Fr William Wallace, RIP

Fr. Wallace passed away last night.  There is a notice here: http://www.opeast.org/2015/03/04/passing-of-fr-alan-morris-and-fr-william-wallace/

John Haldane to Baylor

Baylor University recently announced that it has hired John Haldane to a new chair in philosophy.  The full announcement can be found here.

Romanus Cessario, OP: Thomism in the 21st Century

Romanus Cessario, OP, gave an interview with America Magazine on the topic of "Thomism in the 21st Century." A snippet:

"One extreme would be superficiality. To reach up to the mind of Aquinas, as Father Lonergan used to say, requires that one commit to a long period of focused and assiduous study. One cannot learn only the conclusions of Aquinas. The other extreme would be what I call “spiffiness.” Spiffy Thomists assume that Aquinas can only survive when he is put into dialogue with contemporary thought-forms."

The complete interview can be found here.

S.M.A.R.T. at ACPA

The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism (S.M.A.R.T.) is planning a session for the 2015 meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Boston, MA, 8-11 October 2015.  It is accepting papers on all aspects of Thomism from 1274 to the publication of the Carmelite Cursus Theologiae (1631-1701), with a preference for the period from John Capreolus (d. 1444) to John of St. Thomas (1589-1644).  Please send papers and direct enquiries to Domenic D’Ettore at ddettore[at]marian[dot]edu.  Special consideration will be given to papers received by March 25.

J. Budziszewski's book on the Treatise on Law

A few months ago J. Budziszewski (University of Texas at Austin) published a line by line commentary on Summa theologiae, I-II, qq. 90-97 with Cambridge University Press entitled (aptly enough) Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law. I am not aware of another such commentary in English. Here is CUP's description. 

Natural moral law stands at the center of Western ethics and jurisprudence and plays a leading role in interreligious dialogue. Although the greatest source of the classical natural law tradition is Thomas Aquinas' Treatise on Law, the Treatise is notoriously difficult, especially for nonspecialists. J. Budziszewski has made this formidable work luminous. This book - the first classically styled, line by line commentary on the Treatise in centuries - reaches out to philosophers, theologians, social scientists, students, and general readers alike. Budziszewski shows how the Treatise facilitates a dialogue between author and reader. Explaining and expanding upon the text in light of modern philosophical developments, he expounds this work of the great thinker not by diminishing his reasoning, but by amplifying it.

You can find additional material related to the book at  Budziszewski's website The Underground Thomist. Included in the material is a PDF file of a Companion to the Commentary, which features a line by line treatment of selections from qq. 98-108 along with further discussion of topics from various articles across the Treatise. The Companion itself is 239 pages! Budziszewski says that the material in the Companion was not added to the original book because then the entire text would have come out to 800 pages and "a book shouldn't be a concrete block." Well, I would have still bought it. Some of the best books I own are concrete blocks.

People familiar with Budziszewski's work know that he has been writing (and teaching) about natural law, especially Aquinas's version of it, for many years. So, he was well prepared to write this book. It is surprising that he did not write it sooner! At any rate, I think it will prove a valuable resource.

Business Ethics position at University of St. Thomas (Houston)

Dr. Mary Catherine Sommers informed me about an Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Here's a portion of the advertisement, the full copy of which is in this PDF:

The Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas (UST) in Houston, Texas is inviting applications for a senior scholar to assume the Endowed Chair in Business Ethics.

The University of St. Thomas is a private Catholic University committed to the liberal arts and to the religious and intellectual tradition of Catholic higher education.

The Cameron School of Business educates students of diverse backgrounds, teaching professional skills necessary for a changing global economy and instilling a deep appreciation for ethical behavior inspired by the educational tradition of the founding Basilian Fathers.  Small classes and a low student-to-faculty ratio assure individual attention. The Cameron School of Business has achieved accreditation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

We seek an individual with a background in business, a doctorate in a relevant discipline, a distinguished scholarly record in the field of business ethics, and proven teaching excellence at all levels. The ideal candidate should be willing to build relationships with the university community, local business leaders, and colleagues in the field of business ethics.

Applications should address the candidate’s support of and ways he/she will contribute to the mission of Catholic higher education with particular reference to Ex corde ecclesiae.  Applicants should consult and address Ex corde ecclesiae, the apostolic constitution “On Catholic Universities” of Pope John Paul II, in preparing their statement.  Ex corde is available at this link: Ex corde ecclesiae.

