Paedagogia Christiana (Aug 2021)
Personalistic Pedagogy and Transcendence
Abstract
In this paper I focus my attention on personalistic pedagogy, and its connection with transcendence, which was defined by Karol Wojtyła as ‘another name for the person’, because of its close link to the realisation of man as a person (Wojtyła, 1993, s. 230). In this regard, I focus my attention on references to transcendence in the studies of selected personalists. In its structure the article proposes reflection over the following problems: 1) the spiritual and transcending dimension of the bodily character of the human person; 2) the transcendence of the human person and the human person’s quest for values in the varieties of personalisms; 3) the ‘naturalisation’ of the ‘person’ category, and the openness to transcendence; 4) transcendence in historical, metaphysical and theological personalism; 5) education as a process between nature, culture and transcendence. According to Karol Wojtyła, when we talk about transcendence in relation to the human person we should take into account three dimensions: 1) transcendence in action; 2) transcendence towards another ‘I’ and 3) transcendence towards personal God. The biological life is never able to explain the spiritual life, and it is the spiritual life that gives meaning to the biological life, because the only sphere of the spirit reveals to us the value of the personal life and the meaning of human existence. This consequently leads to the need for separate reflection on the world and on man. In this sense, both in theoretical reflection and in practical action, the above-mentioned need is emphasised and points to respect for the ‘mystery of the child’, all the more acceptable in a climate of faith and openness to transcendence. Of course, the process of education and teaching can be approached superficially, in a shallow sense, in which we can remain closed to the possibilities and potential of human development. Epistemological distinctions connected to Maritain’s levels of cognition allow us to notice at least two types of teaching and education (flat and deep). A human being might stop (for various reasons, of course) at the lower levels of existence, and give up any aspirations to higher values, and to transcendence. Here we can seek help in explaining the part of staying open on transcendence of personalistic pedagogy.
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