Been wanting to know more about "Analytical Thomism"? The people at Ashgate Publishing have put out a book on the subject (link), and have provided PDF files of the book's Introduction and Table of Contents. With authors such as Hilary Putnam, Anthony J. Lisska, John C. Cahalan, Stephen L. Brock, and, of course, John Haldane (plus many more), it's bound to be about as effective an overview as one can get.
Okay, I know that Fr Dewan was my teacher in Toronto and all, so I might be expected to pay him filial homage now and again. But the fact is that it’s a good time to be Fr Dewan. He gave the Aquinas Lecture at Marquette University in 2007, and now Catholic University has not only recently published a collection of his essays on metaphysics (Form and Being: Studies in Thomistic Metaphysics [Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2006]—link), but they have also published a Festschrift in his honor: Wisdom’s Apprentice: Thomistic Essays in Honor of Lawrence Dewan, O.P. (PDF/link). Edited by Peter Kwasniewski of Wyoming Catholic College, here is the blurb:
Lawrence Dewan, O.P., has long graced the world of Thomistic scholarship with the impressive lucidity, depth, and comprehensiveness of his research on many facets of the Angelic Doctor’s legacy. A professor at the Collège Universitaire Dominicain in Ottawa and a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas, his more than one hundred articles have brought him international renown as a foremost authority on metaphysics, natural philosophy, and ethics as well as on aspects of the work of John Capreolus, Albert the Great, Etienne Gilson, and Jacques Maritain, among others.
In Wisdom’s Apprentice, twelve distinguished scholars pay grateful homage to their friend and mentor in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the study of the philosophia perennis. Prompted by the honoree’s seventy-fifth birthday in March 2007, this volume gathers incisive essays on a variety of key topics in the Thomist tradition.
The book is divided into four parts. Part I engages fundamental metaphysical issues, Jan Aertsen writing on truth as a transcendental, Stephen Brock and David Twetten on the doctrine of being, and J. L. A. West on supposit and nature. Part II contains essays on natural theology, with Ralph McInerny and Leslie Armour posing questions on the rational basis of man’s knowledge of God and Gregory Doolan showing how deliberately Aquinas integrates divine ideas into his doctrine of God. In Part III natural philosophy comes to the fore: Christopher Decaen expounds the impossibility of action at a distance, Jude Dougherty the relationship between physics and philosophy, and Ralph Nelson the influence of Bergson on an important difference between Gilson and Maritain. The two authors of Part IV address the world of man; Kevin Flannery argues that for Aristotle no less than for Aquinas acts can be good or bad in their very species and Heather McAdam Erb unfolds Aquinas’s views on interior peace, the foretaste of eternal life.
Catholic University of America Press has published a collection of Fr Martin Rhonheimer's essays, entitled The Perspective of the Acting Person: Essays in the Renewal of Thomistic Moral Philosophy (link/PDF). The volume was edited by William F. Murphy, Jr., of the Pontifical College Josephinum. Here's the blurb, thanks to CUA Press:
The Perspective of the Acting Person introduces readers to one of the most important and provocative thinkers in contemporary moral philosophy. In this collection of essays Martin Rhonheimer examines the central themes of natural law, moral action, and virtue emphasized by John Paul II's 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Rhonheimer's work follows the general direction taken by the encyclical through an almost unprecedented rigor of philosophical argumentation and level of engagement with both European and American scholarship.
Rhonheimer argues extensively, from the texts of Aquinas, against aspects of more traditional interpretations of the Angelic Doctor. He maintains that their deficiencies helped precipitate both the postconciliar crisis in moral theology and the rise of revisionist approaches. He addresses not only the central topics of natural law and moral action but also the reasonableness of Christian morality, the relation between nature and reason, and that between metaphysics and ethics. All are considered from the distinctively moral perspective of the agent. Rhonheimer also responds to critics of both Veritatis Splendor and his own work and critiques works by revisionist moral theologians.
