Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics in the Thomistic and Analytic Traditions

From Matt O’Brien, a graduate student of philosophy at UTexas, comes a note about a conference on "Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics in the Thomistic and Analytic Traditions," to be held this summer, at Princeton University (August 7–11, 2006). Here’s an explanation from the web site for the conference, which is intended for graduate students:

Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics in the Thomistic and Analytic Traditions is a summer graduate seminar devoted to promoting intellectual exchange between the philosophical tradition inspired by Thomas Aquinas, broadly understood, and contemporary analytic philosophy. The modern revival of Thomism in Catholic circles began with the 1879 encyclical letter Aeterni Patris, and was exemplified in the work of Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson during the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, that revival was broadened as philosophers such as Peter Geach, Elizabeth Anscombe, Anthony Kenny, and Philippa Foot began to draw upon the insights of Aquinas (and Aristotle) within the context of contemporary analytic philosophy. The work of these philosophers and others has shown how the Thomistic tradition can inspire original, valuable contributions to contemporary debates, and often calls into question how the very issues of contemporary philosophy are themselves conceived.

The faculty for the seminar include:

  • Nicholas Rescher
  • Alexander Pruss
  • Gabriele De Anna
  • Mark C. Murphy
  • Michael Gorman

An exciting opportunity.

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Your new favorite wine...

You now have a new favorite wine.

84186-272526-thumbnail.jpg
Aquinas Napa Valley
About a month ago I was in Los Angeles (for certain reasons) and stumbled across this brand of wine in a local supermarket. Who’d have thought it? But, yes, there is a wine, grown in Napa Valley, California, called "Aquinas Napa Valley," made by the Don Sebastiani family. I bought a very fine Cabernet Sauvignon; they also have a Merlot and a Chardonnay. Recently the company redesigned the web site, but the web site that was up when I was in California described the family’s devotion to St. Thomas, etc. The current web site sports some desktop wallpaper! Lucky for me, the wine is sold locally here in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area. Is it 5 o’clock yet?

2 Comments

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Abbreviationes Online 2.5 (for manuscript work)

Olaf Pluta has updated his marvelous on-line manuscript abbreviation system, aptly named Abbreviationes. Abbreviationes Online 2.5 now goes both ways (you can input a word and look for its abbreviation, or input an abbreviation, and get some good expansions. Here is what Olaf says:

Abbreviationes Online 2.5 has been greatly enhanced. The complete Abbreviationes database is now available online. You can search for words matching a given abbreviation and for abbreviations matching a given word. You can choose from a variety of search options (is equal to, contains, begins with, ends with). And you can switch between different views on the data (list view, detail view).

Abbreviationes Online 2.5 supersedes the original Abbreviationes database (available for Mac OS and Windows), and you may wish to switch to the online version. For details, point your Web browser at http://abbreviationes.net or at http://abbrev.net, for short, and have a look at the demos. To go to Abbreviationes Online, click on the link at the bottom of this page and then choose one of the available Web servers.

A wonderful service, if you’re at a machine that’s licenced. The basic program, Abbreviationes, is a Mac program, so you’d need a Mac emulator to run it in MS Windows (see the specifics).

A personal wish: a native MS Windows version, with OpenType support. But that’s easy for me to say, because I wouldn’t have to code the thing!

Thanks, Olaf, for showing how computers might actually help to make academics more productive.

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

The Sacraments and Aquinas at Ave Maria University (Feb. 2007)

The folks at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, have done it again, planning a splendid conference on "Sacraments in Aquinas," to be held February 8-10, 2007. Here is the blurb and speakers list that Matthew Levering sent to me:

Sacraments in Aquinas

With some exceptions, very little work has been done on Aquinas’s sacramental and liturgical theology in the past few decades. In recent years, however, philosophical and theological interest in Aquinas’s sacramental theology and theological of the liturgy seems to be significantly increasing in ecumenical circles. Now seems an auspicious time to plan for a conference that would illumine the contributions of Aquinas, and the medieval tradition to which he belongs, in this area.

