The place of the heart in the history of thought

We have already mentioned the surprise caused by the Encyclical Dilexit nos, which speaks of the heart and to the heart. After the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, this fourth and last encyclical remains a spiritual testament to the human being, “in the time of artificial intelligence”.

Claiming a new and, in some way, original place in the history of Western thought, Pope Francis’ last encyclical, without reference, but certainly following in his footsteps, renews the thought of the German philosopher and theologian Dietrich von Hildebrandt, who died in 1977.

In one of his works, perhaps little known, but undoubtedly extremely enlightening: The Heart: An Analysis of Human and Divine Affectivity. Hildebrandt criticizes the intellectual lapse throughout history, since Aristotle: the West, imbued with rationalist intellectualism or neo-Pelagian voluntarism, did not know how to find the place of the heart.

The latest encyclical of Pope Francis, rightly and succinctly, gives a glimpse of this in these words, in its n. 10:

Many people feel safer constructing their systems of thought in the more readily controllable domain of intelligence and will. The failure to make room for the heart, as distinct from our human powers and passions viewed in isolation from one another, has resulted in a stunting of the idea of a personal centre, in which love, in the end, is the one reality that can unify all the others.

The Magisterium of Pope Francis

It is worthwhile to delve into the rich Magisterium of Pope Francis, and to read this encyclical Dilexit nos, in order to understand more “about the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ”.

Each chapter offers us a new surprise that opens a way to grow in devotion to the Heart of Jesus and to enter into it. And, at the same time, to rediscover that place and that voice lost in the history of modern thought, which is, without a doubt, the place and the voice of the heart.

From all those who spread its devotion, beginning with the Fathers of the Church and passing through St. Ignatius of Loyola or St. Francis de Sales, to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Faustina Kowalska or St. John Paul II, the Encyclical teaches us to think, feel, live and love with the heart. With our own and with the heart of Jesus Christ.

Rafael Ruiz

See also: A Pope in the midst of the people, with a heart open to everyone

Photo: Unplash, A.Vaswani