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