Josef Pieper (1904–1997) was a Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher from Elte, Westphalia, Germany. He imbibed the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas but thought deeply about the rest of the Western tradition, ancient and modern (read a little more about him here). I have found his work a particularly helpful guide to thinking deeply and clearly about what it means to live rightly as a human being. His most famous work is Leisure: the Basis of Culture. If you want to get a sense of the breadth of his work, An Anthology, which he compiled at the end of his life, is a great place to start.
If you want to think about how to live well as a Christian in this time, Pieper’s works are full of wisdom. Pieper’s works are also concise. All of them are short volumes. The chapters are also short. You can usually read a chapter in one short sitting. They stir the heart and the mind and challenge us to be what God has called us to be. Here are 7 quotes that invite you to read Josef Pieper.
1. The key question of our time that our prosperity should make us ask: What is life for? “After we have accomplished, with an admirable amount of intelligence and hard work, all that is necessary, after we have provided for the basic needs of life, produced the essential foodstuff, protected the realm of life itself—after all this, what is the meaning of the life itself that we have made possible? How do we define a truly human life?” (Anthology, 111).
2. Prudence or wisdom is the pre-eminent virtue: “The pre-eminence of prudence means that realization of the good presupposes knowledge of reality. He alone can do good who knows what things are like and what their situation is. . . . Realization of the good presupposes that our actions are appropriate to the real situation, that is to the concrete realities which form the ‘environment’ of a concrete human action; and that we therefore take this concrete reality seriously, with clear-eyed objectivity” (The Four Cardinal Virtues, 10). Continue reading “7 Quotes that Invite You to Read Josef Pieper”