On Love and Charity: a translation of Aquinas

Peter A. Kwasniewski, Thomas Bolin, O.S.B., and Joseph Bolin, have collaborated to produce a book of translations and notes on St Thomas's teaching on love and charity, as found in his scriptum on the Sentences. Published by CUA Press, here is an abbreviated description:

The Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard has suffered almost total neglect among translators. Such neglect is surprising, considering that the massive Commentary is not only Aquinas's first systematic engagement with all the philosophical and theological topics on which he expended his energy over the span of a short career but is also characterized by an exuberance and elaborateness seldom found in his subsequent writings. The present volume, containing all the major texts on love and charity, makes available what is by far the most extensive translation ever to be made from the Commentary with the added benefit that the better part of the translation is based on the (as yet unpublished) critical edition of the Leonine Commission. The collection of texts from all four books has a tight thematic coherence that makes it invaluable to students of Thomas's moral philosophy, moral theology, and philosophical theology. In addition, the inclusion of parallel texts from Aquinas's first (Parisian) Commentary as well as from his second (Roman) attempt at a commentary--the recently rediscovered Lectura Romana--makes this edition all the more valuable for those who wish to track the internal development of Thomas's thinking.

The printed volume is supplemented by a web-based document containing a fuller introduction, "webnotes," and a bibliography, which you can get here.

A Book on St. Albert’s Moral Philosophy

Stanley Cunningham has written an important book for anyone interested in Aquinas's moral teaching, and a fortiori St. Albert's own moral teaching. His Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the Great was published in late 2008. The people at CUA Press have provided a PDF file, from which I scraped the following description:

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the moral philosophy Albert the Great (1200-1280)—the first and only such undertaking in English. It lays out what is, with rare exceptions, an unknown, ignored, or poorly-understood aspect of Albert's humanism. It also fills in a major lacuna in both the history of medieval philosophy and the wider history of moral theory.

Prior to Albert, most medieval thinkers refused to acknowledge the very existence of natural moral goodness. They believed that one could not perform good acts without God's infused graces. Albert was the first to establish in a systematic fashion the value of naturally-acquired virtue, natural law, and the virtue-dependent states of friendship and natural happiness, and their importance in a human lifetime. To achieve this, he undertook the elaboration of a rigorous moral philosophy.

These findings stand in contrast to an old cliché that Albert the Great was a scholar of enormous erudition, an impressive assembler of learning and scientific information, but deficient when it came to elaborating a systematic philosophical or theological theory of his own. This book deflates that myth. It demonstrates that Albert was very concerned to produce a rigorously organized philosophy of moral goodness, and for the most part succeeded in that aim.

This book opens with a comprehensive introduction that is unprecedented in Albertinian scholarship. It uncovers certain parallels between the career of modern virtue-theory ethics and Albert's historical situation in such a way as to help the modern reader understand developments in the mid-thirteenth century. This book also makes possible a closer study of Thomas Aquinas's material dependence upon Albert's ethical concepts.

Stanley Cunningham is professor emeritus at the University of Windsor.

Brepols Publishers celebrate St. Anselm with a discount

A current project has me studying St. Anselm's doctrine of the will, so I was happy to get an e-mail from Brepols Publishers announcing a 25% discount on their holdings related to him and his world. Here is their text:

On the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the death of Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033-1109), Brepols Publishers are delighted to offer a broad range of titles at a special 25% discount, unless otherwise stated. The selected titles are related to the world of Anselm of Canterbury, his thoughts and ideas, his contemporaries, the medieval society he lived in, and so on. The books are classified into five groups: Medieval Philosophy & Theology, Medieval Church History, General Works & Studies on the Middle Ages, the series Civicima, Latin Sources & Medieval Sources in Translation, and Studies in Medieval Art History.

We wish to remind you that this special offer is valid until 30 September 2009. The discount is not applicable on new titles (marked with « NEW »). Additionally, we are offering free shipping for all orders with a total value exceeding 100 euro (after discount). The prices on the leaflet do not include the discount. To download the leaflet click here.

Of course, Brepols's books are "high-end," to say the least, so it's nice to be at a university that has standing orders for their catalog. But if you need to have dominion over a particular text, this is a good way to do it.

