Download or read book Omne Agens Agit Sibi Simile written by Philipp W. Rosemann and published by Leuven University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The principle, omne agens agit sibi simile, "every agent causes something similar to itself," is fundamental to Scholastic metaphysics, and especially natural theology. In fact, it is only upon its vasis that inferences can be made from creaturely characteristics to the nature of the Creator. However, omne agens agit sibi simile, is taken for granted even by an author such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, who never feels any need to justify its validity, in spite of the fact that "there is hardly a phrase which occurs more often in Saint Thomas," as Etienne Gilson remarked. Tracing the historical roots of omne agens agit sibi simile is an indispensable first step in trying to explain the import of this principle in Scholastic Thought. The first part of the book is devoted to this task. it argues that the mediaeval metaphysics of causal similarity is rooted in a conception of the cosmos which goes back to the Presocratics, and according to which being is essentially circular, or self-reflexive. This conception was further elaborated by Plato, Aristotle, the Neoplatonists, and their mediaeval successors. The second part examines omne agens agit sibi simile in Thomistic metaphysics. Without neglecting Aquinas's sources, it attempts to elucidate the structure of his thought in the light of contemporary philosophical questions. It is stressed, for instance, that in Aquinas's thought, causality involves a process of 'concealing revelation" of the cause in and through its effect?an idea which was later to become a central element in Heidegger's philosophy.
Download or read book The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas written by John F. Wippel and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by a highly respected scholar of Thomas Aquinas's writings, this volume offers a comprehensive presentation of Aquinas's metaphysical thought. It is based on a thorough examination of his texts organized according to the philosophical order as he himself describes it rather than according to the theological order. In the introduction and opening chapter, John F. Wippel examines Aquinas's view on the nature of metaphysics as a philosophical science and the relationship of its subject to divine being. Part One is devoted to his metaphysical analysis of finite being. It considers his views on the problem of the One and the Many in the order of being, and includes his debt to Parmenides in formulating this problem and his application of analogy to finite being. Subsequent chapters are devoted to participation in being, the composition of essence and esse in finite beings, and his appeal to a kind of relative nonbeing in resolving the problem of the One and the Many. Part Two concentrates on Aquinas's views on the essential structure of finite being, and treats substance-accident composition and related issues, including, among others, the relationship between the soul and its powers and unicity of substantial form. It then considers his understanding of matter-form composition of corporeal beings and their individuation. Part Three explores Aquinas's philosophical discussion of divine being, his denial that God's existence is self-evident, and his presentation of arguments for the existence of God, first in earlier writings and then in the "Five Ways" of his Summa theologiae. A separate chapter is devoted to his views on quidditative and analogical knowledge of God. The concluding chapter revisits certain issues concerning finite being under the assumption that God's existence has now been established. John F. Wippel, professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, was recently awarded the prestigious Aquinas Medal by the American Catholic Philosophical Association. In addition to numerous articles and papers, Wippel has coauthored or edited several other works, including Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas and The Metaphysical Thought of Godfrey of Fontaines, both published by CUA Press. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "The quality of Wippel's historical research and interpretation and the detail of his argumentation make this a work that will have to be taken account of in any further studies of this topic."- John Boler, International Studies in Philosophy "A carefully and solidly argued presentation of Aquinas's metaphysics by a scholar of medieval philosophy and a superb metaphysician. It should stand on the library shelf of every student of medieval philosophy, sharing the stage with Wippel's other dependable works."--Prof. Stephen F. Brown, Boston College "In Wippel we have a master of medieval metaphysics who is at the height of his powers and who can bring to bear on this work of interpretation years of study, not only of Aquinas but also of the whole context of medieval metaphysics in which Aquinas thought and wrote. The result is a monumental work which will quickly become the definitive work on Aquinas's metaphysics."--Prof. Eleonore Stump, St. Louis University "Wippel proposes to 'set forth Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical thought, based on his own texts, in accord with the philosophical order. . . .' This is a bold, even audacious proposal, but one that Wippel succeeds in realizing, thanks to his expansive and detailed knowledge of a field in which he has worked for more than twenty years. He has total command not only of the works of Thomas, of his sources, and of his earliest commentators, but also of the secondary literature of this century in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish."--Gregorianum A] positively magisterial account of its subject
Download or read book Habits and Holiness written by Ezra Sullivan and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2020-11-18 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This comprehensive exploration of Thomas Aquinas's theology of habit takes habits in general as a prism for understanding human action and its influences and provides a unique synthesis of Thomistic virtue theory, modern science of habits, and best practices for eliminating bad habits and living good habits"--
Download or read book Gift and the Unity of Being written by Antonio Lopez and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting from both our originary experience of being given to ourselves and Jesus Christ's archetypal self-donation, 'Gift and the Unity of Being' elucidates the sense in which gift is the form of being's unity, while unity itself constitutes the permanence of the gift of being. In dialogue with ancient and modern philosophers and theologians, Lopez offers a synthetic, rather than systematic, account of the unity proper to being, the human person, God, and the relations among them. The book shows how contemplation of the triune God of love through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit allows us to discover the eternal communion that being is and to which finite being is called. It also illustrates the sense in which God's gratuitousness unexpectedly offers thehuman person the possibility to recognize and embrace his origin and destiny, and thus he is given to see and taste in God's light the ever-fruitful, dramatic, and mysterious positivity of being.
