The Palamite Controversy: A Thomistic Analysis (original) (raw)
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The Heythrop Journal , 2022
I evaluate three of the most widespread analytic objections to the doctrine of divine simplicity: that it fails to cohere with the application of accidental predicates like ‘creator’ or ‘lord’ to God, problematically entails that God is identical to an abstract object, and is inconsistent with the freedom and contingency of God’s acts in creation resulting in modal uniformity/collapse. In dialogue with Thomas’s account of the doctrine, I suggest that each objection is either the product of a misinterpretation or is addressed by Thomas himself. This defence of Thomas’s view of divine simplicity further unearths the way his account of divine simplicity is, according to Thomas, necessary to secure divine aseity and ultimacy. This places a burden upon analytic objectors to divine simplicity, questioning whether their neo-classical conception of God offers an adequate account of divine ultimacy, aseity, and even goodness.
Vindiciae Actus Purus: A Defense of the Thomistic Doctrine
The concept of actus purus ordinarily associated with Thomas Aquinas is among the most formidable proposals within the history of theology proper. It serves to neutralize the main criticisms against the classical doctrine of God. The thesis of this paper is that the doctrine of God in pure act is biblically faithful, logically necessary, and the best explanation for how the simple, timeless, immutable, and impassible God relates personally to his creatures.
The Thomistic Response to the Nouvelle Théologie: Concerning the Truth of Dogma and the Nature of Theology retrieves the most important and largely forgotten exchanges in the mid-20th-century debate surrounding ressourcement thinkers. It makes available new translations of works by the leading Thomists in the exchange: Dominican Fathers Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Michel Labourdette, Marie-Joseph Nicolas, and Raymond Bruckberger. In addition to a lengthy historical and theological introduction, the volume contains sixteen articles, thirteen of which have never appeared in English. All the major critical responses of the Dominican Thomists to the nouvelle théologie are here presented chronologically according to the primary debates carried on, respectively, in the journals Revue Thomiste and Angelicum. A lengthy introduction describes the unfolding of the entire debate, article by article, and explains and references the ressourcement interventions. Unfortunately, the history of this important debate is largely surrounded by polemics, half-truths, caricatures, and journalistic soundbites. In the articles gathered in this volume, along with the accompanying introduction, the Toulouse and Roman Dominicans speak in their own voice. The central theses that define the two sides of the debate are sympathetically set forth. However, the texts gathered here show the immense lengths to which the Thomists went to initiate an authentic and fraternal theological dialogue with the nouveaux théologiens. Frs. Labourdette and Nicolas repeatedly argued for the importance of ressourcement work: they applauded its historical efforts, and they were generally sympathetic and complementary (although always pointed and persistent in gently expressing their concerns). Even Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange—whose infamous intervention is remembered as being a theological "atomic bomb"—is revealed as being no more guilty of escalation than the Dominicans’ interlocutors in their own responses to him and Fr. Labourdette. This volume will greatly aid in the task of theological and historical reconstruction and will, undoubtedly, assist in a certain rapprochement between the two sides, as the essential texts, concerns, and theological arguments are made available in their entirety to professional and lay anglophone readers.
Analytical Thomism: traditions in dialogue
2006
This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate on Analytical Thomism. It explores crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues such as: metaphysics and epistemology, the nature of God, personhood, action and meta-ethics. All those interested in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas, and more generally contemporary Catholic scholarship, problems in philosophy of religion, and contemporary metaphysics, will find this collection an invaluable resource.
De Principium Originis: Thomistic Epistemology and the Doctrine of Creation
This paper is an examination of the Doctrine of the Creation in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and the central place it occupies in Thomistic epistemology. In particular, it focuses on creation as the emanation of the totality of being from God as universal cause. Given the traditional notion of God’s ineffability, Aquinas maintains that any knowledge concerning God’s nature is derived by means of analogy. As the category of being relates to the common feature of all existent and potentially existent things, including God, it can be seen as the means of discovering the ontological principle of origin.