Journée saint Thomas d’Aquin (2 décembre 2006)

Just in from Adriano Oliva and Ruedi Imbach, the (delayed) announcement of the “Journée thomiste” in Paris, on December 2, 2006. Here’s what will take place:

• Accueil
• Dr. Valérie CORDONIER (Fribourg CH), « Piscis stupefactor ». La physique de Simplicius et d’Averroès chez Thomas d’Aquin
• Prof. Walter SENNER, OP (Rome), Verité chez s. Thomas d’Aquin: pas seulement un concept logique
• Prof. Ruedi IMBACH (Paris), Thomas d’Aquin citant Averroès: quelques observations
• Présentation de quelques livres, par Ruedi IMBACH et Adriano OLIVA, OP

More information about the day’s events and costs can be found in the PDF Fr Oliva sent along.

A new "Documenti e studi," with emphasis on ethics

One of the best journals in medieval philosophy is Documenti e studi, published by SISMEL, and described by it as “…an International Journal on the Philosophical Tradition from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages of the «Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino» and of the «Società per l’Edizione dei Testi Antichi e Medievali». The latest issue of this journal—an annual—is now appearing, and is chock full of useful studies on medieval ethical theory, by highly-regarded specialists in the area:

• J. Celano, The Understanding of Beatitude, the Perfection of the Soul in the Early Latin Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
• M. J. Tracey, An Early 13th-Century Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics I, 4-10: The Lectio cum Questionibus of an Arts-Master at Paris in MS Napoli, Biblioteca Nazionale VIII G 8, ff.4ra-9vb
• T. Hoffmann, Voluntariness, Choice, and Will in the Ethics Commentaries of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas
• S. Vecchio, Il discorso sulle passioni nei commenti all’Etica Nicomachea: da Alberto Magno a Tommaso d’Aquino
• M. W. F. Stone, Equity and Moderation: The Reception and Uses of Aristotle’s Doctrine of in the epieikeia in the Thirteenth-Century Ethics
• I. Costa, Il problema dell’omonimia del bene in alcuni commenti scolastici all’Etica Nicomachea
• L. Bianchi, Boèce de Dacie et l’Ethique à Nicomaque
• S. Gentili, L’Etica volgarizzata da Taddeo Alderotti (m. 1295). Saggio di commento
• V. Mäkinen, The Influence of the Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Politics on the Discussion on Property Rights
• P. Falzone, Ignoranza, desiderio, giudizio. L’Etica Nicomachea nella struttura argomentativa di Monarchia III 3
• G. Fioravanti, Etica e biologia in un anonimo trattato di eugenetica. Edizione del Libellus de ingenio bone nativitatis (ca. 1314)
• L. Cova, Felicità e beatitudine nella Sententia libri Ethicorum di Guido Vernani da Rimini
• T. Holopainen, The Will and Akratic Action in William Ockham and John Duns Scotus
• D. A. Lines, Pagan and Christian Ethics: Girolamo Savonarola and Ludovico Valenza on Moral Philosophy
• S. Müller, Wiener Ethikkommentare des 15. Jahrhunderts
• G. Alliney, Per un confronto fra le redazioni del Commento alle Sentenze di Francesco della Marchia: la versione ‘maggiore’ di In Sent., I, d. 1, q. 6
• L. O. Nielsen - C. Trifogli, Questions on the Beatific Vision by Thomas Wylton and Sibert de Beka

Can’t wait for this one to show up in the Library!

Christendom College seeks generalist in Classics

From Steve Synder (a bud from Toronto; Steve did his work with James A. Weisheipl, OP):

Christendom College, Front Royal, VA, has an opening for a full-time position teaching in our Department of Classical and Early Christian Studies, to begin August, 2007. We are looking for a generalist in Classics willing to teach Greek and Latin on all undergraduate levels. A commitment to Latin and Greek composition, as well as an interest in the teaching of spoken Latin is desired. Christendom College is a wonderful place for a dedicated teacher, with bright and eager students participating in a demanding program in Greek and Latin.  

Here is a PDF version and an MS Word version of the posting.

CUA Press publishes collection of Lawrence Dewan, OP's articles

The Catholic University of America Press has published a collection of Lawrence Dewan, OP’s articles, all of them dealing with metaphysics. Form and Being: Studies in Thomistic Metaphysics is volum 45 in the CUA Press series “Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy.”

