A new blog about "Le manuscrit médiéval"

A sign that the end-times are upon us (): Jean Luc Deuffic, of pecia fame, now has a blog devoted to the medieval manuscript. Check it out here. Really, really neat. And packed with links to other resources in medieval textual production and paleography.

3rd annual Midwestern Conference in Medieval Philosophy (Marquette University)

The Third Annual Midwestern Conference in Medieval Philosophy will be held at the Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 16-17 September 2005. The conference is intended to provide a formal occasion and central location for philosophers and scholars of the Midwest region (and elsewhere!) to present and discuss their current work in medieval philosophy. Plans are for 9-10 sessions with 75 minutes allotted for presentation and discussion. If you wish to present, please send a title of the proposed paper to Richard Taylor at richard.taylor@marquette.edu. Conference sessions will take place in the Raynor Library Friday and Saturday 16-17 September, 2005.

Arrangements have been made for a block of 12 reserved rooms just a few blocks down the avenue from Marquette University at:

The Holiday Inn Milwaukee City Center
611 West Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53203. Tel. 1-414-273-2950
Rate: $89/nt. single or double

Reservation deadline: August 15, 2005

Conference Website: http://homepage.mac.com/mistertea/Personal32.html.

Chronical for Higher Education job-listings in RSS

The people in the Careers Section of the Chronicle for Higher Education have made the contents of their job-listings available on-line, which you can access by clicking here. In addition, they’ve also made those listings available in an RSS newsfeed. Here are the addresses for the philosophy newsfeed, and the religion newsfeed:

• Philosophy: http://chronicle.com/jobs/100/500/5000/rss.xml
• Religion: http://chronicle.com/jobs/100/500/6000/rss.xml

You’ll be getting these items one week later, I believe, than those who subscribe to the on-line service or to the Chronicle itelf. But since the due-dates for applications are usually a month or two in the offing, you’re not suffering for it.

Update on 2005-05-31 15:11 by Mark Johnson

As of this writing (May 31, 2005) the RSS link to the Philosophy section is broken. I’ll post a follow-up when it’s working.

Update on 2005-06-01 11:55 by Mark Johnson

Okay, the philosophy RSS feed is now working. Phew.

Colloquium on Aquinas and the theology of religions (Institut Saint-Thomas d’Aquin: Toulouse, France)

Saint Thomas d’Aquin et la théologie des religions

Colloque, les 13 et 14 mai 2005 à l’Institut catholique de Toulouse

Sous la présidence de M^gr Émile Marcus (archevêque de Toulouse)

Organisé par la Revue thomiste / Institut Saint-Thomas d’Aquin

La théologie des religions, c’est-à-dire l’intelligence dans la foi du rôle des religions non chrétiennes dans le dessein de Dieu, est reconnue comme un défi majeur pour la théologie chrétienne du xxi ^e siècle. Elle est rendue urgente par l’expérience désormais quotidienne que les chrétiens font de la pluralité des religions. Elle engage les thèmes les plus décisifs de la foi et de la théologie : le salut, l’unicité de la médiation du Christ, le rôle de l’ é glise… La tradition thomiste peut-elle apporter quelque lumière dans ce débat? Pour y répondre, l’Institut Saint-Thomas d’Aquin de Toulouse et la Revue thomiste organisent un colloque qui interrogera tout d’abord saint Thomas lui-même. Quels sont les grands principes de sa théologie susceptibles de fonder une théologie des religions ? Qu’en est-il, dans l’œuvre de saint Thomas, de la question plus précise du statut religieux des non-chrétiens, avant comme après la venue du Christ ?

A sa suite, la tradition thomiste, ancienne ou plus récente, n’a cessé d’actualiser cette réflexion. Aujourd’hui encore, à la lumière des principes de saint Thomas, ce colloque tentera de proposer quelques orientations pour une théologie, ouverte et critique, des religions non chrétiennes.

L’ensemble des conférences et débats se déroulera à l’Institut catholique de Toulouse (31 rue de la Fonderie, 31068 Toulouse).

Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas publishes 2003 conference proceedings

From the Secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas:

The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas is proud to announce the publication of the first and second volume of the Proceedings of the International Conference on “Christian Humanism in the Third Millennium: The Perspective of Thomas Aquinas”. The first volume is 1010 pages long and contains the Anthropological and Historical Sections. The second volume is 1011 pages long and contains the Christological, Metaphysical, Moral and Scientific Sections. Each volume costs USD 39 or Euro 29.65 - or the equivalent in the currency of your country - including postage but excluding bank charges. Methods of payment:

1. (Cheapest way) By cheque made out to Pontificia Accademia di San Tommaso and sent by mail to the following address: Pontificia Accademia di San Tommaso, Casina Pio IV, V-00120 Vatican City.
2. Bank transfer to: Account no. 1000 / 00009396; Owner: Pontificia Accademia di San Tommaso; Bank: San Paolo Imi; Agency: 06016; Address: Stazione Termini Binario 1, 00185 Roma, Italia; IBAN IT15 R010 2503 2511 0000 0009 396; BIC IBSPITTM

Payment can be made in dollars or in euros or in the equivalent amount in your country’s currency. After making the payment, please send me an email stating how many copies of the second volume you require and your full address. We will send out the books as soon as we have received notice of payment.

