About

The Hildebrand Project

is the world’s leading organization dedicated to the presentation and exploration of the thought and witness of Dietrich von Hildebrand. An original philosopher, ardent Christian, fierce foe of Nazism, and fervent champion of beauty, von Hildebrand defends the timeless truths of our Western patrimony while at the same time eagerly receiving and enriching the insights of modernity.

Our Mission

At the heart of our mission is the promotion of the religious, political, and especially the philosophical writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand and other personalist thinkers, such as Karol Wojtyla and Max Scheler. We believe that these authors offer fresh insights into perennial questions about human flourishing and the moral life, the nature of love, the demands of moral witness, Christian faith and practice, and the transformative power of beauty. We seek to bring these ideas into dialogue with contemporary currents of thought, infusing them into the intellectual, artistic, and spiritual bloodstream of our culture.

We fulfill our mission through a portfolio of distinct but complementary initiatives.

Publishing

We translate and publish the works of Dietrich von Hildebrand

Programs

We introduce new students and teachers to his writings through seminars, colloquia and reading groups

Academic Support

We support and promote new and established scholars working on Hildebrand and personalist philosophy
We invite our audience to become collaborators in our work through our unique Partnerships program

Presence

We maintain a dynamic website that serves as the international locus for the study of Dietrich von Hildebrand and personalist philosophy.

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), born in Florence, was the son of renowned German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand. A leading student of the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he took up the “great questions” – about truth, freedom, conscience, community, love, beauty – with a freshness that allowed him to break new ground, especially in ethics, but also in epistemology, social philosophy, and aesthetics.

His conversion to Catholicism in 1914 was the decisive turning point of his life and the impetus for important religious works. His opposition to Hitler and Nazism was so outspoken that he was forced to flee Germany in 1933, and later across Europe, finally settling in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Fordham University until 1960. He was the author of dozens of books, both in German and English. He was a major forerunner of Vatican II through his seminal writings on marriage, on Christian philosophy, and on the evil of anti-Semitism.

Team

Vice President & Publisher
Christopher T. Haley

Programs Manager

Cecilia Cervantes

Joseph Antoniello, in suit with red tie — Marketing Manager
Joseph Antoniello

President & Founder

John Henry Crosby

John Henry Crosby is a translator, writer, critic, and cultural entrepreneur.

Late in 2003, searching for a life’s work that could integrate the quest for truth, the existential need for beauty, and the service of a great good, and beginning to despair of ever finding such a mission, he called Alice von Hildebrand to propose that he spend one year translating her late husband’s Aesthetics. Would she help, he asked.

She did, and her blessing transformed his one-year plan into lifelong mission that soon attracted the collaboration of others. Thus, the life’s work he had sought found him. Established in February 2004, the Hildebrand Project’s mission to renew culture has grown to encompass publications, events, fellowships, and online resources that draw on the continuing vitality of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s thought and witness.

Under his leadership, the Hildebrand Project has become the world’s leading organization dedicated to Dietrich von Hildebrand’s legacy. The Project has been supported by many leading foundations and donors, including the Bradley Foundation, Chiaroscuro Foundation, Earhart Foundation, Fieldstead & Company, Henry Luce Foundation, Luddy Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Our Sunday Visitor Institute, Papal Foundation, and the Raskob Foundation.

He was the editor of a new edition of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s The Heart (St. Augustine’s Press, 2007). He joined John F. Crosby as co-translator of Hildebrand’s major philosophical work, The Nature of Love (St. Augustine’s Press, 2009). He edited Selected Papers in the Philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand (2012), the first major volume of essays on von Hildebrand in two decades. Most recently he is the primary compiler, editor, and translator of Hildebrand’s anti-Nazi papers, My Battle Against Hitler (Random House, 2014).

