New Book on Lying and Homosexual Activity

John Skalko has published a book, Disordered Actions: A Moral Analysis of Lying and Homosexual Activity.

https://www.amazon.com/Disordered-Actions-Analysis-Homosexual-Activity/dp/3868382186/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=disordered+actions&qid=1563825462&s=books&sr=1-1

There is to the best of my knowledge no previous scholarly book-length defense of Aquinas on homosexuality.  Prior to the publication of Skalko’'s work, you only had Gareth Moore and Adriano Oliva, both Dominicans, who either attacked or reinterpreted Aquinas. I reviewed Oliva’s work for The Thomist, and it seemed to me either incompetent or dishonest.

David Oderberg Conscience Book Free Online

How did I miss this? David Oderberg’s book on freedom of conscience is available online here: https://iea.org.uk/publications/opting-out-conscience-and-cooperation-in-a-pluralistic-society/

Chapter 4 contains a summary of moral (or immoral!) cooperation that is accessible to those who are unfamiliar with everything. Chapter 6 has an interesting discussion of the limits of freedom of conscience.

And the book is free!

Abuse Crisis and Jesuit Understanding of Obedience?

In an essay at Rorate Caeli, John T. Lamont argues that the abuse of clerical authority during recent years, especially in the context of sexual deviancy, has its roots in the fact that “Catholic theologians and philosophers during the Counter-Reformation all held that law and moral obligation are to be understood as resulting from the command of a superior.” See the post here: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/10/tyranny-and-sexual-abuse-in-catholic.html

Aspects of the argument seem to me at least prima facie possible, although I don’t know what to think of it, and am wary of painting with one brush the experience of different countries, cultures, classes, and orders in the period. Moreover, Jesuits tended in my mind to hold rather extreme positions in certain areas concerning not only the authority of law, but also the reliance of Scripture on the Church, free will, the papacy, etc. If you run your eyes over the works not only of Suarez but also of Molina and Lessius, you will find a mysterious combination of different late medieval views and a sampling of oddities from figures such as Pighius, all thrown together in a pungent anti-Protestant brew.

Nevertheless, Lamont’s article is worth reading for some brilliant sentences and observations, even if they might not be fully fair. For instance: “The progressive faction that seized power in seminaries and religious orders had its own programme and ideology that demanded total adherence, and that justified the ruthless suppression of opposition. The tools of psychological control and oppression that had been learned by the progressives in their own formation were put to most effective use, and applied more sweepingly than they had ever been in the past -- the difference between the two regimes being rather like the difference between the Okhrana and the Cheka.“

Ontological Possibility of Women Priests

I came across the statement recently that women priests are ontologically impossible.  This seems to me an overly strong claim for two reasons, of which the second is more interesting.

First, it does not seem impossible for Christ to have made a co-ed or all-female priesthood.  It may be inappropriate, but it seems hardly impossible.  It just didn't happen.

Second, suppose that a validly ordained man becomes a woman not through some sort of operation or sex-change, but some truly natural or supernatural process.  The identity of the individual would be the same.  The priesthood is permanent.  It seems then that there would be a woman priest.  It doesn't happen, but it isn't impossible.  

History of Lay Undergraduate Theology

Does anybody know of good sources for the history of the study of Catholic theology by lay people before the twentieth-century?  I am thinking of Continental Universities before and after the Revolution, and especially English laymen who studied in Europe.  Moreover, I would be interested to know about the curricula of American Universities in the late nineteenth century.  My impression is that it was more or less clerical at first, but I could be wrong.

Is the Correctio Correct?: NEW

Change: I was looking at a summary and not at the seven articles that they mention are heretical.  I posted too quickly.  The seven articles are on pp. 8-9.  The references to Church documents of varying weight are on pp. 17ff. Note that footnote 8 is divided into several parts.  It seems to me hard to fault the document after my more careful reading, but am still unsure.  Has anyone seen any doctrinal criticisms of this document that seem reasonable?   The seven articles seem obviously heretical or very close to heresy.  I suppose you might criticize it for uncharitably saying that the Pope is propagating them.  I don't know.  

http://www.correctiofilialis.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Correctio-filialis_English_1.pdf

Godoy's Philosophical Works?

