Book Review: Hope: The Autobiography by Pope Francis. [REVIEW]Subhasis Chattopadhyay -2025 -Indian Catholic Matters.detailsThis review shows the intellectual antecedents of Pope Francis whose Ph.D. on Romano Guardini remains incomplete. Further, the Pope is often accused of being less than traditional by some in the Roman Curia. This review interrogates this accusation and finds the Pope to be alinged with what Guardini calls 'tradition'. In the final analysis, this review shows the Pope to be a neo -Thomist.
The act - Petite métaphysique thomiste - ch. 4, excerpts.Guy-François Delaporte -2025 - Paris: L'Harmattan.detailsAct, every act is an existence, an esse Thomas writes. Esse, to exist, is the proper activity of the act, of every act. St. Thomas repeats it on several occasions, to be (esse) is "the actuality of the act".
Petite métaphysique thomiste - Extraits Ch. 4 : l'acte.Guy-François Delaporte -2025 - Paris: Harmattan.detailsL’acte, tout acte est un exister, un esse écrit Thomas. Esse, exister, est l’activité propre de l’acte, de tout acte. Saint Thomas le répète à plusieurs occasions, être (esse) est « l’actualité de l’acte ».
Petite métaphysique thomiste.Guy-Fançois Delaporte -2025 - Paris: Harmattan.detailsJ'ai le plaisir de vous faire part de la parution du livre "Petite métaphysique thomiste en janvier 2025, à l'occasion du 8ème centenaire de la naissance de Thomas d'Aquin. Une approche nouvelle et pourtant si traditionnelle vient bousculer la pensée thomiste dominante sur le sens de l’être, de la création de l’Univers ou des preuves de l’existence de Dieu… et quelques autres.
Aquinas on Metaphysics as a Science.Philip-Neri Reese, O. P. -forthcoming - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.detailsThis book argues that Thomas Aquinas succeeded in doing what previous Peripatetic philosophers failed to do, namely, articulate metaphysics as a science in the strongest or most rigorous sense of Aristotelian episteme. On Aquinas's account, metaphysics meets all the requirements for propter quid demonstrative knowledge laid out in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics. As such, his claim that metaphysical knowledge is the most certain and highest form of knowledge naturally available to the human being appears to be internally justified in a way (...) that is unique in the history of philosophy . (shrink)
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Omne ens est creatum: Apropter quid Metaphysical Demonstration?Philip-Neri Reese, O. P. -2024 - In Therese Cory & Gregory T. Doolan,_Summa metaphysicae ad mentem sancti Thomae_: Essays in Honor of John F. Wippel. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. pp. 44-63.detailsThis contribution in honor of the life, work, and teaching of Fr. Wippel aims to show that the argument Aquinas gives in ST I.44.1 ad 1 for the conclusion that all beings are created is a genuinely propter quid metaphysical argument.
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(1 other version)Note on the Fittingness of Negative Naming in Sacred Theology: TheCorpus Dionysiacum and Father Bernard Lonergan, SJ.David Francis Sherwood -2025 -Heythrop Journal 66 (1):24–37.detailsWithin a broadly Thomistic frame, this paper shows how simple apophaticism in the theology of Pseudo‐Dionysius the Areopagite is the more fitting mode of knowing the triune God, beyond the use of all divine names. Specifically, we will proceed using the work of Father Bernard Lonergan, SJ on theological fittingness. After setting forth Father Lonergan's understanding of fittingness, the paper will proceed through Dionysius's cataphatic names, apophatic names, and apophatic silence. The cataphatic and apophatic names, while true, useful, and fittingly (...) said of God, will be shown to be imperfectly applied to God. As such, their fittingness pales in comparison to the simple silence of the intellect orientated towards God, despite such pure apophaticism's dissimilarity to normal human intellectual operations. (shrink)
John Poinsot and John Deely.Frank Nuessel -2024 -Studia Poinsotiana.detailsThis essay addresses two preeminent figures in the study of the doctrine of signs. The first is John Poinsot (9 July 1589 – 15 June 1644). The second is John Deely (26 April 1942 – 7 January 2017). In many ways, the academic lives of these two noteworthy scholars are forever intertwined because of their scholarly contributions to the doctrine of signs. On the one hand, John Poinsot authored a very significant, but long neglected document, Tractatus de Signis, which articulated (...) a comprehensive analysis of the doctrine of signs. Moreover, his work constituted a significant link between Christian theology, philosophical Latinity, and modern and postmodern scholarly matters. In this regard, John Deely resurrected Poinsot’s neglected text by providing a detailed, annotated translation of the original Latin version together with a meticulous account of its implications for the doctrine of signs. As a result, we now possess the “missing link” between these philosophical and intellectual epochs. Deely further addressed the role that Charles Sanders Peirce played in the study of the doctrine of signs. Finally, there is a discussion of the “International Open Seminar on Semiotics: A Tribute to John Deely on the Fifth Anniversary of His Passing” available at the University of Coimbra website. (shrink)