His work has been featured in both popular (e.g., The Daily Beast) and scholarly publications (Logos Journal). His numerous radio appearances have taken him from PRI’s The Takeaway to the Hugh Hewitt Show. He was host of He Dared Speak the Truth, a 14-part television series on the life of Dietrich von Hildebrand, which aired on EWTN (2014).

Son of an Austrian mother and an American father, his mother tongue was German. Both his undergraduate studies in philosophy, history, and literature (2000) as well as his graduate studies in philosophy (2001) were pursued at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.

He was for many years a violinist. As a student of Daniel Heifetz, he was formed in the great violinistic traditions of Henryk Szeryng, David Oistrakh, and Ivan Galamian.

He serves as a trustee of The Personalist Project.

In 2010 he married Robin-Marie Bobak. Through their marriage—and all the more with the birth of their children Magdalene (2011), Robin (2013), John Henry, Jr. (2015), and Peter—he has found (or, again, been found by) an integration of the good, true, and beautiful far greater than any he has ever known.

Vice President & Publisher

Christopher T. Haley

“Only the brave return to the source.” — a favorite line from a Hölderlin poem. For Christopher, the source was beauty. Philosophy has always captured his interest, but it was beauty that was his first love, that first broke his heart (and a broken heart the Lord will not refuse, Ps. 51). After many years in school studying philosophy at St. Edward’s University (where he discovered Catholicism) ancient languages at the University of Texas (where he converted from atheism to Catholicism), and the University of Dallas (where he was introduced to Christian Personalism) Christopher misread Aristotle’s Rhetoric and decided that he needed to do something “practical;” so he began working in teaching, marketing, and politics, striking out in new areas with innovative ideas drawn from classical sources (he has a restive habit of starting new projects and companies).

But his restless soul brought him back to philosophy. He had heard of Dietrich von Hildebrand while studying St. Edith Stein at the University of Dallas, and was eagerly awaiting the publication of Hildebrand’s Aesthetics, when one day his mentor at UD suggested that he apply for a Summer Fellowship with the Hildebrand Project. So he dropped everything and applied. Now, Christopher has always had the strange practice of including his favorite poets and composers on his resume, and for once, it worked (he always knew it would!): at the Hildebrand Project, he finally found a place where a love for beauty mattered—and thus he returned to the source.

At the end of his Summer Fellowship, he was so excited about the potential of the Hildebrand Project that he refused to leave, finding clever ways to insert himself into vital operations and creating entire program areas with no one to manage them but himself. As a result, he now oversees the Hildebrand Project’s publishing enterprise, marketing, communications, and has helped pioneer a number of innovative and successful programs.

In his free time—when he gets free time—he likes to listen to classical music, write essays, ride two-wheeled vehicles, and build things. He also hosts a weekly theology symposium at a bar in his beloved state of Texas.

Programs Manager

Cecilia Cervantes

Cecilia is the Programs Manager at the Hildebrand Project. In this role, she supports the administration and growth of student and faculty programs. Before joining the Hildebrand Project, she consulted for various nonprofits and developed fundraising and program strategy at the Institute for Humane Studies. She first learned of Christian personalism through the writings of Karol Wojtyla, whom she credits for her return to the Catholic Church. Cecilia is a Lay Dominican and is currently working on a research project on Pere Henri-Dominique Lacordaire and religious liberty. Cecilia is an alumna of the University of Portland (Oregon) and American University, where she studied political theory, Spanish literature, and law.

Marketing Manager

Joseph Antoniello

Joseph received his Master of Arts in Philosophy at Franciscan University under the direction of Dr. John Crosby. He worked in Admissions at Texas Tech University following graduation. Joseph married his wife in 2015 and they have three children. When he isn’t creating social media content or marketing emails for the Hildebrand Project, he is writing poetry and academic papers, reading and illustrating comics, or playing miniature wargames with his family and friends.

