Thomism and Anti-Thomism in the Middle Ages

The universities of Paris and Freiburg-Germany have initiated an exciting and ambitious new research-project entitled ‘Thomism and Anti-Thomism in the Middle Ages’. The project, directed by Ruedi Imbach and Maarten Hoenen, will focus its attention on medieval and Renaissance-interpretations of Aquinas and continues the results published in two thematic fasciculi of the Revue Thomiste 2008.

A first conference is scheduled for January 28-30 in Freiburg on “German Thomism 13^th-14^th Century.”

While Paris will focus on the 13^th-14^th Century, Freiburg will investigate the 15^th Century. The project in Paris includes among others an investigation of the authenticity of the opuscula De principio individuationis, De natura materiae, De natura accidentis, De natura generis, De instantibus, De quattuor opposites, an edition of the Metaphysics-commentary by Humbertus de Prulliaco (†1298), a partial edition of the Summa by Nicholas of Strassbourg and investigations on Dietrich of Freiberg.

The German section envisages a edition of the Tractatus ostendens concordiam Thomae Aquinatis et Alberti Magni by Gerardus de Monte, dating from 1456, an investigation of the Concordantiae-literature esp. Peter of Bergamo and the publication of a Companion to Renaissance Thomism to appear at Brill (Leiden) as the first volume of a new series on Thomism.

Full descriptions (in French and German) of the project can be found on its website.

New issue of Doctor Communis 2008

Father Leo Elders s.v.d. gave us the latest issue of Doctor Communis NS 10 (2008), the journal of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas (PAST), of which we reported earlier. The overall theme of the Plenary Session, held in 2007, was “The Encounter of Christianity and the Graeco-Roman Tradition.” Here are the contents:

• Enrico Berti, Il contributo della filosofia greca (pp. 20-31)
• Robert Wielockx, The Principle of the ’ Emergence’ in Boethius of Denmark and Henry of Ghent. The Greco-Roman Legacy at the Arts Faculty and the Faculty of Theology (pp. 32-60)
• Russell Hittinger, The Legal Renaissance of the 12th and 13th Centuries: Some Thomistic Notes (pp. 61-87)
• Lawrence Dewan O.P., St. Thomas Aquinas as an Example of the Importance of the Hellenistic Legacy (pp. 88-118)
• Ralph McInerny, Prams and Praeambula: The Wise and the Simplke )pp. 119-129)
• Luca F. Tuninetti, Il giudizio della fede e il giudizio della ragione in una epoca di opinioni (pp. 130-138)

This year’s plenary session will be held 19-21 June 2009 and will be fittingly devoted to Aquinas’s commentaries on the Pauline Letters. It will include papers by Reinhard Hütter, Michael Waldstein et alii.

The address of the PAST: Casina Pio IV, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Email: past@acdscience.va.

A reason to subscribe to Nova et vetera (English edition)

Since its initial publication in 2003 I've been a fan of Nova et vetera (English edition), published out of Ave Maria University, in Florida. The journal is certainly one "go-to" place for scholarship on Thomistic theology and ethics, along with other topics of general interest to Thomists. Over the years Matthew Levering or Michael Dauphinais have sent me an issue or two, and I've got about eight issues on my bookshelf—of course I had Marquette get an institutional subscription to the thing from the outset.

Recently I decided that I wanted to complete my collection of the journal. But when it turned out that plugging the gaps of my printed collection with the other printed issues would be too costly, I remembered that a subscription to the journal allowed one to get additional access to PDF versions of articles for a mere $5.00 more per year. So I subscribed to the journal as an individual for $30.00 per year, paid the extra $5.00, and now have access to all the articles of the journal's run since 2003, which I've downloaded, and pumped into my bibliography program (EndNote). Check this one off as "done."

