Frederick Wilhelmsen
Frederick D. Wilhelmsen (1923 – 21 May 1996) was a distinguished Roman Catholic philosopher, noted, both as a professor and as a writer, for his explication and advancement of the Thomistic tradition. He also was a political commentator, assessing American politics and society from a traditionalist perspective and a political thinker, addressing what he perceived to be the failings of secular-liberal democracy. He principally was a professor at the University of Dallas from 1965 to his death in 1996. He also taught at the University of Santa Clara, the Al-Hikma University in Baghdad, the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and lectured and taught classes at many other universities.
He was a prolific writer. Besides the book publications listed below, he contributed articles to the following: America, The Angelus, The Commonweal, Faith & Reason, The Grail, The Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, National Review, The Political Science Reviewer, Triumph, The University Bookman, and The Wanderer, among others.
He also was a founding editor of Triumph, a Roman Catholic monthly that sought the sacralization of American society.[1]
In addition to assessing American politics and society, he was inspired by and extensively reflected upon Spanish politics and society. Alvaro d'Ors, a notable Spanish political philosopher, wrote that Wilhelmsen, an American from Detroit, was "the best interpreter of Spanish traditionalism, a body of political thought also known as Carlism, after King Charles V (Don Carlos)".[2]
Wilhelmsen enjoyed a lively friendship and correspondence with Marshall McLuhan, who spent time at the University of Dallas in the 1970s.
Books
Author
Hilaire Belloc: No Alienated Man. A Study in Christian Integration. New York: Sheed and Ward, Inc., 1953.
Man's Knowledge of Reality: An Introduction to Thomistic Epistemology. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1956.
Omega: Last of the Barques. Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1956.
The Metaphysics of Love. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1962.
El problema de la trascendencia en la metafísica actual. Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, S.A. and Publicaciones de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Navarra, 1963.
El problema de Occidente y los cristianos. Seville, Spain: Publicaciones de la Delegación Nacional del Requeté, 1964.
La ortodoxia pública y los poderes de la irracionalidad. Madrid-Mexico City: Ediciones Rialp, S.A., Colección O Crece o Muere, 1965.
The Paradoxical Structure of Existence. Irving, TX: The University of Dallas Press, 1970.
Así pensamos. "Published under the pseudonym "Un Requeté") Madrid: Editorial Tradicionalista, 1977.
Christianity and Political Philosophy. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1978.
Citizen of Rome: Reflections from the Life of a Roman Catholic. LaSalle, IL: Sherwood Sugden & Company, Publishers, 1980.
Persona y sociedad, ed., Nilda E. Bonansea. San Luis, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de San Luís, 1984.
Being and Knowing: Reflections of a Thomist. Albany, NY: Preserving Christian Publications, 1991.
Under Full Sail: Reflections and Tales. Frasier, MI: Alcuin Press, 1996.
Los saberes políticos (ciencia, filosofía y teología políticas). Presentation by Miguel Ayuso. Barcelona: Ediciones Scire, SL, 2006.
Coauthor
(with Jane Bret) The War in Man: Media and Machines. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1970.
(with Jane Bret) Telepolitics: The Politics of Neuronic Man. Montreal and New York: Tundra Books, 1972.
Editor
Guardini, Romano. The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation. Trans. J. Theman and H. Burke. New York: Sheed and War, 1956.
Seeds of Anarchy: A Study of Campus Revolution. Dallas: Argus Press, 1969.
Bibliography
Allitt, Patrick. Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America, 1950-1985. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Ayuso, Miguel. "Frederick D. Wilhelmsen y España". Foreword to R.A. Herrera, James Lehrberger, O.Cist., and M.E. Bradford, eds. Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Ewbank, Michael B. "The Difference Diversity Makes". In R.A. Herrera, James Lehrberger, O.Cist., and M.E. Bradford, eds. Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Henry, Michael. Introduction to "Christianity and Political Philosophy," by Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2014.
Herrera, R.A., James Lehrberger, O.Cist, and M.E. Bradford, eds., Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Lee, Patrick. Introduction to "The Metaphysics of Love," by Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
Lehrberger, O. Cist. James J. "Christendom’s Troubador: Frederick D. Wilhelmsen". The Intercollegiate Review (Spring, 1997): 52-55.
Lehrberger, O. Cist. James J. Introduction to "The Paradoxical Structure of Existence," by Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
Kirk, Russell. "An Adventurer-Professor". In Confessions of a Bohemian Tory. New York: Fleet Publishing Co., 1963.
Marshner, William. Introduction to "Being and Knowing: Reflections of a Thomist," by Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2015.
Nash, George H. The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
Nelson, Jeffrey O. "Wilhelmsen, Frederick D". In American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, eds., Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson, 921-923. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006.
Popowski, Mark D. "The Political Thought of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen." "The Catholic Social Science Review" 20 (2015): 21-38.
Popowski, Mark D. The Rise and Fall of Triumph: The History of a Radical Roman Catholic Magazine, 1966-1976. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011.
Santa Cruz, Manuel de [Alberto Ruiz de Galarreta]. Apuntes y documentos para la historia del Tradicionalismo español, 1939-1966. Madrid, 29 volumes, 1979-1991, volumes 22-II, 23, 25-I and II, 26 and 27.
Schaefer, Thomas. "Up from Alienation: The Wilhelmsian Vision of the Human Person". In R.A. Herrera, James Lehrberger, O.Cist., and M.E. Bradford, eds. Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Schiller, Craig. The Guilty Conscience of a Conservative. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1978.
Unsigned. Frederick Daniel Wilhelmsen (Eminent Professor and Catholic Intellectual): A Tribute from the University of Dallas. Irving, TX: University of Dallas, 1998.
References
- Mark D. Popowski, The Rise and Fall of Triumph: The History of a Radical Roman Catholic Magazine, 1966-1976 (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2011).
- Alvaro d'Ors, "Horismoi & Aphorismoi", in Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen, eds., Robert A. Hererra, Fr. James L. Lehrberger, O.Cist., and Melvin Bradford, New York: Peter Lang, 1993.