Academic Advisor

Mark K. Spencer

University of St Thomas, MN Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas: Philosophical Anthropology, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Philosophical Theology

Dr. Mark K. Spencer, Ph.D. is a Professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Spencer fell in love with philosophy in high school when he first encountered the writings of Albert Camus and St. Thomas Aquinas. He earned his Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, and his M.A. and B.A. from Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he first encountered the work of Dietrich von Hildebrand. He is the author of 2 books and over 60 papers and reviews, mostly focusing on the nature of the human person, beauty, and God’s relations to us. In his research, he above all tries to synthesize many traditions’ approaches to these topics, drawing on the scholastic, phenomenological, analytic, and Greek Patristic traditions. Among the things he takes greatest delight in is introducing students to the insights of these traditions, so as to help them better perceive and contemplate reality, for which he finds the work of von Hildebrand an indispensable guide. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Susanna, and their four children. Together, they especially enjoy hiking, camping, reading novels, watching films, gardening, and homeschooling.

More about Dr. Mark Spencer

Select Bibliography

“Created Persons are Subsistent Relations: A Scholastic-Phenomenological Synthesis.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 89, Analyzing Catholic Philosophy (2015): 225-243.

“Aristotelian Substance and Personalistic Subjectivity.” International Philosophical Quarterly 55:2 (June 2015): 145-164.

“Divine Causality and Created Freedom: A Thomistic Personalist View.” Nova et Vetera 14:3 (Summer 2016): 375-419.

“The Many Powers of the Human Soul: Von Hildebrand’s Contribution to Scholastic Philosophical Anthropology,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 91:4, Special Issue on Dietrich Von Hildebrand (Fall 2017): 719-735.

“Perceiving the Image of God in the Whole Human Person,” The Saint Anselm Journal 13:2 (Spring 2018): 1-18.

“Sense Perception and the Flourishing of the Human Person in von Hildebrand and the Aristotelian Traditions,” Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía 56 (2019): 95-118.

“Beauty and Being in von Hildebrand and the Aristotelian Tradition,” The Review of Metaphysics 73:2 (December 2019): 311-334.

“Covenantal Metaphysics and Cosmological Metaphysics: An Aesthetic Critique and an Aesthetic Synthesis”, The Saint Anselm Journal 15:2 (Spring 2020): forthcoming.

“Beauty and the Intellectual Virtues in Aristotle,” in Beauty and the Good: Past Interpretations and Their Contemporary Relevance ed. Alice Ramos, (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020).

Board of Trustees

Chairman of the Board
Jonathan J. Sanford

Trustee

Gregory C. Woodward

Chairman of the Board

Jonathan J. Sanford

Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D., is the 10th president of the University of Dallas. President Sanford, who previously served as provost and dean of UD’s undergraduate college, holds a doctorate in philosophy and is an accomplished scholar. Sanford has published widely on philosophical figures and topics, especially in foundational questions in moral philosophy, as evidenced in Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (The Catholic University of America Press, 2015 (paperback, 2019)). As president, he is focused on leading the implementation of the university’s strategic plan by building on the university’s reputation for academic rigor, its commitment to classical Western tradition, and its faithful Catholic identity.

Sanford is a trustee of the Hildebrand Project, a member of the Dallas chapter of Legatus, a fellow of the Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture, and and is active in several other professional and academic organizations.

University of Dallas

President & Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Ethics, Catholic Higher Education, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, Virtue Theory

More about Jonathan Sanford

Select Bibliography

Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015 (paperback, 2019).

The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia, co-edited with Robert Delfino and William Irwin (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

Categories: Historical and Systematic Essays, co-edited with Michael Gorman, (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004).

Neo-Platonism and Its Legacy, co-edited with Sarah Wear, Volume 2, Issues 1 & 2 of Quaestiones Disputatae, Spring-Fall 2011.

“Justice is Beautiful: Aristotle, Aquinas, and Justice as a Virtue,” in Beauty and the Good: Past Interpretations and Their Contemporary Relevance, edited by Alice Ramos (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press), forthcoming 2020.