Speakers include

  • Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, Fordham University, Keynote Address
  • Reinhard Hütter, Duke University Divinity School, Closing Address
  • Sr. Thomas Augustine Becker, OP, Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
  • Bernhard Blankenhorn, OP, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
  • Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP, Revue Thomiste
  • John Boyle, University of St. Thomas (MN)
  • Sarah Byers , Ave Maria University
  • Romanus Cessario, OP, St. John’s Seminary
  • Michael Dauphinais , Ave Maria University
  • Barry David, Ave Maria University
  • Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole, OP, University of Fribourg
  • Gilles Emery, OP, University of Fribourg
  • Paul Gondreau, Providence College
  • Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University
  • Joseph Koterski, SJ, Fordham University
  • Peter Kwasniewski, International Theological Institute
  • Matthew L. Lamb, Ave Maria University
  • Michael Lang, London Oratory
  • Matthew Levering, Ave Maria University
  • Steven Long, Ave Maria University
  • Christopher Malloy, University of Dallas
  • Bruce Marshall, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
  • Robert Miner, Baylor University
  • R. Trent Pomplun, Loyola College in Maryland
  • Lauren Pristas, Caldwell College
  • Richard Schenk, OP, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
  • Henk Schoot, Thomas Instituut te Utrecht
  • Joseph Wawrykow, University of Notre Dame
  • Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

I’m sure that their website will soon have more details. February in Florida sounds pretty good right now…

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Aquinasonline.com is back, er, on-line

After a hiatus of some time, Joseph M. Magee’s Thomistic Philosophy Page web site is back on-line. It sports Thomistic topics, quodlibetal questions, bibliography, links, and a bookstore. A fine resource, in English.

1 Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Fr Burrell's latest doings

After receiving Fr David Burrell, CSC’s (of the University of Notre Dame) annual Christmas e-mail letter, I wrote to him inquiring what he has been writing that touches upon St Thomas. He graciously responded with the following list:

  • "Al-Ghazali, Aquinas, and Created Freedom," in Jeremiah Hackett, William Murnion, Carl Still, eds., Being and Thought in Aquinas (Binghamton NY: Global Academic Publishing, 2004) 17-46.
  • Preface/Avant-propos to Olivier-Thomas Venard, O.P, La langue des choses: fondements theologiques de la metaphysique (Geneve: Ad Solem, 2004) vi-x.
  • "Analogy, Creation, and Theological Language," in Rik Van Nieuwenhove and Joseph Wawrykow, eds., Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) 77-98.
  • "Creation in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Super Evangelium," in Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering, eds., Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2005) 115-26.
  • "Can we be Free without a Creator?" in L. Gregory Jones, Reinhard Hutter, C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell, eds., God, Truth, and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas (Grand Rapids MI: Brazos Press, 2005) 35-52.
  • "The New Aquinas" in Rupert Short, ed., God’s Advocates: Christian Thinkers in Conversation (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2005) 126-40.
Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

PHDData.org: The Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress

Of use both to Ph.D. students and to the professors who advise them, this on-line resource lets you search for dissertations that are currently in process, which could possibly save a student/professor team the hassle and embarassment of duplicating a dissertation this is already "out there," or in the process of being put "out there." The site is PHDData.org.

You can run searches based on language, academic institution, up to five keywords, and more. The is a main category for ‘religion,’ and philosophy comes under the heading of ‘Arts and Humanities.’ Oddly, searches for "Aquinas," "Thomist," and other keywords that would associated with the academic study of Thomas Aquinas, all failed to generate any hits. Oh, well. In time…

French and Spanish versions of the site will be available shortly.

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Gentium font is updated and is now open-licensed

If you are a user of the Gentium font, you’ll be pleased to know that it has just been updated again (the third time), and is now open-licensed. Here is what they say:

We’re thrilled to announce that we have re-released Gentium under a free/open-source license - the SIL Open Font License (OFL). This will give much greater freedom to everyone using the fonts, and allow for easier inclusion in free, open-source and commercial software packages.

