Thomas Aquinas & Scholastic Theology
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CTR EDITORIAL (1000 Words)
CTR n.s.16/2 (Spring 2019) 49–66 Sola Scriptura, the Fathers, and the Church: Arguments from the Lutheran Reformers Carl L. Beckwith Beeson Divinity School Samford University, Birmingham, AL I. INTRODUCTION I learned to show this reverence and respect only to those books of the scriptures that are now called canonical so that I most firmly believe that none of their authors erred in writing anything. And if I come upon something in those writings that seems contrary to the truth, I have no doubt that either the manuscript is defective or the translator did not follow what was said or that I did not understand it. I, however, read other authors in such a way that, no matter how much they excel in holiness and learning, I do not suppose that something is true by reason of the fact that they thought so, but because they were able to convince me either through those canonical authors or by plausible reason that it does not depart from the truth.1 Augustine to Jerome, Letter 82 Martin Luther and his reforming colleagues maintained that Scripture alone determines the articles of faith. All that the church believes, teaches, and confesses rests upon the authority of the canonical scriptures, upon the unique revelation of God himself through his prophets and apostles. Luther declares, “It will not do to make articles of faith out of 1Augustine, Letter 82.3 in Letters 1–99, trans. Roland Teske (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2001), 316. 50 Criswell Theological Review the holy Fathers’ words or works. -
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel John F
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel John F. X. Knasas Suffering and Hope Conference University of St. Thomas November 10-13, 2005 I examine Jacques Maritain’s critique of a Thomistic explanation of suffering from his 1942 Marquette Aquinas Lecture, St. Thomas and the Problem of Evil.1 In sum, at Summa Theologiae I, 48, 2c, Aquinas argues that God permits evils for the perfection of the universe. Evils are the concomitant of corruptible things. And corruptible things belong to the perfection of the created order which requires every grade of goodness. Using the Biblical personage of Rachel, who has lost her children to the soldiers of King Herod, Maritain poignantly observes that Aquinas’ reason would never satisfy a mother suffering the loss of her child. What can be the value of the perfection of the universe in comparison to the loss of a young and innocent human being? And so, according to Maritain, one must balance 48, 2, with Summa Contra Gentiles III, 112, in which Aquinas describes the rational creature as a person.2 This description means that the rational creature is more like a whole than a part thereof. Hence, in the perspective of the human as person, Martian concludes that human suffering is “an utter anomaly”3 that is better understood as the unfortunate result of the rational creature’s free refusal of divine love, i.e., as a result of original sin. In my opinion, neither of Maritain’s two reasons hold. First, SCG III, 112, never ascribes to humans the exalted sense of person used by Maritain. -
CBC IDEAS Sales Catalog (AZ Listing by Episode Title. Prices Include
CBC IDEAS Sales Catalog (A-Z listing by episode title. Prices include taxes and shipping within Canada) Catalog is updated at the end of each month. For current month’s listings, please visit: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/schedule/ Transcript = readable, printed transcript CD = titles are available on CD, with some exceptions due to copyright = book 104 Pall Mall (2011) CD $18 foremost public intellectuals, Jean The Academic-Industrial Ever since it was founded in 1836, Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Complex London's exclusive Reform Club Spelman Rockefeller Professor of (1982) Transcript $14.00, 2 has been a place where Social and Political Ethics, Divinity hours progressive people meet to School, The University of Chicago. Industries fund academic research discuss radical politics. There's In addition to her many award- and professors develop sideline also a considerable Canadian winning books, Professor Elshtain businesses. This blurring of the connection. IDEAS host Paul writes and lectures widely on dividing line between universities Kennedy takes a guided tour. themes of democracy, ethical and the real world has important dilemmas, religion and politics and implications. Jill Eisen, producer. 1893 and the Idea of Frontier international relations. The 2013 (1993) $14.00, 2 hours Milton K. Wong Lecture is Acadian Women One hundred years ago, the presented by the Laurier (1988) Transcript $14.00, 2 historian Frederick Jackson Turner Institution, UBC Continuing hours declared that the closing of the Studies and the Iona Pacific Inter- Acadians are among the least- frontier meant the end of an era for religious Centre in partnership with known of Canadians. -
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES to MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences Of