Proceedings of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas

The latest issue of Doctor Communis, the journal of the renowned Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas (PAST), contains the proceedings of its 2006 Plenary Session on the topic: “The Human Person, Natural Law, Human Rights in a complex an globalised world”. Below one can find the titles of the contributions by R. McInerny, R. Cessario, R. Hittinger, G. Cottier and others. The address of the PAST: Casina Pio IV, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Email:past AT acdscience.va

It has been a difficult period for the PAST, founded May 8, 1880 by Pope Leo XIII. (It’s history has been recently written by David Berger, “In dulcidine societatis, quaerere veritatem”. Zur Geschichte der Päpstlichen Akademie des hl. Thomas von Aquin, in: Doctor Angelicus II (2002) 135-180, partially published online) After the death of it’s secretary, Father Bogliolo, in 1998 and the illness and death of it’s principal promotor Msgr. Antonio Piolanti in 2001, all activities were practically put on hold. The reorganisation in 1999 by Pope John Paul II brought a “new phase”, as it’s president Abelardo Lobato OP wrote.The journal, now including the newly organised annual Plenary Sessions, is being republished and in 2003 the PAST organized a succesfull International Congress on Christian Humanism from the perspective of Saint Thomas. The third and final volume of the proceedings of this congress were published last year, bringing the total number to about 3000 pages!

However, the Academy continues to have difficulties as is testified from the following passage from the speech of it’s current president Edward Kaczynski OP printed in the current issue of Doctor Communis: “Since the financial means at the disposition of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas are limited, I propose for next year, instead of a Plenary Session, to prepare a Comment on the Encyclical Deus caritas est of Benedict XVI. At the time of the delivery of the Comment, we will ask for a special meeting with the Pope for all the Members of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Doctor Communis n.s. 10/1-2 (2007)

• G. Cottier, Loi naturelle et Décalogue
• R. Cessario, Saint Thomas and the Enculturation of the Natural Law : Doing Moral Theology on Earth
• U. Galeazzi, Sulla prossimità spirituale a Tommaso d’Aquino nel pensiero di Charles Tayler. Aspetti antropologici ed etici
• F. Jacques, Thomas d’Aquin et Emmanuel Kant: Loi naturelle et impératif catégorique. Et après ?
• J. Merecki, La visione etica di Karol Wojtyla
• R. Hittinger, John Rawls : The Basis of Social Justice and Intercultural Dialogue in a Globalized World
• H. Seidl, Etica di responsabilità in D. Hume e H. Jonas
• R. McInerny, Ethics and Virtue Ethics
• L. Clavell, Verità e libertà
• R. Ferrara, Legge naturale e legge nuova nel recente Magistero e nelle teologia di San Tommaso
• B. Mondin, Cultura e valori per una società globalizzata
• V. Possenti, Stato, diritto e religione. Il dialogo tra J. Habermas e J. Ratzinger
• I. Biffi, Gesú Cristo “misura” dell’ uomo in Tommaso d’Aquino
• M. Beuchot, La polémica de Las Casas con Sépulveda. Su dependencia respecto de la Escuela de Salamanca

Doctor Angelicus 2007 is out

The 7th volume of the International Thomistic Yearbook Doctor Angelicus is out.

Here is the table of contents:

Articuli:

1. Dulles, Avery R.: The apologetics of Thomas Aquinas 5-15
2. Elders, Leo J.: St. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary of Aristotles’s Physics 17-51
3. Vijgen, Jörgen: Did St. Thomas attribute a doctrine of divine providence to Aristotle? 53-76
4. Storck, Thomas: St. Thomas on art 77-88
5. Kwasniewski, Peter A.: A Thomistic preface to theology : “the science of God and of the blessed” 89-108
6. Rauhut, Robert: Die “conversio substantialis” in der “Summa theologiae” des Thomas von Aquin vor dem Hintergrund seines Theologieverständnisses : (Teil 2) 109-187

Notae:

1. Hauke, Manfred: Alexis-Henri-Marie Lépicier : Förderer der thomistischen Dogmatik und “Kardinal Mariens” 189-197
2. Couillaud, Bruno: John Marenbon - “Le temps, l’éternité et la prescience de Boèce à Thomas d’Aquin” 198-205

Recensiones

New journal: American Theological Inquiry

Got the following in this morning’s e-mail:

AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY (www.atijournal.org)

A Biannual Journal of Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Culture, & History (forthcoming: January 15, 2008).

