Philosophical Graduate Studies on Aquinas

Presently many college seniors are preparing to send applications for graduate study in philosophy. With a large number of programs, students have many choices. There have been some attempts to rank the strength of philosophy doctoral programs: one popular ranking focuses on perceptions of faculty quality; another highlights the number of publications and citations of faculty work. Still another allows users to select from a wide mixture of criteria to produce personalized results. One of them ranks programs in medieval philosophy. (An older version additionally identified unranked programs that have specialty niches in medieval philosophy.) Unsurprisingly, most attempts to rank philosophy doctoral programs generate criticism.

One less-than obvious way to determine which graduate schools emphasize the philosophical thought of Thomas Aquinas is to examine the number of dissertations on Aquinas produced at each school. One can consult The Review of Metaphysics, since the September issue of each volume includes a roundup titled “Doctoral Dissertations” that gives the titles of theses from North American institutions. Alternately, one can search Dissertation Abstracts with an institutional subscription, or use the much-abbreviated free version.

Since 2002, at least 20 North American institutions have granted PhDs in philosophy to students with dissertations on some aspect of Thomas Aquinas’s thought. Unsurprisingly, Catholic University, St. Louis University, Fordham University, and Boston College lead in the number of such degrees. Prospective philosophy graduate students should also keep in mind that that there are quite a number of overseas programs offering graduate studies in philosophy in the English language. Students should be encouraged to apply widely; there is some perception that acceptance into doctoral programs in philosophy has become more competitive in the last decade or so, and some evidence supports this view.

Forum for discussion created

In order not to lose the great comments and helpful recommendations that readers send along, I’ve created a fledgling forum on the site, to allow users to make comments, etc.

The forum is visible on the top menu-bar, as well as at http://thomistica.net/forum.

Thomistic Philosophical Terms (part 2)

Michael’s answer to a reader’s question about where to find a handy accounting of Thomistic philosophical terms mentioned Fr William Wallace’s The Elements of Philosophy, which contains pithy renderings of these polyvalent terms. I read Michael’s mention of the book, mentally checked-off on the issue, and went about my day.

But then I remembered that, given the reader’s original concern as a teacher, Fr Wallace’s The Elements of Philosophy is carefully indexed to the corresponding articles on philosophical and theological terms to be found in the New Catholic Encyclopedia! Indeed, if I remember correctly, Fr Wallace wrote the thing as a distillation of the corresponding NCE content. So, to the original question and for our other readers, don’t forget that the New Catholic Encyclopedia (together with its 2003 update) has articles on these essential philosophical terms (many of which were authored by Wallace, Weisheipl, and thomistic lights).

Editor change at The Thomist

Via Greg LaNave, assistant professor at the Dominican House of Studies (faculty page) and managing editor of The Thomist, comes news that the journal has a new Editor: Rev. Timothy Bellamah, O.P. (faculty page), replaces Rev. Joseph Torchia, O.P.

Publishing on Aquinas

Which good academic presses might be interested in publishing a book manuscript in philosophy about Aquinas?

The question arose among my colleagues. Admittedly, the expression “good press” could be understood in a variety of ways. Notions of prestige, editorial services offered to authors, or even royalty terms might be deciding factors.

The evaluation of prospective presses is not just important to potential authors. Rank and tenure committees need to make judgments too. The European Science Foundation ranked journals in philosophy and theology/religious studies in 2007, but it has not yet published its next phase: a ranking of academic book publishers. No doubt this second venture will be as controversial as the first. We’ve all seen that side comments about presses occasionally creep up in book reviews (one might think of this example). Moreover, at least one publisher seeks to forestall problems by requiring its authors to provide a letter from a departmental dean or chair testifying that publication with the press will count for promotion at the author’s university.

The question about where to publish a philosophy monograph on Aquinas overlaps with a more general one: which presses publish books on the history of philosophy? Some outlets have ceased to accept manuscripts (see here and here), and it is not difficult to identify presses that have published great books in the past but haven’t been active in the area in recent years. The good news is that many academic presses continue to publish exegetical works in philosophy. The Association of American University Presses identifies 36 presses with active lists in the history of philosophy, and this count omits overseas university presses and all commercial academic publishers.

For me, the first English-language presses that immediately come to mind for shopping a manuscript on some aspect of Aquinas’s philosophy include:

• The Catholic University of America Press
• Brill Academic Publishers
• Cambridge University Press
• Oxford University Press
• The University of Notre Dame Press

There are, of course, other good publishers that publish widely in the history of philosophy with some books on medieval philosophy. Examples of commercial presses are: Routledge, Springer, Peeters, and Continuum. Examples of university presses are: Penn State, SUNY, Georgetown, Fordham, Marquette, and Edinburgh. Also, I’ll note that I’ve heard rumors of one press of former glory planning to reconstitute its publishing program in philosophy.

I’m sure there are presses that I have missed from the listings above. Those writing in theology might have other options than the ones I have identified. So, I invite readers to offer suggestions in the comments section below.

