International Congress of Medieval Philosophy in Palermo, 2007

Thanks to Jörgen Vijgen for this:

Universality of Reason — Plurality of Philosophies in the Middle Ages
XIIth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy
Palermo, 16-22 September 2007

Organised by Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (http://www.siepm.uni-freiburg.de).

4 special sessions devoted to Aquinas, coordinated by A. Oliva OP, papers dealing explicitly with Thomas Aquinas

• Eleonore Stump: Aquinas on Divine Simplicity and the Knowledge of Persons
• Alfredo Storck: La justice des juristes et celle des philosophes selon Thomas d’Aquin
• Anto Gavric: Les disciples dominicains italiens de Thomas d’Aquin
• Andrea Di Maio: “Ragioni dimostrative e probabili” o “potenza della testimonianza e dei miracoli”: due approcci dialogali ai non cristiani in Domenico e Tommaso d’Aquino e in Francesco, Antonio e Bonaventura
• Gabriela Kurylewicz: In Search of the Unity of Contemplative and Active Life - Thomas Aquinas’ Theory of Music
• Jozef Matula: Thomas Aquinas and his Reading of Isaac ben Solomon Israeli
• Antonio Pérez-Estévez: Tomás de Aquino y la razón femenina
• Patricia Moya Cańas: La representación en Tomás de Aquino
• Ignacio A. Silva: Indeterminismo en la naturaleza y acción divina en De potentia Dei de Tomás de Aquino
• Celina Ana Lértora Mendoza: Tres versiones del concordismo medieval: Averroes, Maimónides y Tomás de Aquino
• Peter Hoffmann: The Epistemological Status of Thomas Aquinas’ Concept of Philosophy
• Yoshihisa Yamamoto: Thomas Aquinas on Love as Radical Passivity: Reason and Emotion in Human Actions
• Jorge J.E. Gracia: Individuality and the Principle of Individuation in Thomas Aquinas
• David B. Twetten: Aquinas’ Definition of ‘God’ as a Foundation for a Pluralistic Natural Theology
• Graziano Perillo: «…nam per voces significatur aliquid proprie, et aliquid figurative…» (Tommaso d’Aquino, Summa theologiae, I, 1, 10, ad 3). La metafora tra significato e interpretazione. La prospettiva di Tommaso d’Aquino
• Luca Tuninetti: Veritŕ della proposizione e veritŕ dell’intelletto in Tommaso d’Aquino
• Alexander Fidora: Concepts of Philosophical Rationality in Inter-Religious Dialogues: Crispin, Abaelard, Aquinas, Llull
• Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, The Epistemological Role of Practical Philosophy: Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham
• Barbara Faes: Violenza, raptus, estasi nella riflessione teologica di Rolando Cremona e di Tommaso d’Aquino
• Adriano Oliva: Typologie, interprétation et datation des marginalia au Commentaire des Sentences de Thomas d’Aquin
• Iacopo Costa: La réception de la qu. VI De malo de Thomas d’Aquin ŕ la fin du XIIIe sičcle
• Rosa Errico: Ragione umana e veritŕ. Il problema ontologico del senso dell’essere in Edith Stein interprete di Tommaso d’Aquino
• Harm Goris: Thomas Aquinas on the Historical Development of Philosophy
• Yoshihisa Yamamoto: Thomas Aquinas on Love as Radical Passivity: Reason and Emotion in Human Actions
• Luciano Cova: Per mortem a mundo excludi. Persecuzione e soppressione fisica degli eretici in Tommaso d’Aquino e nella tradizione teologica latina
• Evanghelos Moutsopoulos: La restitution des textes aristoteliciens chez Thomas d’Aquin par D. Cydones

Resources for Modern Aristotelians

John C. Cahalan has established a web site, Resources for Modern Aristotelians: Philosophical, Theological, Socio-Political and Pastoral, containing modern Aristotelian papers that one may find helpful, which can be downloaded and copied at no charge. The address is:

http://www.foraristotelians.info

The site contains a paper of special interest collecting in a logically integrated way almost everything Yves Simon wrote on the problem of thing and object, the question Maritain considered second in significance only to the real distinction of essence and existence. Among other things, the paper includes material otherwise buried in the important endnotes to The Material Logic of John of St. Thomas (Poinsot). To access this paper click “Virtual Anthology of Modern Aristotelian Philosophy,” also at the above web site.

Other papers at the web site are:

• “How Simon Trumps Cajetan on Analogy.” In only 3 pages, this shows why the value of Simon’s crucial contribution to analogy does NOT depend on the Cajetanian framework he employed. Click on “Contributions to Modern Aristotelian Philosophy.”
• “Maritain and Marin-Sola on Predestination: A Reply to Michael Torre.” This replies to a Nova et Vetera article by Michael. Click on “Contributions to Modern Aristotelian Philosophy.”
• “A Theory of the Incarnation and Subsistence.” This puts Maritain’s contribution to the problem of subsistence on a firmer footing and offers a solution to the problem of how a substance causes its necessary accidents. Click on “Theological Contributions.”