The collection focuses on Rhonheimer's fundamental ethical theory, establishing the theoretical bases for his more applied works in areas such as sexual ethics, political philosophy, social ethics, and medical ethics. A detailed introduction by William F. Murphy, Jr., sketches Rhonheimer's intellectual biography and the development of his thought, and summarizes key content from the essays. Finally, a detailed bibliography of Rhonheimer's work is included, which further enhances the volume's value to moral philosophers and theologians.
Life can be full of coincidences. A couple weeks back, just in time for Palm Sunday, I scooted out of Milwaukee to Paris to work at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), trying to make some headway on my Paul of Hungary, OP, project (I’ll post more about that on my personal blog soon). It was a wonderful and intense five days.
My daily trip to the BnF took me from the Dominican convent at St. Jacques (home to the Saulchoir and the Leonine Commission) through the Ile de la Cité, along the Louvre, and then up to the old BnF (58, rue de Richelieu). Most afternoons I hiked back down to Notre Dame for a visit, and then caught the bus back to the convent. On Palm Sunday I was an outright tourist, and went to Sainte-Chapelle, and over to the Louvre—which I hadn’t gone to since the late-1970’s. Inside, among the many, many precious and informative objects, I came across a painting of St. Peter Martyr, OP, which I promptly snapped.
Today I was finally organizing the pictures I took while at Paris when it struck me: today is the day in the liturgical calendar when St. Peter of Verona suffered martyrdom (the Saturday following Easter, in the year 1252). I know this because of my reading of Donald Prudlo’s The Martyred Inquisitor: The Life and Cult of Peter of Verona (†1252) (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007) (link), which presents the first full modern biography of Peter’s life, death, and cult. If you’ve seen pictures of key Dominicans in European painting, you’ve seen pictures of Peter (usually with a split, bleeding head—he was killed by blows to the head with a farmer’s tool). Peter was the Dominican Order’s first martyr, his cult was encouraged throughout the Order, and Thomas Aquinas would surely have known about, and participated, in his cult.
The Ashgate website has a few PDF files you can download, key among which is Prudlo’s helpful Introduction to the work.
Just in, from the Frati editori di Quaracchi:
I Frati Editori di Quaracchi hanno lanciato una vendita promozionale di sconto 50% su tutte le opere inserite nel sito a l’occasione del trasferimento a Roma.
I wrote about the Quaracchi web site a year or so ago. It’s where to go to find the writings of St. Bonaventure, the Summa fratris Alexandri, the Vatican edition of the works of Scotus, and other franciscana. If you want the discount, go to http://www.fratiquaracchi.it.
Best wishes to i Frati as they move to Rome (or, at least, the books move!).
According to Karen Green, the Ancient and Medieval History and Religion Librarian at Columbia University, Dr. Jan Ziolkowski, the new director of Dumbarton Oaks, recently talked Harvard University Press into opening a new “Loeb” for the medieval period, to be entitled something like the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Ten titles within two years, and then eight (or is it four?) per year thereafter. Note that this is in addition to what it’s been doing for the Renaissance (I Tatti Renaissance Library). An English translation facing the original.
The German publisher nova & vetera (Bonn) has published a fascinating book on how by the end of the 1970 Thomism at the faculty of philosophy of the university of Fribourg (Switzerland) came to an end. Here is the table of contents in Pdf.
Das Ende des Neuthomismus. Die 68er, das Konzil und die Dominikaner, written by Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, comprises three parts. Part 1 applies Thomas Kuhn’s idea of scientific revolution to the movement of Neothomism in general. Part 2 traces the reactions of the Order of Preachers to the Church’s documents on the doctrine of St. Thomas from Leo XIII to John Paul II. Finally part 3 chronicles in detail the history of the faculty of philosophy from the illustrious Gallus Manser (1866-1950) to the tireless but unsuccesfull efforts by the Flemish Dominican Norbertus Luyten (1909-1986) to maintain the chairs, traditionally conferred to the Dominicans. It discloses for the first time important archival material from the correspondence between Fribourg and the Dominican Roman curia. Father Luyten concluded: “C’est vraiment la fin d’une époque”.
