From Holly Coolman of PC comes details about next year's CTSA Convention on the ensus fidelium and the CTSA's Thomas Aquinas Interest Group.

The Thomas Aquinas Interest Group at the Catholic Theological Society of America invites proposals for papers on the thought of Aquinas, papers which may or may not address the 2015 Convention theme of senses fidelium (PDF).

Aquinas is not usually the first source to which theology turns in consideration of the sensus fidelium. Is this because Aquinas has little to offer? Or have certain possibilities been overlooked? The following quote from Joseph Ratzinger on Thomas’s understanding of sacra doctrina might serve as a gloss on the convention theme; proposers may want to reflect on it in formulating proposals, but should not consider it as setting a fixed parameter:

"It [sacra doctrina] is, so to speak, dependent on the ‘knowledge of the saints’ and on their vision.… The work of theologians is in this sense always ‘secondary’ to the actual experience of the saints. Without that point of reference, without that inner anchorage in similar experience it loses its character of reality.... Theology becomes a mere intellectual game and also loses its character as science without the realism of the saints, without their contact with the reality that is at issue here” (Ratzinger, To Look on Christ)

Submission Guidelines:

• Proposal should be not more than 250 words.
• You should also include a 100 words précis that will be posted on the CTSA website should your paper be accepted.
• Include full name and contact information of all participants, including e-mail.
• Indicate whether your presenters will be requiring A/V equipment. 

Submission deadline: September 1, 2014. Please submit proposals to: Holly Taylor Coolman at htc@providence.edu and Michon Matthiesen at mmmatthiesen@umary.edu.
You will be notified by September 14, if your proposal has been accepted.