John Crosby on von Hildebrand’s The Nature of Love
Personalist philosopher John F. Crosby, one of my teachers during my often reminisced university days, has written an introductory study to his newly published translation of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s The Nature of Love. In the first part of his study, Crosby goes over the basic themes of von Hildebrand’s ethical philosophy, and in the second part, he brings von Hildebrand’s philosophy into dialogue with the contemporary phenomenological work of Jean-Luc Marion.
Though von Hildebrand was one of the initial figures I studied when my academic wanderings took me to the well-lit but shadow-heavy halls of philosophy, I never considered myself a von Hildebrandian or a follower of this thought. Even back then, when I could entertain the idea of flirting with Thomism, I found him too much of a realist for my liking. Nevertheless, I welcome his contributions to philosophical knowledge, and, if I may dare to opine, being out of my element, I believe his legacy is best served by bringing him into dialogue with the larger phenomenological field. I’m thankful that Crosby has done this here. Others have as well. David Utsler, for example, has related the phenomenology of von Hildebrand to the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. Perhaps we’ll someday soon see von Hildebrand receiving a fair showing at SPEP.
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