been marked in the scholarly apparatus. Some of the essays in this volume have never been previously published in English, while some others have never been published before.

"Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign of contradiction." For the 1976 Lenten retreat to St. Paul VI and the Roman curia, Karol Wojtyla set this prophecy of Simeon to the Holy Family at the heart of his preaching. Over the course of twenty-two meditations, Wojtyla examines and tests the apparent contradictions in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ-all of which are occasions for profound encounters with God himself. Indeed, the "words a sign of contradiction sum up most felicitously the whole truth about Jesus Christ, his mission, and his Church." Jesus Christ, the sign of contradiction, was above all the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world..." T]hat is what he is in the life of the People of God. The Lamb of God, the paschal sacrifice, a reminder of past deliverance and a promise of deliverance to come. (Karol Wojtyla)In this newly revised and updated translation, A Sign of Contradiction shows Wojtyla's prowess as theologian, philosopher, and preacher, and witnesses to his zeal for the Gospel and his love of Jesus Christ-"who meets the man of every age, including our own, with the same words: You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

The Catholic University of America Press is honored to announce the publication of the first volume of the critical English edition of The Collected Works of Karol Wojty?a/John Paul II. In conjunction with an international editorial board, the English Critical Edition will comprise 20 volumes, covering all of his writings and correspondence both in the years before and during his papacy. What makes this collection so important is that access to his writings have been a significant challenge. Except for official papal addresses and documents preserved and disseminated by the Vatican, his works have been scattered and limited, or in need of a new translation. Finally, English-language audiences have faced the challenge, even in the case of published texts, of working across multiple languages and translations and of dealing with textual idiosyncrasies. The inaugural volume of this collection is Person and Act, together with related essays, which is in many respects constitutes Karol Wojty?a’s most profound and well-known philosophical work. Originally published in 1969 as Osoba i czyn, this work of metaphysics and philosophy is widely influential even though it is highly challenging intellectually and has heretofore posed difficulties for translators.

Originally entitled Osoba i Czyn and published in Poland in 1969, TheActing Person is the official English translation and has been thoroughly edited and revised with the collaboration of the author. The book stresses that Man must ceaselessly unravel his mysteries and strive for a new and more mature expression of his nature. The author sees this expression as an emphasis on the significance of the individual living in community and on the person in the process of performing an action. The author states in his preface that he has tried to face the major issues concerning life, nature, and the existence of Man directly as they present themselves to Man in his struggles to survive while maintaining the dignity of a human being, but who is torn apart between his all too limited condition and his highest aspirations to set himself free. The author hopes that his book "contributes to this disentangling of the conflicting issues facing Man, which are crucial for Man’s own clarification of his existence and direction of his conduct". The author’s analysis of the human being is a dynamic counter to the materialistic and positivistic tendencies in various schools of modern philosophy. Ever since Descartes, the knowledge of Man and his world has been identified through cognition. This book is a reversal of the post-Cartesian attitude toward Man in that it characterises him as the person in action. Audience: The Acting Person will be of great interest to philosophers, anthropologists, and scholars specializing in phenomenology. It will also be of deep concern to theologians, priests, seminarians, and members of religious orders who wish to gain an insight into Pope John Paul II’s philosophy of life.

This rich and practical book offers readers the unique opportunity of participating in a spiritual retreat given by Pope John Paul II.

Drawing from his own pastoral experience as a priest and bishop before he became Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla has produced a remarkably eloquent and resourceful defense of Catholic tradition in the sphere of family life and sexual morality. He writes in the conviction that science--biology, psychology, sociology--can provide valuable information on particular aspects of relations between the sexes, but that a full understanding can be obtained only by study of the human person as a whole. Central to his argument is the contrast between the personalistic and the utilitarian views of marriage and of sexual relations. The former views marriage as an interpersonal relationship, in which the well-being and self-realization of each partner are of overriding importance to the other. It is only within this framework that the full purpose of marriage can be realized. The alternative, utilitarian view, according to which a sexual partner is an object for use, holds no possibility of fulfillment and happiness. Wojtyla argues that divorce, artificial methods of birth control, adultery (pre-marital sex), and sexual perversions are all in various ways incompatible with the personalistic view of the sexual self-realization of the human person. Perhaps the most striking feature of the book is that Wojtyla appeals throughout to ordinary, human experience, logically examined. He draws support for his views on the proper gratification of sexual needs, on birth control, and on other matters, from the findings of physiologists and psychologists. His conclusions coincide with the traditional teachings of the Church, which invoke scriptural authority. His approach ensures that non-Christians also can consider his arguments on their own merits.

Originally entitled Osoba i Czyn and published in Poland in 1969, TheActing Person is the official English translation and has been thoroughly edited and revised with the collaboration of the author. The book stresses that Man must ceaselessly unravel his mysteries and strive for a new and more mature expression of his nature. The author sees this expression as an emphasis on the significance of the individual living in community and on the person in the process of performing an action. The author states in his preface that he has tried to face the major issues concerning life, nature, and the existence of Man directly as they present themselves to Man in his struggles to survive while maintaining the dignity of a human being, but who is torn apart between his all too limited condition and his highest aspirations to set himself free. The author hopes that his book "contributes to this disentangling of the conflicting issues facing Man, which are crucial for Man’s own clarification of his existence and direction of his conduct". The author’s analysis of the human being is a dynamic counter to the materialistic and positivistic tendencies in various schools of modern philosophy. Ever since Descartes, the knowledge of Man and his world has been identified through cognition. This book is a reversal of the post-Cartesian attitude toward Man in that it characterises him as the person in action. Audience: The Acting Person will be of great interest to philosophers, anthropologists, and scholars specializing in phenomenology. It will also be of deep concern to theologians, priests, seminarians, and members of religious orders who wish to gain an insight into Pope John Paul II’s philosophy of life.