The Worldview of Personalism Origins and Early Development [Hardcover]

Personalism is understood today as the name of an important current in twentieth-century thought which, inspired by the Christian and humanistic traditions of the West, has sought to deepen our understanding of the meaning and value of human personhood. Opposing both individualism and collectivism, personalism has stressed the uniqueness of each person, the meaning and value of interpersonal relations, and the unity that holds persons together and is, ultimately, also personal in itself: the person of God. Personalism's insights into the nature of personhood have broad implications for our view of ethics, politics, education, and religion. The history of personalism has, however, been poorly understood. Jan Olof Bengtsson shows that personalism began as early as the eighteenth century and was a central, international current of thought throughout the nineteenth century - that it was, in fact, more characteristic of the nineteenth century than of the twentieth.

Introduction
1. The current view of personalism and its origins
2. Personal `reason' and impersonal `understanding'
3. The personal absolute
4. Personal unity-in-diversity
5. Early personalism and its meaning

Once in a great while a book comes along that is so crucial to an area of study as to be assured of setting the tone in that domain of scholarship for many decades to come... The fuller story of personalism's history was delayed largely because the research required to unearth it would have to be done in Europe and England and by a person fully fluent in at least English, German, and French. What was needed was a first-rate historian of ideas, and one willing to invest a decade in the project. Fortunately for us, such a scholar eventually appeared. Jan Olof Bengtsson has completed the book many other scholars awaited and sincerely hoped someone else would write. The result has been gratifying. The book... will become the handbook of those who study personalism and the referenl“!