The 10th volume of the Collected Works of the Italian Thomist Cornelio Fabro(1911-1995) has been published. For more information on the Opera Omnia of Cornelio Fabro, see our March 2005 Newsletter.
The following comes from the introduction by the author:
“Il libro Dio. Introduzione al problema teologico, cerca di rispondere al «“problema essenziale dell’uomo essenziale”, dal quale ogni altro problema dell’esistenza prende chiarezza (l’etica, il diritto, l’economia…)», cioè il problema di Dio. «L’intelletto umano che tende naturalmente alla verità come al suo bene proprio, è spinto presto o tardi a porsi il problema di Dio, a cercare quindi la dimostrazione della sua esistenza: perché il significato e valore ultimo di ogni verità viene da Dio ed ha in Dio il suo ultimo fondamento, come verità per essenza da cui s’irradia ogni verità creata ch’è verità soltanto per partecipazione». «L’esistenza di Dio è il problema dei problemi: esso costituisce la conclusione di tutta la filosofia e della conoscenza umana sia ordinaria come scientifica, perché da esso dipende l’orientamento definitivo che l’uomo deve dare alla sua condotta e alla sua vita intera”.
Fr Ulrich Horst, OP, has a Festschrift in his honor appearing in Germany. Kirchenbild und Spiritualität: Dominikanische Beiträge zur Ekklesiologie und zum kirchlichen Leben im Mittelalter. Festschrift für Ulrich Horst OP zum 75. Geburtstag, is edited by Thomas Prügl of the University of Notre Dame and Marianne Schlosser. We have a Table of Contents in PDF form (articles by Prügl, Wawrykow, Senner, Bataillon, O’Meara, and many others), and here’s the blurb for the book from the publisher’s website:
Der langjährige Leiter des Münchener Grabmann-Institutes zur Erforschung der mittelalterlichen Theologie und Philosophie, Prof. em. Dr. Ulrich Horst O.P., ist vor allem durch seine Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Papsttheorie in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit, sowie durch seine Studien über Thomas von Aquin und Theologen aus dem Dominikanerorden in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit bekannt. Als akademischer Lehrer betreute er Dissertationen und Habilitationen aus dem Bereich der mittelalterlichen Theologiegeschichte, mit Schwerpunkten auf der Ekklesiologie, Thomas von Aquin und der Theologie des Ordenslebens. In der vorliegenden Festschrift ehren ihn Kollegen und Schüler mit Beiträgen aus eben diesen Gebieten, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Wirken und der Bedeutung des Dominikanerordens für das mittelalterliche Kirchenbild liegt. Der Band, der insgesamt 22 Beiträge umfasst, ist in fünf Abschnitte unterteilt. Im ersten Teil finden sich Beiträge zu theologischen und ekklesiologischen Themen bei Thomas von Aquin und Albertus Magnus. Der zweite Teil beleuchtet die Rolle der Mendikanten in den ekklesiologischen Auseinandersetzungen des 13. und 14. Jahrhundert, vor allem im Zusammenhang mit dem Bettelordenstreit, aber auch im Hinblick auf den kontroverstheologischen Dialog mit der Ostkirche. Ein weiterer Ab-schnitt widmet sich Aspekten der mendikantischen, vor allem der dominikanischen Ordenstheologie. Teil IV greift Themen aus dem Bereich Kirchenreform und Konzilien im Spätmittelalter auf, und ein abschließender Teil schlägt die Brücke in die Neuzeit. Der Band wird ergänzt durch eine Einführung zu Leben und Forschungen, sowie durch ein Schriftenverzeichnis des Jubilars.
This just in, from John Deely of University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas:
As most, perhaps all, of you know, Jacques Maritain considered John of St Thomas — John Poinsot — to be, after only St Thomas himself, his prinicpal teacher in philosophy, and the last "commentator of genius" in the Latin line of Thomistic development. The best edition of the Cursus Philosophicus that John of St Thomas published between 1631 and 1635 was brought out in three volumes in the 1930s under the editorship of B. Reiser, an edition both long out of print and one published before the realization of the importance of publishing scholarly editions on acid-free paper.
