Michael Polanyi was one of the great figures of European intellectual life in the 20th century. A highly acclaimed physical chemist in the first period of his career who became a celebrated philosopher after World War II, Polanyi taught in Germany, England, and the United States and associated with many of the leading intellects of his time. His biography has remained unwritten partly because his many and scattered interests in a wide variety of fields, including six subfields of physical chemistry, epistemology, economics, patent law, social and political theory, aesthetics, and theology....

The motto of the Society of Jesus is "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam," which translates as "To the Greater Glory of God." Jesuits are not dedicated to the idea of God in the abstract but to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the God who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Although the author worships Jesus as true God and true Man, and accepts Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus said that "everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice" (Jn 18:37). Christians have no monopoly on wisdom, justice, detachment,...