Thomism and hermeneutic violence: five Dominicans respond to Adriano Oliva

A few weeks ago on Thomistica.net one of our contributors, Tom Osborne, shared some brief thoughts on Adriano Oliva's new book Amours. Oliva, a Dominican, is the president of the Leonine Commission. In Amours he argues for a number of controversial theses, including the moral goodness of some homosexual acts and the permissibility of the reception of communion by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. He enlists Aquinas in making these arguments.

Prior to Osborne's negative evaluation there was also a highly critical review by Thibaud Collin in La Croix, which you can find here. One of Collin's criticisms has to do with Oliva's reading -- or radical misreading, rather -- of ST, Ia-IIae, q. 31, a. 7. His comments are sharp:

Une telle argumentation repose sur des contresens qu’il convient de manifester. Il semble y avoir ici une lecture sélective du texte de saint Thomas. On rompt la cohérence interne de la doctrine thomasienne pour mieux ensuite piocher ce dont on a besoin afin de reconstruire sa propre théorie, plus proche de celle de Michel Foucault que celle du saint dominicain.

Now, five Dominicans -- Bernhard Blankenhorn, Catherine Joseph Droste, Efrem Jindráček, Dominic Legge, and Thomas Joseph White -- have responded to Oliva at First Things. Like Collin, they also charge Oliva with a radical misreading of Aquinas (among other things). You can find their comments here. I can only (not without sadness) concur with their judgments.

The Critical Leonine Edition of Aquinas's Sermonesis Now Complete!

On March 20th, 2015, the Leonine Commission will celebrate the release of the next critical edition of Aquinas's opera omnia. The celebration will take the form of a day-long conference in Rome which will include presentations by members of the Commission who participated in the preparation of the volume. For more information click here.

New volume in the Leonine Edition

The long awaited volume in the Leonine Edition, containing the sermons of St. Thomas and prepared by the late Fr. Louis-Jacques Bataillon OP, will be presented during a two-day conference at Le Saulchoir in Paris on 5-6 december 2013. The website of the Revue des Sciences philosophiques et théologiques has the program.

The publisher of the Leonine Edition, Cerf, now has a 50% discount on the previous printed volumes of the Leonine Edition.

More volumes of the Leonine edition available in pdfs

Thomistica.net reported earlier on the possibility of downloading the first volumes of the Leonine edition. But thanks to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France more volumes are now available: vols. 22, 23, 26, 28, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47.

This means that the volumes containing the disputed questions ‘De veritate’ and ‘De malo’, his scriptural commentaries on Job and Isaiah, his commentaries on Aristotle’s Ethica and De Anima and many other works can now be consulted online, including the critical apparatus and the most valuable and comprehensive introductions by father Dondaine, Gauthier and others!

Here is the link!

Leonine Commission Public Seminar in Paris March 10

On Thursday, March 10, members of the Leonine Commission will be holding a public seminar on the topic “Philology in the Service of Thought” in Paris at the library of the Centre d’études du Saulchoir. The seminar will begin at 9:15 a.m. Information about the schedule, address, etc. can be found here.

Conference on Preaching in Paris on April 7, 2011

In from Adriano Oliva, OP, over in Paris, comes news of a one-day conference on preaching from antiquity to the modern age, “Prédications de l’antiquité à l’époque moderne,” to be held on April 7, and sponsored by the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (PDF). This sounds like a great way to get ready for volume 44 of the Leonine Edition. Fr Oliva himself will speak on “Les Sermons de Thomas d’Aquin édités par le Père Louis Jacques Bataillon.”

English translation of Aquinas's Sermons

Mark-Robin Hoogland C.P. (1969), Passionist priest and member of the ‘Thomas Instituut’ in Utrecht has just published his English translation of twenty sermons of Thomas Aquinas at The Catholic University of America Press.

The critical edition of these sermons, prepared by the late Father Bataillon, is about to be published in the Editio Leonina.

Download here the PDF from the Catholic University of America Press.

We thank the Fathers Bataillon and Hoogland for this inestimable service to the Thomistic community!

An interview with Adriano Oliva, OP, president of the Leonine Commission

Eek! It’s just embarrassing, how behind I am with my posts on the site! Almost a year ago we here at Marquette University had the honor of the presence of Adriano Oliva, OP, head of the Leonine Commission, who had come stateside to participate in the SIEPM conference at Notre Dame, and in our Aquinas and the Arabs conference here at Marquette.

Fr Oliva graciously agreed to do an interview with me about the work of the Commission, and about how our Project (link) might be of use to the efforts of the Leonine Commission. We chose to do the interview in Italian (apologies for my occasionally “airport Italian”—it was a long week), which may prove to be a challenge for some viewers. But Fr Oliva speaks so carefully that I suspect many will get the gist of what he is saying (I’d be thrilled if any visitors had the time and inclination to do a translation [contact me]). One particular highlight: Fr Oliva gives an update on the status of the work of the Commission.

Our audio/visual people here at Marquette worked hard to produce the video, which is hosted on our media server (QuickTime required). So, with apologies for my tardiness, happy viewing.

PS: when they tell you that the camera adds 10 lbs, they lie: it adds 20—and I’ve gone on a diet.