Soon to come:

• “How Sensory Intentionality is Caused (and Related Matters)”. Offers a solution to the problem (Garrigou-Lagrange, Maritain and Simon’s), that sensory intentionality seems to require a special dependence on God. Also makes de-mystifying contributions on how the agent intellect works.

There are more papers, by Calahan and others, to come. All the material is copyrighted, but you have permission to download and copy it, free of charge, as you please.

How to help out John of St. Thomas

This just in, from John Deely of University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas:

As most, perhaps all, of you know, Jacques Maritain considered John of St Thomas — John Poinsot — to be, after only St Thomas himself, his prinicpal teacher in philosophy, and the last "commentator of genius" in the Latin line of Thomistic development. The best edition of the Cursus Philosophicus that John of St Thomas published between 1631 and 1635 was brought out in three volumes in the 1930s under the editorship of B. Reiser, an edition both long out of print and one published before the realization of the importance of publishing scholarly editions on acid-free paper.

Hildesheim Publishing (of Georg Olms) is planning for a Winter 2007/2008 re-issue of this important work provided that they receive enough subscriptions to go forward, a minimum of ten — nine, now that the University of St Thomas, Houston, library has entered a subscription.

The purpose of this e-mail is to ask each of you to have your university library enter a subscription of the work, so that the reprinting will be assured. Of course, private individuals can also enter a subscription. For either an institutional or an individual subscription to this reprint of the Cursus Philosophicus, simply e-mail

Bruno Vogel <customerservice@olms.de>

with full contact information, specifying that

"This is a subscription to the reprinting of Poinsot's Cursus Philosophicus."

While that short message would suffice, I also add the full information concerning this matter should your librarian require it in order to subscribe.

*************************************
Johannes Poinsot, Cursus philosophicus Thomisticus. Nova editio a P. Beato Reiser O.S.B. (1929), Reimpressio revisa. 3 Bände. Reprint: Hildesheim. Mit einem Vorwort und einer Bibliographie von Martin Walter. LXIV/2348 Seiten, Leinen

being handled by:

Bruno Vogel
Kundenbetreuung / Customer Services
Tel: + (49) 05121 1501-17

_____________________________________
Georg Olms Verlag AG
Hildesheim · Zürich · New York
Hagentorwall 7
D-31134 Hildesheim
Tel: + (49) 05121 1501-0
Fax: + (49) 05121 1501-50
E-mail: info@olms.de
Web:
HRB Hildesheim 1014
Generalbevollm.: Dr. h.c. mult. W. Georg Olms

The Medieval Tradition of Natural Law at Kalamazoo

Harvey Brown from University of Western Ontario invites submissions for next year's Kalamazoo, in the sessions devoted to The Medieval Tradition of Natural Law.

• I Natural Law and Political Philosophy
• II Natural Law and Moral Philosophy

Proposals should be sent, by Sept. 15, 2007, to :

Harvey Brown
Political Science Dept.
University of Western Ontario
London, Ont., Canada N6A 5C2

e-mail: hbrown2@uwo.ca

Mediaeval Sophia—a new on-line journal

I got this in the e-mail the other day:

I take pleasure in informing you, also on behalf of the whole staff, that we have put online the first issue (1/January-June 2007) of the new e-review of Officina di Studi Medievali "Mediaeval Sophia - Studies and researches on medieval knowledge." The review, which has all formal authorizations as a periodical publication, will be updated every six months and will be put online in July and December; it will be placed side by with the academic journal of Officina di Studi Medievali, "Schede Medievali", which will continue to appear once yearly.

In this phase "Mediaeval Sophia" is online with reading and saving of the texts in PDF format, free of charge, for all sections. To connect use the link: www.mediaevalsophia.it. When you enter the site you will be asked to do free registration, with a form to be filled in all parts requested.

We are in the experimental phase and you will excuse us if there are any management problems, which, however, we are working on. Indeed, we will be very happy if you tell us about any problems and difficulties and if you suggest any ways to improve both the services and the review, which is open to contributions from anyone interested in our "International academic community of medieval studies."

For operational difficulties or for information and communications you can contact:

redazione@mediaevalsophia.it
redazione@officinastudimedievali.it
webmaster@mediaevalsophia.it

Thank you for your kind attention,
Alessandro Musco

President of Officina di Studi Medievali
Deputy-Editor of Mediaeval Sophia

OFFICINA di STUDI MEDIEVALI
Via del Parlamento, 32 - 90133 Palermo (Italy)
P. IVA 02473330823 - C.F. 97000790820
Tel. +39 (0)91 / 586314 - Fax. +39 (0)91 / 333121
E-mail: info@officinastudimedievali.it - staff@officinastudimedievali.it
Web: www.officinastudimedievali.it

Thomas-Institut goes YouTube

The people over at the Thomas Institut in Cologne have put together a nifty short documentary about their Institute. The description runs as follows:

This video is a little documentary of the Thomas-Institut of the University of Cologne. The Thomas-Institut is a research Institute whose function it is to serve the study of medieval philosophy by preparing critical editions and historical and systematic studies of medieval authors.

