Mark K. Spencer
I'm a philosopher and Professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm married with 4 kids, and I'm a Roman Catholic. I write on the nature of the human person, beauty and aesthetics, and natural theology. I have written two books, The Irreducibility of the Human Person: A Catholic Synthesis (CUA Press, 2022) and Catholicism and the Problem of God (Cambridge, 2023), and over 60 articles, chapters, and reviews.
I earned my Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo with a dissertation, directed by Jorge Gracia, defending St. Thomas Aquinas' metaphysics of the human person using phenomenological accounts of our experience of self-sensing, drawing on the work of Scheler, Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Michel Henry. I earned my B.A. at Franciscan University of Steubenville with a thesis on knowledge of beauty in the work of Aristotle and Hans Urs Von Balthasar, and my M.A. also at Franciscan with a thesis on a sacramental experience of the world, drawing on the work of St. Bonaventure, Emmanuel Levinas, and Max Scheler.
I earned my Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo with a dissertation, directed by Jorge Gracia, defending St. Thomas Aquinas' metaphysics of the human person using phenomenological accounts of our experience of self-sensing, drawing on the work of Scheler, Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Michel Henry. I earned my B.A. at Franciscan University of Steubenville with a thesis on knowledge of beauty in the work of Aristotle and Hans Urs Von Balthasar, and my M.A. also at Franciscan with a thesis on a sacramental experience of the world, drawing on the work of St. Bonaventure, Emmanuel Levinas, and Max Scheler.
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Notes by Mark K. Spencer
Book by Mark K. Spencer
Table of Contents
1. The Basic Catholic Conception of God and its Jewish and Greek Inheritance
2. Trinitarian and Incarnational Controversies
3. Problems with God’s Relations to Creatures
4. Problems with Human Approaches to God
"Mark Spencer has given us a tour de force, an extremely ambitious and irenic work of synthesis in which he attempts to sketch out a philosophical portrait of the human person, attentive to beauty, that does not suffer from various opposing kinds of reductionism. He brings phenomenology, Thomism, Scotism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Nouvelle théologie, and analytic philosophy into dialogue as he ventures into debates on metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, nature and grace, affectivity, liturgy, and eschatology. In doing so he also proposes synthetic solutions to many nodal metaphysical and anthropological problems, including the interactions of divine causality and human freedom, divine simplicity and energeia, and the spiritual soul and the body, here and in heavenly beatitude."―Lawrence Feingold, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary
"Mark Spencer has produced a remarkable work of reconciliation. He proposes to harmonize strands of thought in the Catholic philosophical tradition that are too often at odds with each other. In particular, he wants to harmonize the work of those who take seriously the modern turn to the subject, with the work of pre-modern Catholic thinkers who smell subjectivism in the turn to the subject and who want to build on a more "objective" and "metaphysical" basis. Spencer wants to capture the truth in each position, and to root out the onesidedness (he speaks of the reductionist tendencies) in each. On this basis he wants to work towards a new Catholic synthesis. This is an original project, and much needed in a world in which Catholic philosophers seem to prefer refuting each other to harmonizing their views. Spencer also maintains the original idea that this new synthesis is achieved by a certain kind of aesthetic imagination. Spencer brings to his ambitious project a vast knowledge of the different movements of thought within the Catholic tradition."―John F. Crosby, Franciscan University at Steubenville
"I can think of few if any books so comprehensively synthetic. Spencer draws from traditional – and nontraditional – Thomism, the personalist tradition, phenomenology (which overlaps with but is not identical to personalism), the Fathers, the work of thinkers in Eastern Christianity, and several contemporary secular sources; it is a work of extremely impressive breadth and learning."―Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina
Catholic philosophical anthropologists have defended views of the human person on which we are irreducible to anything non-personal. For example, it is not the case that we are nothing but matter, souls, or parts of society. But many Catholic anthropologies have overlooked ways in which we are irreducible and so have not given an adequate account of the uniqueness of each human person. This book presents a philosophical portrait of human persons that depicts each way in which we are irreducible, with the goal of guiding the reader to perceive, wonder at, and love all the unique features of human persons. It builds this portrait by showing how claims from many strands of the Catholic tradition can be synthesized. These strands include Thomism, Scotism, phenomenology, personalism, nouvelle théologie, analytic philosophy, and Greek and Russian thought. The book focuses on how these traditions' claims are grounded in experience and on how they help us to perceive irreducible features of persons. While many metaphysical claims about persons are defended, the picture of persons that ultimately emerges is one on which persons are best grasped not through abstract concepts but through aesthetic perception and love, as unique kinds of beauty.
This book also explores irreducible features of our subjectivity, senses, intellect, freedom, and affections, and of our souls, bodies, and activities. It includes discussions of divine simplicity and causality, and of the nature of angels, matter, organisms, and artifacts, all of which must be understood to fully grasp our irreducibility. In showing how to synthesize various traditions' claims, the book also offers new solutions to a number of debates in Catholic philosophy. These include debates over natural law, the natural desire to see God, the separated soul, integralism and personalism, idealist and realist phenomenology, and scholastic accounts of the act of existence.
Published Papers by Mark K. Spencer
First, I describe Scheler’s phenomenology. Value-perception is an intentional act whereby one feels the value or disvalue of things. Values, which fall into an objective hierarchy, include the usefulness, vitality, beauty, and holiness of things. Value-perception guides our actions, sense-perceptions, and reasoning.
Next, I develop this phenomenology by describing two kinds of spiritual perception, sacramental and intuitive perception, both guided by feeling the value of holiness. In the former, one perceives God present in or signified by creatures, as in a saint or in nature. In the latter, one perceives God directly, without creaturely mediation, as in mystical experience. I focus on sacramental perception so as to argue that spiritual perception guided by the feeling of holiness yields the most accurate view of the world, revealing that creatures just are revelations of God. I briefly present a metaphysical account, supported by this phenomenology, of how God, creatures considered as revelations of God, and the value of holiness relate to one another.