Download or read book Retrieving Freedom written by D. C. Schindler and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2022-10-15 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retrieving Freedom is a provocative, big-picture book, taking a long view of the “rise and fall” of the classical understanding of freedom. In response to the evident shortcomings of the notion of freedom that dominates contemporary discourse, Retrieving Freedom seeks to return to the sources of the Western tradition to recover a more adequate understanding. This book begins by setting forth the ancient Greek conception—summarized from the conclusion of D. C. Schindler’s previous tour de force of political and moral reasoning, Freedom from Reality—and the ancient Hebrew conception, arguing that at the heart of the Christian vision of humanity is a novel synthesis of the apparently opposed views of the Greeks and Jews. This synthesis is then taken as a measure that guides an in-depth exploration of landmark figures framing the history of the Christian appropriation of the classical tradition. Schindler conducts his investigation through five different historical periods, focusing in each case on a polarity, a pair of figures who represent the spectrum of views from that time: Plotinus and Augustine from late antiquity, Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor from the patristic period, Anselm and Bernard from the early middle ages, Bonaventure and Aquinas from the high middle ages, and, finally, Godfrey of Fontaines and John Duns Scotus from the late middle ages. In the end, we rediscover dimensions of freedom that have gone missing in contemporary discourse, and thereby identify tasks that remain to be accomplished. Schindler’s masterful study will interest philosophers, political theorists, and students and scholars of intellectual history, especially those who seek an alternative to contemporary philosophical understandings of freedom.
Download or read book The Principle of Analogy in Protestant and Catholic Theology written by Battista Mondin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christ the Logos of Creation An Essay in Analogical Metaphysics written by John R. Betz and published by Emmaus Academic. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 671 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Prologue of the Gospel of John identifies Jesus Christ as the eternal Word or Logos of the Father, who became flesh for the salvation of the world. Yet the world that Christ saves is his world from the beginning, for he is also the Logos of creation, the one “through whom all things were made” (John 1:3). This divinely revealed claim has profound implications not only for theology but also for metaphysics, whose relation to Christian doctrine was undermined over the course of the twentieth century, such that the Christian faith has become an increasingly private affair rather than a credible account of reality and an invitation to participate more fully in it. With Christ, the Logos of Creation, John Betz seeks to recover a Christ-centered, analogical metaphysics and to establish the indispensability of such metaphysics for Christian theology and the Christian vision of reality. In Part I, he dispels the fog of confusion about analogical metaphysics and addresses the ecumenical issues posed by Karl Barth’s famous rejection of the analogia entis. Part II demonstrates how analogical metaphysics helps to explain Christian doctrine and sheds new light on the interrelationship between individual doctrines, including Trinitarian theology, Christology and soteriology, and theological anthropology. In Part III, Betz explores how this analogical perspective can aid in resolving a number of theological disputes, including the metaphysical relationship between nature and grace and the issue of divine humility. Finally, Part IV outlines further directions toward a fully Christological metaphysics that is proportionate both to the challenges of modern theology and the reality of our life in Christ the Logos.
