Hilary Putnam dead at 89

Hilary Putnam died of cancer on March 13. Putnam's name is infrequently found in Thomistic literature, but if you do philosophy (my profession), his work is hard to ignore. He was one of the most influential American philosophers of the past half century.

Putnam was famous for changing his mind and reversing his earlier positions. Accordingly, Christopher Norris (who, incidentally, may be the only person to have written books on both Derrida and Putnam) points out that there are three Putnams: the "strong realist" of an early period, the "internal realist" of a middle period, and the pragmatist of a last period. Although it seems to me that the middle period Putnam is better described as an anti-realist, it is true that "internal realism" was his own coinage and I get why he used it.

I said that Putnam's name is not often found in Thomistic literature. I should note some important exceptions of which I'm aware. John Haldane, John O'Callaghan, and Ed Feser have all engaged with Putnam's work. And let's not forget that Putnam himself has engaged with Thomists! His essay "Thoughts Addressed to an Analytical Thomist" was the second piece in the 1997 special issue of The Monist on analytical Thomism (edited by Haldane).

There are several obituaries for Putnam online. Here is one by Martha Nussbaum.

First ALL LATIN roundtable discussion at Kalamazoo mediaeval studies congress!

Msgr. Daniel Gallagher of the Vatican's Office of Latin Letters sends us the following announcement about the first all Latin roundtable discussion at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo:

Animadvertenda:

Quando: Idibus Maiis, ab hora X matutina ad horam XI et semihoram

Ubi: Universitas Michiganensis Occidentalis, aula "Schneider" 1274

Argumentum: De lingua Latina vivente in studiis mediaevalibus huius temporis

Nuntium de colloquio invenitur in pagina LXIV Libelli Congressus, ad quod accessum habetis in hoc situ interretial.

Sciatis etiam convivium, nullius nisi iucunditatis et humanitatis causa, habebitur eodem die, hora quinta et quadrante vesperi, Septentrionali Americano Latinitatis Vivae Instituto (SALVI) necnon Instituto "Paideia" praebendum, in aula "Fetzer" 2020.

I'm sure that this unique and excellent event will draw a crowd, so you might want to get there early to get a good seat.

Workshop at Providence College on metaphysics in the tradition of Aristotle

The Department of Philosophy of Providence College, in collaboration with the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies, announces the first in a new series of annual workshops dedicated to philosophy in the tradition of Aristotle. The workshops are intended to provide a venue for scholars and graduate students to present ongoing research and works-in-progress.

The first workshop, Metaphysics in the Tradition of Aristotle, will take place September 23–24, 2016 at Providence College. Invited presenters are:

Thérèse-Anne Druart (CUA)
Mary-Louise Gill (Brown)
Giorgio Pini (Fordham)
Jacob Rosen (Harvard)

The organizers welcome presentations of 25 minutes on Aristotle’s metaphysics and Aristotelian metaphysics in the Greek, Arabic, and Latin traditions. Papers on the modern reception or contemporary development of Aristotelian metaphysics are also welcome. We particularly encourage submissions from graduate students and early career scholars.

Abstracts of 500 words should be submitted to Fr. Philip Neri Reese, O.P., by April 15 at: philip.neri.reese@providence.edu.

New book by R.J. Matava on Báñez and physical premotion

R.J. Matava has published a book with Brill entitled Divine Causality and Human Free Choice: Domingo Báñez, Physical Premotion and the Controversy de Auxiliis Revisited. Here's the publisher's description:

In Divine Causality and Human Free Choice, R.J. Matava explains the idea of physical premotion defended by Domingo Báñez, whose position in the Controversy de Auxiliis has been typically ignored in contemporary discussions of providence and freewill. Through a close engagement with untranslated primary texts, Matava shows Báñez’s relevance to recent debates about middle knowledge. Finding the mutual critiques of Báñez and Molina convincing, Matava argues that common presuppositions led both parties into an insoluble dilemma. However, Matava also challenges the informal consensus that Lonergan definitively resolved the controversy. Developing a position independently advanced by several recent scholars, Matava explains how the doctrine of creation entails a position that is more satisfactory both philosophically and as a reading of Aquinas.

For the book page at Brill, go here. To purchase it at Amazon, go here. No doubt this volume by Matava will be a very important contribution to, among other things, the debates over physical promotion and the Congregatio de Auxiliis and their history.

Matava, who received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, is assistant professor of theology at the Christendom Graduate School.

Summer Program in Norcia on St. Thomas's Commentary on Hebrews

Since 2012, the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, in cooperation with the Benedictine Monks of Norcia, has offered a two-week summer theology program at the birthplace of SS. Benedict and Scholastica.

This year, for their fifth summer, the Center has planned a truly marvelous program: “The Transcendent Christ: St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews.” Participants will study St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Hebrews, exploring its rich doctrine on Christology, priesthood, sacrifice, sacraments, and worship. The Epistle offers the opportunity to explore the mystery of grace in its source, Jesus Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body, and how the excellence of the work of Christ has a threefold extension: to the whole of creation, to the rational creature, and to the justification of the saints. Seminars and lectures culminate in a full-scale scholastic disputation, with arguments offered on both sides by participants and an authoritative determination given by the appointed magister.