Volume III will be ready shortly. Please send an email to past@acdscience.va and you will be notified of its publication.

Of course, if you have someone in Italy who can make the payment for you or come directly to our Pontifical Academy in order to save on bank charges, we will then be more than happy to send you the books.

Three lectures by Philipp Rosemann on Peter Lombard's Sentences

Boy I wish I were in the South Bend/Notre Dame area for this. Philipp Rosemann, from the University of Dallas, is giving the Broadview Press Lectures: “Rethinking the Middle Ages” (Sponsored by the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame, the Humanistic Studies Program (St. Mary’s College), and the Broadview Press) on April 12, 13, and 14, in the Medieval Institute Reading Room, 715 Hesburgh Library, at the University of Notre Dame. The three lectures, all concerning “The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard’s Sentences,” are:

1. “From the Sentences to Abbreviations and Glosses” Tuesday, 12 April, 5:00 p.m.
2. “The 13th-Century Age of the Commentary” Wednesday , 13 April, 5:00 p.m.
3. “The 14th-Century Movement Away from the Sentences” Thursday,14 April, 5:00 p.m.

A reception will follow the lecture on April 14.

Roberta A. Baranowski is the Assistant Director of the Medieval Institute. Her contact information is:

University of Notre Dame
715 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN 46556
574-631-8304 (telephone)
574-631-8644 (fax)
rbaranow@ND.EDU

3rd International Conference of the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht: Call for papers

THOMAS INSTITUUT TE UTRECHT
Heidelberglaan 2
Utrecht / The Netherlands

DIVINE TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE IN THE THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS CONFERENCE 15- 17 DECEMBER 2005

CALL FOR PAPERS - CALL FOR PAPERS - CALL FOR PAPERS

From 15 to 17 December 2005 the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht will organize an international conference on the thought of Thomas Aquinas for the third time. The Thomas Instituut te Utrecht is an institute of the Catholic Theological University at Utrecht (NL) and the Tilburg Faculty of Theology (NL). Its members are theologians, philosophers and historians from several universities and institutes in the Netherlands. Its main aim is to promote both individual and collective research into Thomas Aquinas. One of the ways by which the Institute tries to achieve this is by organizing an international conference every five years. For the year 2005 the subject will be :

Divine Transcendence and Immanence in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas.

An influential, but rather debatable, interpretation of Thomas Aquinas’ lasting contribution to human culture focuses on the distinction between the natural and the supernatural. Such a distinction may serve the interests of human autonomy, human rationality, the development of the sciences and the dialogue with non-Christian partners. But it also serves to marginalize church and religion, in response to important cultural forces, and to deeply secularise human understanding of self and society. Over the past decades, however, both philosophers and theologians have formulated an interpretation of Aquinas that is quite different. It focuses on the Christian and theological thrust of Aquinas’ authorship, and is in search of both God’s presence and absence in our world. There is no absolute, clear-cut opposition or simple contrast between God and the human world, nor can God be reduced to the latter. This is a negative formula. How can we best approach this negative formula? Are there any good strategies to elucidate it, and what would they look like? How can Aquinas be of help in recognizing and interpreting God’s presence in our world?

In a three-day conference, scholars from different disciplines and different countries of the world will devote their attention to this challenge. For this, we have selected four areas: Aquinas’ understanding of God, his teaching on creation and on grace and life eternal, and his approach to Christ and his sacraments.

The conference will be held from Thursday, 15 December until Saturday, 17 December 2005 in the conference-center ISVW at Leusden (near Utrecht, NL). Main speakers will be Conor Cunningham (Nottingham), Harm Goris (Utrecht), Bruce Marshall (Dallas), Herwi Rikhof (Utrecht), Gregory Rocca (Berkeley), Hans-Christian Schmidbaur (Lugano), Henk Schoot (Utrecht) and Rudi te Velde (Amsterdam/Tilburg).

They will speak about one of four subject areas: Aquinas’

· understanding of God;

• teaching on creation;
• teaching on grace and life eternal;
• approach to Christ and his sacraments.

The main lectures will be followed by parallel paper sessions, which also will focus on these four subject areas. We kindly invite scholars from different disciplines and different countries of the world to send in proposals for papers, which will take approx. 25 minutes. Conference languages are: English, German and French.

Proposals must be submitted by 1 June 2005 . Please send a short abstract (approx. 400 words) to:

Dr. Cristina Pumplun (Secretary of Studies)
PO Box 80101
NL-3508 TC Utrecht

E-mail: cpumplun@ktu.nl  

fax: +31 30 2533665; tel. +31 30 2533129

Registrationcosts: € 270, including accommodation and registration fee.

Fees must be paid in advance. Payment by credit card is possible. For special requests for concessions please contact the Secretary of Studies at the above address.

