The profound Germano-Italian philosopher and theologian Romano Guardini (1885-1968) remains, by and large, one of the most unsung heroes of twentieth-century conservatism.

Romano Guardini and the Personality of Man

by Bradley J. Birzer

His reputation revived a bit during the all-too brief pontificate of Benedict XVI as so much of Ratzinger’s thought came from Guardini, directly and indirectly. But, he and his work should stand much higher than they do in our memory and in our adulation. In particular, his various books–a biography of Jesus; a discourse on technology; a metahistory on the meaning of modernity and post-modernity; and a meditation on the death of Socrates–should signal to us his depth of thought as well as his breadth of interests.

Henry Regnery, though not a Catholic, promoted his work with fervor in North America in the 1940s and 1950s, publishing 13 of the German’s works. Many of these books, as Regnery understood them, were not as much academic and scholarly as they were descriptions of “encounters.” That is, they described the relations between Guardini and Socrates or between Guardini and Jesus or between Guardini and Pascal. Despite Regnery’s valiant efforts, Guardini is known only to a few in North America as of 2013.

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