Pedro de Ledesma contra la premoción moral de Juan Vicente de Astorga.David Torrijos Castrillejo -2024 -Ideação 16 (50):77-91.detailsPedro de Ledesma became one of the most important professors in the theological faculty of the University of Salamanca at the beginning of the 17th century. He and Juan Vicente de Astorga were Dominican theologians in substantial agreement with Domingo Báñez about the main points of the disputes on grace. However, they manifest remarkable differences between them. Astorga believes that God could not maintain the infallibility of His predestination of creatures only through His foreknowledge of the acts of the creature, (...) as Luis de Molina defends. He thinks that God disposes by His providence each concrete act of creatures and, by His concurrence, effectively achieves their fulfillment. However, God does not influence created free will by means of a physical premotion, but by a moral one, i.e. by suggestions and inspirations. Ledesma criticizes Astorga’s thesis, although he uses Astorga’s arguments to defend the compatibility of physical premotion with the freedom of the creature. In this article, the thought of both theologians is presented in the light of their unpublished manuscript works. The opposition between these two friars manifests the variety of approaches adopted by Dominicans of the time, who cannot be considered as a uniform group. (shrink)
Revaluing Contemplation: Byung-Chul Han and St. Thomas Aquinas Ideas on Vita Contemplativa.Nataniel Fernandez -2024 -Theoria: The Academic Journal of San Carlos Seminary Philosophy Department 7 (1):109-129.detailsOne can observe that modern man already is in a society where achievement becomes the main, even sole, goal. Neoliberalism highly influenced people to see themselves as subjects of achievement. The society becomes the one that dictates the activities of man, leaving him without freedom. It is observed that in today’s world, man submits himself easily to the demands of the particular situation without even thinking. In this paper, we look at the ways of life, namely, Vita Contemplativa and Vita (...) Activa, as means towards liberation from the achievement society. The relevance of Vita Activa is acknowledged as a reminder of our true selves as homo faber, but still looks upon the primacy of Vita Con- templativa. Contemplation and these ideals both feature prominently in the ideas of the contemporary philosopher, Byung-Chul Han, and the Christian thinker St. Thomas Aquinas. This paper shows an approach towards revaluing contemplation, especially as actualized in prayer. The value of taking time to rest and pausing for a while so as to contemplate and encounter the Divine amidst the ever-rising reality of the busy contemporary world is appreciated once more. (shrink)
Diego de Deza y la introducción del tomismo en la universidad española del siglo XVI.David Torrijos-Castrillejo -2024 - In Enrique Martínez & Lucas Prieto,Tomismo hispano: Ocho siglos de tradición intelectual. Madrid: Dykinson/Sindéresis. pp. 41-60.detailsDiego de Deza was an important ecclesiastic in early 16th century Spain. Before being ordained bishop, he was the first Dominican to occupy the most important chair of theology in Salamanca, which would later be held by Francisco de Vitoria. As bishop he contributed in different ways to the spread of Thomism, especially with the refoundation of the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid and the Colegio de Santo Tomás in Seville. Especially in his college of Seville he gave indications (...) that indicated to follow Aquinas as a teacher not only for theology, but also for philosophy and the Bible. This article investigates this contribution by contrasting various unpublished manuscripts. (shrink)
Are Mathematical Objects ‘sui generis Fictions’? Some Remarks on Aquinas’s Philosophy of Mathematics.Daniel Eduardo Usma Gomez -2024 -New Blackfriars 105 (5):506 - 529.detailsThis contribution proposes an interpretation of Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy of mathematics. It is argued that Aquinas’s philosophy of mathematics is a coherent view whose main features enable us to understand it as a moderate realism according to which mathematical objects have an esse intentionale. This esse intentionale involves both mathematicians’ intellectual activity and natural things being knowable mathematically. It is shown that, in Aquinas’s view, mathematics’ constructive part does not conflict with mathematical realism. It is also held that mathematics’ imaginative (...) reasoning is coherent with Aquinas’s doctrine of formal abstraction and his realism. It focuses on some of Aquinas’s texts, which it places within their textual and doctrinal context and interprets them in the light of some historical elements. (shrink)
The Separated Soul and the Human Person.Philip-Neri Reese, O. P. -2024 -Nova et Vetera 22 (3):943-960.detailsIn this paper I weigh in on the ongoing Thomistic debate between corruptionists, survivalists, and incompletionists about whether the soul's separate, post-mortem existence suffices for my post-mortem existence.