New books by Chris Kaczor

Chris Kaczor (site) has been busy. He's got two more books out, this time from Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, on Aquinas on Faith, Hope, and Love and Aquinas On the Cardinal Virtues. Check out this PDF. Perfect for students learning to read Aquinas.

Back in Print: Cursus philosophicus - John of St. Thomas

As a follow-up of this post in 2007, we can now inform you that the Cursus Philosophicus by John of St. Thomas is back in print.

Johannes Poinsot [Ioannes a S. Thoma O. P. - João Poinsot] Cursus philosophicus Thomisticus. Nova editio a P. Beato Reiser O.S.B. (1929), Reimpressio revisa. 3 Bände. Rom 1948. Reprint: Hildesheim 2008. Introductory remarks by John Deely. Einleitende Bemerkungen von Martin Walter. LXIV/2348 Seiten Leinen

Here is the blurb from the publisher:

This reprint of the Cursus Philosophicus Thomisticus in the critical edition prepared by B. Reiser OSB (2nd ed. 1948) makes available once again one of the most important works of Spanish baroque scholasticism. Johannes Poinsot (1589-1644) was described by Martin Grabmann as being “among the best guides to the intellectual world of Thomism”. The author’s aim in compiling this philosophical course was to explain philosophy according to St Thomas Aquinas and his interpretation of Aristotle. As well as this didactic aim, two other aspects of the Cursus deserve to be emphasised: first, Poinsot was one of the most important opponents in the contemporary discourse with Suarez and Vasquez and second, in recent years his achievements in the theory of semiotics and indeed in logic as a whole have been rediscovered.
The reprint will appeal to all students of St Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy and the history of Thomism or of logic in general. A bibliography of source material and of the major literature on Johannes Poinsot is appended as an aid to further study.

An extended bibliography, compiled by Marco Forlivesi, can be accessed here.

ETIENNE GILSON—Three Quests in Philosophy

News from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto that a book of some unpublished lectures from Etienne Gilson has been published. Fr Armand Maurer had been hard at work editing these lectures at the time of his death earlier this year, and Fr James Farge brought the project to completion. Here is some material that Fr Farge sent along:

Etienne Gilson was one of the most influential intellectuals and philosophers of the twentieth century. Some have credited him with expanding the spectrum of philosophical thought that had previously been limited by nineteenth-century analysts and positivists. Gilson devoted six decades to the study of the major philosophical figures of the Middle Ages. His interpretations of them are justly seen as new and insightful, and have exercised enormous influence on research in philosophy and on its presentation in the classroom. A “Gilson Society” has been active for years, and the Institut catholique in Paris has created a Gilson Chair in Metaphysics. A French publisher has announced a multi-volume publication of his complete works.

These seven previously unpublished lectures – Gilson termed them “Quests” – represent his mature thought on three key philosophical questions: the nature of philosophy, “species,” and “matter.” These are issues of perennial and pertinent interest to both philosophers and scientists. Gilson presents them here with his characteristic clarity, sense, and humour.

More about the book, including order forms, can be found on the PIMS website.

A volume honoring Alain de Libera

By way of Adriano Oliva, OP, an announcement of a volume of studies honoring Alain de Libera, and an opportunity to subscribe to the book's publication:

À l'occasion du soixantième anniversaire d'Alain de Libera, une trentaine de collègues de France et de l'étranger ont souhaité, par une série d'études d'histoire de la philosophie et de métaphysique, saluer son œuvre scientifique et lui offrir un témoignage d'amitié. L'histoire de la métaphysique étant l'un des points cardinaux du travail philosophique d'Alain de Libera, à qui l'on doit notamment de magistraux ouvrages sur les universaux, il a semblé judicieux d'étudier ces entités mineures mais néanmoins indispensables qui viennent compléter la substance pour constituer l'individu : les propriétés accidentelles.

La question des accidents est ici étudiée sur la longue durée – d'Aristote à la métaphysique analytique contemporaine, avec une attention particulière portée aux discussions médiévales – et sous ses différents aspects : ontologique, sémantique, épistémologique et psychologique. Sont ainsi abordés des problèmes philosophiques aussi fondamentaux que ceux induits par les catégories aristotéliciennes de qualité et de relation, les tropes, la causalité, l'individuation.

