American Theological Inquiry is now out with its inaugural issue—I posted about this upcoming publication a while back. You can download the PDF of the first issue here; it contains an article by Fr Thomas Weinandy, OFM.
From Thérèse Bonin of Duquesne University, a link to a different on-line version of Walter Farrell’s Companion to the Summa (see the original post). This one is found on catholicprimer.org, and has the advantage of not requiring frames. You can access the microsite here.
According to Karen Green, the Ancient and Medieval History and Religion Librarian at Columbia University, Dr. Jan Ziolkowski, the new director of Dumbarton Oaks, recently talked Harvard University Press into opening a new “Loeb” for the medieval period, to be entitled something like the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Ten titles within two years, and then eight (or is it four?) per year thereafter. Note that this is in addition to what it’s been doing for the Renaissance (I Tatti Renaissance Library). An English translation facing the original.
A colleague in the American Theological Library Association wrote its listserv ATLANTIS as follows:
I’m looking for the source of a statement by Thomas Aquinas [to the effect] that delving into the doctrine of the Trinity is like Jacob wrestling with the angel. Can someone suggest where this might be from? I’m assuming it’s in [the] Summa Theologi[ae] somewhere, but that’s not very specific. Thanks.
After much free-searching of Index Thomisticus, I’ve had to settle for the following, which I discovered via Google, and which I would like very much to track to its source. A major problem is that Chenu gives not the slightest indication where (in Aquinas?) he encountered it:
In a very suggestive allegory, St Thomas gives a symbolic description of the theologian confronted with the mystery of God [(note: not specifically the Trinity, as requested)]. Calling to mind Jacob’s struggle with the angel he writes:
The whole night they wrestled [(s’affrontèrent)], muscles straining, neither yielding [(muscles tenus, sans que l’un ou l’autre cédassent)]; but at daybreak the angel disappeared, apparently leaving the field clear to his adversary. But Jacob then felt a violent pain in his thigh [(un douleur vive à la cuisse)]. He was left wounded and limping [(blessé et claudicant)]. It is thus that the theologian grapples with the mystery [(le théologien affronte le mystère)] when God brings him face to face with it. He is taut, like a bent bow, grappling with human language [(tendu, comme arc-bouté à ses expressions humaines)]; he struggles like a wrestler [(en saisit les objects à bras-le-corps)]; he even seems to win the mastery [(s’enrendre maitre)]. But then he feels a weakness, a weakness at once painful and delicious [(une faiblesse douloureuse et delectable à la fois)], for to be thus defeated is in fact the proof that his combat was divine [(de son divin combat)]
(M. D. Chenu, Is theology a science?, 47). Fragments of the original French I insert not from La théologie est-elle une science? directly, but from The Trinity: an analysis of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Expositio of the De Trinitate of Boethius, by Douglas C. Hall, who treats Chenu as a gloss on a passage from the commentary on Genesis by Peter John Olivi, which he (Hall) attributes erroneously to Aquinas himself.
Treating the Chenu as a possible loose rendition of chap. 32 of Olivi’s (not Aquinas’) commentary on Genesis seems a promising lead at first, given especially certain echoes, e.g. “neither overcoming the other, neither yielding” (trans. Hall; cf. Chenu, above), the potential bow-language (flectendo, “bowing [it]”; cf. Chenu on the “bent bow”, above), and so forth. But the most important of these, the former, is, so far as I can tell, a mistranslation, indeed, probably the result of Hall reading Olivi in the light of Chenu, rather than the Latin actually before him (those of you who know Latin better please correct me, as I’m a rank amateur). I give first the Hall, then the Latin, then my own fumbling translation:
‘No longer will you be called Jacob, but Israel. For if you have placed your strength against God,’ by means of violence, that is, he grasped God and fought with God, neither overcoming the other, neither yielding… . ‘And you ask my name, which is marvelous?’ The sense of this can be that here it is said that his name is marvelous, or that his name is marvelous in that it is not comprehensible for us.
Nequaquam Jacob appellabitur nomen tuum, sed Israel. … quia si contra Deum fortis fuisti, per violentiam scilicet detentivarum precum et importunarum pulsationum cum Deo pugnando, ejusque rigorem superando, sive flectendo: quanto magis contra hominess praevalebis? … Cur quaeris nomen meum, quod est mirabile? Sensus potest esse, quod … mirabile est nomen ejus: vel quod nomen suum est mirabile, quod non est nobis comprehensibile.
