On Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange

Now that the interest in father Garrigou-Lagrange is rapidly growing, not least due to the many English translations by Matthew Minerd, scholarly articles are appearing as well.

The latest issue of Archivum Fratrum Predicatorum (2021) contains three highly interesting articles.

Sylvio Hermann De Franceschi continues his research on the formation of a distinctively Dominican and Thomistic idea of mysticism which father Garrigou-Lagrange developed in the late 1910’s and early 1920’s and which culminated in his Perfection chrétienne et contemplation. His most recent article (“La contemplation selon la moderne École dominicaine de spiritualité. La querelle mystique au temps de la suprematie des theses Garrigou-Lagrangiennes (1923-1928)”, 349-376) discusses the aftermath of the publication of the book and its reception by the Jesuit order.

The two other articles draw heavily on the archives of the Dominican Order but also on the archives of the pontificate of Pius XII, which were opened to the public in 2020. Father Augustin Laffay (“Le père Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange et Maria Sieler (1939-1945): La rencontre romaine d’un théologien et d’une mystique”, 377-400) explores a hitherto unknown conversation between father Garrigou-Lagrange and the Austrian mystic Maria Sieler, whose “understanding of divine things … is similar to the language of Garrigou-Lagrange’s spiritual theology”.

Philippe Chenaux (“Maritain devant le Saint-Office: le rôle du père Garrigou-Lagrange, OP”, 401-420) explores Garrigou-Lagrange’s role as censor of Maritain’s political writings by way of analysis of two vota which Garrigou-Lagrange composed in the late 1950’s as a consultor of the Holy Office. These vota were to serve as a preparation for a list of erroneous propositions to be published but without mentioning Maritain’s name. The article contains a letter written in November 1957 by Garrigou-Lagrange at the behest of Pius XIII to Maritain but never send to him. Although Garrigou-Lagrange recognizes Maritain’s best intentions, he also remarks that Maritain has insufficiently taken into account the principles of catholic doctrine and also the fact that many of Maritain’s disciples have defended more extreme positions on the basis of his writings. In the letter Garrigou-Lagrange asks Maritain to write an article in a major journal (“dans une grande Revue”) in which Maritain clarifies his position in light of the encyclicals of Leo XIII. Garrigou-Lagrange adds that “this would be the best way to prevent Integral Humanism from being withdrawn from publication.”

Thomas de Aquino Byzantinus

Corpus Christianorum has announced two new series: Thomas de Aquino Graecus and Thomas de Aquino a Byzantinis receptus. Its aim is to produce “critical editions of Greek translations of, and commentaries on, various works by Thomas Aquinas composed by Byzantine scholars and theologians between the late thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.” For more information visit the webiste here.

Opera omnia in Polish

The readers of Thomistica are undoubtedly familiar with the ongoing publication of the complete works of St. Thomas in English.

Yesterday, January 28, it was announced that a similar project in Polish has been initiated by the Thomistic Institute in Warsaw, run by the Polish Province of the Dominican Order, and the Pro Futuro Theologiae Foundation at the Theology Faculty in Torún. The edition will comprise of seventy volumes and aims to be complete in 2035.

Signing the contract: From the left: Mateusz Przanowski OP, Fr. Piotr Roszak, Tomasz Grabowski OP, Piotr Paweł Orłowski

R.I.P. Walter Senner O.P.

On July 3, 2020 Father Walter Senner passed away in Mainz (Germany) after a long illness. Born on July 30, 1948 in Auggen-Breisgau (Germany), he entered the Order of Preachers in 1969 and received priestly ordination in 1974. In 1989 he received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) with a dissertation on and edition of John of Sterngassen’s commentary on the Sentences. From 1998 to 2005 he was a member of the Leonine Commission and from 2006 to 2018 he taught at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2013 he was conferred the degree of Master of Sacred Theology. He gave his farewell lecture on October 27, 2018. The lecture, entitled “Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Peaceful Life of Controversies”, can be viewed here.

The funeral will be held on July 13 at the St. Boniface church in Mainz and the burial in the Waldfriedhof Mombach (Mainz).

Father Senner specialized in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus and Meister Eckhart but also published widely on medieval Dominican spirituality and education. (For a list of his publications see here).

Ever since he accepted to direct my dissertation, I had the honor to come to know him as a meticulous scholar of the sources, a deeply religious friar and a humble and generous person.

Requiescat in pace!

Leo Elders s.v.d. (1926-2019): R.I.P.

Dear Friends,

I bring the sad news that on October 14 at 14.15 pm after a short illness, Father Leo Elders s.v.d. passed away in the house of the Dutch provincialate of his religious congregation, the Society of the Divine Word of which he was a member for almost 75 years. His funeral will take place on Saturday October 19 at 14.30 h at the chapel of the SVD provincialate in Teteringen (Netherlands). There he will also be buried.

Please join me in prayer for his soul. May Our Blessed Lady guide Father Elders, a faithful disciple of St. Thomas and a tireless worker for the Kingdom of God, to the reward he so richly deserves.

