From the destroyed shoes to the anthropology of the gift. The pastoral genesis of the personalism of Saint John Paul II

Abstract

One of the main themes of the rich magisterium of St. John Paul II is an anthropological theme. The question about man, his nature, his existential ethos and the ultimate vocation he finds in God was the subject of the first, program encyclical Redemptor hominis. However, the genesis of his interest in the topic of man was much earlier and dates back to the beginnings of the intellectual and spiritual formation of Karol Wojtyła, as well as his priestly work. A significant element of this story is the pastoral care of the university students in Krakow. It has become not only a practical field of the experience of every human being, but also an inspiration for the scientific philosophical and theological reflection. Its fruit were two works in which Wojtyła formulates an outline of his integral personalism: Love and responsibility, and Person and act. The analysis of the human subjectivity contained in them will later become the foundation of his teaching on the dignity of the human person, whose deepest foundation is being created in the image and likeness of God, redemption by Christ and man’s vocation to communion with God in eternity.
The article presents the main lines of this development starting from the first conferences on the topic of man addressed to students in Krakow to the theology of the body, developed during the Wednesday audiences in the Vatican.