Delay in first newsletter

Unfortunately I must delay posting my first “Tommaso d’Aquino Newsletter,” which I had promised for January 28th. Although I was most infatuated with the romance of getting the thing posted then, the simple fact is that I won’t make it; I’m working on two papers for upcoming conferences, have my teaching, and of course the millions of other things that fill our days. I’m so very sorry.

That said, I believe it to be completely doable to post the Newsletter instead on March 7, 2005, which is appropriate in its own way. I’m also heartened that by then I will have some pictures from the upcoming conference on “Aquinas the Augustinian” in Florida, a conference at San Domenico’s in Bologna, and will have some facts double-checked by then (which will spare you my errors).

Please accept my apologies, and don’t forget to keep sending in news and information.

Whither thomistic bibliography?

A few years backed I published a short article in David Berger’s wonderful journal, Doctor Angelicus, regarding the problem of Thomistic Bibliography (see: Mark F. Johnson, “The Future of Thomistic Bibliography,” Doctor Angelicus 2 [2002]: 193-198). I very much want that article to start some serious discussion, so I asked David Berger for his permission to post it here, which he immediately and charitably gave. Please take a look at the article and make some comments here. There’s an on-line version, and downloadable versions.

Subscribe to Thomistica.NET updates

I’ve created and included a ‘subscribe’ module to the website. You can now enter your e-mail address to be updated when an announcement about the site is made (I’m planning eventually to distribute the “Tommaso d’Aquino Newsletter” itself by this list). You can subscribe by going here, then entering your e-mail address, and pressing the “sign up” button. You will then be brought to a subscription-verification page, which will double-check your e-mail address (to make sure you got it right), and then ask you some basic demographic questions (i.e., what country do you live in, etc.). This will help us get an idea of where are visitors are, and how we can serve them best.

Of course, this is all totally free.

(A note about privacy. I will never share your e-mail addresses with a third party. This is all supposed to be fun, informative, and hassle-free, right?).

So sign up right away, and we’ll be able to share information regularly, and freely.

Vagantes 2005 conference at Notre Dame (Indiana, USA)

Vagantes 2005 (University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana March 3-5)

Vagantes is an interdisciplinary medieval graduate student conference. Papers will be presented on visual hermeneutics, the social implications of romance, ecclesiastical politics, the medieval Mediterranean, interfaith disputes, conversion, economics, and experimentation with literary genre conventions.

Paul Cobb, assistant professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, and Steven Justice, associate professor of English at University of California at Berkeley, will give keynote addresses.

In an attempt to accommodate a graduate student’s budget, there is no conference fee, three meals will be provided, and the closing banquet costs only $15. Local transportation and a limited amount of free housing will be available. Please see http://www.vagantes.org for more details.

Register at: http://www.vagantes.org.

Send questions to Miranda Wilcox: mwilcox@nd.edu.

A translation of Thomas's Commentary on Job by Brian Mullady, OP

Wow. Fr Brian Mullady, OP, has been working on a translation of Thomas’s Commentary on Job (written in Orvieto, 1262-1265), and has placed it on his webpage. An on-line version is about half-way complete, but the translation of the whole commentary is complete, and is available as an MS Word document! See his webpage devoted to the project here.

Edith Stein Encounters Thomas Aquinas: Symposium at St. Mary's (Notre Dame)

If you’re in the South Bend, Indiana, area on February 19, you might want to swing by St. Mary’s College to attend a symposium on Edith Stein and Aquinas, featuring papers by Constance FitzGerald (“Edith Stein: Contemplative Scholar”) and Sarah Borden (“Edith Stein Encounters Thomas Aquinas”). More information can be found here.

A neat icon of St. Thomas

Nicholas Markell’s icon of Aquinas

(With thanks to Chris Kaczor). There’s this neat icon out there of St. Thomas by the artist, Nicholas Markell. The nice people over at Lasting Visions have a section devoted to the icons (and other religious art) by various artists. You can see the write-up for the icon on St. Thomas (a buy some icon cards, if you wish), here. In addition, there is a section devoted to images of members of the Dominican Order. What??? No Paul of Hungary?

Update on 2005-01-17 21:33 by Mark Johnson

No St. Peter Martyr???

Rutgers University post-doc in medieval history

A post-doctoral appointment in medieval history is available in the History Department, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, for the academic year, 2004-2005. The field is open. The appointment, which carries no expectations of promotion or permanence, is offered initially for one academic year. Renewal for a second year is possible but not guaranteed. Scholars at any stage in their careers are invited to apply. Candidates must have completed all requirements for the doctorate by August 31, 2005. Each semester, the recipient of the appointment will teach one undergraduate course in his/her general area of specialization, choosing subjects of the courses in consultation with the department’s director of undergraduate studies. The salary is in the range of $35,000.

Interested scholars should send letters of application, curricula vitarum, transcripts of graduate study (if their doctorates are recent or pending), and the names and addresses of three persons whom they are asking to write testimonial letters. Examples of written or published materials are also invited, though they cannot be returned.

Dossiers, including e-mail addresses, should be sent by regular mail to Professor Karl F. Morrison, Department of History, Rutgers University; 16 Seminary Place; New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1108.

The deadline for receipt of applications is March 15, 2005. Rutgers, an AA/EOE, has a strong commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and respect.