The only changes we’ve made in addition to the licensing change were a couple of bug fixes releated to PostScript glyph names and to the reported italic angle.

All of this can be found at

http://scripts.sil.org/gentium

We know that many of you have been waiting for eons for Bold and Bold Italic, more ancient Greek letters (like the digamma), etc. We have been working on these (very sporadically) over the last couple of years, but they’re not ready yet. We hope to have a greatly improved set of Regular and Italic out mid next year, and then work on completing the additional weights.

In the meantime, if the lack of one letter is hindering you, the OFL now gives you the freedom to change the fonts, and even distribute modified versions - with some conditions. We also warmly welcome your submissions of work to be included in the main Gentium project. See the Status page on the web site for details.

I don’t use this font on my system, although everyone I know of who does biblical Greek does, so you might want to check it out. The price is right…

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Fr. Joseph Owens, CSSR, dies in Toronto, Canada (Oct. 30, 2005)

owens1988.jpgSome very sad news from Toronto. Fr. Joseph Owens, CSSR, one of the very first students at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, Canada, has died, at the age of 97 years old. I was blessed to have Fr Owens for two classes in Toronto, on Aristotle’s De anima and on the Nicomachean Ethics. He would come to class with only one thing: the small Oxford edition of the relevant work of Aristotle, in Greek. Nothing else. He would perch his reading classes on his forehead (never on top of his head; how did those glasses stay put?), and explain some point, citing the book, chapter, and often even the Becker number, of Aristotle’s text. He was gentle and clear, always a role-model of excellent scholarship and even better collegiality.

The good people at Owens’s beloved Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies have posted an obituary article on their web site. Here is the obituary, from the Toronto Globe and Mail (November 2, 2005):

REV. JOSEPH OWENS C.Ss.R. At the Providence Health Centre, Toronto on Sunday, October 30, 2005, in his 98th year and the 77th year of his Religious Life. Father Owens was ordained in 1933. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick on April 17, 1908, son of Louis Owens and Josephine Quinn. Father Joseph is survived by two nieces, Anne (David) Cole, Katherine (Ralph) Furness and by his nephews, Bryson (Jacqueline) Eldridge, William (Trina) Eldridge, Robert Eldridge and Gerard (Susan) Eldridge. He served in parishes in Saskatchewan and British Columbia and did graduate studies in Toronto at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, and taught philosophy to younger members of his Community, until he received his Licentiate in Mediaeval Studies in 1946. Father Owens then continued to study at the Institute while also lecturing in philosophy in Redemptorist houses of study. In 1951 he received his Doctorate in Mediaeval Studies summa cum laude from the Institute and became a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Institute in 1954. In medieval philosophy he taught and wrote extensively on the philosophy of St. Thomas, especially in the areas of metaphysics (the study of ultimate reality), the philosophy of the human person, the philosophy of knowledge, and ethics. Father Owens wrote nine philosophy books and almost a hundred and fifty articles and forty book reviews. In 1973, having passed the usual retirement age, he continued to publish and teach part-time for another twenty-five years. Friends may call at St. Patrick’s Church, 141 McCaul Street, Toronto, on Thursday, November 3rd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Mass of the Thanksgiving will be concelebrated on Thursday evening, November 3rd at 7 o’clock. Funeral Mass will be held at St. Peter ‘s Church, Saint John, New Brunswick on Monday, November 7th followed by interment in Calvary Cemetery. Funeral arrangements entrusted to the Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home & Chapel (416) 924-1408.

I’m sure that there are many who have strong remembrances of Fr Owens. Please leave comments…
6 Comments

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

We've hit 150 subscribers on Thomistica.NET!

This morning I got my 150th request to be on the Thomistica.NET subscriber list. Thanks to everyone who has signed up to get regular updates on the site and, most importantly, the Newsletter. Subscribing to the list is free, of course, and let’s me contact you when some item of importance emerges. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the Newsletter done by the semester’s end. I apologize for being so slow (this fall has been unbelievably busy at school).

