In every philosophy course that I teach at St. John’s University, I start the course by pointing out to the students the distinction between a problem and a mystery as understood by the existentialist personalist philosopher, Gabriel Marcel. According to Marcel there were a number of important differences between a problem and a mystery.
While reflecting on God’s wonderful gift of freedom to us in my last series of columns, I was reading with the students in my class on personalism at St. John’s University the book by Seymour Cain, “Gabriel Marcel.” Except for Thomas Aquinas, my favorite philosopher is Marcel. When as a young priest I first came upon Marcel’s philosophy, I was stunned by its depth and beauty.
