The Personalist Project

Von Hildebrand conference underway

Jules is in Steubenville this week, helping lead a seminar/conference, hosted by the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project, on von HIldebrand's idea of love and marriage.

Some of it is being live cast here.


Comments (2)

Rhett Segall

Jul 18, 2013 8:05am

Thank you, Katie, for sharing your interview with Alice. It was wonderful to get to know Dietrich better. His writings have been very important in my life. I particularly delighted in the anecdotes about the dogs illustrating Dietrich’s depth of concentration, his mastery of the European train schedules enabling him to go to daily mass, his intensity in conversation leaving his beloved sisters exhausted!

Our love and admiration for the man pushes us to want to know more. I’ve read Alice’s biography of Dietrich a number of times. But there still are gaps that I would love to fill in,, particularly about Gretchen’s death and their son Franzi.


Rhett Segall

Jul 18, 2013 8:10am

I am aware of a couple of anecdotes about Dietrich which may not be familiar to the members of the Personalist Project:

Dietrich gave a talk at the University of Dayton sometime in the 60’s. His host, who was a philosophy professor at the University, told me that as Dietrich was heading on to the tarmac, Dietrich’s final words to him were  an emphatic “Tu  es Petrus”!

 Secondly, and apropos of your reflection on the hierarchy of values, Dietrich was awarded by some group a prize for his book “Transformation in Christ”.  The award was presented to him by Jacques Maritain. Dietrich’s response was not so much rejoicing at the award, but elation at hearing that a priest was brought back to Christ through the book. (I’m not sure where I heard this)   

Shalom,

Rhett