John A. Demetracopoulos updated me recently on his important work on the Byzantine reception of Thomas Aquinas, and in particularly the collaborative work on a critical edition of Thomas's Byzantine Greek translations. Please visit their site to learn more about this project and how to support it.
https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/hellenic-institute/research/thomas.aspx
http://www.elemedu.upatras.gr/labart/dimitr/index1.html
Colloque Institut Saint-Thomas d’Aquin et Revue thomiste les 4-5 mai 2018
Institut catholique de Toulouse (Salle Léon XIII), 31, rue de la Fonderie
Le Bien et le bon selon saint Thomas d’Aquin
Vendredi matin 4 mai de 9h à 12h
Métaphysique et éthique
9h-9h15 : Introduction par le fr. Philippe-Marie Margelidon, o.p. (directeur de la Revue thomiste)
Président de séance : fr Philippe Margelidon, op
9h30-10h05 : Le bien et les transcendantaux chez saint Thomas d’Aquin, par le fr. Thierry-Dominique Humbrecht, o.p. (Bordeaux)
10h15-10h50 : L’esse et le bien dans le commentaire du Pseudo Denys, par l’abbé Alain Contat (Rome)
Pause
11h15-11h50 : L’axiome bonum diffusivum sui et la causalité du bien chez saint Thomas d’Aquin, par M. Hervé Pasqua (Nice)
Pause déjeuner de 12h à 14h
Vendredi 4 mai après-midi de 14h à 17h
Président de séance: Th.-D. Humbrecht, o.p. (Bordeaux)
14h-14h35 : Le bien, l’appétit et l’amour chez Thomas d’Aquin : Agapè peut-il sauver Eros ? par M. François-Xavier Putallaz (Fribourg)
14h45-15h20 : Le bien et le beau chez Thomas d’Aquin, par le fr. David Perrin, o.p. (Bordeaux)
Pause
15h45-16h20 : L’être et la résolution des principes de la raison pratique chez saint Thomas (J. de Finance et J. Finnis), par le P. Dominic Farrell, l.c. (Rome)
16h30-17h05 : Le bien et la liberté chez Cornelio Fabro, par le P. Christian Ferraro (Rome)
17h15 : fin de la première journée
Samedi matin 5 mai de 9h-12h15
Théologie et éthique
Président de séance : fr François Daguet, o.p. (Toulouse)
9h-9h35 : L’Église et le bien de l’univers, par l’abbé Emmanuel Cazanave (Toulouse)
9h45-10h20 : L’amour, le bien et le don, par l’abbé Louis-Marie Rineau, f.s.t.b. (Bayonne)
Pause
10h45-11h20 : Le jugement de bonté d’un acte moral selon saint Thomas d’Aquin, par fr. Joseph d’Amécourt, o.p. (Rome)
11h30-12h05 : Le bien humain chez Alasdaire MacIntyre, par le fr. Sébastien Perdrix, o.p. (Bordeaux)
Pause déjeuner de 12h à 14h
Samedi après-midi 5 mai de 14h à 17h15
Président de séance : fr Henry Donneaud
14h-14h35 : Le bien en politique : entre saint Thomas et G. Fessard, par fr. François Daguet, o.p. (Toulouse)
14h45-15h20 : L’argument du bien et du parfait dans la christologie de la Somme de théologie, par fr. Philippe-Marie Margelidon, o.p. (Toulouse)
Pause
15h45-16h20 : L’Esprit-Saint est le Bien incréé, par fr. Pavel Syssoev, o.p. (Bordeaux)
16h30-17h05 : Le bien et la Providence, par fr. Emmanuel Perrier, o.p. (Toulouse)
17h15 : fin du colloque
Contact et Inscription
Revue thomiste,
Couvent saint Thomas d’Aquin, Impasse H.-D. Lacordaire, 31078 Toulouse cedex 4
0562173126
redaction@revue thomiste.fr
Voir site internet : http://www.revuethomiste.fr
Tarif normal : 30 euros
Tarif étudiant : 20 euros
En espèce ou par chèque à l’ordre de Revue thomiste
Repas à prendre sur place à l’ICT : vendredi midi et samedi midi, rue de la Fonderie
Logements : Couvent des carmes… Liste à compléter
Accès de la gare : Ligne métro A et B (direction Ramonville : station Place du Parlement ou Carmes)
Accès aéroport : par navette aéroport (Compans-Cafarelli), ou avec le tramway : station Place du Parlement ou Carmes.