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Matthew Glen Minix UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio December 2016 MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew G. APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Dissertation Director _____________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader. _____________________________________ Anthony Burke Smith, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ John A. Inglis, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ Jack J. Bauer, Ph.D. _____________________________________ Daniel Speed Thompson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Religious Studies ii © Copyright by Matthew Glen Minix All rights reserved 2016 iii ABSTRACT MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew Glen University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Sandra A. Yocum This dissertation considers a spectrum of five distinct approaches that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomist Catholic thinkers utilized when engaging with the tradition of modern scientific psychology: a critical approach, a reformulation approach, a synthetic approach, a particular [Jungian] approach, and a personalist approach. This work argues that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomists were essentially united in their concerns about the metaphysical principles of many modern psychologists as well as in their worries that these same modern psychologists had a tendency to overlook the transcendent dimension of human existence. This work shows that the first four neo-Thomist thinkers failed to bring the traditions of neo-Thomism and modern psychology together to the extent that they suggested purely theoretical ways of reconciling them. -
HUMAN CLONING Papers from a Church Consultation
HUMAN CLONING Papers From a Church Consultation Evangelical Lutheran Church in America October 13-15, 2000 Chicago, Illinois Roger A. Willer, editor HUMAN CLONING Papers From a Church Consultation Roger A. Willer, editor Copyright © 2001 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Produced by the Department for Studies of the Division for Church in Society, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, Illinois, 60631-4190. Permission is granted to reproduce this document as needed provided each copy carries the copyright notice printed above. Scripture quotations from the New Standard Revised Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America and are used by permission. Cover image © copyright 1999 PhotoDisc, Inc. The figure found on page nine is adapted from the National Institute of Health, Stem Cells: A Primer at <www.nih.gov/ news/stemcell/primer.htm>. ISBN 6-0001-3165-8. Distributed on behalf of the Division for Church in Society of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by Augsburg Fortress, Publishers. Augsburg Fortress order code 69-1550. This publication may be found online in its entirety as a downloadable PDF (portable document file) at <www.elca.org/ dcs/humancloning.html>. Printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks. Contents Contributors 3 Preface 4 Introduction 5 Section One, The Science and the Public Debate Kevin Fitzgerald Cloning: Can it be Good for Us? 8 Margaret R. McLean Table Talk and Public Policy Formation in the Clone Age 14 Richard Perry Broadening the Churchs Conversation 23 Section Two, Theological Resources Philip Hefner Cloning: The Destiny and Dangers of Being Human 27 Richard C. -
Natural Reason in the Summa Contra Gentiles
Natural Reason in the Summa contra Gentiles RUDI A. TE VELDE A distinctive feature of Aquinas's Summa contra Gentiles is the central role the author assigns to natural reason in his project of manifesting the truth of Christian faith. Reason is supposed to give a rational account of the truth of what faith professes about God, to arrive at a veritas demonstrative!,) which will be shown to accord with the Christian religion. It is mainly because of this emphatic and what seems to be a rather presumptuous role of natural reason that the work has occasioned so much discussion and, consequently, diversity of opinion among the interpreters of Aquinas's thought. Is the Contra Gentiles, insofar as reason is the leading principle of the investigation, to be regarded as a kind of 'philosophical' summa) as it was sometimes labeled in the past? The objection immediately arises that the fourth book explicitly deals with those truths of faith which are above reason. And further, on account of its declared subject-matter—the truth of the Catholic faith—it seems unmistakably a theological work or, more exactly, a work in which the truth of Christian faith is expounded and defended. Those who stress the theological character of the work, a work written from the point of view of faith, usually refer to what seems to be the original title: "On the Truth of the Catholic Faith against the Errors of the Infidels."1 1. In early manuscripts of the work the title used is "Liber de veritate catholicae fΐdei contra errores inήdelium." See the Leonine edition of the Contra Gentiles in 42 NATURAL REASON IN THE CONTRA GENTILES 43 The riddle of the Contra Gentiles goes deeper than the question of whether it is intended primarily as a theological or as a philosophical work, based on reason as a common human faculty for truth. -
