The author attempts to contribute to the debate about the value of Aquinas’s account of love to philosophical personalism. He argues that to understand adequately Aquinas’s account of love in general and the aspect of the gift of self in particular, we must appreciate the importance of his account of appropriate self-love; moreover, self-love and love as a gift of self constitute two foundational poles on which we should base any development of a theory of love within Thomistic personalism. First, the author offers brief overviews of Wojtyla’s concept of love as a gift of self and Waldstein’s comparative study of Wojtyla and Aquinas on this issue. Second, he examines Aquinas’s notion of self-love, distinguishing between the good and bad kinds of self-love. Finally, he shows how self-love actualized in self-friendship creates the possibility for friendship with others.
The term feminine genius denotes a special intuition and sensitivity of a woman that helps her not only ascertain the needs of others but also empathize with the human condition in a way characteristic only of women. The article attempts to answer questions concerning the feminine genius, such as the following: What is spiritual motherhood? What is spiritual companionship? How can women express the qualities of companionship and motherhood in and out of their homes? What kind of obstacles do women need to root out of their hearts to build loving relationships? And, How does emotional formation prepare women for their vocation? The answers are sought from Edith Stein’s perspective, i.e. by drawing from the usage of phenomenology and Thomism adopted in her book, Essays on Women.
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