See this PDF file for details, which also contains a list of the volume's contributors. By subscribing to the book's publication before September 1, 2008, your name will appear in the volume, along with other subscribers. The volume is scheduled to appear on October 3, 2008.

Aquinas on the Divine Simplicity: a new book

Peter Weigel, of the Department of Philosophy at Washington College, has authored a book on Aquinas’s doctrine of the divine simplicity, due to appear this year. Here’s some of the blurb:

Aquinas’s teaching that God is entirely simple is central to his philosophy of God. Much of his thought cannot be properly understood without an adequate grasp of what simplicity involves and why he argues for it. The depth and rigor of Aquinas’s account of divine simplicity mark a significant contribution to the development of this crucial position in traditional philosophical theology. Commentators usually focus on limited aspects of Aquinas’s position, and contemporary philosophical assessments often reflect an incomplete understanding of the distinctive ontology supporting his theological conclusions.

This book offers an in-depth examination of what divine simplicity means for Aquinas and how he argues for its claims. Simplicity and other divine predicates are analyzed within the larger metaphysical and semantic framework surrounding Aquinas’s philosophy of God. The work thus goes beyond the issue of simplicity to some of the fundamental tenets of Aquinas’s philosophical theology and his views on divine predication. The author also engages with a variety of Aquinas’s recent commentators, bringing the insights of this great figure to bear on contemporary discussions.

Aquinas on Love and Charity

A team consisting of Peter Kwasniewski and others has produced a translation of texts from Thomas’s Scriptum super sententiis that deal with charity. Published by Catholic University of America Press, the volume will appear shortly (see this PDF file). Here’s a snippet from the blurb:

Among the great works of Thomas Aquinas, the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard has suffered almost total neglect among translators. Such neglect is surprising, considering that the massive Commentary—more than 4,000 pages in the last printed edition—is not only Aquinas’s first systematic engagement with all the philosophical and theological topics on which he expended his energy over the span of a short career but is also characterized by an exuberance and elaborateness seldom found in his subsequent writings. Although Chenu had already drawn attention decades ago to the importance of studying this youthful tour de force for a fuller understanding of Thomas’s more mature work, the Commentary on the Sentences has remained a closed book for many modern students of Thomistic and medieval thought because of its relative inaccessibility in English or in Latin.

The present volume, containing all the major texts on love and charity, makes available what is by far the most extensive translation ever to be made from the Commentary with the added benefit that the better part of the translation is based on the (as yet unpublished) critical edition of the Leonine Commission. The collection of texts from all four books has a tight thematic coherence that makes it invaluable to students of Thomas’s moral philosophy, moral theology, and philosophical theology. In addition, the inclusion of parallel texts from Aquinas’s first (Parisian) Commentary as well as from his second (Roman) attempt at a commentary, the recently rediscovered Lectura Romana, makes this edition all the more valuable for those who wish to track the internal development of Thomas’s thinking on these matters.

This volume is part of the Thomas Aquinas in Translation Series from CUA, which also has three other texts.

Fordham publishes Dewan’s collected essays on Aquinas’s ethics

Wisdom, Law, and VirtueLawrence Dewan’s important collection of essays on Aquinas’s metaphysics is now matched by one on ethics. Fordham University Press has published Wisdom, Law and Virtue: Essays in Thomistic Ethics (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), which contains an astounding number—twenty-seven!—of his writings on Thomas’s ethics.

The kind people at Fordham University Press have also made a discount available to you that defrays the cost of what is a big (600 pp.), and therefore costly, book. If you wish to buy it, go to the webpage for the book on Fordham’s site, place it in your shopping cart, and then, at check-out, enter the promo code DEW08, which will apply a 20% discount, taking it from its original $85.00 down to $68.00, plus shipping and handling. A nice gesture.

Here is the book’s table-of-contents:

Universal Considerations

Chapter 1. Wisdom and Human Life: The Natural and the Supernatural

Chapter 2. Wisdom as Foundational Ethical Theory in St. Thomas Aquinas

Chapter 3. St. Thomas, Metaphysics, and Human Dignity

Chapter 4. Truth and Happiness

Chapter 5. Antimodern, Ultramodern, Postmodern: A Plea for the Perennial

Chapter 6. Is Thomas Aquinas a Spiritual Hedonist?

Chapter 7. Is Liberty the Criterion in Morals?