Being and Predication: Thomistic Interpretations.Ralph McInerny (ed.) -1986 - Catholic University of America Press.detailsBrings together articles that influenced the scholarly work of Ralph McInerny.
Theesse of the Eucharist.David Francis Sherwood -unknowndetailsThis paper investigates the act of existence (esse) of the Eucharist according to the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas and presuming the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist as defined by the Ecumenical Council of Trent. The paper proceeds by presenting the question on the existence of Christ in the Disputed Question on the Union of the Incarnate Word and the tertia pars of the Summa Theologiae before presenting a short synthesis showing that Christ exists by the Divine esse (...) of the Second Person of the Trinity. Sacramentally, two objections to identifying this Divine esse as the existence of the Eucharist are considered. First, given that individuals generally each exist by a numerically distinct act of existence, the consecrated hosts and wine across the globe should all have distinct esse. Second, the Real Presence is a mode of sacramental presence which is different than natural modes of existence. (shrink)
Faith in the Gospel of John as the Content of Truth: Πίστ- Root Words and Theological Exegesis.David Francis Sherwood -2025 -Homiletic and Pastoral Review.detailsTheological exegesis on St. John the Evangelist's use of "faith" in the Gospel of John in order to clarify the noetic content of the Faith, though St. John's use of the term is inclusive of the notion of faith as personal trust in God.
Aristotelianism in Eucharistic Theology: Father Thomas Reese and Transubstantiation.David Francis Sherwood -2023 -Homiletic and Pastoral Review.detailsThis article is a defense and explication of Aristotelian substance-accident terminology used in the Catholic dogma of transubstantiation following upon Fr. Thomas Reese's denigration of orthodox terminology and theology. It was reworked from a paper entitled “They Must Fall into Being: The Son’s Power as Quasi-Subject of the Accidents of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Eucharist” which I delivered on Feb. 4, 2023, at The Holiness of God and the Mystery of the Eucharist conference at Ave Maria (...) University co-sponsored by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal (Ave Maria, FL) and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (Steubenville, OH). (shrink)
Theological Systematization and the Order Between the Literal and Allegorical Senses of Scripture.David Francis Sherwood -2023 -The Aquinas Review of Thomas Aquinas College 26 (2):151-77.detailsThis paper demonstrates the inadequacy of the literalist and the allegorist approaches to Sacred Scripture, when isolated from each other, through the lenses of the Antiochian and Alexandrian Schools during the Patristic Era. Then, it turns to the perfection of the literal and allegorical approaches when brought together in proper order in the hands of the Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Why Are Accidents Included under Being per se?Elliot Polsky -forthcoming -Nova et Vetera.detailsIn In V Metaphysics, lec. 9, Aquinas distinguishes between “being by accident” (ens per accidens) and “being by itself” (ens per se) and includes the nine accidental categories under the latter. But isn’t substance a being per se while accidents are, by definition, accidental beings? Several authors—including Ralph McInerny, Paul Symington, and Greg Doolan—have offered explanations of this strange classification. Drawing on an overlooked parallel text in the Posterior Analytics commentary and on Aquinas’s critique of Avicenna’s understanding of accidental denominatives, (...) this paper presents an alternative explanation of the lecture. In the process, it clarifies how Aquinas views the relation of the ten categories to predication and suggests important implications for how we should understand the analogy of being and the phrase “substantial being” (esse substantiale). -/- [Winner of the Leo Elder's Junior Scholar Essay Contest (2024)]. (shrink)
Aquinas' Five Ways.Timothy J. Pawl -2011 - In Michael Bruce & Steven Barbone,Just the Arguments. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 7–17.detailsThis chapter contains sections titled: The First Way – The Argument from Motion The Second Way – The Argument from Causation The Third Way – The Argument from Possibility and Necessity The Fourth Way – The Argument from Gradation The Fifth Way – The Argument from the Governance.
