Two academic researchers of the Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics presented papers on humanism and loving as critical thinking in the 17th International Conference on Persons, held at the Katholische Akademie in Berlin from July 22-26, 2024.
Professor Jove Jim S. Aguas, PhD of the Department of Philosophy discoursed on “Christian Humanism and St. Thomas’s Notion of the Human Person,” where he acknowledged that as science and technology advanced, spiritual dimensions of human life often became ignored. Using Aquinas’s philosophy, Aguas “shows that a humanism centered on Christian belief is still a relevant and more acceptable proposition over modern and secular humanism.” Furthermore, Aguas said that “for St. Thomas, man has a spiritual component, and he is ordained towards God. He developed a Christian humanism anchored on theological personalism, a concept that emphasizes the unique relationship between each individual and God and how this relationship shapes our understanding of human dignity and purpose.”
Meanwhile, Junior Teacher Blaise D. Ringor, PhD of the Senior High School and concurrent Academic Collaborations Officer of the Ecclesiastical Faculties, presented his paper entitled “From Garden of Eden to Garden of Gethsemane: Dietrich von Hildrebrand’s Ethics of Incommensurability as a Justification of Loving as Critical Thinking,” where he argued that the interiority of the person is neglected by traditionalist views of ethics. In doing so, he looks at Dietrich von Hildrebrand’s critique and discourses on the former’s ethics of incommensurability to address the flaw by integrating the reality of loving into critical thinking. Ringor argued that “Hildebrand’s approach provides a robust ethical framework that acknowledges the full complexity of the human person, thereby enriching critical thinking with a deeper understanding of love’s ethical significance.”
