Call for papers on causation and change in medieval philosophy

In May the Center for Medieval Philosophy at Georgetown University will be sponsoring a session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo with the title “From Physics to Metaphysics: Causation and Change in Medieval Philosophy.” The session organizer, Robert Matava (Christendom College), sends us the following information on the session:

This session will focus on the important but generally under-investigated connections between medieval understandings of causality (especially the causation of being as such) and natural science (especially the phenomenon of change). Is there real causation in nature, and if so, can we know it? What exactly is motion, and how is it distinct from creation? What does it mean for the creator to bring about change within the contingent order?  How can personal agency be understood within the broader context of causation in nature? Medieval philosophers had interesting things to say about such questions. The specific connections between their consideration of metaphysics and change in the physical order deserve further attention, not least because such questions as the above retain their currency in contemporary philosophy, but also because of the potential such an investigation has for unlocking our understanding of the development of empirical science during the early-modern period. 

Dr. Matava is accepting proposals for papers on the above topics. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday, September 1. Dr. Matava can be contacted by email at: rmatava@christendom.edu

The International Congress on Medieval Studies will convene May 12-15, 2016.

Dr. Thomas Osborne Receives the Aquinas Center's Annual Book Prize

Dr. Thomas M. Osborne has been awarded the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal for his book Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham (CUA Press, 2014). The Journet Prize honors the scholarly monograph published in any language during the past calendar year that best exemplifies the task of drawing upon the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas to engage constructively in contemporary theology, philosophy, and/or biblical studies. The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is located at Ave Maria University.

Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham lays out a thematic presentation of human action, especially as it relates to morality, in the three most significant figures in Medieval Scholastic thought: Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham. Thomas, along with his teacher Albert the Great, was instrumental in the medieval reception of the action theory of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Scotus and Ockham were part of a later Franciscan theological tradition. Thomas, Scotus, and Ockham worked in the context of a new moral theology that focused on the description and evaluation of human acts. Organized thematically, discussing the causes of human action, the role of practical reasoning, the stages of action, the specification of moral action, and an act’s supernatural and natural worth. Each chapter compares the three main figures on the same set of issues.

The book shows that although the different philosophies of action cannot be explained in terms of any one major difference or principle, there are some common themes that deserve attention. The most notable themes are 1) a developing separation between nature and the will, 2) an increased emphasis on the will’s activity, and 3) a changing view of mental causation. The book is important for those who are interested in medieval philosophy, the philosophy of action, and the intellectual background to Reformation and early modern thought.

Dr. Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas (Houston).  He is the author of Love of Self and Love of God in Thirteenth-Century Ethics (2005) as well as many articles in medieval and late-scholastic ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, and the philosophy of action.  Two recent articles are “Continuity and Innovation in Dominic Banez’s Understanding of Esse:  Banez’s relationship to John Capreolus, Paul Soncinas, and Thomas de Vio Cajetan.” The Thomist 77 (2013): 367-394 and “Giles of Rome, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines on Whether to See God Is to Love Him.”   Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 80 (2013): 57-76. In 2009-2010, he received an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers for research at the Thomas-Institut University of Cologne, and in 2001-2002 he received a Gilson Fellowship for study at the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies.

Symposium on Aquinas and modern philosophies to be held in Paris in June 2016

The inaugural Symposium Thomisticum will take place in Paris, June 23-25, 2016. It will be held at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, located in the old Irish College in the center of Paris beside the Panthéon.

The theme of this first Sympoisum is "Aquinas and Modern Philosophies." Paper proposals are invited. The tentative deadline for abstracts is Oct. 1.

Further information can be found here and here.

Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal Awards 2014 Dissertation Prize

         Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University is pleased to announce Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH, as the recipient of the 2014 St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize. The St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize honors the dissertation defended in any language during the past calendar year that best exemplifies the task of drawing upon the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas to engage constructively in contemporary theology, philosophy, and/or biblical studies.  

Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH, has been a Byzantine-Catholic monk since 1989. While serving as Protohegumenos of the Basilian Order in Ukraine from February 2004 to July 2007, he fought on the front lines against systemic corruption. After suffering threats to his life, he was ordered to return to Rome, and in 2010 made his solemn profession of monastic vows into the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The Hermitage is a form of consecrated life, which follows the “middle path” of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, uniting both the contemplative (theoria) and active (praxis) aspects of monastic life.

In 2014, hieromonk Gregory completed his doctoral dissertation on Cajetan on Sacred Doctrine (In ST, I, q. 1): An Original Contribution towards a Theology of “Light from Light” by a Renaissance Cardinal and Theologian in via Thomae under the direction of Mons. Charles Morerod, O.P. at the Angelicum in Rome. At present, he is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, preaching and teaching. He is also the publisher of The Asketerion, which is the journal of the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs. 

D.Q. McInerny on the vicissitudes of the Thomistic revival

D.Q. McInerny has an interesting two-part essay on the rise, fall, and possible resurgence of the Thomistic revival. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

Suppressing San Marco?

The historic Dominican priory of San Marco in Florence may soon be suppressed by the Order. Its fate rests in the hands of the Master of the Order, Bruno Cadoré. Although the fathers of the Province of S. Caterina da Siena have twice expressed their desire to suppress the priory, so far Cadoré has resisted. Sandro Magister has the up-to-date story (here in Italian and here in English).

Memorial Symposium for Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O.P. (November 5-7, 2015, Ottawa, Ontario)

Dominican University College has issued a call for papers for an upcoming memorial symposium for Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O. P.:

"The Philosophy of Lawrence Dewan: Metaphysics and Ethics. Professor Lawrence Dewan, O.P., enriched the areas of Thomistic metaphysics, natural philosophy and ethics for over forty years. With the outstanding lucidity, depth and comprehensiveness of his work, Father Dewan’s research has become a point of reference for scholars working on various aspects of the legacy of Thomas Aquinas. The specific theme of the Metaphysics and Ethics symposium is intended in part to elicit thinking on the personal contribution of Father Lawrence Dewan to both areas of philosophical research."

On a related note, a memorial notice for Fr. Dewan written by Steven Baldner was just published in The Review of Metaphysics.

CTSA Proceedings 1946-2014 available online

The Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America are available online (for free). You can find them here. The Proceedings archive spans from the foundation of the CTSA in 1946 to the present. As of this posting, the latest available Proceedings are from 2014. You can read the papers online or download them as PDF files.

Deification According to Thomas Aquinas: A New Book From Sapientia Press

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Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University has just published a new volume in its "Faith and Reason" series. The book, The Glory of God's Grace: Deification According to St. Thomas Aquinas, by Dr. Daria Spezzano of Providence College, treats the intelligibility of "the radical claim that God creates human beings with the possibility of sharing, as God's adopted children, in the divine life" (1). The work includes seven chapters, two appendices—that is, 390 pages of Prof. Spezzano's  erudite scholarship and contemplative appreciation for St. Thomas's rich theology of deification.

From the back cover:

The Glory of God's Grace offers the first full-length comprehensive study of Thomas's teaching on deification in its scriptural, patristic, philosophical, developmental, and systematic context. Daria Spezzano traces Thomas's theology of deification throughout the Summa, exploring in depth how the notion of deification links his treatments of the divine missions and image, the journey to beatitude through the moral life, adopted sonship through Christ and his sacraments, and the deiform worship of the beatific vision. Also examined are Thomas's other works, in particular his Scripture commentaries, as well as the evolution of his thought. Spezzano argues that Thomas's theology of deification in the Summa theologiae demonstrates his mature vision of God's loving and sapiential ordering of predestined human persons to communion with himself by a progressive participation in the divine likeness and activity, accounting for both the primacy of divine causality in all its modes and the fullness of graced human freedom. The fruit of this theology is ultimately doxological: the deification of adopted sons gives praise to God's glory by fully manifesting God's gracious plan to share the divine life with rational creatures.