Readers at this site are familiar with the big, blue, hardbound editions of Aquinas's works coming out from The Aquinas Institute. While everyone has loved the beautiful books, some people have said it would be great if they could put the Aquinas Institute volumes on a Kindle or a Nook and bring them on trips.
In response, The Aquinas Institute has brought out a new line of eBooks. Each eBook matches one of their printed volumes, and if your e-reader permits it you can even see what page of the printed volume you are viewing. And just like the printed volumes, the eBooks are bilingual, meaning that you can toggle back and forth between Latin and English. See the video below for a demonstration.
In many readers, you can load a Latin dictionary, and then tap and hold on a word to look it up. You can take notes, search, bookmark, and anything else your reader allows. The new bilingual Aquinas eBooks are available from Amazon, iBooks, Nook, and pretty much anywhere you find eBooks for sale.
Each eBook costs $5.99. If you prefer a static PDF to a reflowable eBook, the bilingual layout found in the printed books is also available through Web PDF providers like Microsoft Books for $12.99.
As of this writing, only the Summa Theologiae is available in eBook form, but more volumes are soon to come. Please send feedback to The Aquinas Institute. This is a new approach to eBooks for the serious student.
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 2018 meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in San Diego, CA, 8-11 November 2018. It 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. The submission of an abstract alone should be accompanied by a Curriculum Vitae. A final version of the paper will be required by 1 September 2018 in order to facilitate a response paper which will be given during the conference session.
“From the Thomas Institute at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology (the Netherlands) comes a Call for Papers for an International Conference entitled: “Initiation and Mystagogy in Thomas Aquinas: Theological, Philosophical, Liturgical, and Pedagogical Perspectives” to be held December 13-15, 2018 in Utrecht (the Netherlands). Keynote speakers include Bernard Blankenhorn O.P., Matthew Levering and Daria Spezzano. Those interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract (including a title, a summary of their proposed paper, and their institutional affiliation) to J.I.M.Vijgen@uvt.nl by March 1st, 2018. Notification of acceptance will be given by April 15, 2018. For further information please check the website of the Thomas Institute, http://www.thomasinstituut.org/nws.php?nws_id=164
Our beloved Fr. Matthew Lamb died early yesterday morning due to complications from blood clotting in his lungs and pulmonary fibrosis. Fr. Lamb was a wonderful and generous friend, colleague, professor, and mentor at AMU. He was also a fine theologian and scholar. The University, the graduate theology program, and the Church owe him a great deal.
JD Flynn has published a short piece on Fr. Lamb at the Catholic News Agency here.
It was a rare homily in which Fr. Lamb didn't mention the "portals of death." Now he has passed through them. He will be greatly missed. Requiescat in pace.
The Aquinas Institute has released Aquinas's sermon Ecce Rex Tuus in a fresh translation from the Leonine text. The announcement contains the English text in an easily sharable format, but readers can also find the Latin text in a parallel column and critical footnotes in the English at the Aquinas Institute's online text reader.
In addition to publishing hardbound, bilingual editions of Aquinas's works, the Aquinas Institute makes all of its publications available online for free at aquinas.cc. While texts of Aquinas have been available online in Latin here or in English there in various ways, the Aquinas Institute text viewer is worth exploring.
Did you know that Aquinas mentions Ambrose 278 times in the Summa? Or that his commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews is a particularly rich source for angelology? It only takes a few keystrokes to pull up what you need. At aquinas.cc, you can:
The text viewer was originally created for Aquinas Institute translators and editors, so it has more robust features than your average text viewer. Check out the tutorial video below for details.