General enquiries may be sent to: kmorriso@ias.edu

Medieval Institute at Notre Dame offers summer courses (languages, paleography)

The Medieval Institute is pleased to offer summer courses in medieval languages and paleography to graduate students and to qualified undergraduates from Notre Dame and all across the country. Offerings are also available in other fields. While in summer residence, students have access to the bountiful resources of the Medieval Institute and its renowned library.

Most summer courses run from mid-June to the beginning of August, an ideal time to enjoy the luxury of uninterrupted study in the pastoral setting of the Notre Dame campus. Participants in the summer program benefit both from the expertise and commitment to their disciplines that our summer faculty members bring to their teaching, and from the smaller enrollments and shorter, concentrated duration of most summer classes, which also permit sustained and frequent contact between student and teacher. While graduate students, especially, find the summer program to be an ideal opportunity to acquire the skills they need for their programs, these classes also appeal to others imbued with a love of the Middle Ages.

Medieval Latin and Paleography, both seven-week courses are taught by Frank A. C. Mantello, professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at The Catholic University of America. Several other language courses are also offered at Notre Dame by both the Medieval Institute and the University’s Summer Institute in Ancient and Medieval Languages.

The Medieval Institute has the privilege of offering two CARA scholarships for summer Latin or paleography study, thanks to the Medieval Academy. See the application details.

Applicants for the summer session at Notre Dame should consult http://www.nd.edu/~sumsess/ for information regarding tuition, fees, housing, and registration.

Unpublished biblical commentary translations of Aquinas

Okay, I promise. This is the last Ave Maria entry for the day.

Ave Maria University’s Aquinas Center has some previously unpublished translations into English of some of Thomas’s biblical commentaries. Here’s what they say:

The following unpublished translations, done years ago by Fr. Fabian Larcher, of St. Thomas Aquinas’s biblical commentaries on Hebrews, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians. Until a couple years ago, these unpublished translations - good but left unpublished because they are not critical editions (i.e. with footnotes, using the most critically up-to-date Latin text etc.) - existed only in typescripts kept in a box by Fr. Pierre Conway OP of the Dominican House in Washington D.C. He gave the typescripts to the Aquinas Center on the promise that they would be converted into digital format and worked toward publication.

The Adobe Acrobate (PDF) files are as follows:

• Hebrews - Section 1 (845kb)

• Hebrews - Section 2 (1.06mb)

• 1 Corinthians (1.82mb)

• 2 Corinthians (1.36 mb)

• Colossians (454kb)

• Ephesians - entire group (1.84mb)

  • Introduction (210kb)

  • Prologue (79kb)

  • Chapter 1 (227kb)

  • Chapter 2 (188kb)

  • Chapter 3 (190kb)

  • Chapter 4 (240kb)

  • Chapter 5 (212kb)

  • Chapter 6 (158kb)

Aquinas the Augustinian Conference at Ave Maria in Florida

Ave Maria University’s Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal, which is “a new academic institute created to foster the renewal of Catholic theology,” is hosting another conference, this one entitled “Aquinas the Augustinian Conference,” to be held in Naples, Florida, on February 3-5, 2005. From the web site:

The recent work of such thinkers as Alasdair MacIntyre and Servais Pinckaers OP has highlighted the Augustinian aspects of Aquinas’s philosophy/theology. It is thus a fruitful time to bring together a group of scholars to investigate in a systematic fashion the interplay between these two great theologians and the ways that retrieval of their thought in the modern context should proceed.

The list of speakers is as follows:

Conference Speakers:
Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago, Keynote Address
Michel Barnes, Marquette University
Johannes Brachtendorf, University of Tübingen
Stephen F. Brown, Boston College
Sarah Byers, University of Dallas
Michael Dauphinais, Ave Maria University
Barry David, Ave Maria University
Robert Dodaro, OSA, Augustinianum
Gilles Emery, OP, University of Fribourg
Harm Goris, Thomas Instituut of Utrecht
Wayne Hankey, Dalhousie University
Reinhard Hütter, Duke University
Mark Johnson, Marquette University
Matthew Lamb, Boston College and Ave Maria University
Matthew Levering, Ave Maria University
Jody Vaccaro Lewis, Dominican House of Studies
Guy Mansini, OSB, St. Meinrad’s Seminary
Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University
John O’Callaghan, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Osborne, University of St. Thomas (TX)
John Rist, University of Toronto
Tracey Rowland, John Paul II Institute (Melbourne)
Michael Sherwin, OP, University of Fribourg
Jeremy Wilkins, University of St. Thomas (TX)

See you there!

Gregory Rocca's book wins Charles Cardinal Journet Prize

In a follow-up to the previous story, the Aquinas Center at Ave Maria University has announced that Gregory P. Rocca, O.P.’s Speaking the Incomprehensible God: Thomas Aquinas on the Interplay of Positive and Negative Theologyis the winner of this year’s Charles Cardinal Journet Prize, which consists of:

a $500 award and an invitation to deliver the Journet Lecture at Ave Maria University during the Spring of the year, all expenses paid by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal. The purpose of the Journet Prize is to stimulate and draw attention to the ongoing renewal, among both Catholic and Protestant thinkers, of contemporary and energetic Thomistic scholarship.

Father Rocca is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, where he recently completed nine years as president.