Once again they have provided me with a PDF announcement of the publication, along with contact information. Here is a description of the book, from the PDF announcement:

Written over a period of twenty-five years, they range from an overall conception of the primary philosophical wisdom, to such particular subjects as the conception of substance in an evolutionary context; the natural seed of intellectual knowledge within the human being; the principle of causality; the immortality of the soul; and the real distinction between particular form and the act of being, crucial for our understanding of reality as created.

The method combines close readings of and reflections on the texts of Thomas Aquinas and other relevant thinkers. Because the essays were written largely in response to the work of several prominent twentieth-century metaphysicians, they regularly offer alternative views on fundamental issues.

The distinctive contribution of this volume is its focus on the role of form among the various items in the ontological analysis. The most prominent Thomistic metaphysicians in the twentieth century laid great stress on the role of the act of being. Dewan’s essays present what is essentially the same picture, but in a way that emphasizes the continuity between Christian philosophers and their predecessors in ancient Greece.

The volume contains thirteen of Dewan’s most significant pieces on metaphyics. Here is the table of contents:

CONTENTS:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations

1. What is Metaphysics?
2. What Does It Mean to Study Being “as Being”?
3. St. Thomas and the Seed of Metaphysics
4. St. Thomas, Physics, and the Principle of Metaphysics
5. St. Thomas and the Principle of Causality
6. St. Thomas and Analogy: The Logician and the Metaphysician
7. The Importance of Substance
8. St. Thomas, Metaphysics, and Formal Causality
9. St. Thomas, Metaphysical Procedure, and the Formal Cause
10. St. Thomas, Form, and Incorruptibility
11. St. Thomas and the Distinction between Form and Esse in Caused Things
12. Nature as a Metaphysical Object
13. The Individual as a Mode of Being according to Thomas Aquinas

Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Topics

What else has Fr Dewan published during his career? How about 110 items? Here is a downloadable version of his Curriculum vitae, which one can consult to find other articles of interest. A collection of his articles on ethical matters is in the works.

Online edition of Schütz's "Thomas-Lexikon"

Enrique Alarcón—known to us mortals as “Superman”—has done it again. This time he’s put up an on-line version of Ludwig Schütz’s immortal Thomas-Lexikon: Sammlung, Übersetzung und Erklärung der in sämtlichen Werken des hl. Thomas von Aquin vorkommenden Kunstausdrücke und wissenschaftlichen Aussprüche. Starting with the second edition of the work, Alarcón has tidied things up, resulting in a third edition of the work. The Lexicon contains Schütz’s “Foreword,” dating from 1895, and a list of abbreviations and editions-used. A useful tool, indeed.

Here is the link: http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/tl.html

¡Gracias, Enrique!

Ralph McInerny's new book

Ralph McInerny has a new book coming out from CUA Press: Praeambula fidei: Thomism and the God of the Philosophers. The folks at CUA Press were kind enough to provide me with a PDF file press release of the thing. Here is some material from the release:

The praeambula fidei (“preambles of faith”) are regarded by Thomas Aquinas as the culmination of philosophy: natural theology, the highest knowledge of God that is possible on philosophical grounds alone. The natural home for such considerations is the Metaphysics of Aristotle and Thomas’s commentary on that work. Yet Thomas’s view has been cast into doubt, with philosophers and theologians alike attempting to drive a wedge between Aquinas and Aristotle. In this book, renowned philosopher Ralph McInerny sets out to review what Thomas meant by the phrase and to defend a robust understanding of Thomas’s teaching on the subject.

After setting forth different attitudes toward proofs of God’s existence and outlining the difference between belief and knowledge, McInerny examines the texts in which Thomas uses and explains the phrase “preambles of faith.” He then turns his attention to the work of eminent twentieth-century Thomists and chronicles their abandonment of the preambles. He draws a contrast between this form of Thomism and that of the classical Dominican commentators, notably Cajetan, arguing that part of the abandonment of the notion of the preambles as philosophical involves a misreading and misrepresentation of Cajetan.

McInerny concludes with a positive rereading of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Aquinas’s use thereof. In the end, the book argues for a return to the notion of Aristotelico-Thomism—Thomistic philosophy as the organic development of the thought of Aristotle.

