Austin Woodbury, Student of Garrigou-Lagrange (works available for free)

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Austin Woodbury, S.M. (1899-1979), was a faithful student of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s at the Angelicum. His writings, which mostly take the form of lecture notes, have been made available at http://www.austinwoodbury.com/.

As the website relates, his works manifest “a heavy reliance on the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, as well as commentators of St Thomas, such as Cajetan and John of St Thomas, as well as other more recent Thomist philosophers. The writings also attempt an engagement with modern and contemporary philosophers and issues. They are written in the ‘manualist’ tradition but go beyond what is commonly found in manuals of philosophy in virtue of the breadth of topics covered and degree of detail. Also, the fact that they were written in English makes them quite rare in the manualist tradition.”

Manuals and manualists, of course, have not gotten good press of late. It is important to note, though, that manuals were essentially handbooks intended to provide systematic knowledge - albeit cursory knowledge - of essentials on any given topic. When it comes to moral manuals in particular, they are sometimes especially unappreciated because, it is said, they tended to overlook the role of happiness and virtue in the moral life. Although in general that seems like a false characterization, that is for another post. In this post, we should simply relate that Woodbury himself does not overlook either of those important topics in his ethical writings.

A partial list of his available works is found below. Please keep in mind that in order to access them, you will first have to register and wait for an email confirming the registration.

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS

  • Basic Morals

  • Defensive Metaphysics

  • Ethics

  • Introduction to Philosophy

  • Logic

  • Natural Philosophy

  • Ostensive Metaphysics - Natural Theology

  • Ostensive Metaphysics - Ontology

  • St Thomas' Proof of God from motion

  • Natural Philosophy - Psychology

THEOLOGICAL WORKS

  • Apologetics Commentary on Summa Theologiae I, qq. 1-2

  • Commentary on Summa Theologiae I, qq. 1-2

  • Existence of God

  • God as Consummating His Works or the Last Things

  • Essence of Grace

  • The Sacraments in Common

  • Sacred Theology

  • The Supernatural and Grace

  • Treatise on Message of Salvation (The Gospels; Sanctifying Grace)

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Ryan J Brady

Dr. Brady is an associate professor of Theology at St. John Vianney College Seminary and Graduate school. He has taught courses in theology, classics and early Christian studies at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary and Ave Maria University. Subsequent to a few semesters of study at Thomas Aquinas College, he graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia with a B.A. in Religion. After receiving a Masters degree in Systematic Theology from Christendom Graduate School (where he was the valedictorian) he defended his doctoral dissertation “Aquinas on the Respective Roles of Prudence and Synderesis vis-à-vis the Ends of the Moral Virtues” with distinction and received his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology. His forthcoming book with Emmaus Academic is entitled, “Conforming to Right Reason.”