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Société thomiste announces Journée saint Thomas d’Aquin (December 3, 2005)

This just in, from Adriano Oliva, OP, and Ruedi Imbach: The Société thomiste will be holding its annual Journée saint Thomas d’Aquin this year on December 3, 2005, in Paris (Couvent Saint-Jacques, 20 rue des Tanneries, Paris 13).

Here are the presentations to take place:

10:00 — Prof. Fr. Jean-Pierre TORRELL, OP (Fribourg CH): LE COMPENDIUM THEOLOGIAE DE S. THOMAS. DATES – STRUCTURE – CONTENU – PROBLEMES: Le Compendium écrit par Thomas pour son ami Raynald, est une œuvre qui gagne à être connue. Semblable en intention à l’Enchiridion de S. Augustin, il occupe dans l’œuvre de l’Aquinate une place originale et il est assez différent de ses grands ouvrages. Il en reprend pourtant tous les grands thèmes et c’est une remarquable introduction à la pensée du Maître.

11:30 — Fr. Emmanuel PERRIER, OP (Toulouse – Fribourg CH): LA PUISSANCE NOTIONNELLE DANS LA THEOLOGIE TRINITAIRE DE SAINT THOMAS : UNE DOCTRINE DE LA FECONDITE DIVINE ? Parler d’une puissance notionnelle revient à viser la propriété la plus intime de la nature divine, celle dont les actes notionnels – la génération du Fils, la spiration de l’Esprit – sont la manifestation : Dieu est tel que le Père produit de manière immanente un Fils égal à lui et distinct de lui. Telle est la voie empruntée par saint Thomas dans son commentaire des Sentences, que l’on ne peut s’empêcher de rapprocher de la fécondité divine mise en valeur par saint Bonaventure. Cette doctrine, originale dans le paysage médiéval, retrouve les grands traits de l’argumentation que Grégoire de Nysse avait opposée à Eunome au IVe siècle. Or, l’évolution de l’Aquinate jusqu’à la Somme de Théologie est marquée par l’abandon progressif de cette perspective, à laquelle il semblait pourtant très attaché. Dès lors, la question se pose de savoir si une telle évolution résulte d’un renoncement ou d’un approfondissement.

14:15 — HOMMAGE AU FR. ÉDOUARD–HENRI WEBER, OP: Le Fr. É.-H. Wéber a présenté pendant de longues années les publications thomistes lors des journées Saint Thomas. La Société thomiste voudrait rendre hommage au Fr. Wéber qui a également rédigé le “ Bulletin de philosophie médiévale (XIIIe siècle) ” dans la Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques. Puisqu’il a toujours aimé la discussion, nous avons choisi de faire intervenir plusieurs personnes qui établiront un dialogue avec lui sur divers sujets de théologie et de philosophie qu’il a abordés dans ses nombreux travaux.

15:45 — PRESENTATION DE QUELQUES LIVRES, par Ruedi IMBACH et Adriano OLIVA.

Cost of the conference: 15 Euros. You can download an MS Word doc or a PDF doc with all this information, and more.

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).

Grading students' performance

Who said that it’s only now that universities are taking student assessment seriously? A beloved older Jesuit here at Marquette University gave me his personal assessment-scheme for students, which he claims he has been using since the 1950’s. On a descending scale from 10 to 0, the scale measures the student’s knowledge.

Significat numerus:

10scientiam optimam et praeclarissimam
9scientiam valde superiorem
8scientiam superiorem
7scientiam satis dignam
6scientiam minime dignam
5ignorantiam indignam
4ignorantiam reprehensibilem et intolerabilem
3ignorantiam mirabilem
2ignorantiam incredibilem et vix possibilem
1ignorantiam naturaliter impossibilem
0negationem simplicem

All things old are new again…

Comment

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is an associate professor of Theology at Marquette University, and founded thomistica.net on Squarespace in November of 2004. He studied with James Weisheipl, Leonard Boyle, Walter Principe, and Lawrence Dewan, at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, Canada).