Open Digital Access to Louvain and Laval Philosophy and Theology Journals

I may have been the last person in the world to stumble upon this. But maybe there are still a few people out there who share my ignorance. The French site Persée is an open access depository for a huge number of digitized French-language scholarly journals. Thomistica.net readers may be particularly interested to know that this includes all the issues between 1894 and 2001 of the Revue Philosophique de Louvain. You may know that the Revue went by different names over the years: from 1894 to 1909 it was known as the Revue néo-scholastique and from 1910 to 1940 it was known as the Revue néo-scholastique de philosophie. The articles are available in both HTML and PDF formats.

The French-Canadian site Érudit, sponsored by the Université de Montréal, the Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal, is a depository similar to Persée. In fact, the two sites link to each other. Among the journals offered by Érudit is Laval théologique et philosophique. All the issues between 1977 and 2009 can be accessed for free. The 2010 and 2011 issues require a subscription. Although I have not taken the time to confirm it, I assume that there is a two-year “moving wall” of access for the journal. In other words, a year from now there should be open access through 2010 but the 2011 and 2012 issues will require a scubscription, and so on. The articles on Érudit seem only to be available in PDF format.

Leonine Commission Public Seminar in Paris March 10

On Thursday, March 10, members of the Leonine Commission will be holding a public seminar on the topic “Philology in the Service of Thought” in Paris at the library of the Centre d’études du Saulchoir. The seminar will begin at 9:15 a.m. Information about the schedule, address, etc. can be found here.

A New Moral Theology Journal

The Fr. James M. Forker Professorship of Catholic Social Teaching and the College of Liberal Arts at Mount St. Mary’s University is sponsoring a new journal, Journal of Moral Theology. JMT’s editor is David McCarthy, who holds the above mentioned professorship. The first issue, which is now out, has as its theme: “Formative Figures of Contemporary American Catholic Moral Theology.” You can find JMT’s website here. The first issue is available as a free PDF file at the website.

Happy Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

It’s been a couple months since I last posted. I could tell you about the unforeseen circumstances that are responsible but that would be boring. An assistant editor’s presence should be more discreet anyway, right? But since I saw no one was preparing to post anything today and since it is St. Thomas’s liturgical feast day according to the calendar of Paul VI (March 7 in the old calendar), I thought I should at least wish our readers a happy feast day.

I should be back to regular posting now. My last post was the first part of an interview with Donny Sebastiani Jr. about the Aquinas wines his family makes. I was supposed to publish the second part of the interview the following week. Alas, I did not. I will post the second part soon.

Forty-Seventh International Congress on Medieval Studies May 10–13, 2012

 The Program for the Forty-Seventh International Congress on Medieval Studies, meeting at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan from May 10–13, 2012, has been posted on the Congress home page:

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Schedule12.pdf

As usual, there are multiple sessions that may be of interest to Thomists, but this is one of those years that the sessions sponsored by the Center for Thomistic Studies and the Thomas Aquinas Society fall on Thursday/Friday, rather than the more usual Friday/Saturday, so book your plane tickets accordingly.

Forty-Seventh International Congress on Medieval Studies

May 10–13, 2012

Thursday, May 10, 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Session 7, Valley II 204- Robert Pasnau’s Metaphysical Themes: Author Meets Critics
Sponsor: Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics
Organizer: Alexander W. Hall, Clayton State Univ.
Presider: Alexander W. Hall

• Some Remarks on Pasnau’s Metaphysical Themes- Andrew W. Arlig, Brooklyn College, CUNY
• Categories and Modes of Being: A Discussion of Robert Pasnau’s Metaphysical Themes- Paul Symington, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville
• Respondent: Robert Pasnau, Univ. of Colorado–Boulder

Session 11, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas I
Sponsor: Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: R. E. Houser, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Presider: R. E. Houser

• Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and the Analogy of Being- Mark D. Gossiaux, Loyola Univ. New Orleans
• “ens per se non est definitio substantiae” Avicenna, Aquinas, and the Aristotelian Doctrine of Being-
  Daniel D. DeHaan, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
• Does Aquinas Think We Can Know the Human Soul’ Immaterial Being Only Negatively?- Therese Scarpelli Cory, Seattle Univ.

