This 4-week seminar delves into the profound question of whether true love is genuinely attainable. Our guide will be St. John Paul II’s seminal work, Love and Responsibility, a book uniquely born from his personal experiences as a university professor and chaplain. As he famously said, “It is necessary to prepare young people for marriage, it is necessary to teach them love. Love is not something that is learned, and yet there is nothing else as important to learn! As a young priest I learned to love human love.”
John Paul II didn’t just lecture; he lived and learned alongside his students. He fostered deep discussions on love, sexual ethics, and vocations while hiking, camping, and kayaking with them, engaging in real conversations on the trail and around the campfire. This seminar will carry that same spirit of genuine inquiry, exploring love in its multifaceted dimensions through rigorous analysis and open discussion.
- The Unique Capacity of the Person for Love: We’ll examine what it is about the human person that makes us uniquely capable of love, exploring the inherent dignity and relational nature that underpins this capacity.
- Falling in Love: This section will unpack the concept of love from various philosophical angles, considering its fundamental nature (metaphysical), its impact on the human psyche (psychological), and the moral implications of our choices in love (ethical).
- Freedom for Love: True love, as we will discover, is intrinsically linked to freedom. We will explore how personal healing from past wounds and the cultivation of virtues are essential for genuine freedom in giving and receiving love.
- Vocation: Marriage and Celibacy: The seminar will culminate in a thoughtful examination of love’s highest expressions in vocation, specifically focusing on the profound callings to both marriage and celibacy, understanding them as distinct yet equally valid paths to fulfilling love.
Join us as we engage with a rich philosophical tradition to discover the enduring possibility of true love and its profound implications for human flourishing.