Hildesheim Publishing (of Georg Olms) is planning for a Winter 2007/2008 re-issue of this important work provided that they receive enough subscriptions to go forward, a minimum of ten — nine, now that the University of St Thomas, Houston, library has entered a subscription.
The purpose of this e-mail is to ask each of you to have your university library enter a subscription of the work, so that the reprinting will be assured. Of course, private individuals can also enter a subscription. For either an institutional or an individual subscription to this reprint of the Cursus Philosophicus, simply e-mail
Bruno Vogel <customerservice@olms.de>
with full contact information, specifying that
"This is a subscription to the reprinting of Poinsot's Cursus Philosophicus."
While that short message would suffice, I also add the full information concerning this matter should your librarian require it in order to subscribe.
*************************************
Johannes Poinsot, Cursus philosophicus Thomisticus. Nova editio a P. Beato Reiser O.S.B. (1929), Reimpressio revisa. 3 Bände. Reprint: Hildesheim. Mit einem Vorwort und einer Bibliographie von Martin Walter. LXIV/2348 Seiten, Leinen
being handled by:
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The good people at Ave Maria University’s “Sapientia Press,” have published a second volume of Fr Gilles Emery, OP’s, writings on Aquinas. Here is the account provided to me by Matthew Levering:
Following upon Gilles Emery’s universally well-received Trinity in Aquinas, this new collection of essays by the noted Swiss Thomist will further enhance his reputation for theological depth and breadth. The first four chapters, which comprise the first 153 pages of the book, make available in English the best instruction on the most difficult issues that characterize St. Thomas Aquinas’s Trinitarian theology. This superb “book within a book” explores in detail the very purpose of Trinitarian theology, with an emphasis on distinguishing St. Thomas’s approach from the various forms of arid rationalism and on displaying Aquinas’s debt to Augustine’s spiritual vision. In addition, these opening chapters on the Trinity engage the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Son according to Aquinas—a topic treated in Trinity in Aquinas but now deepened by a meditation on “the Spirit of Truth”—as well as the “personal mode” of Trinitarian action ad extra. For readers seeking to understand how and why Aquinas’s theology is fully Trinitarian rather than (as is sometimes suggested) modalist, Emery’s exposition of the Trinitarian action ad extra and our relation in grace to each Person of the Trinity will be necessary reading.
A second section of the book demonstrates Emery’s extraordinary theological range. He devotes two chapters to the sacraments as they relate to the Church, in each case showing that Aquinas’s insights speak profoundly to contemporary controversies. Another chapter treats briefly the place of the Eastern Fathers in Aquinas, a question that has become increasingly important in ecumenical dialogue so as to show that Thomistic theology is not antithetical to reunion with the Orthodox East. In the context of a world plagued by Cartesian dualism and inability to come to terms with the scope of human suffering, two further chapters treat Aquinas’s hylomorphic understanding of the human person and his account of God’s permission of evil (the latter through the lens of Charles Cardinal Journet). Finally, the book concludes on a fittingly ecumenical note, as Emery takes up George Lindbeck’s influential reading of Aquinas as a “postliberal” theologian who thereby has an important place in contemporary Protestant-Catholic dialogue. In the hands of Gilles Emery, the work of Thomas Aquinas is shown to contribute profoundly to the task of appreciating and resolving the central theological discussions and controversies of our time.
This is an extraordinary volume, with great studies on a wide variety of issues. And Fr Emery’s work is the gold standard for Thomistic scholarship. Check out the blurbs on the back of the book 
.
R. Houser of the University of ST. Thomas, Houston, Texas has edited a fine collection of essays to honor Armand Maurer C.S.B. (1915—), Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
The volume, entitled Laudemus viros gloriosos (taken from Ecclesiasticus 44.1), is being published by Notre Dame Press. A number of them deal explicitly with Thomas Aquinas.
Here is the table of contents:
Under the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