Thursday, May 10, 1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Session 60, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas II
Sponsor: Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: R. E. Houser, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Presider: Timothy B. Noone, Catholic Univ. of America

• Exalting the Meek: The Virtue of Humility in Aquinas- Sheryl Overmyer, DePaul Univ.
• Aquinas on Praise and Blame- Kevin White, Catholic Univ. of America
• Saint Thomas’ Teleology of the Passions Belonging to the Human Person as One Substance and Imago Dei- John Brungardt, Catholic Univ. of America

Thursday, May 10, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Session 108, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas III
Sponsor: Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: R. E. Houser, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Presider: Mark D. Gossiaux, Loyola Univ. New Orleans

• Proper Self-Love and Self-Governance: An Analysis of Aquinas’s Account- Anthony T. Flood, North Dakota State Univ.
• Moving from Is to Ought- Steven J. Jensen, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
• The Voluntary, Will, and Human Acts: The Views of Juan Iribarne and Thomistic Positions- Timothy B. Noone, Catholic Univ. of America

Session 129, Schneider 1235- Medieval Sources in Modern Catholic Popes, Scholars, and Writers
Sponsor: St. Mary’s School of Theology, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: Paul E. Lockey, St. Mary’s School of Theology, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Presider: Paul E. Lockey

• Saint Bonaventure, Joachim of Fiore, and the Sacramental Social Doctrines of Benedict XVI in Caritas in veritate- William Patenaude, Providence College
• Summa and Sacrament: Josef Pieper on the Thomistic Principles of Liturgical Reform- Lance Byron Richey, Univ. of St. Francis, Fort Wayne
• Retrieval of the Medieval Sources Underlying the Concept of Tradition as Developed in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council- James B. Anderson, St. Mary’s School of Theology, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston

Friday, May 11, 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Session 202, Schneider 1120- Thomas Aquinas I
Sponsor: Thomas Aquinas Society
Organizer: John F. Boyle, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul
Presider: Steven A. Long, Ave Maria Univ.

• The Roles of Jesus Christ in the Thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas- Richard A. Nicholas, Univ. of St. Francis, Joliet
• Aquinas on Loving the Common Good More than Self- Daniel Shields, Catholic Univ. of America
• Saint Thomas and God’s Existence as an Object of Supernatural Faith- Lawrence Dewan, OP, Dominican Univ. College

Friday, May 11, 1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Session 239, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Thomas Aquinas II
Sponsor: Thomas Aquinas Society
Organizer: John F. Boyle, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul
Presider: Paul Gondreau, Providence College

• Incarnate Knowing: Theology and the Corporeality of Thinking in Thomas Aquinas’s De unitate intellectus- Robert J. Dobie, La Salle Univ.
• “Nature” in Aquinas’s Natural Law: Natura Universalis or Natura Particularis?- Sean B. Cunningham, Catholic Univ. of America
• Saint Thomas’s Biology of “Passive Females”- Eric M. Johnston, Seton Hall Univ.

Friday, May 11, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Session 291, Valley II 205- New Trends in Medieval Franciscan Thought: Bonaventure’s Epistemology and Aesthetics
Sponsor: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure Univ.
Organizer: Thomas J. McKenna, Concord Univ.
Presider: R. James Long, Fairfield Univ.

