This section is devoted to essays on Thomistic theology, philosophy, scholarship, and topics related thereto.
By WILLIAM MATTHEW DIEM, S.T.D.
Although David Bentley Hart admits we can reject God, he insists that “we cannot do so with perfect knowledge and perfect freedom.” Although it’s true that no sane person is able to choose eternal misery as such, that is not relevant to the question: one need not choose misery to merit misery.
Read MoreBy JONATHAN CULBREATH
As opposed to the originalist conception of law, St. Thomas teaches that law is an ordinance of reason for the common good promulgated by him who has power over the community, derived from the natural law itself, for the purpose of making men virtuous.
Read MoreBy JOHN BRUNGARDT, Ph.D.
A consideration of the philosophical notion of motion and how this aids Thomistic theology.
Read MoreJOHN O’NEILL, PhD Cand.
Thomas has already identified four relations in God and defined a divine person as a subsisting relation. Why, then, are the four real relations not four persons? Or why are there not only three real relations that subsist?
Read MoreBRETT T. FEGER
Aquinas’ analysis of the physical disposition of man’s posture provides a groundwork from which a meaningful conversation can be had with evolutionary materialists who reduce man to a mere animal.
Read MoreJOSHUA MADDEN, PhD
Put briefly, we can say along with Thomas Aquinas that “between husband and wife, it seems, there exists the greatest of friendship.”
Read MoreJOHN G. BRUNGARDT, PhD
Against some important philosophical mistakes which occur by the conflation of what is per accidens with what is per se.
Read MoreTAYLOR PATRICK O’NEILL, PhD
There is a plethora of examples of the service which philosophy provides to theology. Perhaps one of the best examples is that of subordinated causality.
Read MoreJÖRGEN VIJGEN, PhD
What accounts for the essence and unity of Thomism? Two approaches have been developed: a doctrinal approach and a methodological approach, but a third approach has been developed by John of St. Thomas.
Read MoreBRANDON L. WANLESS, PhD (cand.)
Aquinas provides the theological ratio underpinning the words of the sacramental formulae, namely, of baptizing, confirming, and absolving precisely “in the name of” the Trinity.
Read MorePAUL CHUTIKORN
Aquinas’ view of substance provides a solution to Descartes’ problem by avoiding a theory of dual substances. Aquinas shows us that we can acknowledge a duality within substance itself, while maintaining its inherent substantial unity.
Read MoreJOSHUA MADDEN, PhD
As the commentary on Isaiah is one of the few which St. Thomas composed on the Old Testament, it is worth taking stock of the manner in which he speaks specifically of Israel and the Jews, even if only briefly.
Read MoreRYAN J. BRADY, PhD
The New Law, which is perfect, supplies what was lacking in it. Both are directed to man’s justification, but the Old Law did not provide the means for its fulfillment as the New Law does.
Read MoreUnder the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