Table of Contents:

Preface

PART I: The Preambles of Faith

1. Introduction

PART II: The Erosion of the Doctrine

Prologue
2. Gilson’s Attack on Cajetan
3. De Lubac and Cajetan
4. Christian Philosophy
5. The Chenu Case
6. The Alleged Forgetfulness of Esse

PART III: Thomism and Philosophical Theology

Prologue
7. The Presuppostions of Metaphysics
8. The Science We Are Seeking
9. The Metaphysics as a Literary Whole
10. Methodological Interlude
11. The Book of Wisdom
12. Sed Contra
13. Aristotelian Existentialism and Thomistic Essentialism

Selected Bibliography

Index

For more information, contact Beth Benevides, Marketing Manager, (202) 319-5052 or e-mail benevides@cua.edu.

American Maritain Association meeting in Nashville (November 2-5, 2006)

The American Maritain Association will hold its 2006 Annual Conference at Aquinas College/Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, 2100 W End Ave, Nashville, TN, from November 2-5, 2006, on the topic “Nature, Science and Wisdom: The Role of the Philosophy of Nature”. The PDF for the conference schedule can be found here.

Two Sessions on Transcendentals at Kalamazoo 2007

There will be two sessions at next spring’s Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo devoted to the doctrine of the transcendentals. Richard Taylor (from Marquette University’s Philosophy Department) writes:

Deadline for Abstract / Proposal with title: September 15.

42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 10-13, 2007) Call For Papers

(http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/42cfp/index.html)

Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy (2): Transcendentals in Medieval Philosophy: Sources and Doctrines I-II

Richard C. Taylor
Marquette University
Philosophy Deptartment
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
Phone:wk) 414-288-5649;
E-mail: richard.taylor@marquette.edu
Web site: www.smrphil.org

See you at the ‘Zoo!

Ten reasons I am not a Thomist

Me: “My name is Mark, and I am not a Thomist.”

Others at the meeting: “Hi, Mark.”

Yes, I *do* hide behind the Summa!At moments I am sorely tempted to despair when I realize how much work one must do to master Saint Thomas’s teaching. Twice this past semester at Marquette University I was on a board of examiners for what we call our “doctoral qualifying exams”—usually called “comps” (for ‘comprehensive exams’)—when I realized I simply didn’t know some things that Thomas himself would have known cold, and would have assumed that most of his readers would have known, too. One of my fellow-examiners is an expert in the teaching of St. Augustine, while another is a cracker-jack reader of the Old Testament. In one instance we were talking about Augustine’s teaching on some point or other when I realized I didn’t know what book of Augustine I’d have to consult in order to track the teaching down (De doctrina christiana? De trinitate? I dunno!), and in the other I realized that I couldn’t rattle off the minor prophets if I had to.

After the exam we were sitting around just chatting, when I told my colleagues I had an announcement to make. “I am not a Thomist,” I said. “That’s too bad for us,” a colleague responded, “because that’s why we hired you!” An explanation was in order. I told them that I didn’t feel that I could really consider myself a full student of Thomas’s teaching until I had a reasonable mastery of some basic texts and skills. And so, until I acquire them, I can’t be a Thomist.

So here is a list of ten things I haven’t done yet, that I need to do. What do you think?

I am not a Thomist because:

1. I have not yet read all of the writings of Augustine, cover-to-cover.
2. I have not yet read all of the Bible (in the vulgata), cover-to-cover.
3. I have not yet read the Metaphysics, cover-to-cover.
4. I have not yet read Gratian’s Decretum, cover-to-cover (but I have read Raymond of Peñafort; does that count?).
5. Yeesh! I haven’t read Lombard, cover-to-cover (big feelings of inadequacy!).
6. I don’t know the medieval or Dominican liturgy very well at all.
7. I don’t really know the doctrine of St. Albert.
8. I haven’t memorized Isidore’s Etymologies.
9. I remember reading through Damascene’s De fide orthodoxa, but I’ve forgotten what it says!
10. I haven’t read through the whole Corpus Dionysiacum, or Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed, or…..ugh.

Are you a not-Thomist, too? If so, let me know why (by discussing it, or by leaving a comment).