Particular topics of interest include:

• (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, or Evangelical) Perspectives on the Current State of American Christianity.
• Current theological/philosophical trends in the Western world.
• Cultural/philosophical apologetics.
• Ecumenism and/or criticism of other traditions (ostensively) within the scope of ancient orthodoxy (Creedal Christianity)
• Systematic theology.
• Perspectives on history/historical events from an orthodox viewpoint.
• Engaging contemporary culture with the gospel.
• Engagement with the Patristical literature.

Please visit: http://www.atijournal.org for SUBMISSION GUIDELINES and additional information about the Journal.

Thanks to private funding, access to American Theological Inquiry is FREE. The Journal will be published in a PDF format, biannually, on January and July 15th.

As ATI prepares for its first edition on January, 15, 2008, we welcome the suggestions, ideas, and feedback of the American community of Christian scholars. To provide feedback to the Journal, please follow this link.

It may be something of a stretch to post it here, but the journal might be a place for a Thomist to say something interesting. I’d rather be too thorough. Those who submit articles are also asked explicitly to affirm their adherence to the four early creeds.

(Sotto voce: I’ve been meaning to think about ecclesial community, its creeds, and its sacred texts; maybe I’ll put together a post on my personal web site…).

Complete Index for the journal, Mediaeval Studies

The journal Mediaeval Studies, out of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, has put on-line a near-complete Index of the journal's run, from 1939 through 2005. The Index lists Articles-by-Authors, and the various notes In memoriam for associates of the Institute who have died. The downloadable file is in PDF format. In addition, PIMS also has an Index of critically edited texts that have appeared in the journal, also available in PDF format.

A new "Documenti e studi," with emphasis on ethics

One of the best journals in medieval philosophy is Documenti e studi, published by SISMEL, and described by it as “…an International Journal on the Philosophical Tradition from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages of the «Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino» and of the «Società per l’Edizione dei Testi Antichi e Medievali». The latest issue of this journal—an annual—is now appearing, and is chock full of useful studies on medieval ethical theory, by highly-regarded specialists in the area:

• J. Celano, The Understanding of Beatitude, the Perfection of the Soul in the Early Latin Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
• M. J. Tracey, An Early 13th-Century Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics I, 4-10: The Lectio cum Questionibus of an Arts-Master at Paris in MS Napoli, Biblioteca Nazionale VIII G 8, ff.4ra-9vb
• T. Hoffmann, Voluntariness, Choice, and Will in the Ethics Commentaries of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas
• S. Vecchio, Il discorso sulle passioni nei commenti all’Etica Nicomachea: da Alberto Magno a Tommaso d’Aquino
• M. W. F. Stone, Equity and Moderation: The Reception and Uses of Aristotle’s Doctrine of in the epieikeia in the Thirteenth-Century Ethics
• I. Costa, Il problema dell’omonimia del bene in alcuni commenti scolastici all’Etica Nicomachea
• L. Bianchi, Boèce de Dacie et l’Ethique à Nicomaque
• S. Gentili, L’Etica volgarizzata da Taddeo Alderotti (m. 1295). Saggio di commento
• V. Mäkinen, The Influence of the Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Politics on the Discussion on Property Rights
• P. Falzone, Ignoranza, desiderio, giudizio. L’Etica Nicomachea nella struttura argomentativa di Monarchia III 3
• G. Fioravanti, Etica e biologia in un anonimo trattato di eugenetica. Edizione del Libellus de ingenio bone nativitatis (ca. 1314)
• L. Cova, Felicità e beatitudine nella Sententia libri Ethicorum di Guido Vernani da Rimini
• T. Holopainen, The Will and Akratic Action in William Ockham and John Duns Scotus
• D. A. Lines, Pagan and Christian Ethics: Girolamo Savonarola and Ludovico Valenza on Moral Philosophy
• S. Müller, Wiener Ethikkommentare des 15. Jahrhunderts
• G. Alliney, Per un confronto fra le redazioni del Commento alle Sentenze di Francesco della Marchia: la versione ‘maggiore’ di In Sent., I, d. 1, q. 6
• L. O. Nielsen - C. Trifogli, Questions on the Beatific Vision by Thomas Wylton and Sibert de Beka

Can’t wait for this one to show up in the Library!