St. Albert and St. Thomas

Some interesting news from The Albertus Magnus Institut in Cologne

- An Albertus Magnus bibliography database is now online, covering (for now) the primary and secondary literature from 2001 onwards. It currently has 98 entries also dealing with Thomas Aquinas

- Their primary objective, the critical edition of Albert’s works (the so-called Cologne edition) is advancing steadily with in the last few years one volume every two years (De praedicamentis, 2013; Super I librum sententiarum : distinctiones 1-3, 2015; De nutrimento et nutrito ; De sensu et sensato cuius secundus liber est De memoria et reminiscentia, 2017).

The latest volume, which has just come out and edited by Ruth Meyer, has Albert’s Super Threnos and Super Baruch.

It might be interesting to see whether the introduction touches upon the In Threnos Jeremiae expositio, attributed to Thomas Aquinas or whether a future comparative analysis might shed a light on this question.

Philosophisches Jahrbuch digitalized

Some time ago I wrote about the exciting news that one of the oldest Thomistic journals Divus Thomas (Fribourg) had been digitalized. The same holds true for another important journal Philosophisches Jahrbuch. Started in 1899 by the Görres-Gesellschaft, a German learned society, based in the Catholic tradition, it contains numerous important articles for Thomists, although the journal never was Thomistic in a more strict sense of the word.

The 116 volumes (until 2009) contain 62 articles dealing explicitly with St. Thomas and features such illustrious names as Martin Grabmann, Erich Pzrywara, Bernhard Geyer, Franz Pelster, Kurt Koch, Bernhard Lakebrink, Martin Honecker (who rejected Karl Rahner’s Spirit in the World), Horst Seidl and many others.

For those interested in recent Thomism, Albert Mitterer’s 1957 article ‘Formen und Missformen des Thomismus’ is a must. He sharply distinguishes between ‘integral Thomism’ on the one hand and various forms of ‘Pseudo-Thomism’ on the other such as ‘totalitarian Thomism’, ‘ecclectic Thomism’, ‘opportunistic Thomism’, etc.

XI International Thomistic Congress in Rome, September 2020

The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, together with the Thomistic Institute of the Angelicum, is organizing its XI International Thomistic Congress, to be held in Rome from Monday 21 September to Friday 25 September 2020. The conference is entitled “Vetera novis augere. The resources of the Thomist tradition in the current context” and aims to consider the vitality of the resources of the Thomist tradition in contemporary theological and philosophical debates. The website of the Thomistic Congress ( http://romathomism2020.com) contains a Call for Papers with a deadline of April 15, 2020.

The website also offers the full collection of papal speeches to the previous conferences which in itself already offers an interesting perspective on the varied approaches to Thomism undertaken by the different Pontiffs, (for instance Pope Pius XII’ lengthy reflections on the essence of matter in light of contemporary science). On Saturday, September 26, the participants can join in a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Thomas Aquinas to Roccasecca, Aquino and Fossanova.

Thomistic Symposium "Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Nature", Rome, October 3-5, 2019

The Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum in Rome has announced a Symposium, entitled “Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Nature” which will be held October 3-5, 2019 in Rome.

Keynotes will be given by Eleonore Stump, Serge-Thomas Bonino O.P. and Paul Clavier. Other speakers include Michael Dodds O.P., Kevin Flannery S.J., Dominic Legge O.P., John O’Callaghan and many others.

Proposals for papers can be submitted by March 1, 2019. For more information, click here

St. Thomas Aquinas and Hagiography, January 18, 2019

Father Innocent Smith O.P. informs us of a session on St. Thomas and Hagiography he is organizing on January 18, 2019 at the Antonianum in Rome. He writes:

“In this session, we will consider the hagiographical sources and writings of Thomas Aquinas from the perspectives of systematic, historical, moral, and liturgical theology, considering his treatment of saints from the New Testament period as well as early Christian saints and martyrs. Through this panel, we hope to demonstrate the significance of Thomas Aquinas as hagiographer and to show the fruitfulness of multi-disciplinary inquiry into the treatment of saints by authors beyond the recognized canon of hagiographical writers.”

The contributors and topics treated are:

AUSTIN DOMINIC LITKE (Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, Roma) St. Thomas Aquinas and the Vitae Patrum

INNOCENT SMITH (Universität Regensburg) St. Thomas Aquinas and the Early Christian Martyrs

JOHN BAPTIST KU (Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Washington) John the Baptist in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas

EZRA SULLIVAN (Pontificia Università S. Tommaso d’Aquino, Roma) Imperfect but Exemplary Saints: Paul and Mary Magdalene in the Theology of Aquinas

More information can be found here.

New Journal for the Study of St. Thomas

The Thomas Institute in Utrecht has announced the launch of a new open access journal for the study of St. Thomas: The European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas (EJSTA). It is a joint initiative of  the Thomas Instituut Utrecht (NL), the Faculty of Theology of Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń (PL) and the Saint Thomas Aquinas Institute for Theology and Culture of the Faculty of Theology (ISTAC) of the University of Fribourg (CH).

Included is a call for contributions (deadline: February 1, 2019)

For more information, visit their website