The Human Experience: Essays on Providence, Melancholy, Community, & Freedom

The Human Experience consists of four essays that converge into a discourse on the unfathomable mystery of what it means to be human. The first articulates providence as the singular embrace of free human agency with the divine dicta of history, as seen in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The Kierkegaard-inspired “Meaning of Melancholy” shows the critical role of melancholy in illuminating the meaning of the human condition. “The Meaning of Community” explores how the intersection of individuality and commonality gives rise to a shared structure in which humanity and its history become truly intelligible. Crowning the collection is “The Freedom of the Spirit,” a theologically rich reflection on how the Holy Spirit animates human freedom and raises it to the heights of the divine life.Eclectic and edifying, The Human Experience shows the tremendous range of Guardini’s intellectual prowess and the enduring relevance of his philosophical and theological insights.