“Pascal wrote that ‘man is the most amazing object in nature.’ Indeed, we are such complex beings that not only do we have great difficulties understanding others, but worse, we have great difficulties understanding ourselves.”
—Alice von Hildebrand, Man and Woman: A Divine Invention, p. xiii
Join us as we dive into one of Alice von Hildebrand’s most poignant works, Man and Woman: A Divine Invention. In today’s episode—part one of a multi-part podcast miniseries—we look at the Introduction and Chapter One, and try to unpack the wounds of original sin on human nature and what that means for how men and women live out their specifically embodied lives in the world. This topic could not be more relevant in the 21st century, so listen along as we explore some fascinating ideas!
“This book is a profound meditation on the superiority of being over bustling, of love over the impress of one’s will, and of receptivity to God over what we take to be our creative ingenuity. As such it poses challenges to those creatures we call men and women, but in different ways. Dr. von Hildebrand reminds men that, apart from the genius for personal and the concrete that women possess, they become architects of heresy and inhumanity. She reminds women, meanwhile, of their at once humble and high calling to motherhood, physical or spiritual. It is a work steeped in the reverence she enjoins upon us all.”
—Anthony Esolen [from the endorsement of the book]
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