Thomistic Scholarship and Plagiarism

Readers may be interested in the article “40 Cases of Plagiarism” appearing in Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale 51/2009 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 350-391, compiled by Pernille Harsting, Russell L. Friedman, and me. It presents evidence of plagiarism in a number of publications under the name of Martin W. F. Stone on mainly medieval and Renaissance philosophy.

That Martin W. F. Stone succeeded in publishing the words and research results of Fernand van Steenberghen, Ralph McInerny, Carlos Bazán, John Wippel, and Lawrence Feingold (among others) as his own, in academic journals and in books with reputable publishing houses, must surely cause scholars to take note. Arguably, the situation is especially pressing for Thomists; nine of Stone’s plagiarized pieces are currently listed in the Bibliographia Thomistica, and one piece is listed in Thomistica 2006: An International Yearbook of Thomistic Bibliography. The editor of the Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale, Kent Emery, Jr., highlights the relationship of Stone’s work to Thomistic scholarship in an editorial in the same issue of the Bulletin, observing:

Or how was it possible that the scrivener hugely plagiarized the essay of an eminent Thomist published in a volume bringing together “Thomistic doctrines and modern perspectives,” and then published his workmanship in a volume bringing together “Thomistic and Analytical Traditions,” edited by another eminent Thomist and crammed full of essays by yet other eminent Thomists (see Case 14, pp. 367-68)? One thing is clear: Eminent Thomists do not necessarily read the essays of other eminent Thomists, which, if they had, they might have been able to detect that someone was ripping-off another person’s essay. (p. xii)

Elsewhere, Emery argues forcefully that the situation demands reflection among members of the scholarly community:

That there are those who commit acts of plagiarism is one thing; that such acts can be repeated successfully, without detection, in 40 articles, over a period of at least 11 years, in the pages of the most “prestigious” journals and at the most “prestigious” presses, is quite another thing altogether, which exposes some pathology in the contemporary body academic that cries out for diagnosis (p. 348)

So far, retractions have been issued by:

• Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 76:2 (2009), pp. v-vi
• Tijdschrift voor Filosofie72:1 (2010) pp. 3 and 5
• Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 86 (2010)
• Springer
• The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

 Discussion and news reports on the issue include here, and here.

Allow me to repeat two requests made in the introduction to “40 Cases of Plagiarism.” First, as the great majority of Stone’s pieces examined in the article have not, at present, been retracted by the editors and publishers of these pieces, we encourage the many authors, editors, and publishers whose legal copyright and intellectual property rights have been infringed, to seek retractions of all the pieces plagiarizing their original work. Secondly, we caution that the evidence published in the Bulletin article is not exhaustive, and urge other readers to supplement our findings.

A blog devoted to St. Anselm

Thanks to David Whidden of Southern Methodist University, a link to a blog devoted to the life and work of St. Anselm, whose 900th-year anniversary of death just passed in 2009. The link is: http://anselm2009.blogspot.com. David notes:

It looks relatively new and seems to focus a bit on the philosophic side of Anselm rather than the theological.

Take a look!

Francis Beckwith and Ralph McInerny confess (sort of)

Francis Beckwith recounts a story that is perfectly Ralph.

Thomas Hibbs on Ralph McInerny

Thomas Hibbs, a former-student of Ralph McInerny’s (and current Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University), wrote an appreciation of Ralph that appeared in First Things magazine (link).

John Deely Awarded for World-Wide Scholarly Achievement

The PR people at the University of St Thomas in Houston just sent me this announcement:

Dr. John Deely, who holds the Rudman Chair of Philosophy in the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, won two prestigious medals for his world-wide scholarly achievement. He received the Aquinas Medal for Excellence in Christian Philosophy at the international Gilson Society meeting in Baltimore, Oct. 1-3, and the Maritain Medal for scholarly achievement, awarded at the annual meeting in Houston, Oct. 22-24 by UST Associate Professor Fr. Ted Baenziger, CSB, on behalf of the American Maritain Association.

Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain were the two foremost Thomists of the 20th century, and they had close teaching connections with the Basilians at the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies in Toronto. Maritain is also an honorary member of the UST Center for Thomistic Studies.

Deely’s prolific single-authored books and voluminous editorial enterprises include two opuses and a classic, Basics of Semiotics, which is in its sixth edition and has been translated into more than 10 languages, including Japanese and Chinese. One of his five books published in 2009, Augustine & Poinsot, has been on window display at the University of Paris Sorbonne. His work, as Professor Anne Hénault of the Sorbonne puts it, “opens horizons of thought absolutely essential for the 21st century.”

“Dr. Deely is a pioneer in demonstrating the implications of Thomistic thought for problems today,” said Padre Roberto Busa, SJ, Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and creator of the Index Thomisticus database. “He maintains the thought of St. Thomas as a living force in the intellectual culture, rather than simply as a kind of museum piece among the exhibits of history, making that thought come to the attention of thinkers who would not in the normal course of events have any particular interest in Thomism at all.”

