The Thinker in the Church II: The Urgencies of Romano Guardini

Abstract

Monsignor romano guardini, preeminent professor in the University of Munich, has had an enormous influence upon generations of German students and citizens. Now, after the steady and effective translation of his works during the past three decades, he has made a profound impact upon the minds and souls of young American scholars and intellectuals, changing, with the strength of conversion, their ways of dealing with knowledge, with ideas and human realities. In an article written for the twentieth-anniversary issue of The Review of Politics, I pointed out (“The Thinker in the Church: The Spirit of Newman,” January, 1959) that Guardini is a Newman type of thinker in the twentieth century. This is quite true. Certainly the range of his concerns is reminiscent of Newman's: literature (for instance, his studies of Dante, of Dostoevski, notably the legend of the Grand Inquisitor, and of Rilke's Duino Elegies): history (particularly revelation as history); subtle reflections upon theological questions as well as the critical problems of the contemporary political and social scene.