“Nature and the Common Good: Aristotle and Maritain on the Environment,” in On Earth as it is in Heaven: Cultivating a Contemporary Theology of Creation, edited by David Meconi, S.J., and Christopher Thompson (Grand Rapids,MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016): 212-233.

“Newman and the Virtue of Philosophy,” Expositions 9 (2015): 41-55.

“Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Christian Elevation of Pagan Friendship,” in Love and Friendship, edited by Montague Brown (Washington, DC: The American Maritain Association Press, 2013).

“On Vice and Free Choice,” in The Problem of Evil: Enduring Themes and Pressing Questions, edited by James G. Hanink (Washington, DC: The American Maritain Association Press, 2013).

“Scheler vs. Scheler: The Case for a Better Ontology of the Person,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 79: 1 (2005): 145-161.

“Affective Insight: Scheler on Feeling and Values,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 76, (2002).

“Personalism in Relation to Aristotle and Aquinas,” The Hildebrand Project’s Sixth Annual Summer Seminar: The Past and the Promise of Christian Personalism, Franciscan University of Steubenville, June 15, 2016.

Trustee

Stephen Klimczuk-Massion

Stephen Klimczuk-Massion is a corporate and foundation strategist, scenario planner, board member, author and Quondam Fellow of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He is a Senior Advisor of Berlin Global Advisors, a fast-growing, Berlin-based geostrategic advisory and government affairs firm with seven offices in four countries. He previously served as a Principal of the management consulting firm Kearney and head of its Washington, DC-based applied think tank for CEOs. A Harvard MBA, he has also been head of strategy for late billionaire investor Sir John Templeton’s main private philanthropy. He started his career at Bain & Company and Goldman Sachs. An active Knight of Malta, he serves as a part-time diplomat of the Order and previously served on the board of Order of Malta Worldwide Relief – Malteser Americas International.

Berlin Global Advisors

Senior Advisor

Trustee

Andrew Bowie

Andrew, a Memphis native, is Principal of Cor Mundi Investments, a boutique private equity real estate investment firm, Founder and President of Lumen Civitatis, a Catholic organization supporting faith formation and the New Evangelization in the Diocese of Memphis, and President of the Istituto Damaso, a research institute sponsoring historical, theological, and philosophical scholarship in ecclesiastical administration.

After undergraduate studies at Auburn University and graduate studies in philosophy and theology at Duke University and the Gregorian University in Rome, Andrew worked between Italy, the U.K., and the U.S., first for Cushman & Wakefield and later for Discovery Land Company, before founding Cor Mundi Investments with his father Steve in 2005. Andrew returned home to Memphis in 2010 to grow Cor Mundi’s domestic platform focused on multifamily real estate investment.

Andrew now lives in Memphis with his wife, Louisa, and four children: Catherine, Thomas, John, and Luca.

Cor Mundi Investments

Principal

Trustee

William H. Rooney

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Partner

William H. Rooney is a partner in a New York City law firm and is co-chair of the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group. Mr. Rooney lives in Connecticut with his wife and has three sons. He is active in his local parish, teaches in the RCIA program, and is a lifelong student of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Mr. Rooney received a BA (summa cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from Yale Law School, a Diploma in Law from Oxford University, and an MA in Philosophy (summa cum laude) from Holy Apostles College & Seminary with a concentration in (Thomistic) Systematic Philosophy.

Mr. Rooney is also the Lumen Legis Fellow of the Center for Law and the Human Person and a Lecturer at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.

Trustee

Gregory C. Woodward

Gregory is a successful entrepreneur and corporate strategist with senior management and consulting
experience. He has experience advising founders, political candidates and corporations ranging in size
from early stage through the fortune 500 and in several industries including technology, payments,
retail, fulfillment, distribution, bio-tech and eCommerce.
In 2017 Gregory formed Woodward Strategies LLC, a Washington DC based consulting firm that delivers
training programs to private equity and venture backed tech companies across North America, EMEA
and APAC.
Gregory serves on several non-profit boards across a range of areas including the arts, philosophy,
healthcare, academia and social reform. Since 2001 he has been an active member and Trustee of two
private family foundations formed by his maternal grandfather John J. Raskob.

