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Work #225 · Early (his major pre-papal work; drawn from pastoral and academic teaching)

Love and Responsibility

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II
1960 (the first major theological-philosophical book of the future John Paul II; based on his pastoral and academic teaching) · Polish
Philosophical-pastoral treatise in five chapters · Polish personalism / Catholic moral theology / Lublin School

The personalist norm and the ethics of sexual love — Wojtyła's 1960 treatise developing the philosophical foundation of his later theology of the body

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Love and Responsibility (Early (his major pre-papal work; drawn from pastoral and academic teaching))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Love and Responsibility

The temporal unfolding of romantic love — attraction, friendship, betrothal love, marriage — as the human-sexual structure.

Space

Love and Responsibility

The interpersonal-relational space of romantic and marital love.

Matter

Love and Responsibility

The embodied sexual person — the body as integral to personal love, not merely instrumental.

Observer

Love and Responsibility

The person as the central observer — irreducibly personal, embodied, capable of genuine love. Personal-providential God as framework.

Energy

Love and Responsibility

The energies of sexual love — desire, attraction, friendship, the integration of these in marital communion.

Information

Love and Responsibility

The personal self-knowledge of romantic and marital love; the Catholic tradition's preserved wisdom on sexual ethics.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Love and Responsibility

Love and Responsibility's practical ethical conclusions on contraception (Wojtyła supported the natural-law position later codified in Humanae Vitae, 1968) have been continuously controversial. The relation between Love and Responsibility's philosophical framework and the later Theology of the Body (1979-84) is a major scholarly question — how does the philosophical anthropology develop into the theological-biblical anthropology? Recent feminist Catholic engagement has both appreciated and challenged elements of Wojtyła's gender anthropology.