• Bonaventure on Illumination in His Sentences Commentary- R. E. Houser, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
• Ecstasy and Annihilation: Epistemological Stances in Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum and Marguerite Porete’s Speculum simplicium animarum- Wendy Petersen Boring, Willamette Univ.
• Disputed Questions in Bonaventure’ Aesthetics: The Definition of Beauty, Its Place in the Epistemological Process, and Its Role in the Mind’s Ascent into God- Thomas J. McKenna

Session 294, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Thomas Aquinas III
Sponsor: Thomas Aquinas Society
Organizer: John F. Boyle, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul
Presider: Robert Barry, Providence College

• Divine Providence in Aquinas’s Commentaries on the Physics and the Metaphysics- Nicholas Kahm, Catholic Univ. of America
• Thomas Aquinas and John of Damascus on Intrinsic and Essential Attributes in God- Joseph Steineger, Univ. of Chicago
• Ut Rabbi Moyses Dicit: Thomas Aquinas and Moses Maimonides in Agreement- Jamie Anne Spiering, Benedictine College

Saturday, May 12, 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Session 349, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Faith and Certainty: Augustine and Aquinas on the Adequacy of Faith in Understanding God in This Life
Organizer: Marianne Djuth, Canisius College
Presider: Marianne Djuth

• Augustine and Aquinas on the Elements of Natural Theology- Alexander W. Hall, Clayton State Univ.
• Aquinas and Faith and What Counts as Certainty- Robbie Moser, Mount Allison Univ.
• Mother, Handmaid, Whore: The Role of Reason in Medieval Christian Philosophy- Jennifer Hockenbery, Mount Mary College
• Seeing beyond Faith: Augustine and Aquinas on Visions of God in This Life- Michael M. Waddell, St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame

Saturday, May 12, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Session 407, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- The Medieval Tradition of Natural Law I
Organizer: Harvey Brown, Univ. of Western Ontario
Presider: Harvey Brown

• Human Rights in the Middle Ages- Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M Univ.
• The Case against Sovereignty- Paul Cornish, Grand Valley State Univ.
• Natural Law and Sovereignty in Vitoria- Toy-Fung Tung, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY\
• How to Build the Law beyond Metaphysics? Freedom as the Basis of the Late Medieval Natural Law Theories.- Magdalena Plotka, Univ. Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie

Saturday, May 12, 3:30 –5:00 p.m.

Session 466, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- The Medieval Tradition of Natural Law II
Organizer: Harvey Brown, Univ. of Western Ontario
Presider: Harvey Brown

• Slavery as a Problem for Traditional Natural Law Theory- David Conter, Huron Univ. College
• Natural Law as Social Pelagianism- David Elliot, Univ. of Notre Dame
• On the Role and Place of God in Aquinas’s Moral Philosophy- John Liptay, St. Thomas More College, Univ. of Saskatchewan
• Wisdom, “Self-Evidence,” and the Precepts of the Natural Law- Daniel B. Gallagher, Pontifical Gregorian Univ.

Sunday, May 13, 8:30–10:00 a.m.

Session 524, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- Contingency and Necessity in Medieval Philosophy
Sponsor: Center for Medieval Philosophy, Georgetown Univ.
Organizer: Robert Joseph Matava, Christendom College
Presider: Robert Joseph Matava

• A New Perspective on the Relationship between Natural Will, Affectio Commodi, and Freedom in Duns Scotus- Cruz González Ayesta, Univ. de Navarra (Congress Travel Award Winner)
• Was Thomas Bradwardine a Modal Voluntarist?- Sarah Hogarth Rossiter, Univ. of Western Ontario
• Was Anselm a Panentheist?- Oliver D. Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary

Sunday, May 13, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 noon

Session 549, Valley II LeFevre Lounge- New Perspectives on John of Salisbury
Sponsor: Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham Univ.
Organizer: Thomas Ball, Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham Univ.
Presider: Irene O’Daly, Trinity College, Univ. of Dublin

• Grace, Free Will, and Moral Action: The Normative Philosophy of the Twelfth Century Embodied in the Policraticus- Thomas Ball
• Grammar after Nature: Language, Sense-Perception, and the Liberal Arts in John of Salisbury’s Metalogicon- Robert Davis, Harvard Univ.
• John of Salisbury as a Military Strategist- John D. Hosler, Morgan State Univ.