This will be the first year that I will be on the faculty of the summer program. Other faculty members include Fr. Cassian Folsom, OSB, Fr. Thomas Crean, OP, John Joy, Christopher Owens, Daniel Lendman, and Br. Evagrius Hayden, OSB.

The goal of the AMCSS is to offer a meaningful academic experience of scholastic theology in its original fullness: studying Sacred Scripture, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Fathers of the Church, in the peaceful and enchanting setting of a medieval Italian town, imbued with the spiritual and liturgical life of the Benedictine monks (daily High Mass in the usus antiquior, fully chanted monastic office), and all the culinary delights of the prosciutto and black truffle capital of Italy — in other words, a Catholic feast for mind, soul, and body. This year the course dates include Norcia’s festive celebration of the feast of St. Benedict on July 11th. Pilgrimages to the nearby towns of Assisi and Cascia are included in the cost, with the option of participating in a weekend trip to Rome at the end.

The dates for the Summer program are July 10–24, 2016. Most remarkably, the cost for tuition, room, and half-board (a light breakfast and a five-course Italian dinner every day) is 900 Euros. Tuition includes a hardcover bilingual edition of the Commentary on Hebrews as well as any other course materials. A background in academic theology is not required. (Students working towards degrees may request a summary of the program with faculty credentials and a certificate of completion that they may submit for possible course credit elsewhere.)

For more information, please click here. I recommend exploring the site and letting other folks know about it. The AMCSS has a great thing going, and each year they seem to gain momentum. In addition to the (relatively few) departments of theology out there that engage seriously with the great medieval minds, we also need grassroots initiatives that offer a lively engagement with scholastic authors in a Catholic environment such as those authors enjoyed and presumed. For this, Norcia is an ideal setting.

S.M.A.R.T. Call for Papers

The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism (S.M.A.R.T.) is planning a session for the 2016 meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, San Francisco, CA, 3-6 November 2016. It is looking for papers which address the topic of “being as first known” but is accepting papers on all aspects of Thomism from 1274 to the publication of the Carmelite Cursus Theologiae (1631-1701).

Please send papers and direct enquiries to Domenic D’Ettore at ddettore[at]marian[dot]edu. Papers and abstracts received by 15 May will receive full consideration. Selection preference will be given to complete papers. A final version of the paper will be required by 1 September in order to facilitate a response paper which will be given during the conference session.

A Word about the Word - DSPT Aquinas Lecture 2016

Fr. Olivier-Thomas Venard, OP, Professor of New Testament and Vice Director of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem, will deliver the 2016 Aquinas Lecture at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology in Berkeley, California. In his presentation, “Life, Language and Christ: A Thomistic Approach,” Venard will posit that Aquinas sees a deep analogy, even a participation, between the Word and our words. The event, to be held Tuesday, February 23rd, at 7:30 pm PST (10:30 pm EST), will be available via live-streaming.

Fabro Symposium at CUA, April 1-2

Father Dreyer of the Institute of the Incarnate Word has announced that there will be a Fabro Symposium at CUA on April 1-2.  It looks great.  You can find more information about it here:

 http://www.iveamerica.org/images/fabro/institute-of-the-incarnate-word-Fabro-Symposium-Poster.jpg

A trove of digitized Garrigou-Lagrange texts

Not long ago there were not (as far as I know) many of Garrigou-Lagrange's writings available electronically online. Last month I discovered that there are now over a dozen available at the Internet Archive. They are all English translations, but for those whose French or Latin is poor or non-existent, this is quite a resource. Obviously, it will also be useful for professors who would like to incorporate some of Garrigou's texts in their classes.

There are now a total of fourteen texts up. You can find them here. Also included is the hitherto hard to obtain English translation of Garrigou's famous (for some, notorious) 1946 Angelicum article "La nouvelle théologie: oú va-t-elle?" Here's what's available as of this posting:

Beatitude: A Commentary on St. Thomas' Theological summa, Ia IIae, qq. 1-54

Christian Perfection & Contemplation

God: His Existence and His Nature (vol. 1)

God: His Existence and His Nature (vol. 2)

The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus (vol. 1)

The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus (vol. 2)

The Mother of The Savior and Our Interior Life

Our Saviour and His Love for Us

Predestination

The Last Writings

The Priest in Union with Christ 

The Three Ages of the Interior Life (vol. 1)

The Three Ages of the Interior Life (vol. 2)

“Where is the New Theology Leading Us?”

There were two other entries that I did not include in this list because I'm not sure what they are. They are supposed to be an index and a bibliography to The Three Ages of the Interior Life. When I clicked on the links, however, I was led to blank pages. 

We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to whoever made the effort to put all of this up.

New translation of Dignitatis humanae

Thomistica.net contributor Michael Pakaluk has produced a new draft translation of the Second Vatican Council's declaration on religious liberty Dignitatis humanae. December 7 was the fiftieth anniversary of the document's promulgation by Paul VI, and December 8 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Council's closing.

Michael tells me that his main goal was to produce an instrument for accurate study. He believes that his translation better reveals Dignitatis humanae's classical roots and the care with which the document was written. He welcomes any corrections and suggestions for improvement.

You can find Michael's translation here on his Academia.edu page.