Defending Human Dignity: John Paul II and Political Realism

Derek Jeffreys. Defending Human Dignity: John Paul II and Political Realism. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2004. 240 pp. $19.99.

Examining the political thought of Pope John Paul II, Derek Jeffreys offers a volume that is all the more timely given John Paul II's recent passing and increased tensions concerning Middle East foreign policy. As a contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion, Jeffreys embarks upon a systematic analysis of the late pontiff's ethic of human dignity and his long-term engagement with political realism. Demonstrating familiarity with primary source materials, Jeffreys identifies John Paul II's critical interaction with the phenomenologist Max Scheler as a key-though often overlooked-aspect of his thought.

Jeffreys introduces political realism by observing three "givens"-the pursuit of power, group loyalty, and the conflictual nature of politics-from which all political realists offer some variant explanation. Likewise, he identifies consequentialism-the belief that the moral value of action consists in its consequences-as a core theme of political realism. After exposing the challenges created by political realism, he offers the pope's philosophical project as a nuanced alternative, which "values the dignity of the person over calculating consequences" (p. 23).

Beginning with Karol Wojtyla's habilitation thesis, Jeffreys calls attention to the significant role that Scheler has played in shaping the pope's thought. By utilizing "elements of a philosophy of consciousness within a philosophy of being," John...