The conference committee will inform you before 1 August 2005 if your proposal has been accepted. The conference committee will select a number of papers for publication in the proceedings. If you think your contribution qualifies for publication, please have a full version (approx. 15 pages) ready by January 2006.

Please contact the Secretary of Studies, dr. Cristina Pumplun, for further information.

You can also have a look on our website: http://www.thomasinstitute.org

We look forward to your proposals,

Yours sincerely,

Prof. dr. Herwi Rikhof
Director of the Thomas Instituut at Utrecht

Dr. Cristina Pumplun
Secretary of Studies of the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

For more information, go to the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht’s web site.

First Newsletter (March, 2005) is now on-line

The first issue of “Tommaso d’Aquino Newsletter” (March, 2005) is now on-line here at the web site. I hope that you all like it. Don’t forget to subscribe to the web site. You can get to the Newsletter by clicking here.

People have been asking about the software that runs Thomistica.NET. I use squarespace.com as my hoster for the site; it is a wonderful and very cost effective way to have your own web site, with minimal programming knowledge needed. They have a nice referral program, too.

Tim Clark's search engine in English for the Summa theologiae

I’m getting this out now because I don’t want it to be completely upstaged by another announcment (more on that in a day or so). Tim Clark has put together a neat search engine in English of the Summa theologiae, which you can find here. The English text of the Summa is the one found on New Advent. A very nice job, and useful for one-off queries.

Web site devoted to Cornelio Fabro

(With thanks to Jörgen Vijgen). There is a very fine web site devoted to the memory and works of the great Thomist metaphysician, Cornelio Fabro. See the site at corneliofabro.org. An Opera omnia is underway, and will shortly include two of Fabro’s most influential works, La nozione metafisica di partecipazione secondo san Tommaso d’Aquino, and Participation et causalité selon s. Thomas D’Aquin.

CUA Press discount announcement

I have been working away in an effort to get my first Newsletter posted on the site, and hope to have that done by the end of this week (Holy week, 2005 [Latin rite, of course]).

I do want to share something with you right away, however, because it is time-sensitive. Early last month, at a conference at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, I spoke with the representative at Catholic University of America Press regarding their fine line-up of books that would surely be of interest to students of Thomas Aquinas. "Why not," I asked, "generously extend the conference discount of 25% to people in the Thomistica.NET community, that they might benefit from these prices?" The people at CUA Press agreed, and have provided us with an Adobe Acrobat PDF form that you can download, which contains a custom-list of Aquinas-centric books from CUA Press at 25% off. That would include Gregory Rocca’s Speaking the Incomprehensible God: Thomas Aquinas on the Interplay of Positive and Negative Theology, or Michael Sherwin’s new By Knowledge and By Love: Charity and Knowledge in the Moral Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as Jean-Pierre Torrell’s Saint Thomas Aquinas (2 vols.). For more information about the books, see the CUA Press web site.

Click here to download the PDF form onto your computer. All you need do then is to print the form up, and mail it to CUA Press. It’s that easy. The discount is in effect until April 15, 2005.

Thanks for your patience with me. I hope to have much more for you by the end of the week.

Romanus Cessario's "A Short History of Thomism"

At a recent conference at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida (web site here), I picked up a copy of Romanus Cessario, OP’s, little book, A Short History of Thomism, which had originally appeared in French. I’ve enjoyed the book so much, and feel it so useful, that I asked the kind people at Catholic University of America Press for the official blurb for the book, which follows:

New from THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS: A Short History of Thomism

Romanus Cessario, O.P.

February 2005
120 pages
Paperback ISBN 0-8132-1386-X, $19.95

Since the first followers of Saint Thomas Aquinas took up the task of explaining and defending his writings, Thomists have influenced deeply the Western intellectual tradition. Together they form a school called Thomism that can claim an uninterrupted history since the end of the thirteenth century. Using carefully selected resources, Romanus Cessario has composed a short account of the history of the Thomist tradition as it manifests itself through the more than seven hundred years that have elapsed since the death of Saint Thomas. A Short History of Thomism, originally published in French as Le Thomisme et les Thomistes, supplies a need that has not been met in over a century, and is the first such comprehensive account written in English. A preface by Ralph McInerny is included in this edition.

The author, who has worked in the field for more than thirty-five years, brings to his study an appreciation for the place that Saint Thomas Aquinas holds as a perennial teacher of Christian theology, and for the influence that the Common Doctor has exercised on all stripes of theology and philosophy.

“A very lucid and well documented introduction to seven centuries of reading Thomas Aquinas.”—Fergus Kerr, O.P., New Blackfriars

“A marked success and should be extremely useful to those just beginning to take an interest in exploring the career of Thomism after 1274.”—Timothy B. Noone, The Thomist

Romanus Cessario is Professor of Theology at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, and Associate Editor of The Thomist. He is the author of numerous works including Introduction to Moral Theology, Christian Faith and the Theological Life, and The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics, and translator with Kevin White of John Capreolus’s On the Virtues.

TO ORDER: Please contact Hopkins Fulfillment Service, PO Box 50370, Baltimore, MD 21211 Toll free 1-800-537-5487