Your name shall be no longer Jacob, but Israel. … because if you have been strong against God, contending with God and overcoming his rigidity or [at least] bending/bowing [it] through violence, namely [etc.] … Why do you ask for my name, which is wonderful? The sense can be [either] that … his name is Wonderful, or that his name is wonderful, i.e. to us incomprehensible.
Translated in this way, the phrase “neither overcoming the other, neither yielding”, so reminiscent of Chenu’s “muscles taut, neither yielding”, simply vanishes. Add to this the lack of any reference in the Latin here to Jacob’s being “taut, like a bent bow” (here it is the Lord whose muscular inflexibility is ultimately bent or bowed by Jacob), the lack (in the rest of this chapter, at least) of any interest in the work of the theologian specifically, or his/her grapplings with the limitations of human language, so central to the passage quoted by Chenu, etc., and this, too, falls away as probably a false lead.
This is not to say that there is not some other passage in this pseudo-Thomistic commentary on Genesis or even Aquinas himself (or some other Father) to match the Chenu, or even something other than the Chenu that I should be trying to trace back to a source in Thomas, but only that it doesn’t seem to be this one (chap. 32 of the Olivian commentary on Genesis), despite this suggestive juxtaposition (but also misleading translation?) in Hall. Perhaps the fragments of the original French I give above will help someone else search Index Thomisticus more effectively than I have done.
I would be grateful for any further input.
Steve Perisho
Theology/Humanities/Fine Arts Librarian
Seattle Pacific University
I have now the original French (pp. 47-48 of La théologie est–elle une science?) before me, and see that Chenu neither places these words in quotation marks nor makes of them (as does the English translation) an indented block quotation. (Elsewhere in La théologie est–elle une science? he abides by the usual conventions.)
His introduction to them, though, is pretty explicit: “Dans une allégorie très suggestive, saint Thomas décrit symboliquement l’affrontement du théologien au mystère de Dieu. Evoquant l’épisode de la lutte de Jacob avec l’ange (Genèse, chap. 32), il commente:”, etc. “Genèse, chap. 32” could be invoking the commentary by Olivi, but is more likely a reference to the biblical text itself.
The latest issue of Doctor Communis, the journal of the renowned Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas (PAST), contains the proceedings of its 2006 Plenary Session on the topic: “The Human Person, Natural Law, Human Rights in a complex an globalised world”. Below one can find the titles of the contributions by R. McInerny, R. Cessario, R. Hittinger, G. Cottier and others. The address of the PAST: Casina Pio IV, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Email:past AT acdscience.va
It has been a difficult period for the PAST, founded May 8, 1880 by Pope Leo XIII. (It’s history has been recently written by David Berger, “In dulcidine societatis, quaerere veritatem”. Zur Geschichte der Päpstlichen Akademie des hl. Thomas von Aquin, in: Doctor Angelicus II (2002) 135-180, partially published online) After the death of it’s secretary, Father Bogliolo, in 1998 and the illness and death of it’s principal promotor Msgr. Antonio Piolanti in 2001, all activities were practically put on hold. The reorganisation in 1999 by Pope John Paul II brought a “new phase”, as it’s president Abelardo Lobato OP wrote.The journal, now including the newly organised annual Plenary Sessions, is being republished and in 2003 the PAST organized a succesfull International Congress on Christian Humanism from the perspective of Saint Thomas. The third and final volume of the proceedings of this congress were published last year, bringing the total number to about 3000 pages!
However, the Academy continues to have difficulties as is testified from the following passage from the speech of it’s current president Edward Kaczynski OP printed in the current issue of Doctor Communis: “Since the financial means at the disposition of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas are limited, I propose for next year, instead of a Plenary Session, to prepare a Comment on the Encyclical Deus caritas est of Benedict XVI. At the time of the delivery of the Comment, we will ask for a special meeting with the Pope for all the Members of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.”
Doctor Communis n.s. 10/1-2 (2007)
Having disappeared from a Dominican website, Fr Walter Farrell's monumental Companion to the Summa is on-line.
From Roberta Baranowski (Assistant Director, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame):
A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medieval Studies
The Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame offers a Postdoctoral Fellowship for a junior scholar in Medieval Studies, made possible through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The fellowship will permit an outstanding young scholar in any field of medieval studies to continue his or her research while in residence at Notre Dame's Medieval Institute during the academic year 2008-2009.
