Alice von Hildebrand on Femininity; Suffering; the Question of Evil


Alice von Hildebrand, a professor emerita of philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York and a renowned author (The Privilege of Being a Woman, By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich Von Hildebrand) ,and speaker, has long been one of my favorite guests on EWTN. I would love to see her in person - better yet, I would love to be a student in one of her classes. She possesses such a wealth of knowledge about so many things and is definitely not an "ivory tower" professor, but lives in and reacts to the problems of the real world today. As a deeply spiritual woman, she manifests a strong sense of who she is and who God has created her to be.

I particularly enjoy hearing her talk on the meaning of authentic femininity. She emphasizes that today's secular feminism's attempts to gain equality with men by imitation of men is unnatural, foolish, destructive, and self-defeating. She explains that the Blessed Mother's role in the Incarnation points to the true privilege of being a woman. Both virginity and maternity meet in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who exhibits the feminine gifts of purity, receptivity to God's word, and life-giving nurturance at their highest.

Insight Scoop shares her keen insights on evil and suffering with us in the following post:

In his great novel, Dostoievski puts the following words in the mouth of Ivan: "the earth is soaked from its crust to its centre with the tears of humanity." It is hard to express better the tragic question that every single human being is bound to raise: Why should we suffer? Why should human life--which seems so promising--constantly disappoint us? Why should man long for a happiness that keeps escaping him? Evil and suffering: these are key questions of human existence which clamor for an answer.

WHY? The majority of those who deny God's existence base their reasoning on the following argument: "You, believers, claim that God is both all powerful and all good. Now, look at the world, soaked in evil and suffering. Why does your God allow this? The obvious answer is that either he is not all powerful and is therefore incapable of curbing evil or is not all good, and does not seem to hear the cries of anguish and despair that his so-called children raise toward him.No serious metaphysician can escape from this dilemma. Can a satisfactory answer be found?Read the entire article...


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Comments

  1. Jeff Miller8/3/07, 12:19 PM

    I love Alice von Hildebrand, such wisdom and common sense.

    Have you ever read the book she wrote on her husband? Required reading in my opinion as is her husband's Transformation in Christ.

    ReplyDelete
  2. EC Gefroh8/3/07, 1:24 PM

    She is one amazing woman! I feel she and her late husband had a special love affair. When we got married, my mom gave me her book on Letters to a Young Bride. It is a must read for every married woman too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jean Heimann8/3/07, 11:29 PM

    Jeff and Esther,

    I had read excerpts from The Privilege of Being a Woman and finally purchased that book (at a discount) at the conference this weekend, and have heard her speak about her other books, which I would love to have as well, but will have to wait until we get some cash flow. Many of the books I have were either purchased used at pro-life book sales or were books that I reviewed.

    Thanks for sharing. God bless you both!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mairin :o)8/4/07, 7:53 PM

    I bought a used version of The Privilege of Being a Woman online. It was money well spent. I'll have to find the Letters to a Young Bride. She's great.

    ReplyDelete

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