Durham Research Online
Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 05 September 2017 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Van Nieuwenhove, Rik (2017) 'Contemplation, intellectus, and simplex intuitus in Aquinas : recovering a Neoplatonic theme.', American Catholic philosophical quarterly., 91 (2). pp. 199-225. Further information on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq2017227108 Publisher's copyright statement: Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk Contemplation, intellectus and simplex intuitus in Aquinas: Recovering a Neoplatonic Theme.1 Rik Van Nieuwenhove Abstract. This contribution examines two related points in relation to Aquinas’s understanding of contemplation (a sorely neglected topic in scholarship). First, (a) after having outlined that the final act of contemplation culminates in an intellective (or non- discursive), simple apprehension of the truth (especially divine truth) I will examine how this act relates to the three operations of the intellect (grasping of quiddity; judgement; reasoning) Aquinas identifies in a number of places. -
SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES by Thomas Aquinas (Selections)
Summa Contra Gentiles - Aquinas SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES derstanding cannot go so far of its natural power as to grasp by Thomas Aquinas His substance, since under the conditions of the present life the knowledge of our understanding commences with (selections) sense; and therefore objects beyond sense cannot be grasped by human understanding except so far as knowledge is gathered of them through the senses. But things of sense I, 3 That the Truths which we confess concerning God fall cannot lead our understanding to read in them the essence under two Modes or Categories of the Divine Substance, inasmuch as they are effects inade- BECAUSE not every truth admits of the same mode of mani- quate to the power that caused them. Nevertheless our un- festation, and "a well-educated man will expect exactness in derstanding is thereby led to some knowledge of God, every class of subject, according as the nature of the thing namely, of His existence and of other attributes that must admits," as is very well remarked by the Philosopher (Eth. necessarily be attributed to the First Cause. There are, there- Nicom. I, 1094b), we must first show what mode of proof is fore, some points of intelligibility in God, accessible to hu- possible for the truth that we have now before us. The truths man reason, and other points that altogether transcend the that we confess concerning God fall under two modes. Some power of human reason. things true of God are beyond all the competence of human The same thing may be understood from consideration of reason, as that God is Three and One. -
Being Is Double
Being is double Jean-Luc Marion and John Milbank on God, being and analogy Nathan Edward Lyons B. A. (Adv.) (Hons.) This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy School of Philosophy Australian Catholic University Graduate Research Office Locked Bag 4115 Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 1st March 2014 i ABSTRACT This thesis examines the contemporary dispute between philosopher Jean-Luc Marion and theologian John Milbank concerning the relation of God to being and the nature of theological analogy. I argue that Marion and Milbank begin from a shared opposition to Scotist univocity but tend in opposite directions in elaborating their constructive theologies. Marion takes an essentially Dionysian approach, emphasising the divine transcendence “beyond being” to such a degree as to produce an essentially equivocal account of theological analogy. Milbank, on the other hand, inspired particularly by Eckhart, affirms a strong version of the Thomist thesis that God is “being itself” and emphasises divine immanence to such a degree that the analogical distinction between created and uncreated being is virtually collapsed. Both thinkers claim fidelity to the premodern Christian theological tradition, but I show that certain difficulties attend both of their claims. I suggest that the decisive issue between them is the authority which should be granted to Heidegger’s account of being and I argue that it is Milbank’s vision of post-Heideggerian theological method which is to be preferred. I conclude that Marion and Milbank give two impressive contemporary answers to the ancient riddle of “double being” raised in the Anonymous Commentary on Plato’s “Parmenides,” a riddle which queries the relation between absolute First being and derived Second being. -
1 the Summa Theologiae and the Reformed Traditions Christoph Schwöbel 1. Luther and Thomas Aquinas
