Abstract

The article presents the idea of death of the most remarkable expert of St. Thomas in Germany in the twentieth century. This idea was formulated in three writings: Tod und Unserblichkeit (1979), Tod und Unserblichkeit - eine nicht - christliche Vorstellung (1959), Tod und Unserblichkeit (1959). He also referred to this subject in three other works: Uber den B ergriff der Sunde (1977), Herkunftslose Zukunft und Hoffnung ohne Grund (1967), Uber platonischen Mythen. Interpretation of the death and dying is assigned by the realistic conception of human (confirmed by modern empiric studies as a right conception, based on Aristotle and Thomas) and the vision of human existence expressed by pilgrimage's metaphor. Pieper sees the death as a natural phenomenon, but opposite to human nature. The death is a result of a process, witch is essential for each person (this is a passive element of death). Paradoxically at the same time it is appeared by the free act, always conscious, and come from a human soul. Its author is make undone (what means perfect) if the act is a good and right decision and points to switch to higher reality. Pieper emphasizes other components of the death and dying. He compares them with three trends of modern thoughts: Enlightenment and German idealism, modern Protestant theology and Heidegger’s point of view. They all, from the perspective of Thomas’s anthropology, are marked by incorrect solutions. So the thinker from Munster emphasizes the fact that the death is not apparent, but realistic phenomenon. The death also reaches all spiritual and physical human (this is a polemic with the enlightenment thought and German idealism). Human does not fade, what is opposite to materialism and some Protestant trends. Moreover the hope for overcoming the death assumes indestructibility of human soul (this is the matter in dispute with Protestant theology). When the element of punishment is noticed, not is negation, the fear of the death can be softened (this is a polemic with Heidegger). Pieper’s analyses about the death and dying enrich modern German thought because he presents them in the context of hope four overcoming the death, and he shows the death as a fulfillment of existence.