Plagiarism

Corrections of the scholarly record are necessary for maintaining the integrity of the repository of published works. Previous postings have noted retractions issued by publishers for a case of serial plagiarism involving Thomistic studies (here and here).

Retractions for a new, unrelated case of serial plagiarism have recently been issued for articles dealing with late Scholastic economic thought. These articles have appeared under the name Francisco Gómez Camacho S. J. The first retraction for a plagiarized article is found in the latest issue of Journal of Markets and Morality 17.2 (2014): 349–352. Titled “Plagiarism in a Digital Age,” the retraction states:

a number of direct, substantial, and nearly verbatim sections were found that corresponded with places in Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson’s magisterial work, The School of Salamanca [...] without attribution or other normal means of signaling to the reader that the words on the page are not original to the author of record.

The second retraction for a plagiarized book chapter appears on the website of the publisher Brill. The retraction notes that this chapter is:

retracted because of serious citation problems (in some cases the original sources are not mentioned at all). It goes without saying that Brill strongly disapproves of such practices, which represent a serious breach of publication integrity.

This now-retracted chapter, which covers such figures as the Dominicans Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto, has been frequently cited in discussions of scholastic economic thought. For a third case of plagiarism, the publisher Rowman and Littlefield has suspended sales of the volume containing a chapter that is nearly identical to abovementioned article retracted for plagiarism by Journal of Markets and Morality. (The publisher has not, however, corrected the scholarly record by issuing a statement of retraction for this chapter.) 

The three abovementioned works are: 

• Francisco Gómez Camacho, “Introduction: Luis de Molina, S. J.: Life, Studies, and Teaching,” Journal of Markets & Morality 8.1 (2005): 167–198.

• Francisco Gómez Camacho S. J., “Later Scholastics: Spanish Economic Thought in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries,” in Ancient and Medieval Economic Ideas and Concepts of Social Justice, ed. S. Todd Lowry and Barry Gordon (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 503–561.

• Francisco Gómez Camacho S. J., “Introduction: Luis de Molina, S.J.: Life, Studies, and Teaching,” in Sourcebook in Late-Scholastic Monetary Theory, ed. Stephen J. Grabill (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books / Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 111–135.

Roger Nutt's translation of the De unione verbi Incarnati

Roger Nutt has just published a translation of Aquinas's De unione Verbi incarnati with Peeters. The volume is part of the Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations series that Peeters publishes. Dr. Nutt is a professor of theology at Ave Maria University and the editor of Thomistica.net. Here is the blurb from the Peeters' site:

This volume contains the first publication in book form of an English translation of Thomas Aquinas’s controversial disputed question De unione Verbi incarnati. This disputed question is a remarkable portal into the Angelic Doctor’s theology of the hypostatic union, which is recognized as an area in which Aquinas forged some of his most original and penetrating articulations of the Christian faith. In the De unione Verbi incarnati Aquinas presents in five articles material that occupies more than eighteen questions in the third part of the Summa theologiae. The attribution of an esse secundarium to Christ, in the fourth article of the De unione, has been the object of intense debate, for it seems to contradict the account of the Summa.

In addition to Professor Nutt’s English translation, the volume includes the critical Latin text published by Barbara Bartocci, Klaus Obenauer, and Walter Senner, as well as a substantial introduction. Professor Nutt’s introduction carefully unfolds the historical background, technical concepts, sources, and speculative claims needed for understanding the breadth of the biblical and metaphysical contemplation represented in this work; it also includes a detailed exploration of the debate over the fourth article.

Here is the book's page at the Peeters site and here is its page at Amazon.