A link at Ed Feser's blog today alerted me to an exciting new initiative. Cluny Media, which I'm learning about for the first time, is launching a new book series entitled "The Thomist Tradition." According to the series page at Cluny Media's website, the series "conveys a dual conviction":
1. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas contains an incomparable fullness of wisdom.
2. The writings of the Thomists who followed him play a necessary role in mediating his wisdom to subsequent generations.
This is great! The series editor is the estimable Cajetan Cuddy, OP. Here's a list of currently available and forthcoming titles:
T.C. O'Brien, Metaphysics and the Existence of God (now available)
Joseph Clifford Fenton, The Concept of Sacred Theology (Christmas 2017)
Thomas U. Mullaney and Walter R. Farrell, Natural Law and Human Freedom: Thomistic Investigations (July 2018)
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Eucharist (a new translation of De Eucharistia) (Christmas 2018)
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Theological Virtues (a new translation of De Virtutibus Theologicis) (Christmas 2018)
I encourage you to check this out for yourself. I wish Fr. Cajetan's project every success!
(by Jeremy Holmes of The Aquinas Institute)
This past July, the Albertus Magnus Center Summer Program spent two weeks reading the Aquinas Institute’s latest volume, Book IV, Distinctions 1-13 of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Not many students have had the opportunity to read Aquinas’s Commentary at length. We asked AMCSS Vice-President Christopher Owens to tell us how it went.
First, tell us a bit about the Albertus Magnus Program.
The Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies promotes renewal in sacred theology according to the mind and method of the great scholastics, and particularly the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. We achieve this primarily through our annual summer program held in Norcia, Italy in cooperation with the Benedictine monastery there.
During the two-week program we follow a seminar method, looking to the great masters as our teachers. In addition, we have daily lectures by the tutors, the Fathers of the monastery, and other guest lecturers. The program culminates in a scholastic disputation and magisterial response, which allows for a synthesis of the materials learned and an application to contemporary questions, engaging theological questions of our own time and so contributing to the common good of the life of the Church.
Why was St. Thomas’s Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard chosen for this year’s program?
Over the last three summers we worked through several of Aquinas’s commentaries on the Pauline epistles, and before that we undertook systematic readings of various parts of the Summa. We wanted to change things up a bit this year. We have been friends with the faculty of the Aquinas Institute for a decade or more, and have been looking forward to the publication of the Sentences Commentary since the inception of the project. We were especially excited about the possibility of making a systematic study of the Commentary for the first time in English with recourse to the Latin text.
Did many attendees have previous experience with the Commentary on the Sentences?
We were privileged to have present the Aquinas Institute’s own Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, whose translations of selections of the Commentary on Love and Charity was published by CUA Press, and I have worked on medieval commentaries on the Sentences. We also had two doctoral students who are engaged in some exciting research on medieval theology. This was a great benefit to the seminar, but lack of experience was in no way an impediment for those who had never studied the Sentences commentarial tradition. Indeed, it was refreshing for me to hear of discoveries in the text from those who had never been exposed to the method.
Inevitably, people compare St. Thomas’s earlier Commentary with his later masterwork, the Summa theologiae. Did points of comparison come up in class? Does the Commentary have any unique advantages?
Fr. Torrell reports that St. Thomas would have been less than 30 years old when he was writing this first Commentary, while the Tertia Pars of the Summa would have been much later — indeed, when Thomas died, he left his treatise on the sacraments in the Summa unfinished. There is a great benefit to looking at the whole of Thomas’s career in order to try and discern a development in the thought of Thomas from his youth to his maturity. This historical approach can yield great insight—for example, Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange’s defense of Thomas’s belief in the Immaculate Conception depends upon not only reading the Summa, but his Sentences commentary, and other works.