Does anyone know who might have plagiarized Pedro de Godoy's philosophical works.  Echard merely writes, "Opera ejus philosophica alii usurparunt, et inverecundi plagiarii sub proprio nomine typis ediderunt."  He mentions Calavieri's Galeria de'Pontefici Domenicani, p. 699, which is available on Google and does not explain in any more detail how to find the text itself or who might have published it.

German Theology and Philosophy vs Scholastic

After reading selections from The Pope Emeritus's interview on Vatican II, it occurred to me that twentieth-century German theology and its antecedents in some ways seem to share the same faults as medieval German thought (with the exception of St. Albert.)  I was reminded of this text from De Wulf's Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages:

"Endowmentof the personal worth of the individual with metaphysical support; devotion to clear ideas and their correct expression; moderation in doctrine and observance of a just mean between extremes;  the combination of experience and deduction,-these are the characteristics, or, if you will, the tendencies, of the scholastic philosophy as it was elaborated by Neo-Latins and Anglo-Celts.    But,  in the Neo-Platonic group of German thinkers in the thirteenth century,  all of this is replaced by very different characteristics,­ fascination for monism and pantheism; mystic communion of the soul with Deity;  craving for extreme deduction; predilection for the study of Being, and of its descending steps;  aversion to clarified intellectualism;  delight in examples and metaphors, which are misleading and equivocal; and above ail the want of balanced equilibrium, in exaggerating certain aspects and doctrines regardless of all else."

For interview selections, see http://www.onepeterfive.com/benedict-xvi-admits-qualms-of-conscience-about-vatican-ii/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Onepeterfive+%28OnePeterFive%29

Indissolubility of Marriage Outside of Thomism

The recent denials of the dogmatic character of Trent's teaching on divorce was mentioned in previous posts about Thomists.  It is helpful to supplement these texts with the non-Thomistic account by Giovanni Perrone, S.J.  You can find many references to other discussions in his notes, and he has some material on Sarpius and Launoy, who denied that the canon is about the teaching of the Church on a dogmatic issue.  The discussion of the canon is on pp., 407-420. There is interesting background material on the Greeks starting at p. 389.  He seems to be followed by Van de Burgt in his Tractatus de Matrimonio.  I don't have a copy of the update by Shaepman.  Any links or suggestions would be helpful.  I imagine that this material will be more solidly covered by Brugge, but it is interesting to read over.

https://books.google.com/books?id=XX4xVSakuwgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Matrimonio+christiano+3+libri+tres&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYzYff0YzPAhXJ4CYKHXqHCX0Q6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=Matrimonio%20christiano%203%20libri%20tres&f=false

The previous post is here.

http://thomistica.net/commentary/2016/3/24/thomism-and-indissolubility-of-marriage-at-trent?rq=Gonet

Bibliography on Luther and Joint Declaration

The short Dulles piece on the joint declaration is here: http://www.firstthings.com/article/1999/12/two-languages-of-salvation-the-lutheran-catholic-joint-declaration

I should mention that Dulles's last few paragraphs seem very weak to me.  It is written for a popular audience, but some of the problems might be with Dulles' own formation and thought.  "Scholasticism" is somehow one (and only one?) among many different "thought forms," and Lutheranism an incompatible "thought form."  He doesn't show much knowledge of Luther or later generations of Lutherans.  Luther himself could and did write like a scholastic, but in my opinion he just wasn't very good at it.  Maybe Dulles is comparing Luther's more popular works with more scholastic Catholic theological works, and doesn't have in mind Protestant Orthodoxy.  But there are also a host of Catholic popular works from the time.    

Chris Malloy has a lot of material, including a whole book on the topic of the joint declaration: Hisbook is at https://www.amazon.com/Engrafted-Christ-American-University-Studies/dp/0820474088

See also his:

"The Nature of Justifying Grace: A Lacuna in the Joint Declaration" The Thomist 65 (2001): 93–120. 

There is a piece on Thomas More on Luther on Justification: http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/docs/Angelicum90pages761-98.pdf 

Then there is: "Sola salus, Or Fides caritate formata: The Premised Promise of Luther's Dilemma" Fides Catholica 2 (2008): 375-432.