The Mellon Fellow's principal obligation will be to pursue his or her research. Though the Fellowship carries no teaching responsibilities, it is expected that the Fellow will take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the intellectual life of the Institute and the multidisiciplinary activities that it sponsors for the medievalist community at Notre Dame. The Fellow will be provided with an office in the Medieval Institute, full library and computer privileges, and access to the Institute's research tools. The Fellow will be expected to reside in South Bend.
Eligibility: Applicants must hold a regular appointment at a U.S. institution and plan to return to their institution following their fellowship year. They must have the Ph.D. in hand as of the application date and must not be more than five years beyond the Ph.D.
Stipend: $40,000.
Application deadline: January 15, 2008.
Application procedure: There is no special application form. Rather, applicants should submit a narrative of no more than five pages describing their proposed research, indicating how it builds on existing scholarship, and suggesting how it will benefit from broader interdisciplinary studies. Applicants should also submit a current curriculum vitae and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent to the Medieval Institute by the January 15 deadline.
Announcement of the selection will be made in mid-February 2008.
Please send applications to the address below:
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Application
Medieval Institute
715 Hesburgh Library
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
FAX (574) 631-8644.
For further information, contact: Roberta Baranowski, (574) 631-8304, Roberta.Baranowski.7@nd.edu
The 7th volume of the International Thomistic Yearbook Doctor Angelicus is out.
Here is the table of contents:
Articuli:
Notae:
Recensiones
The German publisher nova & vetera (Bonn) has published a fascinating book on how by the end of the 1970 Thomism at the faculty of philosophy of the university of Fribourg (Switzerland) came to an end. Here is the table of contents in Pdf.
Das Ende des Neuthomismus. Die 68er, das Konzil und die Dominikaner, written by Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, comprises three parts. Part 1 applies Thomas Kuhn’s idea of scientific revolution to the movement of Neothomism in general. Part 2 traces the reactions of the Order of Preachers to the Church’s documents on the doctrine of St. Thomas from Leo XIII to John Paul II. Finally part 3 chronicles in detail the history of the faculty of philosophy from the illustrious Gallus Manser (1866-1950) to the tireless but unsuccesfull efforts by the Flemish Dominican Norbertus Luyten (1909-1986) to maintain the chairs, traditionally conferred to the Dominicans. It discloses for the first time important archival material from the correspondence between Fribourg and the Dominican Roman curia. Father Luyten concluded: “C’est vraiment la fin d’une époque”.
The 10th volume of the Collected Works of the Italian Thomist Cornelio Fabro(1911-1995) has been published. For more information on the Opera Omnia of Cornelio Fabro, see our March 2005 Newsletter.
The following comes from the introduction by the author:
“Il libro Dio. Introduzione al problema teologico, cerca di rispondere al «“problema essenziale dell’uomo essenziale”, dal quale ogni altro problema dell’esistenza prende chiarezza (l’etica, il diritto, l’economia…)», cioè il problema di Dio. «L’intelletto umano che tende naturalmente alla verità come al suo bene proprio, è spinto presto o tardi a porsi il problema di Dio, a cercare quindi la dimostrazione della sua esistenza: perché il significato e valore ultimo di ogni verità viene da Dio ed ha in Dio il suo ultimo fondamento, come verità per essenza da cui s’irradia ogni verità creata ch’è verità soltanto per partecipazione». «L’esistenza di Dio è il problema dei problemi: esso costituisce la conclusione di tutta la filosofia e della conoscenza umana sia ordinaria come scientifica, perché da esso dipende l’orientamento definitivo che l’uomo deve dare alla sua condotta e alla sua vita intera”.
All of this on-line searching reminds me that my friend and hero, Fr Stephen L. Brock, has a webpage at the website for the Philosophy Faculty at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, the Opus Dei university in Rome. Fr Brock and I were school-mates in Toronto. His webpage has a list of his many publications, for most of which you can download PDF versions of the article. In fact, there is a PDF file of his important doctoral dissertation, defended back in the stone-age of the Internet (1988): The Legal Character of Natural Law according to St. Thomas Aquinas.
The articles you’ll find are primarily in the fields of ethics and metaphysics, as well as some reviews he has done of others’ writings. Helpfully the downloaded PDFs agree with the pagination of the journals in which the article or review appeared, such that you can download the PDF and use it, citing its pagination.
Fr Michael Sherwin, OP, in the Faculté de Théologie in Fribourg, has directed some theses on moral theology recently that are on St. Thomas, and in English. The theses are in PDF format, and are fully-downloadable from the website. See:
While we're on it, Fr Sherwin himself has an informative website on the University's webspace. They're keeping busy.
Under the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