Truth, Scholastic Transcendentals, and the Implications of Ideal-Realism.Marco Stango -2022 -Filosofia 67:201-224.detailsThe paper explores the possibility of philosophical cooperation between Thomism and American pragmatism by resurrecting a largely forgotten debate between Wilmon Henry Sheldon and Jacques Maritain. The discussion focuses primarily on the problem of truth as it is discussed by Peirce and by some contemporary Thomists, including Maritain but also Milbank, Pickstock, Lonergan, Balthasar, Pieper, and Ulrich. The paper claims that, if we bring Peirce’s version of pragmatism into the picture, cooperation is not possible but likely to be fruitful for (...) both pragmatism and Thomism. (shrink)
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1 citation St. Thomas Aquinas's Concept of a Person.Christopher Hauser -2022 -NTU Philosophical Review 64:191-230.detailsThis article develops an argument in defense of the claim that Aquinas holds that there are some kinds of activities which can be performed only by persons. In particular, it is argued that Aquinas holds that only persons can engage in the activities proper to a rational nature, e.g., the activities of intellect and will. Next, the article turns to discuss two implications of this thesis concerning Aquinas’s concept of a person. First, the thesis can be used to resolve a (...) prominent scholarly debate concerning Aquinas’s views on the possibility of human persons surviving their bodily deaths. Second, it also points to a problem with a leading interpretation of Aquinas’ account of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. Finally, the article concludes by discussing how a correct interpretation of Aquinas’s views on these matters is related to a broader scholarly debate concerning the history of the Western concept of a person. (shrink)
La preuve aristotélicienne de l’éternité de l’Univers est-elle scientifique ou dialectique ?Guy-François Delaporte -forthcoming -Grand Portail Thomas D'Aquin.detailsThe object of our reflection is to examine whether Aristotle's proof of the eternity of the Universe has a scientific character or only a dialectical one, as Thomas Aquinas claims. On this response depends faith in Creation. -/- L’objet de notre réflexion est d’examiner si la preuve de l’éternité de l’Univers avancée par Aristote a un caractère scientifique ou bien seulement dialectique, comme le prétend Thomas d’Aquin. De cette réponse dépend la foi en la Création.
The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life.Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange -2017 - Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Academic.detailsNext to his major works in fundamental theology (De Revelatione) and in philosophical theology (God: His Existence and Nature), this arguably is Garrigou-Lagrange's most important theological contribution at the intersection of fundamental and dogmatic theology. Though considerably shorter, this book displays in focus and in substance a striking similarity to Matthias Josef Scheeben's classic The Mysteries of Christianity. The Sense of Mystery considers the reality of the divine mystery, the way it informs the fundamental relationship between nature and grace, and, (...) by way of the latter, shapes the central topics of dogmatic theology. At a time when analytic hyper-rationalism, perspectivalist historicism, and pastoral intuitivism vie for the pole position in contemporary systematic theology, theologians and students thereof ignore at their own peril this welcome exercise in theological perspicuity and epistemic humility. The sacred monster of Thomism turns out to be a practitioner of theological sanity helping us understand what is theologically at stake in the face of the contemporary alternatives. Tolle, lege-Take and read!" Book jacket. (shrink)
Praeambula Fidei: Thomism and the God of the Philosophers.Ralph McInerny -2006 - The Catholic University of America Press.detailsIn this book, renowned philosopher Ralph McInerny sets out to review what Thomas meant by the phrase and to defend a robust understanding of Thomas's teaching on the subject.
