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But then I remembered that, given the reader’s original concern as a teacher, Fr Wallace’s The Elements of Philosophy is carefully indexed to the corresponding articles on philosophical and theological terms to be found in the New Catholic Encyclopedia! Indeed, if I remember correctly, Fr Wallace wrote the thing as a distillation of the corresponding NCE content. So, to the original question and for our other readers, don’t forget that the New Catholic Encyclopedia (together with its 2003 update) has articles on these essential philosophical terms (many of which were authored by Wallace, Weisheipl, and thomistic lights).

I will be teaching a Thomistic philosophy class (starting in four days!) and was thinking it would be helpful to give my students a short list of terms with definitions to start them off (e.g. potency, act, form, matter, etc.). Do you know of such a list, or would I be best off to just make my own?

Good question. These two books should help:

• Bernard J. Wuellner, A Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Milwaukee, WI: Bruce Publishing Company, 1966).
• William A. Wallace, O.P., The Elements of Philosophy: A Compendium for Philosophers and Theologians (New York : Alba House, 1977).

Also, definitions are present throughout Joseph Owens’s An Elementary Christian Metaphysics (Houston, TX: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1985). If you are looking for a primary text for students, there is a brief discussion of key terms in Aquinas’s short On the Principles of Nature, available here.

PROVIDENCE COLLEGE announces an opening for an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Department of Theology commencing August 2011. A doctoral degree in Theology is required. The successful candidate must be competent in Historical Theology, and conversant in Reformation Theology.  Candidates should demonstrate excellence in undergraduate teaching, the ability to establish a scholarly research program, and a willingness to be in service to the college and community.

See the full description here in MS Word format.

• A new translation of question 3 of De potentia, On Creation, by Susan Selner-Wright from the CUA Press series “Aquinas in Translation”
• A reprinting in three volumes of the Commentary on the Gospel of John, translated by Fabian Larcher, O.P. and James A. Weisheipl, O.P., with a new introduction and notes by Daniel Keating and Matthew Levering, also from CUA Press
• A new translation of the Disputed Questions on Virtue by Jeffrey Hause and Claudia Eisen Murphy in the “The Hackett Aquinas” series

It appears that that 2010 is turning into the Year of the Translation for Aquinas studies, at least in English.

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• Papers are 20 minutes in length.
• Deadline for 300 word abstract for presentation at Kalamazoo: 13 Sep 2010

He’s also provided a PDF with more information (here).

• Know Thyself: Memory and Self-Knowledge in Augustine and Aquinas
• The Theological Methodologies of Thomas Aquinas and Other Scholastic Theologians
• Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas
• Thomas Aquinas

Also of note are:

• The Philosophy and Theology of Nicolas of Cusa
• Robert Grosseteste and Natural Philosophy
• Robert Grosseteste and the Cura Pastoralis
• Nature and Word in Medieval Philosophy
• Natural Law and Moral Philosophy
• Natural Law and Political Philosophy

Another installment of the annual session How to Get Published: Advice from Editors and Insiders sponsored by La corónica is also planned. Past sessions have been wonderful and the advice offered is quite good.

Fordham University’s Center for Medieval Studies invites scholars from different disciplines and scholarly methodologies to explore Aquinas’s metaphysics and how it relates to various aspects of his philosophy and theology and/or to modern retrievals of his thought.

The Conference seeks to capitalize on the pluralism of Thomistic studies by inviting papers from a wide range of areas within the disciplines of philosophy and theology. Conference organizers welcome papers that may approach the topic from various branches of philosophy (such as the philosophy of religion, ontology, or natural theology), or various fields of theology, such as historical, fundamental, or systematic theology (including such areas as Trinitarian theology, Christology, or theological anthropology). Conference organizers also seek a representative variety of approaches to Aquinas and to Thomism, including those of the Dominican commentators, Transcendental Thomism, Existential Thomism, analytic philosophy, and postmodernism. 

The Conference will include a special strand of sessions on what many regard as one of the central problems in the contemporary retrieval of Aquinas?s thought, namely, how to account for the mind?s knowledge of being qua being, or as this issue is often referred to, the discovery of the being of metaphysics.

If you are interested in speaking at this conference, please send a cover letter with contact information and an abstract of your paper to the Conference Committee at medievals@fordham.edu, or by regular mail to Fordham Center for Medieval Studies, Faculty Memorial Hall 405B, Bronx, New York 10458. The deadline for submissions is September 10, 2010.

Participants include:

Christopher Cullen, S.J
Brian Davies, O.P.
Lawrence Dewan, O.P.
Stephen Fields, S.J.
Paul Gondreau
Franklin T. Harkins
Gyula Klima
John Knasas
R. James Long
Steven Long
Giorgio Pini
Eleonore Stump
Rudi te Velde
Joseph Wawrykow
John Wippel

There is a PDF of the conference announcement here.

