Theological Investigations: Volume XVI by Karl Rahner, S. J., and: The Acting Person by Karol Wojtyla (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Theological Investigations: Volume XVI. By KARL RABNER, S. J. New York: The Seabury Press, 1979. Pp. xii + Q75, with index. $14.95. The Acting Person. By KAROL WoJTYLA. Boston: D. Reidel, 1979. Pp. xxiii + 367, with index. By reviewing these two books together we should be able to compare the anthropologies of Karol Wojtyla and Karl Rahner. Clearly, The Acting Person is an essay in philosophical anthropology. While the most recent volume of Rahner's Theological Investigations is more diversified in scope, the human person remains sufficiently in the forefront to found a comparative essay. Given the probably greater familiarity of the reader with the thought of Rahner, I shall use Wojtyla's book as the point of departure and give it a lengthier treatment. Discussing each author in turn will help to provide a brief overview of their works as a basis for a presentation of their views on human transcendence and freedom. In this way we can achieve a sharper focus. The simple devout soul who stumbles into a religious book store and, moved by the impressive cover picture of His Holiness in full regalia, purchases The Acting Person for devotional reading will find his or her perseverance sorely tried. This is a difficult volume. The prose as translated from Polish is turgid and makes for laborious reading. To read this book once is to read it twice; one must continually reread what one has just read. But such writing is not peculiar to philosophers. And the depth of analysis is remarkable. Wojtyla's understanding of man is comprehensive and detailed. At times repetitious, he seldom veers from his chosen theme. Wojtyla begins with methodology. The focus is upon experience, and the approach is in the line of phenomenological realism. The author claims that his work is consistent with traditional philosophy, which he identifies as Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy (p. xiii) . Yet his presentation is a rethinking and recasting of the tradition, not denying it, " but supplementing it in an attempt to rethink it to the end " (p. Q66) . In this rethinking he especially acknowledges the influence of Max Scheler's Wertethik. Wojtyla seeks by his phenomenological approach to explain what experience and intuition provide. Part One is entitled " Consciousness and Efficacy ". The focus is on the person as revealed through conscious action. The various dynamisms are considered along with the proper efficacy of the human person. In Part Two we find " The Transcendence of the Person in the Action ". Here the structure of freedom is considered in relationship to the problem of the will and the cognition of truth and value as it leads to choice and decision. 472 BOOK REVIEWS 473 Throughout, the complexity is underlined. The study turns to freedom as manifested in self-determination, then to the possibility of fulfillment, and the role of conscience and responsibility. Part Three moves to the complement of transcendence, namely " The Integration of the Person in the Action ". Here, the person's subjectivity as manifested through the body is considered, with an extensive treatment of the emotions. Part Four is entitled "Participation", and turns to the problem of Intersubjectivity and social being. But what is the purpose of this book? It is of course to " exfoliate the complexity of man". Yet the aim seems to be more than analytical. Granted that throughout the volume the author concentrates upon the dynamic interaction and unity of the person and action, these are seen as leading to the true and authentic attainment of freedom and fulfillment. The becoming of the person through genuine freedom and the fulfillment gained through action appear as a guiding thread through this discourse on man. To grasp Wojtyla's idea of freedom and how is it related to transcendence and action much groundwork is needed. Wojtyla thoroughly analyzes action. Action discloses the person; better, the person is manifested through action. The author firmly renounces a static human nature as grounding human acts. The dynamic nature of man is thoroughly accepted. Contrasting this contemporary approach with a more traditional philosophy of man, the Polish philosopher notes that for the latter man's nature is rational, he is a person in virtue of reason, and his rationality...