“Trans-Disciplinary Dialogue”: Pope Francis and St. John Henry on the Mystery of the Human Person
In his recent address to the Pontifical Academy for Life “on the relationship between the person, emerging technologies and the common good,” Pope Francis speaks about our “increasing difficult[y]” in “discern[ing] what is proper to humans and what is proper to technology.” In this moment, the Holy Father stresses our need for “serious reflection on the very value of the human person” especially, “the concept of personal consciousness as relational experience,” and he exhorts us to draw upon our “shared human experiences” by studying them “from various perspectives, employing trans-disciplinary dialogue and cooperation.” Inspired by the Holy Father, I take a step in that direction by reflecting upon St. John Henry Newman’s view of the manifold aspects of the mystery of the human person.
Please visit https://www.newmanreview.org/trans-disciplinary-dialogue/ to read more of Dr. Donald Graham’s article.
Dr. Donald Graham is Associate Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto and a former member of the Editorial Board of Newman Studies Journal (2014–2018) whose research focuses upon the intersection of Trinitarian theology, Christology, pneumatology, and ecclesiology. His publications include From Eastertide to Ecclesia: John Henry Newman, the Holy Spirit, and the Church (Marquette, 2011), “Sympathy in the Spiritual Theology of John Henry Newman” in Newman and Life in the Spirit: Theological Reflections on Spirituality for Today (Fortress, 2014), and “Ratzinger’s Reception of Newman on Conscience: Memory, History, Creation and Christ,” Communio, 47 (2020).