For my own understanding of Luther, I personally have profited greatly from non-Catholic authors.  For a general account of 16th century theories, see Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: AHistory of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. 2nd ed.  For Luther’s relationship to Thomism in particular, see “Luther Among the Thomists,” in David Steinmetz’s Luther in Context.  I am personally indebted to the late Steinmetz, who was a great figure in the study of the 16th-century.  His Luther and Staupitz has fascinating material on his early development.  For Luther himself, Steinmetz recommended Heiko Oberman’s Luther: Man between God and the Devil.  I also have found helpful Bernhard Lohse’s Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development.  Again, none of these sources are Catholic, but I think that they are helpful for someone with an appropriate Catholic background.  Steinmetz was frustrated because he said that now even many Catholic theologians and theology students don't know enough Catholic theology to distinguish their own position (or different Catholic positions) from those of the Reformers. 

Pope Francis Says Luther Correct on Justification

Is it possible to hold 1) that Luther's views on justification are heretical, 2) that Pope Francis states that Luther's views on justification are correct, and yet not conclude 3) that Pope Francis himself is a heretic?

I take it that 1) is indisputable.  All Catholics are bound to accept 1), on the basis of Trent but I think also the whole previous tradition.  It would probably be applicable to what is condemned by Trent and not Luther's own words, but it is hard to argue that the two are unconnected.  Look at Chemnitz or Luther himself.  2) is correct if we believe the recent transcript.  I take it that 3) is possible but most probably incorrect.

It seems to me that 1) and 2) would entail 3) only if it were restated as "Pope Francis assents to Luther's views on justification," and it would entail formal heresy with contumacy only if it were restated as "Pope Francis assents to Luther's views on justification in defiance of earlier Church teaching."  The Pope may have had in mind the joint declaration on justification.  As Chris Malloy, Avery Dulles, and others have shown (which is not at all difficult), this declaration was theologically incompetent, and motivated more by false ecumenical ends than by historical or theological accuracy.    If the Pope consequently doesn't understand the issues, it is arguable that he is not a heretic.  Hence 1) and 2) can be true, and yet 3) false.  There is a difference between being intellectually unable or perhaps unwilling to grasp certain basic issues and being a heretic.

For the transcript, see http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/full-text-pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-from-armenia/#.V3FsU00UXIV

"I think that the intentions of Martin Luther were not mistaken. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not correct. But in that time, if we read the story of the Pastor, a German Lutheran who then converted when he saw reality — he became Catholic — in that time, the Church was not exactly a model to imitate. There was corruption in the Church, there was worldliness, attachment to money, to power...and this he protested. Then he was intelligent and took some steps forward justifying, and because he did this. And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification.  On this point, which is very important, he did not err."

I wonder if it is harder being a Catholic now than in Luther's time?

Gardeil on Garrigou-Lagrange: Nothing New Under the Sun

It seems to me that many contemporary Thomists describe as "Post-Vatican II" what have been common Thomist criticisms of Jesuits and others concerning happiness, the virtues, the beatitudes, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, etc.  I was surprised to recently read the following comments of Fr. A. Gardeil on Garrigou-LaGrange in the Revue Thomiste 24 (1929), p. 272:

Par contre, le T. R. P. Garrigou-Lagrange dans son article de la Revue Thomiste: L'Habitation de la Sainte Trinité et l'Expérience mystique, parlant de la manière dont je conçois et explique la divine habitation et l'expérience de Dieu qui en procède, m'a apporté ce précieux suffrage : « C'est là une grande confirmation de la doctrine que nous soutenons depuis plusieurs années ... La contemplation infuse des mystères de la foi est dans la voie normale de la sainteté. » Ce n'est pas à vrai dire, pour moi, une nouveauté. Dès octobre 1881, étant étudiant de première année en théologie j'entendais leT. R. P. Beaudouin, régent des Études, inaugurant son commentaire sur la IIa Pars par une Relectio sur la Théologie mystique, affirmer avec vigueur l'identité de la IIa Pars avec la Théologie de la mystique : Elle est là tout entière, disait-il, et, pour comprendre les grands mystiques, vous n'aurez jamais besoin de chercher ailleurs. J'ai, depuis lors, travaillé dans le sillon ouvert et n'ai pas eu à m'en repentir. Il n'est pas étonnant que, disciples d'une même tradition, le P. Garrigou-Lagrange et moi, aboutissions à une même conclusion.