“Through the scholarship of Roger Burggraeve, professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, the social and religious writings of Emmanuel Levinas are attracting the increased attention of the English-speaking world that they so richly deserve. A student and close friend of Levinas, Professor Burggraeve wrote his doctoral thesis on Levinas’s thought and defended it in 1980; since then he has focused a considerable portion of his scholarly efforts on understanding and interpreting the works of Levinas. Professor Burggraeve’s excellent little book From Self-Development to Solidarity: An Ethical Reading of Human Desire in Its Socio-Political Relevance According to Emmanuel Levinas appeared in 1985, and has been followed by numerous articles; his extensive bibliographical survey of works by and about Levinas was published in 1990, and places us forever in his debt.
“This fine translation from the Dutch by Jeffrey Bloechl brings the work of Professor Burggraeve once again into the English-speaking world. We can now share his close association with Levinas, his painstaking scholarship, and even though Burggraeve concentrates on Levinas’ thought, also catch glimpses of a fine moral theologian in his own right. His book would make an excellent text for any ethics or theology course.”
— From the Preface by David A. Boileau