Reflecting on Deely’s legacy in opening frontiers within and beyond the Catholic world, famous novelist and Latin philosopher Umberto Eco concludes, “John Deely has not only paid attention to the Second Scholasticism, and (while dealing with questions that are at the center stage of contemporary culture, and working across all the disciplines, both the humanities and the sciences) he has contributed to expand the knowledge of the Thomistic tradition beyond the confines of the Catholic world.”

The more than 400-page Deely Reader, Realism for the 21st Century (University of Scranton Press, Pa.), edited by Paul Cobley, London, was published in late October 2009.

In the words of Benedict Ashley, OP, professor emeritus, Aquinas Institute of Theology at St. Louis University, “No current thinker has carried out a more penetrating advance into a genuine post-modernism … than John Deely, and this collection gives us the heart of his work.”

Scheduled for publication later this year is Deely’s Semiotic Animal (St. Augustine’s Press, South Bend, Ind.).

Go to the site’s search page, punch in “Deely,” and you’ll see that he has been a big supporter of Thomistica.net by way of providing information and PDF files of interest.

A Report on the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas 2009

With thanks to Jörgen Vijgen, who was in attendance, a report on the 2009 meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas:

Report on the IX Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, 19-21 June 2009

At their seat in the 16^th century villa Casina Pio IV in Vatican City the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas held their annual Plenary Session on June 19-21, 2009. Since its reform by the motu proprio Inter Munera Academiarum, issued by Pope John Paul II, the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, founded by Pope Leo XIII on October 15, 1879, organizes each year its plenary session on a single topic. In previous years topics such as ‘Truth’, ‘Goodness’, and ‘Natural Law’ were treated. To mark the end of the Pauline Year, this year’s topic was fittingly entitled “Saint-Thomas’s Interpretation of Saint-Paul’s Doctrines”.

The newly appointed president Lluis Clavell of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross had organized an intensive program to which some 30 members took part among which were Stephen Brock, Romanus Cessario O.P., Joseph Di Noia O.P., Kevin Flannery S.J., the papal theologian Wojciech Giertych O.P., Russell Hittinger, Charles Morerod O.P., Robert Wielockx, Horst Seidl, Card. Georges Cottier O.P., Leo Elders S.V.D. and Enrique Alarcon.

Continuing with the tradition of previous years, the Academy had also invited experts from outside the Academy to speak on the topic at hand. This year’s speakers were Michael Waldstein (Ave Maria University) and Reinhard Hütter (Duke University).

The program was as follows:

Friday

1. Reinhard Hütter: “In hope he believed against hope” (Romans 4:18). Faith and Hope, two Pauline motifs as interpreted by Aquinas: an approach to the encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI, “Spe Salvi”
2. Joseph Di Noia O.P.: Christ brings freedom from sin and death: Thomas’s Understanding of Romans 5, 12-21, on Original Sin

Saturday

1. Mons. Inos Biffi, La figura di Cristo nel commento di Tommaso alla Lettera agli Ebrei
2. Pedro Rodriguez, El ‘sacrum ministerium’ en los comentários de Santo Tomás al ‘Corpus Paulinum’
3. Mons. Fernando Ocariz, ‘L’adozione filiale e il mistero di Cristo nel Commento di San Tommaso alla Lettera ai Romani
4. Leo Elders S.V.D., Thomas’s comments on the Letters of St. Paul to the Philippians and the Colossians
5. Robert Wielockx, Au sujet du commentaire de S. Thomas sur le ‘Corpus Paulinum’ : critique littéraire et aperçus exégétiques

Sunday

1. Michael Waldstein, The Spousal Logic of Justification : St. Thomas and Luther on Paul’s Key Topic Statement Romans, 1:17
2. Ricardo Ferrara, La dottrina della grazia nel Commento alla Lettera ai Romani
3. Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Grace as “new creation”

Needless to say that with these 45 min.-lectures and 30 min.-discussions, which seldom sufficed to treat all the questions, it was an in-depth three days- study of St. Thomas and St. Paul. (The Roman sun, the Vatican Gardens, Saint-Peter’s Basilica, Santa Sabina, the diners and the private trips to the abbeys of Monte Cassino and Fossanova and the village of Aquino however brought it all back in balance.)

Readers who were present at the conference on Aquinas’s Commentary on Romans in February of this year at Ave Maria University (Naples, Florida) might be interested to hear that ecumenical explorations came up more than once during the discussions. We’re looking forward to the final versions of all these papers to be published in the next issue of Doctor Communis.

(NOTE: Jörgen took pictures of the trips south, which I’ll post very soon).

Fear in Heaven?

Gary Culpepper of the Department of Theology at Providence College (Rhode Island) sent me the following inquiry:

Does anyone know of any significant research into ST II-II, 19, 11, utrum timor remaneat in patria? Or any allied research into medieval inquires into religious fear, whether in Jesus or the saint who is on the road to wisdom?

E-mail any responses or ideas to Gary directly.