Veritas et Amor Contest for young Aquinas scholars and artists

The Circolo San Tommaso d'Aquino is inviting entries for the 5th edition of its Veritas et Amor Contest. Entrants must be 35 or under. Submissions can be in one of two forms: academic writing (theses, dissertations, monographs) or works of art (painting, sculpture, music, etc.). The deadline is February 25, 2015. For further information, including details about submitting your work, click here for a PDF of the flyer.

Wyoming Catholic College Hiring -- including Philosophy & Theology

From our website:

Wyoming Catholic College seeks to hire one full-time professor to teach in one or more of the following areas of our curriculum:

Humanities – The applicant should have a degree in Literature, History, or Philosophy, and should be equipped to teach a broad range of Humanities courses ranging from ancient Greeks to the moderns.

Theology – The applicant should be conversant with Sacred Scripture, comfortable and competent in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, well-grounded in the philosophia perennis and strong in Latin, at least of the scholastic period.Successful applicants are expected to seek and obtain the mandatum from the bishop of Cheyenne.

Philosophy – The applicant should be well-grounded in the philosophia perennis, comfortable teaching from the texts of Aristotle and Aquinas, and able to speak about contemporary debates.

Trivium – The applicant should have a demonstrated background in teaching Logic and/or Rhetoric (both written and spoken would be strongly preferred), as well as knowledge of logical principles and rhetorical theory. Prior work in a college-level Writing Program, Writing Center, or Writing Across the Curriculum initiative would be ideal.

Mathematics / Natural Science – The applicant should have a degree in mathematics or science and be equipped to teach a broad range of related texts, from Euclid's Elements to Newton's Principia Mathematica. Particularly desirable are candidates equipped to teach these courses from a liberal arts perspective (e.g., to form connections with the curriculum's philosophy sequence).

Applicants should have already completed a doctorate in a field clearly related to the area for which they are applying, and they should be equipped to teach a broad range courses within that discipline (see the Catalog for a description of the courses offered at WCC).  Especially desired is a candidate who has benefited from a liberal arts education that enables him or her to teach a specific subject with a sympathetic awareness of the principles, methods, and Great Books of other disciplines; most desirable is a candidate enthusiastic about contributing to other areas of the WCC curriculum as well.

Applicants should deeply understand and be able to commit themselves to the vision and mission of Wyoming Catholic College as articulated in the Philosophical Vision Statement and the Catalog. This understanding and agreement must be manifested in the letter of intent, which should speak to the overall vision of the College as well as the applicant’s particular discipline, and why the candidate believes himself or herself to be qualified to teach it well.

Faculty at WCC are committed to teaching students as their primary responsibility.A semester course load of 12 hours per week is the norm each semester. At the beginning of each academic year, all Catholic faculty make a public profession of faith and take an oath of fidelity to the Magisterium, and non-Catholic faculty make a pledge to respect the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Rank and salary are commensurate with degrees earned and teaching experience; salary and benefits are competitive.

Wyoming Catholic College is interested in receiving applications for this position regardless of the applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability.Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

A letter of intent with curriculum vitae should be sent to: jmortensen@wyomingcatholiccollege.com.

Dr. John Mortensen 
Wyoming Catholic College
306 Main Street
Lander, WY 82520

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Thomas and Thomisms

This came in from father Richard Conrad O.P.

The Aquinas Institute at Blackfriars Hall in Oxford organizes an interesting colloquium on March 7, 2015, entitled "Thomas and Thomisms". Speakers include Reinhard Hütter, John O'Callaghan and Jeremy Wilkens from the US. Here is the PDF.

Third scholasticism redux

Fr. James Schall has a laudatory review of Ed Feser's Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction. I interviewed interviewed Feser about his new book here at Thomistica.net in November. In fact, at the beginning of his review Fr. Schall quotes from that interview. The last paragraph of Fr. Schall's review is worth reproducing here in toto:

In Feser’s little “manual,” we have the seeds of something great, the realization that, on philosophical grounds themselves, the scholastic tradition in the heritage of Aristotle and Aquinas is in fact the newest thing in academia. The only people who do not know this are likely to be academicians, but they are often out-of-date. We need, as I have often said, to go to the books that tell the truth, not only tell it, but know what it is on the basis of reason and argument. This book on “scholastic metaphysics” is precisely one of these books. If professors do not assign it, let the student read it by himself. If the department won’t consider it, go elsewhere to find someone who will. For we sense that, in our increasingly decadent culture, there is light in the darkness, a light that has been burning all along in obscure texts that a small but growing number of scholars like Edward Feser thought worthy to read.

Fr Dewan is ill and declining

Maxime Allard, OP, of the Dominican University College in Ottawa, is sharing news that Fr Lawrence Dewan, OP, is in the hospital, and his health is rapidly declining. Please storm heaven with your prayers for him.