However, we made a decision early on that such an attempt would be futile for the seminar: we simply never would have gotten through the work. Although there were occasional references to the Summa during our seminar study, on the whole what we found is that the text, and particularly the methodology of the text, stands as worthy of engagement on its own. Since our goal is not only to know what Thomas thinks about a particular issue, but more importantly what the truth of the matter is, Thomas’s methodology in interrogating the question opens up the subject for the reader to see the many facets of the issue under dispute, and allows the student to arrive at his own insights. Indeed, the Sentences Commentary uniquely opens up to the reader the breadth and depth that a particular question may have, since rather than a standard three objections, as one might find in the Summa, there will at times be as many as a dozen or more objections and counter-objections put forward in one question.
The unfamiliar format can be intimidating to a newcomer, but the Aquinas Institute edition is a great aid. The page headings make it easy to find the various distinctions, questions, articles, and quaestiunculae. The text itself is beautifully printed with a minimal amount of mark-up, but enough to help make the edition truly usable as a bi-lingual research tool. The quality of the binding is wonderful, and this is particularly important with such a large text. The text is footnoted both with critical remarks about the text or translation and also cross-references for further research.
Did your impression or imagination of St. Thomas change through your immersion in his early work?
In so many ways, yes! But here, I will constrain myself to two observations. First, perhaps the most unfortunate characterization of scholasticism by some mid-20th century theologians is that it is devoid of the vitality of the Spirit which is present, for instance, in the Patristic era. Reading Thomas’s Commentary, one cannot help but see that this characterization is manifestly false. My experience of reading the Commentary was that I found in the text to be an intensely personal search for Christ and his truth, one which enlivened my own heart and mind through following in the footsteps of Aquinas.
Second, even in schools today where St. Thomas’s Summa is considered an authority in the classroom, it can sometimes be taught not theologically, but rather as if it were the Catechism (albeit a much more detailed catechism). But to do this, I think, is to miss the point of the scholastic endeavor entirely! In reading the Sentences Commentary, the learner is put back in touch with the fact that this text is theology: it is faith seeking understanding; it is one theologian entering into dialectic with other theological opinions of his day, and trying to work out what is the truth. In this, we are reminded that theology as a sacred science is first of all about divinization, for it is the science of God and the Saints. Thus, here below, theology is about working out our faith, personally and ecclesially. The Commentary on the Sentences offers to the reader a most excellent guide to this process, both in providing some answers, but perhaps more importantly in providing a model for the right way to ask questions.
How would you envision the Commentary being used in a university classroom? In large sections on its own, as in the St. Albert the Great Program, or in smaller selections in connection with the Summa, or in some other way?
This is certainly a difficult question! As far as I am aware, in those faculties where specialized studies are offered in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, the Sentences commentary plays an ancillary role in the Thomistic curriculum. But this is not the fault of the faculty: up to now, there has not been a widely available edition for student use, even for those students who have facility with Latin. Thus, the new Aquinas Institute editions create opportunities to explore the rich theology contained in these rarely used texts. I hope that we will see elective courses dedicated to the study of the Commentary cropping up all over the place now that there is a quality edition available. In addition, these new editions could be used as a foundation for graduate studies in sacramental theology for a class on medieval thought; or else, portions of the text would be highly beneficial in support of a greater understanding of the Eastern and Western disputes over the sacraments.
Another consideration, one which might challenge a paradigm, is that we might rediscover the practice embodied in Aquinas’s Commentary. While the commentary tradition is all but absent from today’s theological curriculum, commentating on the Sentences of the Lombard was considered the foundation of high scholastic education, and it offers a unique way to compare the thought of different theologians: they all start from the same text, and then have points of convergence and divergence. A widespread re-discovery of this methodology might offer a challenge to the way theological disputation is undertaken in the 21st century. It might even provide a vehicle for resolving contemporary disputes, which too often suffer from a vastly disparate set of sources and methods in coming to opposed conclusions.
Who is eligible to participate in one of your two-week summer programs?
While our program is academic in nature and pitched at a graduate level, many participants come for a time of retreat and relaxation, and sometimes vocational discernment: Br. Augustine, OSB (the brewmaster at the monastery) was a participant in our first summer program, and we regularly have priests who join us for their two-week vacation from parish life. Monastic chant, the majestic Sibilline mountain range, and traditional Umbrian cuisine create an ideal setting for contemplation of higher truths. We have hosted doctors, businessmen, school teachers, attorneys, and even retirees, with attendees from Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, England, and the United States. Although we are non-accredited, we have usually been able to make arrangements for a student’s home university to offer some sort of credit for their participation in the program.
