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Person and Being (Aquinas Lecture)

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Norris Clarke, in this remarkable little book, sums up many years of intense philosophical exploration into the meaning of personhood. He writes of deep things without a trace of affectation, never burying the light of his message beneath a bushel-basket of jargon and cant. With gentle but insistent urgency, he challenges readers to appropriate their personhood--with all the infinite longing and immeasurable richness that implies. How many contemporary philosophical books have the power to change lives? This one does. Read it and find out for yourself.

Why should you read this book? Let me try to answer that. This book is about the relational aspect of Being. That right there is what is remarkable. Fr. Clarke shows us how the revelation of the Trinity actually helps us understand ourselves more fully. If God relates to (within) himself through this combination of relationality (being relational in nature) and substantiality (being a substance, a thisness), then, upon further inspection of what it means that we share in that Being, we see that we too find our most authentic mode of existing by living in this tension between being ourselves (a stand alone substance) and being defined by how we relate to others. Practically speaking, I think it's good for people to recognize that their existence, for its fulfillment, requires that they develop both aspects of themselves. As a child grows up, they have to successfully progress through increasingly complex relations with others. They start with their parents, then their friends, then their boyfriends/girlfriends, then their spouses. And in each stage, they go out to others and then come back to themselves a little bit different each time. You've met people who close themselves off to these relations. They close in on themselves. And they fail to live an authentically human existence. I think it's a book that's encouragement and reassurance for people who are committed to being as fully human as possible. It shows them that God himself is not far removed from their quest when they see that He too is relational in nature (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

Father Clarke was my teacher for in several courses at Fordham in the 1950's; I obtained a minor in Philosophy. He also was a spiritual advisor to me in a time of personal difficulty over matters of faith and belief. Finally, he was the most intelligent, modest and gentle man I can remember. If I had listened to him in 1958/9, I would have saved myself much grief, lapsing from the Church for 35 years ..and, who knows what else? Yet, even as we wrestled with my faith/belief, he reduced it all to a simple issue...as he was always able to get to the core of philosophical issues in his classes...and, he left me with hope and the offer to come to him whenever...even though I rejected his advice. He was a great teacher.
I never knew he was the giant in American philosophy that he was; sadly, after graduation from Fordham, I was commissioned in USAF, never returned to NYC, and my grad school career took other paths. Upon idly putting his name in Google, I saw all he had written and obtained 3 of his books, to include the above. It was wonderous to read him; I almost could hear and see him. As ever, he gave insights, makes you wrestle with concepts and shows how St. Thomas is relevant today. His writings, sadly too few are in print,must be experienced...and, I mean must be experienced/read. This one should lead to 2 of his books...they will also be well-worth your time.

I was a graduate student in philosophy at Marquette University when Fr. Clarke came to Marquette to deliver the annual "Aquinas Lecture." The book here is the written text of the lecture presented on a sunny but cool Sunday in March of 1993. I attended many lectures as a graduate student and remember only a few, this being one. Fr. Clarke spoke rather softly and you could hear a pin drop in the hall in which the talk was delivered. He was short, and smiled alot. The day after this lecture he came and spoke to the required course on St. Thomas Aquinas which I was in. I remember that talk very well also. He came in and said "I could talk about three topics today, I'll tell you the three topics and then as a class you decide what you want me to talk on." He then gave a unscripted hour and a half long talk on how Aquinas viewed human beings as the highest of material entities, and the lowest of spiritual creatures. I still remember that talk as well. This book is an excellent contemporary discussion of the Thomistic notion of what a human is, presented by one of the best living Thomists. I highly recommend it to Thomists and non-Thomists alike; it is a powerful presentation.

This lecture by Norris Clarke is an extraordinarily clear and creative completion of St Thomas' work on the human person. It's a masterful little gem.

Clarke brings St Thomas's work right up to date by incorporating the insights of personalist philosophers into St Thomas's metaphysics. Thus, Clarke demonstrates that the human person is not just a substance but a relational substance. The relational aspect of being is not accidental to being but is a primordial constituent thereof. "To be fully is to be substance- in- relation" (page 14).

Listen to what Norris says about the Trinity (page 11 and 15):

"For what the doctrine of the Trinity means is that the very inner nature of the Supreme Being itself - is an ecstatic process (beyond time and change) of self communicating love: the Father, un originated possessor of the infinite fullness of the divine nature, communicates ecstatically his entire divine nature to the Second Person, the Son or the Word, in an act of loving self knowledge, so that the only distinction between them is the distinction of two complementary but opposed relations, Giver and Receiver. Then both together, in a single act of mutual love, pour forth the same divine essence again in all its fullness to their love image, the Holy Spirit, the third Person."

"Within the divine being, the relations and procession between the three Persons are not accidental but constitutive of the very nature of the divine substance. Substantiality and relationality are here equally primordial and necessary dimensions of being itself at its highest intensity".

Thus, as we are made in the image of God, our very being is relational. But, we are also substance, namely substance in relation. If we were merely constituted by our relationality, we would have nothing to communicate.

Norris brings out another important insight, namely that the Word shows us that receptivity is itself a positive aspect of perfection of being (page 20). This has important implications for the understanding of the masculine and feminine dimensions of human personality (page 21).

Norris goes on to examine St Thomas's work on the characteristics of persons, namely i) Personal Being as Self-possessing; ii) Personal Being as Self- communicative and relational and iii) Personal Being as self-transcending. Norris is very insightful - what is it about giving that we receive, why to find ourselves, do we need to lose ourselves, why do we need communion to be self affirmed? We are rooted in ourselves but we are also ecstatically transcendent communal beings.

And Norris notes that in out life journey, our self knowledge never reaches completion, wryly observing that even post 70 years of age, there are surprises (page 46). And again, Norris notes the relational aspects of being; "Everywhere our growth and development, positive and negative, are mediated by relations, - though, not we insist, simply reducible to them. (page 67). "In a word, the final goal and perfection of the whole universe is, literally, the communion between persons..." (page 80). "To be: is to be in communion" (page 82). "It is of great importance, then, for a healthy personal development to find some appropriate way of expressing to somebody all the significant levels of being and personality within us, concluding the deepest and most intimate. Paradoxically, it seems that what we don't share, we tend to lose hold of, what we don't give away we can't hold on to (page 92). "Why it must be that way that self-possession must keep pace with self expression is one of the deep mysteries of being (page 93). "Thus the Christian revelation of the Trinity is not abstruse doctrine for theologians alone but has a unique illuminate power as to the meaning of being... (page 112)."

Many thanks Fr Clarke for your brilliant insights!

This book by one of the deepest philosophers alive deserves to be regarded as a successor to Martin Buber's "I and Thou". The author was kind enough to be my spiritual advisor and to validate an experience I had during my final semester at Fordham University many years ago.

A distillation of philosophical wisdom. An elegantly written concise little book that is truly excellent. For those philosophically inclined. Manna for the soul for those also religiously inclined. Not difficult, but may benefit by a little familiarity with some basic Thomist philosophy such as in Etienne Gilson's Philosophy of God.

This is a good lecture on Aquinas that opens the reader to a clear understanding of the subject without being confusing or abstract. Take your time and read slowly. This is not a quick read but it is a good one.