Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation

by Josef Pieper

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 1990

Overview

The popular and highly regarded Pieper speaks of the necessity for human persons to be able to contemplate and appreciate beauty to develop their full humanity. Pieper expresses succinctly that the foundation of the human person in society is leisure, free time in which one can contemplate, be receptive to being and its beauty.

Key Features

• Emphasizes the necessity of contemplating beauty for human development
• Articulates leisure as the foundation for human personhood in society
• Expresses that free time enables receptivity to being and its beauty

Contents

• Preface
• Work, Spare Time, and Leisure
• Learning How to See Again
• Thoughts about Music
• Music and Silence
• Three Talks in a Sculptor’s Studio

Praise for Only the Lover Sings

Joy is more profound than sadness, and our capacity to delight in what is mostly determines what we are. Josef Pieper’s welcome guidance on leisure, festivity, and contemplation is the most secure and most exciting way to arrive at, and to delight in, the truth in things. Pieper teaches us through music, sculpture, and poetry to see the luminous beauty that reflects an origin deeper than themselves.

—James V. Schall, S.J., Georgetown University

Product Details

• Title: Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation
• Author: Josef Pieper
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Print Publication Date: 1990
• Pages: 76
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9780898703023, 0898703026
• Resource ID: LLS:NLYLVRRCNTMPLTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-03-26T15:13:44Z

About Josef Pieper

Josef Pieper (May 4, 1904 – November 6, 1997) was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance; Leisure: the Basis of Culture; The Philosophical Act and Guide to Thomas Aquinas (published in England as Introduction to Thomas Aquinas). He translated C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, into German.