Person: Encounters, Paradigms, Commitment and Applications

Diana Prokofyeva · Colin Patterson

Sep 2023 · Vernon Press

About this ebook

Personalist thought offers fundamental perspectives which are able to shape the broader fields of philosophy, theology, and related areas of study. Familiarity with the scope of its recent developments is valuable not only for personalist scholars but also for those interested in non-materialist thought and especially the problems and questions of the person in various aspects. This work, bringing together papers from a 2019 conference, aims to serve these readerships. It will also provide an archival record of the state of the field at this point in Western intellectual history.

In terms of content, the work addresses four general themes: personalist thought as it is encountered in the writings of particular scholars; the place of personalism within broader philosophical thought; personalist engagement with major religious traditions; and the application of personalist modes of thinking to a range of real-world questions.

The book is unique in that it brings together multiple strands of personalist thought, demonstrating its breadth and depth and its ability to engage in wider contemporary philosophical and cultural debates. 

About the author

Diana Prokofyeva, an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI," defended her thesis "The Dialectic of Estrangement and Engagement: Social-Philosophical Aspects" in February 2012 (Bashkir State University, Ufa, Russia). Her research interests are in existentialism, personalism, social philosophy, ethics, and axiology, Marxism, neo-Marxism, and critical theory, philosophy of education, cultural anthropology. She is the author of more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in two books ("The Search for Stability in Chaotic Times: Niccolo Machiavelli" [2018] in 'Catastrophe & Philosophy', edited by D. J. Rosner; "Education for Peace and Conflict Resolution" [2019] in 'War, Peace and Conflict Resolution', edited by Marek J. Celinski) and the author of the monograph 'The Dialectics of Estrangement and Engagement: Philosophical Understanding'. She is also a member of the American Institute for Philosophical and Cultural Thought (USA).

Colin Patterson, an independent scholar, was formerly on the faculty of the John Paul II Institute of Marriage and Family, Melbourne, Australia, having completed his STD (JPII Institute, Rome) with a thesis on the writings of Stanley Hauerwas and Alasdair MacIntyre. His research and teaching interests centre around the theology of persons, the interface between theology and science, particularly psychology, and various themes in moral theology. As well as having published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, he has authored two books, 'Chalcedonian Personalism: Rethinking the Human' (2016) and 'Light on the Human Heart: Where Christian Faith and Psychology Meet' (2022).