What’s up next for the St. Albert the Great Program?
This past year was the first year that we held the program near the new monastery on the mountain outside of Norcia. The agriturismo where we stayed was a great hit, and the nightly five-course meals were incredible! Just as we published last year’s proceedings, so we intend to publish the proceedings from this past summer’s program, hopefully in time for Christmas. Plans are underway for next summer’s program on Divine Providence and Human Suffering, using the Aquinas Institute’s edition of Thomas’s Commentary on the Literal Sense of Job as our primary text. We have confirmed that the dates for next year’s program will be during the last two weeks of June. We will be launching details about the program, as well as opening the application process, on this coming St. Albert’s Day (Nov. 15th). We hope to fill the agriturismo, so please do spread the word, and get in touch if you’d like to help us out in some way.
How can people find out more?
Please, feel free to visit our website or else drop me an email!
For those interested in John of St. Thomas's Cursus theologicus, I happen to have a precious volume of the set that was published in the 1940s. While I love this author and admire the beautiful book, I've never used it -- indeed, most of the pages are still uncut -- and I don't foresee needing it. There's bound to be a scholar out there who would make better use of it.
Description: Joannis a Sancto Thoma Cursus Theologicus. Tomus IV, fasciculi I-III. Desclee et Socii: Parisiis-Tornaci-Romae. MCMXLVI (date on cover). Opera et studio monachorum quorumdam solesmensium O.S.B. editus, in quo quid contineatur versa pagella indicabit. 1953 (date on title page). With a prefatory letter by Cardinal Pacelli. Contains xii + ca. 500 pages, namely, the Tractatus de Angelis: qu. 50 to qu. 74. Paginated as p. 441 to p. 935. Binding in good condition; some wrinkles and tears on the cover. Inside in very good+ condition. $200 or best offer.
Please contact me at professorkwasniewski (at) gmail.com.
Some photos:
Undoubtedly readers of this site are well aware that The Aquinas Institute has undertaken the project of publishing a bilingual Opera Omnia of the Angelic Doctor in approximately 60 hardcover volumes. The progress has been impressive so far: the Summa Theologiae; the Pauline Commentaries; the Matthew and John Commentaries; the Job Commentary. All of these, due to their quality and comparatively low cost, have now become standard go-to editions for teachers, students, theologians, philosophers, and general readers.
After years of work under an NEH grant, The Aquinas Institute is happy to announce that the edition of Book IV of St. Thomas's Scriptum super Sententiarum is starting to be available in print, with volume 1, distinctions 1-13, just released. I had the privilege of teaching the Albert the Great Summer Program in Norcia this past July, on baptism and the Eucharist, using a preliminary copy of this volume. It was a fantastic experience getting into the youthful Aquinas's wrestling with some of the major questions of his day. Once again, as with my own collection of parts of the Scriptum on love and charity, I found that reading the Scriptum on sacraments, although it does not present the definitive position of the saint, nevertheless enriched and enhanced my understanding not only of the realities themselves but also of Aquinas's own process of thinking and maturation.
Also worth of note is that the Latin text that will be used for all the Aquinas Institute volumes of the Scriptum, derived initially from the semi-critical Mandonnet-Moos volumes, has been corrected against the not-yet-released critical edition of the Leonine Commission, with whom the Aquinas Institute is collaborating. That feature will make these volumes the best Latin editions as well as the only English editions.
Please note, as well, that there is a massive sale on Aquinas Institute books during the month of October only -- e.g., the Summa theologiae set is 50% off ($180 for 8 hardcover volumes, instead of the usual $360). Visit the website for more details.
Here are some photos to whet the appetite. The remaining volumes of Book IV of the Scriptum super Sententiarum (for a total of four) will be appearing over the course of the next months. The Aquinas Institute is well under way with Books II and III, with a new NEH grant.
Under the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