Fr Burrell's latest doings

After receiving Fr David Burrell, CSC’s (of the University of Notre Dame) annual Christmas e-mail letter, I wrote to him inquiring what he has been writing that touches upon St Thomas. He graciously responded with the following list:

• "Al-Ghazali, Aquinas, and Created Freedom," in Jeremiah Hackett, William Murnion, Carl Still, eds., Being and Thought in Aquinas (Binghamton NY: Global Academic Publishing, 2004) 17-46.
• Preface/Avant-propos to Olivier-Thomas Venard, O.P, La langue des choses: fondements theologiques de la metaphysique (Geneve: Ad Solem, 2004) vi-x.
• "Analogy, Creation, and Theological Language," in Rik Van Nieuwenhove and Joseph Wawrykow, eds., Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) 77-98.
• "Creation in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Super Evangelium," in Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering, eds., Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2005) 115-26.
• "Can we be Free without a Creator?" in L. Gregory Jones, Reinhard Hutter, C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell, eds., God, Truth, and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas (Grand Rapids MI: Brazos Press, 2005) 35-52.
• "The New Aquinas" in Rupert Short, ed., God’s Advocates: Christian Thinkers in Conversation (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2005) 126-40.

Doctor Angelicus 5 (2005) is out

There’s something for everyone in David Berger’s wonderful, multi-language journal, Doctor Angelicus. This year’s volume is now available (volume 5 [2005]). You can see the journal’s web site here. Make sure to check out its valuable run-down of the year 2004’s thomistic bibliography. Here is its table of contents:

Dissertationes

• Jörgen Vijgen, "Die heutige Autorität des hl. Thomas von Aquin im Lichte der Tradition" (pp. 7-54)
• Leo Elders s.v.d., "The Doctrine of Being of St. Thomas Aquinas" (pp. 55-74)
• Christian Ferraro v.e., "La conoscenza dell’ens e dell’esse dalla prospettiva del tomismo essenziale" (pp. 75-108)
• Roman Cardal, "Die Dynamik des intellektuellen Lebens und die Rehabilitation der Metaphysik" (pp. 109-126)
• Brunero Gherardini, "L’uomo in San Tommaso" (pp. 127-132)
• Manuel Ocampo Ponce, "Algunas reflexiones sobre la ciencia y la técnica a la luz del pensiamento de Santo Tomás de Aquino" (pp. 133-152)
• Davide Venturini, "Beatitudo, bonum commune und lex bei Thomas von Aquin" (pp. 153-164)
• Mario Coccia, "Credit Where Credit is Due: St. Thomas Aquinas versus Peter Lombard on the True Nature of Charity" (pp. 165-178)
• Uwe Michael Lang, "The Controversies over Chalcedon and the Beginnings of Scholastic Theology: The Case of John Philoponus" (pp. 179-196)
• Jörgen Vijgen, "The Future of Cornelio Fabro’s Legacy" (pp. 197-204)
• David Berger, "Thomas Rusters These vom ‘verwechselbaren Gott’ aus thomistischer Perspektive" (pp. 205-220)

Recensiones

• Thomas Marschler: Jörgen Vijgen (ed.), Indubitanter ad veritatem. Studies offered to Leo J. Elders SVD in Honor of the Golden Jubilee of his Ordination to the Priesthood (pp. 221-223)
• Jörgen Vijgen: Ralph M. McInerny, Aquinas (pp. 223-224)
• David Berger: Ludovicus Carbo a Costaciario, Compendium absolutissimum totius Summae Theologiae D. Thomae Aquinatis (pp. 224-227) / John of St. Thomas, Introduction to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas (pp. 227-231) /Paulus Engelhardt, Thomas von Aquin. Wegweisung in sein Werk (231-233) / Benedikt Ritzler, Freiheit in der Umarmung des ewig Liebenden. Die historische Entwicklung des Personverständnisses bei Jacques Maritain (pp. 233-236)
• Enrique Alarcón – David Berger – Jörgen Vijgen: "Bibliographia Thomistica 2004" (pp. 237-314)

Happy reading.