As part of the
Failable Blogma Support a Catholic Speaker Month series, I was asked to speak about Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand. This series is designed to raise awareness of the many great Catholic speakers out there and how they all share the same one Truth.
Alice Jourdain Von Hildebrand is a Belgium immigrant who taught Catholic philosophy at Hunger College in New York for 37 years until 1984. She is the author of several books and articles, including Introduction to a Philosophy of Religion, The Soul of a Lion, and The Privilege of Being a Woman. During her retirement, she has kept very active as a lecturer across the world as well as making many appearances on Catholic television.
When I was asked to write about Dr. Von HIldebrand, I held some reservation about my ability to convey my thoughts and opinions while maintaining close to the faith and thoughts of my subject. Fortunately for me, Dr. Von Hildebrand has focused much of her life on a topic that I (oddly) can relate, true feminism.
As a child, I had a heavy influence from the disproportionately numerous female members of my family. Interestingly, my acquired views of feminism were in direct contrast with the "traditional" view of feminism. In the secular world, feminism is the act of correcting an implied imbalance of power of the sexes. Feminism views the world as anti-female and that females must overcome their weakness to compete in a male dominated society.
Dr. Von Hildebrand, as well as myself, believe this is a flawed view of life. This is not to say that there are inequalities in society centered around sex, but in the fight for equality, both sexes have forgotten that it is the differences themselves that make each sex special in their own right.
Dr. Von Hildebrand states "each sex has its strengths; each sex has its weaknesses. According to God's admirable plan, the husband is to help his wife overcome these weaknesses so that all the treasures of her femininity will come to full bloom, and vice versa." Note that Dr. Von Hildebrand does not state that it is solely the husband's or wife's job to bring out the strengths of their spouse, but rather they are to work together to bring out the strength in each other.
Now obviously, men are generally stronger than woman physically, but as Dr. Von Hildebrand states, "natural strength cannot compete with supernatural strength." Dr. Von Hildebrand identifies this supernatural strength as woman's natural virtue, their instinctive motherhood tendencies, both psychological and spiritually.
Too many times I have seen those in the name of feminism shun this natural characteristic in efforts to better model their male counterparts, only to find themselves longing for a missing aspect of their lives. I would contend that it is the women herself that is more fortunate in that they, by design, have the nurturing maternal instinct that cuts though and is understood in all cultures, races, religions, and even species.
It is for that reason that women, and true feminism, is so important to society and moral power. As Dr. Von Hildebrand states, it is the women who has "the key to sanity…for supernature is based on nature, and unless we go back to a natural soundness, the sublimity of the supernatural message will be lost." Women have great influence on men's lives, and it is up to women to use their natural maternal instincts to guide men towards a better society.
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Information for this essay came from
Catholic.org. For more information about Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand, please see her
website.
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