Download or read book Being Holy in the World written by Nicholas J. Healy and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Being holy in the world, Nicholas Healy and D.C. Schindler presents the first book-length study of David L. Schindler's thought, compiling essays by twelve scholars that examine Schindler's Trinitarian theology, ecclesiology, anthropology, and metaphysics in the context of the encounter between Christianity and contemporary culture"--Page [4] of cover.
Download or read book Action and Conduct written by Stephen Brock and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2021-05-07 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Both Thomistic scholars and analytic philosophers interested in theories of human action and accountability will find this book a welcome addition to their libraries. Truly a substantive addition to both Thomistic scholarship and the ongoing analytic investigation into human action and responsible agency."—American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly "A first-rate book...Brock's lucid and illuminating analysis offers much of value to both intellectual historians and theologians, as well as philosophers."—Theological Studies"Brock's treatment of Aquinas's account of action exhibits a rare combination of rigor and learning. It is, no doubt, the best we have."—The Thomist
Download or read book Aquinas on Efficient Causation and Causal Powers written by Gloria Frost and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-11 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this innovative book, Gloria Frost reconstructs and analyses Aquinas's theories on efficient causation and causal powers, focusing specifically on natural causal powers and efficient causation in nature. Frost presents each element of Aquinas's theories one by one, comparing them with other theories, as well as examining the philosophical and interpretive ambiguities in Aquinas's thought and proposing fresh solutions to conceptual difficulties. Her discussion includes explanations of Aquinas's technical scholastic terminology in jargon-free prose, as well as background on medieval scientific views - including ordinary language explanations of the medieval physical theories which Aquinas assumed in formulating his views on causation and causal powers. The resulting volume is a rich exploration of a central philosophical topic in medieval philosophy and beyond, and will be valuable especially for scholars and advanced students working on Aquinas and on medieval natural philosophy.
Download or read book Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas III written by John F. Wippel and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas III is Msgr. John Wippel’s third volume dedicated to the metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. After an introduction, this volume of collected essays begins with Wippel’s interpretation of the discovery of the subject of metaphysics by a special kind of judgment (“separation”). In subsequent chapters, Wippel turns to the relationship between faith and reason, exploring what are known as the preambles of faith. This is followed by two chapters on the important contributions by Cornelio Fabro on Aquinas’s distinction between essence and esse and on participation. The volume continues with articles on Aquinas’s view of creation as a preamble of faith, Aquinas’s much-disputed defense of unicity of substantial form in creatures, his account of the separated soul’s natural knowledge, and Aquinas’s understanding of evil in his De Malo 1. The volume concludes with an article comparing Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Godfrey of Fontaines on the metaphysical composition of angelic beings. Most of these issues were disputed during Aquinas’s time by some of his contemporaries, and the proper understanding of each continues to be debated by various students of his thought today. Wippel’s purpose, therefore, is to help clarify our understanding of Aquinas’s thought on each of these topics, a task that requires the careful analysis of primary sources and of secondary literature and attention to the relative chronology of his writing.
Download or read book Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages written by Kent Emery and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-03-05 with total page 1020 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a gift to Stephen Brown in honor of his 75th birthday. The 35 contributions to this Festschrift are disposed in five parts: Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy, Epistemology and Ethics, Philosophy and Theology, Theological Questions, Text and Context. These five headings articulate Stephen Brown’s underlying conception and understanding of medieval philosophy and theology, which the editors share: The main theoretical and practical issues of the ‘long medieval’ intellectual tradition are rooted in an epistemology and a metaphysics, which must be understood not as separated from theology but as being in a fruitful exchange with theological conceptions and questions; further, in order to understand the longue durée of this tradition of philosophical and theological discourse, scholars must engage the textual traditions that conveyed it. Contributors are Jan A. Aertsen, Carlos Bazan, Oliva Blanchette, Olivier Boulnois, Anthony Celano, William J. Courtenay, Anne A. Davenport, Alain de Libera, Thomas Dewender, John P. Doyle, Stephen D. Dumont, Kent Emery, Jr., Juan Carlos Flores, Christopher D. Schabel, Fritz S. Pedersen, Russell L. Friedman, André Goddu, Wouter Goris, Michael Gorman, Simo Knuuttila, Theo Kobusch, Paul Joseph LaChance, Matthew Lamb, Matthew Levering, R. James Long, Steven P. Marrone, Lauge Nielsen, Timothy Noone, Thomas M. Osborne,.Klaus Rodler, Risto Saarinen, John T. Slotemaker, Jean Céleyrette, Jean-Luc Solere, Andreas Speer, Carlos Steel, Eileen Sweeney, Jeremy Wilkins, John F. Wippel.