Bilingual (Latin/English) Hardcover Editions of Aquinas -- Update

As many readers will already know, The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, headquartered in lovely Lander, Wyoming, still nurtures the ambition -- with the help of Divine Providence and the support of Thomists (and other people who still read books) -- of publishing the Complete Works of the Angelic Doctor in a uniform, hardcover, bilingual edition. Lest this sound like an absurd prospect, it seemed a good time to issue a reminder of the volumes already produced (and ALWAYS in print!) as well as volumes currently in production or in the final stages of editing.

IN PRINT:
vol. 13 -- Summa theologiae, Prima Pars, qq. 1-49
vol. 14 -- Summa theologiae, Prima Pars, qq. 50-119
vol. 15 -- Summa theologiae, Prima Secundae, qq. 1-70
vol. 16 -- Summa theologiae, Prima Secundae, qq. 71-114
vol. 17 -- Summa theologiae, Secunda Secundae, qq. 1-91
vol. 18 -- Summa theologiae, Secunda Secundae, qq. 92-189
vol. 19 -- Summa theologiae, Tertia Pars, qq. 1-59
vol. 20 -- Summa theologiae, Tertia Pars, qq. 60-90
vol. 33 -- Commentary on Matthew 1-12
vol. 34 -- Commentary on Matthew 13-28
vol. 35 -- Commentary on John 1-8
vol. 36 -- Commentary on John 9-21
vol. 37 -- Commentary on Romans
vol. 38 -- Commentary on 1 & 2 Corinthians
vol. 39 -- Commentary on Galatians & Ephesians
vol. 40 -- Commentary on Phil, Col, 1-2 Thess, 1-2 Tim, Titus, Philemon
vol. 41 -- Commentary on Hebrews

(These volumes are available at Amazon either singly or as sets: the Summa theologiae; the Matthew & John; the Pauline letters.)

IN THE WORKS:
vol. 7 -- Commentary on the Sentences IV, dd. 1-13
vol. 8 -- Commentary on the Sentences IV, dd. 14-25
vol. 9 -- Commentary on the Sentences IV, dd. 26-42
vol. 10 -- Commentary on the Sentences IV, dd. 43-50
vol. 11 -- Summa contra gentiles I-II
vol. 12 -- Summa contra gentiles III-IV
vol. 21 -- Supplement to the Summa theologiae (part 1)
vol. 22 -- Supplement to the Summa theologiae (part 2)
vol. 32 -- Commentary on Job

Of these, the one closest to completion is the Job commentary, which we are very excited about. To anticipate some other likely questions:

(1) We have a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete a translation of Book IV of Aquinas's Sentences commentary, with introduction and notes. This project is humming along nicely, and, unsurprisingly, dovetails nicely with the edition of the Summa Supplement that we will be rolling out, for those who want to be able to refer to the latter. It will soon be possible to consult easily the original setting from which all the text of the Supplement was lifted almost verbatim, namely, Super IV Sententiarum, which will include a clear chart of the correspondences between the two works.

(2) We do intend to move ahead into Books I, II, and III of the Sentences commentary, as we wrap up Book IV and as more funding becomes available. Indeed, translators are already at work on the translations, but it's a massive project, as anyone who has ever spent time with the Sentences commentary knows.

(3) The Aristotelian commentaries are on the backburner, but we intend to bring those forward as soon as we get some other volumes launched.

(4) Lastly, we print our books in fairly small batches so that we can keep our immediate costs down and, at the same time, make corrections of typos or mistranslations that we discover or others bring to our attention. (Our translations have mostly been obtained from public domain sources and, as readers of the familiar English Dominican edition are aware, these translations are not free of all flaws.) Our goal is to improve these books with persistence so that they will remain not only the most attractive and convenient editions but will become the most accurate and authoritative.

We do rely on people like you buying these books, spreading knowledge of them, recommending them to professors or scholars, ordering them for courses or bookshops, and, in general, helping us to stay in business so that we can continue the publishing project for many, many years to come. Thanks and God Bless!