The second lecture in the Quid est homo? series:

The Human Person's Creation in Love

He who created you without you…                              
                              …will not complete you without you.

by Maria Fedoryka

In this double-lecture, Dr. Fedoryka will analyze and challenge certain false ideas about the human person, and then elaborate the Christian vision of the person's creation in love and fulfillment in relation to God and other persons.

Light fare and drinks will be served between talks. The event is free and open to the public, though, to help us prepare properly, please register separately for each person attending. Donations to offset costs and provide for future lectures and events are gratefully accepted.

Talk 1: "He who created you without you..."

The "pessimistic existentialists" such as Nietzsche and Sartre believe human existence to have no meaningful origin, and thus to be absurd. The Christian conviction, by contrast, is that creation springs from the hand of a loving creator. Dr. Fedoryka will reflect philosophically on this love-origin of the human person, and then show the dramatic implications of this beginning in love for the human person's vocation and genuine fulfillment.

Talk 2: "...will not complete you without you."

In the second talk, Dr. Fedoryka will consider the human contribution to the original creative act of God. God brings man into existence, but this act of creation is in an important sense radically incomplete. For while the love-origin gives objective meaning to existence, the human person is not able to enter into this meaningfulness without further ado: he must experience his own goodness, and the goodness of the world. But this is possible only if he is reflected back to himself in the loving gaze of another human person. As "one who is loved", he is thus initiated into the only experience which can give his life meaning.

Maria Fedoryka is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ave Maria University in Naples, FL. For the last several years she has studied, taught and lectured widely on questions related to the nature and dignity of the human person, especially the philosophy of love, and the place of love in the lives of persons. She received her BA from Christendom College and her MA and PhD degrees from the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein. She is also an accomplished violinist.