Download or read book Person Being and History written by Michael Baur and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: the various essays in this volume by colleagues and former students of Schmitz examine his thought and the subjects of his teaching. In addition to an overall exposition of his own thought, the collection treats themes such as gift, faith and reason, culture and dialogue, modernity and post-modernity
Download or read book The Logic of Analogy written by R.M. McInerny and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need for another study on the doctrine of analogy in the writings ofSt Thomas may not be obvious, since a complete bibliography in this area would doubtless assume depressing proportions. The present work is felt to be justified because it attempts a full-fledged alternative to the interpretation given in Cajetan's De nominum analogia, an interpretation which has provided the framework for subsequent discussions of the question. Recently, it is true, there has been growing dissatisfaction with Cajetan's approach; indeed there have been wholesale attacks on the great commentator who is alleged to have missed the clef de voute of the metaphysics of his master. Applied to our problem, this criticism leads to the view that Cajetan was not metaphysical enough, or that he was metaphysical in the wrong way, in his discussion of the analogy of names. As its title indicates, the present study is not in agreement with Cajetan's contention that the analogy of names is a metaphysical doctrine. It is precisely a logical doctrine in the sense that "logical" has for St Thomas. We have no desire to be associated with attacks on Cajetan, the meta physician, attacks we feel are quite wrongheaded. If Cajetan must be criticized for his interpretation of the analogy of names, it is imperative that he be criticized for the right reasons. Moreover, criticism ofCajetan in the present study is limited to his views on the analogy of names.
Download or read book The Analogy of Being written by Thomas Joseph White and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does all knowledge of God come through Christ alone, or can human beings discover truths about God philosophically? The Analogy of Being assembles essays by expert Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians to examine the relationship between divine revelation in the person of Jesus Christ and the philosophical capacities of natural reason. These essays were inspired by the lively, decades-long debate between Karl Barth and Erich Przywara, which was first sparked in 1932 when Barth wrote that the use of natural theology in Roman Catholic thinking was the invention of the Antichrist. The contributors to The Analogy of Being analyze and reflect on both sides of Barth and Przywara s spirited discourse, offering diverse responses to a controversy reaching to the very core of Christian faith and theology. It would be difficult to match the range and quality of commentators on this historic exchange between a Catholic philosopher and a renowned Reformed theologian on a subject of enduring significance, given the centrality of analogy to any issue in philosophical theology. Moreover, the contributions exhibit how the issues have come to span ecclesial boundaries as their import has progressively evolved. A splendid collection! David Burrell, C.S.C. Uganda Martyrs University A profound testimony to the enduring significance of the analogia entis debate between Erich Przywara and Karl Barth. Hans Boersma Regent College In a fresh ecumenical context, this extraordinary volume rekindles the mid-twentieth-century encounter between ressourcement thinkers and metaphysical theology. The voices of Przywara, Barth, Balthasar, and others speak anew through leading theologians of our own day in these masterfully orchestrated essays. Matthew Levering University of Dayton
Download or read book Participation and Substantiality in Thomas Aquinas written by Velde and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Participation and Substantiality in Thomas Aquinas presents a comprehensive and penetrating account of Aquinas' metaphysics of creation. Its main focus is the concept of participation of being. On the basis of a detailed textual analysis a philosophical interpretation is offered of the main concepts and arguments which underlie Thomas' theocentric understanding of reality. The central unifying theme of the book is the apparent tension between the notion of participation (central to the Platonic tradition) and that of substance (central to the Aristotelian tradition). The author argues that Aquinas is quite successful in bringing together in his metaphysics on the one hand the substantiality of finite beings and on the other hand their total dependency upon the divine being by way of participation. The author defends his interpretation in a critical discussion of the views on participation brought forward by well-known Aquinas scholars such as Geiger and Fabro.
Download or read book Participation and Substantiality in Thomas Aquinas written by Rudi A. Te Velde and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1995 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a philosophical analysis of the main themes and problems of Aquinas' metaphysics of creation, centred on the concept of participation, the systematical meaning of which is examined in a critical discussion of the prevailing views of contemporary Thomas scholars.