In order to spiritually perceive, one must prefer holiness to all values lower on the hierarchy. But I argue that once one attains this perception, one also attains the ability to perceive God in ways guided by other values, such as vitality, beauty, and moral goodness, as well. Spiritual perception is also not just an experience of the world as revealed through a hierarchy of values, but also as containing values and features that one alone can perceive, by which one is directly addressed by God, as when one perceives one’s vocation. But many other instances of spiritual perception are only possible if one experiences oneself as a member of certain communities or traditions. I close the paper by describing individual and communal value-guided spiritual perception.
Table of Contents
1. The Basic Catholic Conception of God and its Jewish and Greek Inheritance
2. Trinitarian and Incarnational Controversies
3. Problems with God’s Relations to Creatures
4. Problems with Human Approaches to God
"Mark Spencer has given us a tour de force, an extremely ambitious and irenic work of synthesis in which he attempts to sketch out a philosophical portrait of the human person, attentive to beauty, that does not suffer from various opposing kinds of reductionism. He brings phenomenology, Thomism, Scotism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Nouvelle théologie, and analytic philosophy into dialogue as he ventures into debates on metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, nature and grace, affectivity, liturgy, and eschatology. In doing so he also proposes synthetic solutions to many nodal metaphysical and anthropological problems, including the interactions of divine causality and human freedom, divine simplicity and energeia, and the spiritual soul and the body, here and in heavenly beatitude."―Lawrence Feingold, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary
"Mark Spencer has produced a remarkable work of reconciliation. He proposes to harmonize strands of thought in the Catholic philosophical tradition that are too often at odds with each other. In particular, he wants to harmonize the work of those who take seriously the modern turn to the subject, with the work of pre-modern Catholic thinkers who smell subjectivism in the turn to the subject and who want to build on a more "objective" and "metaphysical" basis. Spencer wants to capture the truth in each position, and to root out the onesidedness (he speaks of the reductionist tendencies) in each. On this basis he wants to work towards a new Catholic synthesis. This is an original project, and much needed in a world in which Catholic philosophers seem to prefer refuting each other to harmonizing their views. Spencer also maintains the original idea that this new synthesis is achieved by a certain kind of aesthetic imagination. Spencer brings to his ambitious project a vast knowledge of the different movements of thought within the Catholic tradition."―John F. Crosby, Franciscan University at Steubenville
"I can think of few if any books so comprehensively synthetic. Spencer draws from traditional – and nontraditional – Thomism, the personalist tradition, phenomenology (which overlaps with but is not identical to personalism), the Fathers, the work of thinkers in Eastern Christianity, and several contemporary secular sources; it is a work of extremely impressive breadth and learning."―Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina
Catholic philosophical anthropologists have defended views of the human person on which we are irreducible to anything non-personal. For example, it is not the case that we are nothing but matter, souls, or parts of society. But many Catholic anthropologies have overlooked ways in which we are irreducible and so have not given an adequate account of the uniqueness of each human person. This book presents a philosophical portrait of human persons that depicts each way in which we are irreducible, with the goal of guiding the reader to perceive, wonder at, and love all the unique features of human persons. It builds this portrait by showing how claims from many strands of the Catholic tradition can be synthesized. These strands include Thomism, Scotism, phenomenology, personalism, nouvelle théologie, analytic philosophy, and Greek and Russian thought. The book focuses on how these traditions' claims are grounded in experience and on how they help us to perceive irreducible features of persons. While many metaphysical claims about persons are defended, the picture of persons that ultimately emerges is one on which persons are best grasped not through abstract concepts but through aesthetic perception and love, as unique kinds of beauty.
This book also explores irreducible features of our subjectivity, senses, intellect, freedom, and affections, and of our souls, bodies, and activities. It includes discussions of divine simplicity and causality, and of the nature of angels, matter, organisms, and artifacts, all of which must be understood to fully grasp our irreducibility. In showing how to synthesize various traditions' claims, the book also offers new solutions to a number of debates in Catholic philosophy. These include debates over natural law, the natural desire to see God, the separated soul, integralism and personalism, idealist and realist phenomenology, and scholastic accounts of the act of existence.
First, I describe Scheler’s phenomenology. Value-perception is an intentional act whereby one feels the value or disvalue of things. Values, which fall into an objective hierarchy, include the usefulness, vitality, beauty, and holiness of things. Value-perception guides our actions, sense-perceptions, and reasoning.
Next, I develop this phenomenology by describing two kinds of spiritual perception, sacramental and intuitive perception, both guided by feeling the value of holiness. In the former, one perceives God present in or signified by creatures, as in a saint or in nature. In the latter, one perceives God directly, without creaturely mediation, as in mystical experience. I focus on sacramental perception so as to argue that spiritual perception guided by the feeling of holiness yields the most accurate view of the world, revealing that creatures just are revelations of God. I briefly present a metaphysical account, supported by this phenomenology, of how God, creatures considered as revelations of God, and the value of holiness relate to one another.
In order to spiritually perceive, one must prefer holiness to all values lower on the hierarchy. But I argue that once one attains this perception, one also attains the ability to perceive God in ways guided by other values, such as vitality, beauty, and moral goodness, as well. Spiritual perception is also not just an experience of the world as revealed through a hierarchy of values, but also as containing values and features that one alone can perceive, by which one is directly addressed by God, as when one perceives one’s vocation. But many other instances of spiritual perception are only possible if one experiences oneself as a member of certain communities or traditions. I close the paper by describing individual and communal value-guided spiritual perception.
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