Call for papers on Aquinas for Kalamazoo (May 10-13, 2007)

CENTER FOR THOMISTIC STUDIES (HOUSTON) and UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS (MN)

Call for papers on the thought of ST. THOMAS AQUINAS at the 42^nd INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan (May 10-13, 2007)

There will be a total of 6 sessions devoted to Medieval philosophical and theological thought, especially Aquinas, sponsored by:

• The Center for Thomistic Studies , c/o R.E. Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas (TX), 3800 Montrose, Houston, TX 77006-4696. FAX: (713) 942-3464. email: houser@stthom.edu. The topic for 2007 will be the theological virtue of FAITH. Papers about Aquinas, his sources, or contemporary applications of his thought on the topic of faith, in itself or in relation to philosophy, will be considered for publication in a volume to be published for the Center for Thomistic Studies by The Catholic University of America Press.
• The Thomas Aquinas Society , c/o John F. Boyle, Department of Theology #4257, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, 55105, FAX ( 651) 962-5310, email: jfboyle@stthomas.edu. Proposals on any topic dealing with Aquinas are welcome.

Papers are 20 minutes in length. Deadline for 300 word abstract for presentation at Kalamazoo: 15 Sep 2006. Deadline for completed paper on faith for consideration for publication: 1 July 2007. The Kalamazoo conference is the largest congress for Medieval Studies in the world. Cost of room and board is quite moderate, and the atmosphere congenial to those interested in Aquinas.

Three postings in Theology at Marquette University

In my Department at Marquette University we have three job-postings that might be of interest to this readership.

Theological Ethics (one position)

Marquette University announces a position in theological ethics to begin 16 August 2007. The Department of Theology seeks a specialist in the Catholic ethical tradition with expertise in Catholic social teaching, along with research and teaching interests in health care ethics. Undergraduate teaching interests in areas such as family and work desirable. Open rank.

Systematic Theology (two positions)

Marquette University ’s Department of Theology announces two positions in systematic and constructive theology to begin 16 August 2007. The desirable candidates will have competencies in one or more of the following areas: hermeneutics/post modern theology, global/contextual theologies, and theological aesthetics and/or von Balthasar. Open rank.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. in theology. Teaching experience is desirable; research scholarship and publication plans are required. Responsibilities include teaching five courses per year, including general introductory courses in theology at the undergraduate level and specialized courses at the graduate level.

Candidates must support the Catholic and Jesuit ideals and mission of the University. Minorities and women strongly encouraged to apply. Review of applications will begin on 12 October, 2006, and will continue until position is filled.

Complete credentials, including letter of application, c.v., and letters of recommendation, should be sent to:

Dr. John Laurance, S.J., Chairperson
Department of Theology
Marquette University
100 Coughlin Hall
P. O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881

EOE/AA

You can download a PDF file for either the Theological Ethics or Systematic Theology announcement.

The University of Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy 2006

Friday, 22 September:

4:30 - 6:30 opening remarks

SESSION I: Chair, Stephen Dumont (University of Notre Dame)

Hester Gelber (Stanford University): “The Fate of Providence”

Neil Lewis (Georgetown University), commentary

6:30 reception

Saturday, 23 September:

10:00 - 12:00

SESSION II: Chair, Robert Wisnovsky (McGill University)

Peter Adamson (King’s College, London): “The Baghdad Peripatetics and the Knowledge of Universals”

Richard Taylor (Marquette University), commentary

lunch break

2:30 - 4:30

SESSION III: Chair, Jorge Gracia (SUNY Buffalo)

Gareth Matthews (U. Mass. Amherst): “On the Very Idea of Infused Virtues”

Eleonore Stump (St. Louis University), commentary

7:00 Conference Dinner (reservation required)

All sessions will be held in Alumni Hall, Room 400 (St. Michael’s College, 121 St. Joseph Street). The sessions are free and open to the public. If you plan to attend please let us know: medieval.philosophy@utoronto.ca and be sure to let us know if you intend to participate in the conference dinner!

The colloquium is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Department of Classics, and Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto; University of St. Michael’s College; Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

Information about the conference is available online at: http://chass.utoronto.ca/~cpamp/pages/utcmp.html.

Organizers: Deborah Black, Peter King, Martin Pickave.

Accomodations:

The Holiday Inn Midtown in Toronto, located on Bloor Street next to the St. George campus, is offering rooms at a reduced rate for the conference.

Please reserve online at Toronto’s Holiday Inn Midtown using the Corporate ID #100217931.