The Will and Its Act

Chapter 8. The Real Distinction between Intellect and Will

Chapter 9. St. Thomas, James Keenan, and the Will

Chapter 10. St. Thomas and the Causes of Free Choice

Chapter 11. St. Thomas and the First Cause of Moral Evil

Natural Law

Chapter 12. St. Thomas, Our Natural Lights, and the Moral Order

Chapter 13. Jacques Maritain and the Philosophy of Cooperation

Chapter 14. Natural Law and the First Act of Freedom: Maritain Revisited

Chapter 15. Jean Porter on Natural Law: Thomistic Notes

Legal Justice

Chapter 16. St. Thomas, the Common Good, and the Love of Persons

Chapter 17. St. Thomas, John Finnis, and the Political Good

Chapter 18. Thomas Aquinas, Gerard Bradley, and the Death Penalty

Chapter 19. Death in the Setting of Divine Wisdom: The Doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas

Chapter 20. Suicide as a Belligerent Tactic: Thomistic Reflections

Various Virtues

Chapter 21. Jacques Maritain, St. Thomas, and the Philosophy of Religion

Chapter 22. Philosophy and Spirituality: Cultivating a Virtue

Chapter 23. St. Thomas and the Ontology of Prayer

Chapter 24. St. Thomas, Lying, and Venial Sin

Chapter 25. Communion with the Tradition: For the Believer Who Is a Philosopher

Methodological Postscript

Chapter 26. ”Obiectum”: Notes on the Invention of a Word

Chapter 27. St. Thomas and Moral Taxonomy

Teleological Grammar by Steven Long

Heu! Oh, well. Better late than never.
Teleological Grammar

Last fall the kind people at Ave Maria University sent me a copy of Steven Long’s impressive book, The Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act, which seeks to explain and defend Aquinas’s complex yet crucial doctrine of the moral act (a doctrine at the heart of topics such as sexual morality, medical ethics, etc.). The doctrine of double-effect is unintelligible without it.

The book was immediately a topic of much conversation, with a session at this year’s Kalamazoo being devoted to it, and a recent issue of Ave Maria’s journal, Nova et vetera (English edition)—more on this up-and-coming (if not already-arrived) journal in a future post—being built around the topics found in the book. Here is its blurb, found on the web page where you can order it:

Cutting through contemporary confusions with his characteristic rigor and aplomb, Steven A. Long offers the most penetrating study available of St. Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the intention, choice, object, end, and species of the moral act. Many studies of human action and morality after Descartes and Kant have suffered from a tendency to split body and soul, so that the intention of the human spirit comes to justify whatever the body is made to do. The portrait of human action and morality that arises from such accounts is one of the soul as the pilot and the body as raw material in need of humanization. In this masterful study, Steven Long reconnects the teleology of the soul with the teleology of the body, so that human goal-oriented action rediscovers its lost moral unity, given it by the Creator who has created the human person as a body-soul unity.

An undergraduate book on perennial philosophy

John W. Carlson (Creighton University) has published a book for undergraduates on perennial philosophy (PDF). Here is CUA's blurb:

The Catholic University of America Press is pleased to announce publication of Understanding Our Being: Introduction to Speculative Philosophy in the Perennial Tradition by John W. Carlson.

In the encyclical Fides et ratio, Pope John Paul II called upon teachers of philosophy "to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition, the range of authentic wisdom and truth." Understanding Our Being responds to this call with a much-needed introduction to speculative philosophy.

Written as an undergraduate textbook, Understanding Our Being treats central topics about our knowledge of being, the being of the natural world, and, via the latter, being as such. It then treats the special character and implications of our human, personal being—in particular, our intellect, free choice, and reason-conditioned sociality. Finally, it considers God as Source and End of being and it discusses the "problem of evil" and the nature of religious faith.

In addition to presenting essential elements of the "perennial" philosophy, as developed in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas (especially as interpreted by Jacques Maritain and others), this book discusses contemporary challenges to the critical realist approach. These include scientism, historicism, and nihilism, as well as religious fideism. The author also encourages students to think for themselves, and he offers them resources to do so, via questions for reflection at the end of each part, a comprehensive bibliography, and a glossary of key philosophical terms.

More about the book can be found on the CUA website (link), or on Carlson's website.