A service of the Thomas Institut in Cologne, the Averroes Database aims to "provide scholars working on Averroes (MuÎammad Ibn Rušd, 1126-1198) with resources, supplying bibliographical information on Averroes’s works and the modern scholarly literature on Averroes." This includes bibliography, a complete survey of Averroes’s works, and, soon, a page on Averroes’s medieval translators.
If you are looking to learn, just to learn, swing by the website of Professor Peter King at the University of Toronto. King’s website is loaded with a variety of fascinating articles, ranging from articles on Scotus (and editions of Scotus) to articles on Hobbes and the Beatles, and translations of medieval philosophical texts. More than that, almost all of these articles can be downloaded in PDF format, as King has produced the PDF files of his publications (even though they are found in journals and in books) through Emacs, TeX, and pdfTeX (ouch!).
I love it when others make learning easy for me…
Thomist moral theologians lament all the time that some of the deeply religious features of Aquinas’s doctrine are left out in the cold when discussions of his moral teaching take place, and that is surely true of his treatment of the gifts of the holy spirit.
While putzing around the Dominican Central web site, and looking up the page devoted to Benedict Ashley, OP, I came across this handy article on Thomas’s teaching regarding the gifts of the holy spirit. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting and helpful.
This is soooo cool. When we took our paleography courses in Toronto one of the libraries to which constant reference was made was the famed library of St. Gall, in Switzerland. Now there is word that the same library is working on putting many of their precious manuscripts on-line. Currently, about 20 are viewable, via a well put-together site (existing in German, French, English, and Italian). The site boasts:
Click here to get a peek. You can read the Rule of St. Benedict in a splendid 9th century hand, or even a Bible from around 760 a.d.! A splendid site.
The Third Annual Midwestern Conference in Medieval Philosophy will be held on Sept. 16-17 at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (all sessions will be held in the Conference Center in the basement of Raynor Library). Here are the papers to be given:
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16
8-9 am. Coffee, tea, & bagels in the Commons Room in the Philosophy Department, Coughlin Hall
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17
Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy with support from the College of Arts and Sciences.
More information can be found on the web site of Dr Richard C. Taylor, by clicking here.
David Berger, editor of Doctor Angelicus (the newer German journal devoted to Aquinas), has a new book coming out. The book is entitled In der Schule des Hl. Thomas von Aquin: Studien zur Geschichte des Thomismus (Bonn: Verlag Nova et Vetera, 2005). Here’s the blurb (auf Deutsch):
Seit dem Tod des hl. Thomas von Aquin (1274), des „engelgleichen Lehrers" der katholischen Kirche, haben sich seine Schüler immer wieder neu um die Aneignung und Tradierung seiner Lehre bemüht und diese dadurch lebendig erhalten: so entstand als eigene Denkrichtung und philosophisch-theologische Schule der Thomismus. Obgleich dieser Schule über all die letzten sieben Jahrhunderte bis zur gegenwärtigen Stunde eine eminente Bedeutung zukommt, existiert bis heute keine Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Geschichte.
In dem hier vorliegenden Buch sind Studien zu wichtigen Aspekten dieser Geschichte versammelt, die einen Beitrag für eine noch zu schreibende historische Gesamtdarstellung des Thomismus bieten wollen. Dabei reicht das Themenfeld von der Jahrhunderte langen Suche dieser Denkrichtung nach ihrem eigenen Wesen über naturrechtliche Fragen bis hin zu wichtigen thomistischen Institutionen (Päpstliche Thomasakademie, Zeitschrift „Divus Thomas") sowie bedeutenden Thomisten (N. Del Prado, R. Garrigou-Lagrange, B. Lakebrink, J. Brinktrine).
Ganz entsprechend der Doktrin des hl. Thomas selbst, ist die historische Forschung jedoch stets mit dem systematischen Anliegen verbunden: durch alle Studien hindurch wird deutlich gemacht, dass der Thomismus kein museales Phänomen ist, sondern gerade heute eine ganz einzigartige Aktualität besitzt: Zeigt er uns doch den hl. Thomas inmitten der aufgewühlten Wogen der „Diktatur des Relativismus" (Papst Benedikt XVI) als jenen Leuchtturm, der uns den Weg zur Wahrheit weist.