An imbedded YouTube clips follows:

New journal: American Theological Inquiry

Got the following in this morning’s e-mail:

AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY (www.atijournal.org)

A Biannual Journal of Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Culture, & History (forthcoming: January 15, 2008).

Particular topics of interest include:

• (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, or Evangelical) Perspectives on the Current State of American Christianity.
• Current theological/philosophical trends in the Western world.
• Cultural/philosophical apologetics.
• Ecumenism and/or criticism of other traditions (ostensively) within the scope of ancient orthodoxy (Creedal Christianity)
• Systematic theology.
• Perspectives on history/historical events from an orthodox viewpoint.
• Engaging contemporary culture with the gospel.
• Engagement with the Patristical literature.

Please visit: http://www.atijournal.org for SUBMISSION GUIDELINES and additional information about the Journal.

Thanks to private funding, access to American Theological Inquiry is FREE. The Journal will be published in a PDF format, biannually, on January and July 15th.

As ATI prepares for its first edition on January, 15, 2008, we welcome the suggestions, ideas, and feedback of the American community of Christian scholars. To provide feedback to the Journal, please follow this link.

It may be something of a stretch to post it here, but the journal might be a place for a Thomist to say something interesting. I’d rather be too thorough. Those who submit articles are also asked explicitly to affirm their adherence to the four early creeds.

(Sotto voce: I’ve been meaning to think about ecclesial community, its creeds, and its sacred texts; maybe I’ll put together a post on my personal web site…).

Your URL is blocked!

While rummaging through the traffic logs for the web site recently I realized that I never got any hits from *.cn websites or IP addresses. How come? I did a little digging, and have found out why: thomistica.net is blocked in China. Really.
Your URL is blocked!

My personal website is also blocked.

Who ever thought running a website about Saint Thomas Aquinas would be a political statement?

St. Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Sentences

Thanks to Thomas Osborne at Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St Thomas, Houston, for a link to the Commentaria of St Bonaventure on Book 1 of the Sentences, which has both the Latin and the English. Click here to go to the commentary on Book 1. Other translation work is in progress. And since the Franciscans were responsible for the critical edition on Peter Lombard's Libri sententiarum, you can find out about that, here.

Frederick S. Paxton and Cluniac Death Rituals

(Boosterism mode: ON): Medieval studies is a fascinating series of disciplines. While hunting around recently for information on post-Gratian canon law texts—I need to become literate in the Quinque compilationes antiquae—I came across the web page of Frederick S. Paxton of Connecticut College, who had written and posted a careful article on the recent and exciting work concerning the origins of the Decretum (prompted in large part by the work of Anders Winroth).

But there is more on his site, and for those interested in St Thomas's moral teaching, it provides a keyhole picture of something that mattered the whole world to the medievals, and perforce to Thomas: the rituals surrounding death. For Paxton has been at work producing a "reconstructive edition" of death rituals used at Cluny. Now Cluny is far removed from the world of the Dominicans, true, but reading through Paxton's edition gives one the sense of how communal death was to those living in religion, and how religious linked the process of dying to the liturgy of the Church, and hence to the biblical texts that undergirded her liturgy. The text says, towards the end:

Absolve, Domine, animam famuli tui ab omni vinculo delictorum, ut in resurrectionis gloria inter sanctos tuos resuscitatus respiret.

Absolve, Lord, the soul of your servant of all the chains of sin, so that he may breathe again in the glory of the resurrection, brought back to life among your saints.

Paxton has posted working versions of his Latin edition and English translation on his web page, in MS Word formats.

Those of us who labor in the fields of medieval philosophy and theology perhaps need reminding from time to time that the medieval theories we study drew their lifeblood from the daily realities of medieval living—and dying (Boosterism mode: OFF).

The University of Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy 2007

This just in, from the University of Toronto's Collaborative Programme in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy:

Details to follow, but we thought you might like to know about the distinguished line-up for our annual colloquium this fall.

Friday, 28 September:

SESSION I
---------
Bonnie Kent (University of California at Irvine)
Jeff Hause (Creighton University), commentary

6:30 reception

Saturday, 29 September:

10:00 - 12:00

SESSION II
----------
Alfred Ivry (New York University)
Carlos Fraenkel (McGill University), commentary

lunch break

2:30 - 4:30

SESSION III
-----------
Brian Leftow (Oriel College, University of Oxford)
Antoine Cote (University of Ottawa), 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.

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 http://www.holidayinn.com/torontomidtown, using the Corporate ID #100217931.

Removed guestbook feature from site

I decided to remove the "guestbook" feature from the site. No-one was really using it, and it was serving as something of a honey-pot for spammers, thus distorting the number of real visitors to the site (and unduly inflating traffic numbers). People who wish to make comments about the site can use the "contact" page of the site, anyway. No big loss.