Woodward Strategies LLC

Founder & CEO

Treasurer

Ryan K. Lovett

Ryan K. Lovett was born in Portland, OR, and was raised in the great intellectual milieu he shared with many Americans: a rather inadequate religious education that led to the impression F. Nietzsche was the greatest theologian of the 19th century. It wasn’t until John F. Crosby introduced the thought of Dietrich von Hildebrand to him at the Franciscan University of Steubenville that his confusions were to unravel; and, eventually, he was to find the intellectual – and affective – space for God. He was baptized in Steubenville on Holy Saturday 1998. He’s been a Trustee with the Legacy Project since its inception in 2004. Ryan is the parent of four children (this side of eternity); but, recognizes he’s basically a caretaker since they’re ultimately His children.

“My debt to von Hildebrand’s genius can hardly be overstated. His penetrating insight into the importance of reverence was essential in helping overturn my previous intellectual worldview. By successfully wedding this insight to an intuition of great spiritual significance – that it’s poverty that grounds reverence – he showed that a true metaphysics can be known only insofar as one is a person of prayer. von Hildebrand helps us learn how to listen for this truth. For me, this was his genius.”

Ryan believes he’s a Trustee so audacious, he dares to write – unedited – his own bio.

Trustee

Anthony Gualandri

Anthony Gualandri is a cultural entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Music Kids. He has been an instrumental music educator for nearly two decades. Anthony studied violin performance at City Music Center of Duquesne University under Joseph Petron and Jeff Irwin and has taught both privately and in schools across the DMV, New York, and Chicagoland metro areas. Having also studied philosophy as an undergraduate, Anthony was a founding staff member of the Hildebrand Project and now serves as a member of the board of trustees. In addition to his work in both primary and higher education, Anthony also has a background in technology and holds a master’s degree in data science from DePaul University. Being of both Italian and Greek descent, Anthony has a passion for good food. He currently resides in Chicago with his wife and five children.

Music Kids

Founder & CEO

Trustee

Michael Matheson Miller

Michael Matheson Miller is Research Fellow and Director of Acton Media at the Acton Institute. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. from Nagoya University’s Graduate School of International Development (Japan), an M.A. in philosophy from Franciscan University, and an M.B.A. in International Management from Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Business.

With some 10 years of international experience, Miller has lived and traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He lectures internationally on such themes as moral philosophy, economic development, and social theory, and entrepreneurship. He is a frequent guest on radio and has been published in The Washington Times, The Detroit News, The L.A. Daily News, and Real Clear Politics. He is the director and host of the PovertyCure DVD Series and has appeared in various video curricula including Doing the Right Thing, Effective Stewardship, and the Birth of Freedom.

Acton Institute

Research Fellow & Director of Acton Media

Trustee

Rabbi Mark Gottlieb

Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Senior Director of the Tikvah Fund and founding Dean of the Tikvah Institute for High School Students at Yale University. Prior to joining Tikvah, Rabbi Gottlieb served as Head of School at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and Principal of the Maimonides School in Brookline, MA and has taught at The Frisch School, Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Hebrew Theological College, Loyola University in Chicago, and the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Yeshiva College, rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where his doctoral studies focused on the moral and political thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Rabbi Gottlieb is a member of the Orthodox Forum Steering Committee and serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. In addition to his contributions to Jewish theology, Rabbi Gottlieb has written on the thought of C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and John Paul II, and is especially interested in the relationship between Jewish and Christian forms of personalism. He lives in Teaneck, NJ with his wife and five children.

Tikvah Fund

Senior Director

The Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project is a tax-exempt institution as defined by the IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). Our Tax ID is 59-3781326.