Grounding, infinite regress, and the thomistic cosmological argument.Thomas Oberle -2022 -International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 92 (3):147-166.detailsA prominent Thomistic cosmological argument maintains that an infinite regress of causes, which exhibits a certain pattern of ontological dependence among its members, would be vicious and so must terminate in a first member. Interestingly, Jonathan Schaffer offers a similar argument in the contemporary grounding literature for the view called metaphysical foundationalism. I consider the striking similarities between both arguments and conclude that both are unsuccessful for the same reason. I argue this negative result gives us indirect reason to consider (...) metaphysical infinitism as a genuine possibility, the view that chains of ontological dependence or ground can descend indefinitely. (shrink)
Proclaiming the Divine Logos to the Man of the Future.David Torrijos Castrillejo -2021 -Studies of Theological Sciences 16:137–154.detailsThis paper studies the cooperation of theology in the new evangelization in societies of ancient Christian tradition which are suffering an advanced process of secularization. It begins with Spain, where a recent debate on the influence of Christian intellectuals on social life suggests the ineffectiveness of ecclesiastical resources in transmitting the rich Catholic doctrinal heritage. Then the author deals with the idiosyncrasy of contemporary man, which lies near the one of the immediate future’s man: an uprooted subject who does not (...) believe that life has any meaning, is deeply marked by emotivism and attaches little significance to truth. The theology of tomorrow cannot feed this emotivism but must be proactive in its own way. The proclamation of the Gospel is not different from the exposition of the Church’s doctrine. To detach evangelization from the teaching of Christian doctrine cannot help the encounter with Christ. In order to succeed in transmitting this doctrine by making it suggestive, theologians should work together with experts in communication. (shrink)
Aquinas on the Intension and Remission of Accidental Forms.Gloria Frost -2019 -Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 7 (1).detailsThe metaphysics underlying differences in degree of qualitative intensity was widely debated in the medieval period. Medieval Aristotelians agreed that subjects possess qualities in virtue of inherent accidental forms. Yet, there was considerable disagreement about what happens at the level of form when a quality increases or decreases in its intensity. For instance, what happens when a pot of water on the stove gets hotter? Is the water’s previous form of heat replaced by a new one, or does the same (...) form of heat persist? Does the form of heat itself undergo a change, or does only the water undergo a change? While there have been several important studies on the medieval debate about the “intension and remission of forms,” little attention has been paid to Thomas Aquinas’s intriguing theory. Aquinas claims that a subject’s quality increases in intensity in virtue of the subject “participating” more perfectly in an invariable form. This paper examines Aquinas’s conception of the participation relationship between a substance and its accidental forms; and his metaphysical analysis of changes of intensification. (shrink)
Beyond Dordt and De Auxiliis The Dynamics of Protestant and Catholic Soteriology in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.Jordan J. Ballor,Matthew T. Gaetano &David S. Sytsma (eds.) -2019 - Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.detailsBeyond Dordt and ‘De Auxiliis’ explores post-Reformation inter-confessional theological exchange on soteriological topics including predestination, grace, and free choice. These doctrines remained controversial within confessional traditions after the Reformation, as Dominicans and Jesuits and later Calvinists and Arminians argued about these critical issues in the Augustinian theological heritage. Some of those involved in condemning Arminianism at the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) were inspired by Dominican followers of Thomas Aquinas in Spain who had recently opposed the vigorous defense of free choice (...) by Jesuit Molinists in the Congregatio de auxiliis (1598-1607). This volume, appearing on the 400th anniversary of the closing of the Synod of Dordt, brings together a group of scholars working in fields that only rarely speak to one another to address these theological debates that cross geographical and confessional boundaries. (shrink)
La grazia negli scritti di Carlo Colombo.Francesco Bertoldi -1992 -Humanitas 4:568-80.details[ita] L'articolo analizza la concezione della grazia nel pensiero del teologo milanese Carlo Colombo. Egli affronta tale tema con la consueta tendenza alla sintesi e alla moderazione, confrontando soprattutto le tesi di Tommaso d'Aquino e del Molina e adottando una soluzione che salvi al tempo stesso la giustizia di Dio e il suo essere Mistero ineffabile. -/- [eng] The article analyzes the conception of grace in the thought of the Milanese theologian Carlo Colombo. He deals with this theme with the (...) usual tendency to synthesis and moderation, above all comparing the theses of Tommaso d'Aquino and Molina and adopting a solution that at the same time saves the justice of God and his being ineffable mystery. (shrink)
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A Contribution to the Gadamer-Lonergan Discussion.Michael Baur -1990 -Method 8 (1):14-23.detailsBy way of engagement with the thought of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Heidegger, Lonergan, and neo-Thomism more broadly, Michael Baur and Gadamer discuss historicity, the Enlightenment and scientism, the epistemic implications of hylomorphism, and the nature of human finitude and death.