Action and the New Evangelization: The Youthful Humanism of John Paul II

Abstract

The theme of action was central to the papacy of John Paul II and formed the basis of his philosophical and anthropological work The Acting Person. John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla, was born in 1920 and, as a young man, experienced the dark days of the Second World War and the subsequent atrocities of the Stalinist and Communist regimes. This historical context set the scene for his interpretation and analysis of how human persons manifest themselves through their actions, and how persons either diminish or grow through their actions, a theme reiterated in Toronto during World Youth Day 2002. After being ordained priest in 1946, Karol Wojtyla did doctoral work, focusing on Aquinas and John of the Cross, as well as Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel and Max Scheler. He intended to reconcile these various philosophical positions with that of Aquinas. In his second doctoral thesis (the first was entitled "On the Doctrine of Faith According to St. John of the Cross"), "The Possibilities of Building a System of Christian Ethics on the Basis of Max Scheler," Wojtyla saw a place for Scheler's method, though he did not accept his position. In 1956, Wojtyla was offered the Chair of Ethics at Lublin University and, by the age of thirty-six, he was a full professor and head of the Institute of Ethics in Lublin. He was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow in 1958 and became Archbishop of that city in 1964. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1967 and elected Pope in 1978.