The Loss and Recovery of Truth: Selected Writings of Gerhart Niemeyer

"This book is a wonderful introduction to the thought of Gerhart Niemeyer. For Niemeyer, the twentieth century was a terrible one that was deformed by ideological thinking that had destructive effects on politics, education, and religion. This loss of truth, of a correct order for personal and communal existence, and its recovery was a continual preoccupation for Niemeyer. For those who wish to understand our contemporary, civilizational crisis, they should read this book not only to understand the roots of our current ideological predicament but how to remedy this condition by returning to an spiritual existence that orders the Western tradition."

Lee Trepanier
Associate Professor
Education North 220
Political Science Department
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710-0001

This volume provides definitive evidence that Gerhart Niemeyer was a thinker for all seasons. By diagnosing ideology as a spiritual corruption and loss of reality in a way that transcends the immediate controversies to which he attended, Niemeyer’s writings serve as an indispensable guide for those following him into the twenty-first century. Niemeyer’s personalist recovery of the truth of existence demonstrates that the recovery of order necessitates much more than holding right opinions. Included in this volume are essays on philosophical Christianity and the hospice movement that remind the reader of Plato’s view that philosophy is learning to die.

John von Heyking, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Lethbridge
4401 University Drive West
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 3M4
CANADA