New Book: Thomism and Predestination

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A new book entitled Thomism and Predestination: Principles and Disputations is now available from The Catholic University of America Press. See below for more details. 

 

"There is perhaps no aspect of traditional Thomistic thought so contested in modern Catholic theology as the notion of predestination as presented by the classical Thomist school. What is that doctrine, and why is it so controversial? Has it been rightly understood in the context of modern debates? At the same time, the Church's traditional affirmation of a mystery of predestination is largely ignored in modern Catholic theology more generally. Why is this the case? Can a theology that emphasizes the Augustinian notion of the primacy of salvation by grace alone also forego a theology of predestination?

Thomism and Predestination: Principles and Disputations considers these topics from various angles: the principles of the classical Thomistic treatment of predestination, their contested interpretation among modern theologians, examples of the doctrine as illustrated by the spiritual writings of the saints, and the challenges to Catholic theology that the Thomistic tradition continues to pose. This volume initiates readers―especially future theologians and Catholic intellectuals―to a central theme of theology that is speculatively challenging and deeply interconnected to many other elements of the faith.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Steven A. Long is a professor of Theology at Ave Maria University and author of Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act (Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University Publications). Roger W. Nutt is an associate professor of Theology, codirector of the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal, and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University. Thomas Joseph White, OP, is the director of the Thomistic Institute at the Domincan House of Studies. He is the author of several books including The Incarnate Lord: A Thomistic Study in Christology (CUA Press), and coeditor of the theological journal Nova et Vetera."

Follow-ups to Thomistic Commentators on-line

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The post on “Thomistic Commentators online” drew some cheerful, immediate response. First, Fr Nicholas Austin, SJ, sent the following:

Following your post on the Thomistic commentators online, you and your readers may be interested to know that most of the Leonine edition of St Thomas’ Opera Omnia is online.  All of the Summa Theologiae volumes except one are present, together, of course, with Cardinal Cajetan’s famous commentary.  Some of the other volumes are also there.

To access the volumes, simply go to the following website http://www.archive.org/ and type into the search engine the words “opera omnia iussu leonis”.

Thanks, Father, for this helpful contribution; not having online access to Cajetan’s commentary would have been a loss, indeed.

Second, Meg Keller of Alexander Street Press (the people I mentioned in that early post), wrote me with a special offers for visitors to Thomistica.net:

Many thanks for the mention of Alexander Street’s theology resources. We’re happy to offer your readers free access to all three online theology collections through the month of August at the following URLs (see username and password below): 

USERNAME: thomistica

PASSWORD: alexanderstreet

Inquires from libraries regarding pricing or trial access should go to: sales@alexanderstreet.com.

It’s great to have such an informed and responsive readership!

Thomistic commentators online

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Huh? How did I not know about this?!? There’s an publishing house called the Alexander Street Press that has a website devoted to literature from the Catholic Reformation, on which you can find the works of classic Thomistic commentators such as Thomas de vio Cajetan, Domingo Báñez, Menchior Cano, Domingo de Soto and Francisco de Vitoria. The main page for Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation is publicly accessible, but further access seems to require some subscription (my access is possible through Marquette University’s subscription).

The site contains the Opuscula omnia of Cajetan, including his De nominum analogia, De conceptu entis and his commentary on Thomas’s De ente et essentia. Alas, it does not contain Cajetan’s commentary on the Summa theologiae. On the other hand, Báñez’s Scholastica commentaria for the Prima pars as well as the Secunda secundae is to be found there, as is Cano’s De locis theologicis, and Soto’s De natura et gratia. De Vitoria’s holdings are simply his Relectiones theologicae, but these contain interesting material on ecclesial politics and power, as well as discussions of war-making in the New World.

In keeping with the Reformation-focus, the Alexander Street Press also has a Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts, as well as a similar resource on Karl Barth.