Friday, September 24

Session I (4:30 - 6:30)
Chair:  Julie Allen (York University)
Speaker:  John Marenbon (Cambridge University): “Abelard’s Semantics”
Commentator:  Andrew Arlig (Brooklyn College) 

Saturday, September 25

Session II (10:00 - 12:00)
Chair:  Michael Barnwell (Niagara University)
Speaker:  Katherin Rogers (University of Delaware): “Anselm on the Ontological Status of Choice”
Commentator:  Scott MacDonald (Cornell University)

Session III (2:00 - 4:00)
Chair: Simona Vucu (University of Toronto)
Eduardo Záchia (University of Ottawa): “Thomistic Dualism and Compatibility Theory”
Ian Drummond (University of Toronto): “Duns Scotus on the Role of the Moral Virtues”
Sydney Penner (Cornell University): “Francisco Suárez on Intending an End”

Session IV (4:15 - 6:15)
Chair:  Jorge J.E. Gracia (University of Buffalo)
Speaker:  Mark Henninger (Georgetown University): “Realism and Anti-Realism on Relations”
Commentator:  Charles Bolyard (James Madison University)

For more information see the website.

From speculative theology to the exegesis of Aquinas, to contemporary North American philosophy and Catholic social and ethical thought, to the thought of Benedict XVI, this work argues the crucial importance of the proportionate natural end within the context of grace and supernatural beatitude.

In two initial chapters, the book argues that Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar erred by negating the proportionate natural end for man within the doctrine of grace. Given the loss of natura within theological method, its recovery requires philosophic instrumentalities. In its third chapter, this book argues that the analytic thought so widespread in Anglophone circles cannot replace the role of classical Thomism within theology. The fourth chapter argues against those who construe affirmation of a proportionate natural end as equivalent to social Pelagianism, engaging the work of Jacques Maritain, Jean Porter, and David Schindler, Sr. In an appendix, the author examines the early thought of Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI, and its development toward the Regensburg Lecture.

The late Ralph McInerny thought highly of it, and it’s been mentioned on an Italian blog! Long has another book coming out through ND Press.

Please pardon the self-promotion; my Law, Reason, and Morality in Medieval Jewish Philosophy was very recently published by Oxford. It is currently available in the U.K. and will be available in the U.S. in several weeks. Like many books these days, it is quite expensive but you might consider asking your library to purchase a copy. It is mainly a study of the moral psychology and moral epistemology of some medieval Jewish philosophers [Maimonides, Saadia, and Bahya]… thinkers supplying resources and insights of enduring relevance. It also includes discussion of their conceptions of free will, the virtues, the relation between the rational justification of practical requirements and revelation, and also the differences and the overlap between their moral epistemology and that of natural law theorizing and approaches through practical wisdom. I’m trying to help make some of these thinkers ‘more people’s business.’

You can see the OUP page devoted to the book here.

The question arose among my colleagues. Admittedly, the expression “good press” could be understood in a variety of ways. Notions of prestige, editorial services offered to authors, or even royalty terms might be deciding factors.

The evaluation of prospective presses is not just important to potential authors. Rank and tenure committees need to make judgments too. The European Science Foundation ranked journals in philosophy and theology/religious studies in 2007, but it has not yet published its next phase: a ranking of academic book publishers. No doubt this second venture will be as controversial as the first. We’ve all seen that side comments about presses occasionally creep up in book reviews (one might think of this example). Moreover, at least one publisher seeks to forestall problems by requiring its authors to provide a letter from a departmental dean or chair testifying that publication with the press will count for promotion at the author’s university.

The question about where to publish a philosophy monograph on Aquinas overlaps with a more general one: which presses publish books on the history of philosophy? Some outlets have ceased to accept manuscripts (see here and here), and it is not difficult to identify presses that have published great books in the past but haven’t been active in the area in recent years. The good news is that many academic presses continue to publish exegetical works in philosophy. The Association of American University Presses identifies 36 presses with active lists in the history of philosophy, and this count omits overseas university presses and all commercial academic publishers.

For me, the first English-language presses that immediately come to mind for shopping a manuscript on some aspect of Aquinas’s philosophy include:

• The Catholic University of America Press
• Brill Academic Publishers
• Cambridge University Press
• Oxford University Press
• The University of Notre Dame Press

There are, of course, other good publishers that publish widely in the history of philosophy with some books on medieval philosophy. Examples of commercial presses are: Routledge, Springer, Peeters, and Continuum. Examples of university presses are: Penn State, SUNY, Georgetown, Fordham, Marquette, and Edinburgh. Also, I’ll note that I’ve heard rumors of one press of former glory planning to reconstitute its publishing program in philosophy.

I’m sure there are presses that I have missed from the listings above. Those writing in theology might have other options than the ones I have identified. So, I invite readers to offer suggestions in the comments section below.