The Summa Theologiae and the Reformed Traditions Christoph Schwöbel 1. Luther and Thomas Aquinas: A Conflict over Authority? On 10 December 1520 at the Elster Gate of Wittenberg, Martin Luther burned his copy of the papal bull Exsurge domine, issued by pope Leo X on 15 June of that year, demanding of Luther to retract 41 errors from his writings. The time for Luther to react obediently within 60 days had expired on that date. The book burning was a response to the burning of Luther’s works which his adversary Johannes Eck had staged in a number of cities. Johann Agricola, Luther’s student and president of the Paedagogium of the University, who had organized the event at the Elster Gate, also got hold of a copy of the books of canon law which was similarly committed to the flames. Following contemporary testimonies it is probable that Agricola had also tried to collect copies of works of scholastic theology for the burning, most notably the Summa Theologiae. However, the search proved unsuccessful and the Summa was not burned alongside the papal bull since the Wittenberg theologians – Martin Luther arguably among them – did not want to relinquish their copies.1 The event seems paradigmatic of the attitude of the early Protestant Reformers to the Summa and its author. In Luther’s writings we find relatively frequent references to Thomas Aquinas, although not exact quotations.2 With regard to the person of Thomas Luther could gleefully report on the girth of Thomas Aquinas, including the much-repeated story that he could eat a whole goose in one go and that a hole had to be cut into his table to allow him to sit at the table at all.3 At the same time Luther could also relate several times and in different contexts in his table talks how Thomas at the time of his death experienced such grave spiritual temptations that he could not hold out against the devil until he confounded him by embracing his Bible, saying: “I believe what is written in this book.”4 At least on some occasions Luther 1 Cf. -
Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference Of
GENEALOGY OF NIHILISM Nihilism is the logic of nothing as something, which claims that Nothing Is. Its unmaking of things, and its forming of formless things, strain the fundamental terms of existence: what it is to be, to know, to be known. But nihilism, the antithesis of God, is also like theology. Where nihilism creates nothingness, condenses it to substance, God also makes nothingness creative. Negotiating the borders of spirit and substance, theology can ask the questions of nihilism that other disciplines do not ask: Where is it? What is it made of? Why is it so destructive? How can it be made holy, or overcome? Genealogy of Nihilism rereads Western history in the light of nihilistic logic, which pervades two millennia of Western thought and is coming to fruition in our present age in a virulently dangerous manner. From Parmenides to Alain Badiou, via Plotinus, Avicenna, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze and Derrida, a genealogy of nothingness can be witnessed in development, with devastating consequences for the way we live. As a dualistic logic, nihilism has come to ground existence not in life but in the absences beyond it. We who are, are no longer the living, but rather the living dead; in the death-wielding modern approach to knowledge, we are all reduced to cadavers. The Trinitarian theology of Genealogy of Nihilism offers a counterargument that is sustained by nihilism even as it defeats it. In Christ’s ontological synthesis of divine spirit and incarnation, and in the miraculous logic of the resurrection, theology reunites presence with absence, non-being with being. -
Department of Theology, Loyola University Maryland 4501 N
FREDERICK CHRISTIAN BAUERSCHMIDT Department of Theology, Loyola University Maryland 4501 N. Charles St. Baltimore, Maryland 21210 USA tel.: (410) 617-2042 [email protected] Academic Positions • Professor of Theology, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 2013-present. • Chair, Department of Theology, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 2009-2015. • Associate Professor of Theology, Loyola College/University, Baltimore, MD, 2000-2013. • Director, Loyola International Nachbahr Huis, Leuven, Belgium, 2001-2003. • Visiting Professor, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 2001-2003. • Assistant Professor of Theology, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD, 1994-2000. • Lecturer in the Department of Religion, Duke University, Durham, NC, 1993. Education Ph.D. 1996 Duke University, Graduate Program in Religion. Major Field: Theology and Ethics. Minor Field: History of Christianity. External Minor Field: English. Dissertation: “Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ.” Co-directors: Stanley Hauerwas and Sarah Beckwith. M.A.R. 1989 Yale Divinity School. Concentration: Systematic Theology. B.A. 1984 The University of the South. Major: Religion. Publications Books Authored • How Beautiful the World Could Be: Christian Reflections on the Everyday. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishers (forthcoming 2022). • The Essential Summa Theologiae: A Reader and Commentary Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic (forthcoming October 2021). First edition: Holy Teaching: Introducing the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas. 2005. 320 pp. • The Love That Is God: An Invitation to Christian Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishers, 2020. xvii+152 pp. • The Deacon’s Ministry of the Liturgy. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016. vii+124 pp. • Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason and Following Christ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. xii+342 pp. • Why the Mystics Matter Now.