The name of the modern German philosopher Michael French in our country is familiar so far only to a narrow circle of readers. But the publication in Russian of French's book "The Face of Wisdom" is an internally natural phenomenon. The fact is that Dr. French is one of the few people in the West who not only deeply penetrated the world of Russian religious thought, but also accepted its challenges. French, whose career falls on the second half of the 20th century. (he was born in 1948), is not connected in succession with any of the directions of the latest German philosophy. For the author of The Face of Wisdom, it is as if there is neither existentialism and phenomenology, nor dialogical philosophy, nor psychoanalysis; and if, nevertheless, we talk about German thinkers of the 20th century, then French's only views of M. Scheler are problematic.