The book will appear in Oktober, and can be purchased from Verlag Nova et Vetera. You can get the table of contents and the forward in PDF format by clicking here.
An update from Monika Michalowska (on behalf of Professor Elzbieta Jung):
So….got an article you’d like to see published? See the original call for papers here, posted in February, 2005, which contains the mailing address, and e-mail address, of the journal.It is a pleasure for me to inform you that we have almost completed the first number of Mediaevalia Philosophica Polonorum which will be published at the beginning of 2006.
However, as we have some place for a few articles it is still open for contributions in history of medieval philosophy, theology and science in English, French, German and Latin and editions of medieval texts of approximately 30 printed pages (ca 54000 signs). I would also like to ask you to send a short note about you together with the text.
Robert Pasnau’s book, Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature : A Philosophical Study of Summa Theologiae, 1a 75-89 ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), has won the American Philosophical Association Book Prize award for 2005. The book is a new, in-depth, consideration and presentation of Thomas’s teaching on human nature as found in questions 75-89 of the first part of the Summa theologiae. The book is available on amazon.com.
The University of Bucharest, Department of Philosophy, is holding a Colloquium on Plotinus on November 12, 2005. Here’s what they have to say:
Plotinus is generally recognized as the founder and the most important figure of neoplatonic current. The aim of this conference is to provide proves of the influence of his texts upon western philosophy. Papers may deal with long time discussed topics (such as, but not restricted to, plotinian metaphysics, the theory of the soul etc.), as well as new research interests (logic, philosophy of science or plotinian ethics). Historical-philosophical approach may be developed on a wide area of subjects from plotinian reconstruction of some platonic, aristotelian and stoic doctrines or the relation between Plotinus and accademic neoplatonism to the influence of the Enneads on some christian thinkers (St. Augustine, Boethius and Arab thinkers) or on some Renaissance and XVII-th century intellectuals.
Lecture titles of the keynote speakers will be announced at the end of September 2005.
Eligibility
Applicants should hold a PhD title or be in the final stage of completing a PhD program in a relevant research field.
Submissions
Only completed papers will be considered. Authors should observe very carefully the guidelines before submitting their texts. Papers must be accompanied by an abstract of 200 words and an academic curriculum vitae (with a list of publications).
All papers must be received via e-mail by October 3rd, 2005, 12.00. CET. Early submissions are encouraged. Applicants will learn of the status of their paper submissions only via e-mail by October 23rd, 2005. Please, send your papers to: plotinus2005 “@” gmail.com All correspondence should be addressed to Marin Balan or Cristian Ducu plotinus2005 “@” gmail.com
The web address for the this Colloquium is http://www.hybris.ro/plotinus/.
The American Maritain Association will be holding its 2005 conference at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The conference opens on October 13 and concludes the morning of October 16. Additional information is available at www.jacquesmaritain.org. The conference program is not yet on-line, but you can learn about the conference by looking at the Association’s call for papers page.
Peter Pagan kindly sent me the program for the conference, which you can get by clicking here (PDF format). There is an MS Word/RTF version of the program on the website of the American Maritain Association. An extensive and interesting line-up of speakers and participants…
Peter A. Kwasniewski, Dean and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria, reminded me recently that “the International Theological Institute offers one of the most rigorous Thomistic theological formations available at a pontifical institute. We grant the STB and STL, and in the future hope to grant the pontifical doctorate as well. Courses for the last two years of the STB program are almost entirely treatises from the Summa theologiae.” The impressive and detailed overview can be found here.
A conference will be held in Fribourg, Switzerland, October 28-30th, entitled “Renouveler toutes choses en Christ: Vers un renouveau thomiste de la théologie morale: hommage à Servais Pinckaers, O.P.” Michael Sherwin, OP, holder of the Chair of Moral Theology at the University of Fribourg, pointed me to the web page for the conference, which also has a nice, downloadable program (in PDF format). Scholars like Sherwin, Romanus Cessario, John Corbett, Angela McKay, Paul L. Gondreau, William Mattison, John Berkman, and Tobias Hoffmann, will be presenting, as will others.
Time to check my travel budget…
Under the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
