Brian J. Himes, Ph.D.
Manresa Fellow
Center for Ignatian Service
Courses Taught
SERV 1000
Education
Ph.D., 2022, Boston College, Systematic Theology, Minor Area: Theological Ethics
M.T.S., 2012, Boston College School of Theology & Ministry, Concentration: Systematic
Theology
B.A., 2010, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI, summa cum laude, Majors: Theology &
Psychology
Research Interests
Dissertation Title: 鈥淢ax Scheler on Love and Human Dignity: The Wertkern [Core of
Value] as Resolving the Aporia of Dialogical and Metaphysical Personalism on the Knowledge
of Persons鈥�
Diss. Summary: A specialized interpretation of Scheler鈥檚 concept of the core of value
(Wertkern) in every person resolves a disagreement between dialogical personalists
(e.g., Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas) and metaphysical/cognitive personalists (e.g.,
Thomas Aquinas, Bernard Lonergan) over whether persons can be known and whether such
knowledge is somehow essentially possessive and violent. I argue for this interpretation
of Scheler鈥檚 personalistic value realism, inspired by and in line with Blaise Pascal鈥檚
鈥榬easons of the heart,鈥� through dialectical comparison of Scheler鈥檚 writings with
Charles Taylor on the emergence of modern identity and 鈥榮oft (emotivistic) relativism,鈥�
Levinas鈥� Holocaust- inspired radically concrete phenomenological ethics, and Lonergan鈥檚
cognitional theory of transcultural intelligibility. The result is a heuristic method
for knowingly and respectfully loving any person for who they are without relying
on a naive notion of the true self or a religious command detached from philosophical
reflection. This theory and method rely on a concept of human dignity anchored not
in a transcultural metaphysical potency/essence but in a free act of affective love鈥攁
鈥榬eason of the heart.鈥�
Publications and Media Placements
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article: 鈥淟onergan鈥檚 Position on the Natural Desire to See God
and Aquinas鈥� Metaphysical Theology of Creation and Participation,鈥� in The Heythrop
Journal 54, no. 5 (September 2013): pp. 767鈥�783.
Invited Book Chapter: 鈥淭ranscending Kantian Intuition Through Value-ception & Cognition:
The Complementary Legacies of Scheler and Bernard Lonergan,鈥� in The Legacy of Max
Scheler, ed. Eric Mohr, St. Vincent鈥檚 College, PA, & J. Edward Hackett, Southern University
and A&M College, LA (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, expected publication
2024).
Invited Book Review of The Three Dynamisms of Faith: Searching for Meaning, Fulfillment
& Truth, by Louis Roy, OP, in The Lonergan Review, Vol. 10 (2019), pp. 154鈥�157.
Professional Organizations and Associations
Max Scheler Society of North America