rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinashttps://sciendo.com/journal/EJSTAhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/6471bd46215d2f6c89daf4c4/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/EJSTA140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In this paper, I argue that, for Aquinas, <italic>esse commune</italic> is the absolute notion of <italic>esse</italic>. It is absolute, moreover, precisely in the Avicennian sense insofar as it is the consideration of <italic>esse</italic> as abstracted from intelligible and material modes of being. First, I clarify Dionysius’s distinction between the two senses of <italic>per se</italic> theonyms, focusing on the Procline provenance of adverbs like ἀπολύτως and ἀρχηγικῶς in the <italic>Divine Names</italic>. Second, I defend Aquinas’s interpretation and development of Dionysius’s distinction, higlighting his reliance on Avicenna’s threefold <italic>consideratio</italic> in his account of <italic>per se</italic> theonyms as absolute natures. I will conclude with suggestions for further research.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00072024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>According to Aquinas, the Platonic doctrine of participation can be disentangled from a commitment to the theory of Forms which Aristotle attributes to Plato. In this article, I argue that we can learn three important things from close examination of this key insight. First, we can better understand Aquinas’s view of how the participation of an effect in its cause works. Second, the Platonic doctrine of participation can play an important role in explaining and defending Christian doctrines such as the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of divine simplicity. Third, it is possible to combine the Platonic doctrine of participation with Aristotle’s alternative account of forms into a coherent and powerful metaphysical synthesis.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00062024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article explores Aquinas’ conception of the goodness of creatures in the light of his commentaries on wisdom literature. Leveraging the <italic>Index Thomisticus</italic>, relevant passages from Aquinas’ commentaries on wisdom books and their corresponding scriptural verses related to creation are identified. His non-exegetical works are also scrutinized for references to these verses. Through this examination, Aquinas emerges as affirming that God’s love encompasses all creatures, including the devil. Aquinas associates God with all that is good but also emphasizes the original goodness of demons and attributes the source of evil to the will of rational beings.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00022024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In section 1 of this paper, I consider the logical validity of four versions of Aquinas’ arguments to this conclusion that being and good are identical, as presented by Stump and Kretzmann. Subsequently, I formalize the arguments in order to make their validity logically explicit. In section 2, I show how the formal reality of the identity of being grounds moral arguments for theism. In section 3, I then consider the application of this formal reality, to a simplified contemporary “moral argument” for theism. I argue that Aquinas’ arguments for the identity of being and goodness should play a vital role in moral arguments for theism to militate against atheistic objections to them.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00032024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper examines Aquinas’ and Albert’s respective interpretations of the term “motion” in Damasecene’s definitions of the passion. Although they have a common understanding of the term within an Aristotelian context, they hold differing attitudes toward it: Albert denies that passion is motion, saying that it is quality left from motion, whereas Aquinas affirms the notion of passion as motion. In this paper I expound on the difficulties Albert has with the term and how Aquinas resolves them. I argue that Aquinas successfully addresses the Albert’s difficulties, thus establishing a foundation for a more refined understanding of human psychology in relation to ethical behaviour.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00042024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0008ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00082024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Dionysius’ account of God’s processions has been interpreted in a range of ways. Thomas Aquinas interprets divine processions as created likenesses of God. The Byzantine tradition interprets them as ἐνέργειαι in God. Neoplatonist readers of Dionysius read them as both divine self-differentiations and activities performed by creatures. Each reading can accommodate some of Dionysius’ claims, but not others. After considering reasons for and against each interpretation, I show how Dionysius’ texts on beauty, which present a phenomenological metaphysics of beauty, provide grounds for synthesizing significant aspects of each. The paper closes with a presentation of that synthesis.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00052024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In einer zunehmend säkularisierten westlichen Welt stellt sich die pastorale Frage nach der Sinnhaftigkeit der Taufe von Kleinkindern. Das Bekenntnis der Eltern und Paten muss gleichsam für die Täuflinge garantieren. Im fortgeschrittenen Umbruch von der Volkskirche zur Bekenntniskirche erscheint dies herausfordernd. Soll den Kleinkindern die Taufe gespendet werden, wenn das Bekenntnis der Eltern unklar ist oder nur formell ausgesprochen erscheint? Die Tauftheologie des Thomas von Aquin hilft bei der Beantwortung dieser Frage. Die Taufe setzt nach dem <italic>Doctor Angelicus</italic> einerseits den Glauben voraus und kann andererseits als Prägemal zur Gnade des Glaubens befähigen. Das Prägemal verlangt gleichsam nach einer Hinführung zum Glauben, die Befähigung nach dem Vollzug.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2024-00012024-11-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-0003<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In light of recent biblical scholarship claiming that the God of the Hebrew Bible has a body, this article investigates how Aquinas reads Isaiah’s description of God in embodied, anthropomorphic terms in 6, 1 (<italic>I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up</italic>, etc.) in tandem with the prophet’s denial that God is like any creature in 40, 18 (<italic>To whom have you likened God? Or what image will you make for Him?</italic>). We seek to show that, according to Aquinas, Is. 6, 1 teaches not that God has or is a body, but rather that He is not. </p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-00032023-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-0001<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper reopens the debate on the possibility that Aquinas borrowed his <italic>tertia via </italic>from a Latin translation of Maimonides ‘Guide for the Perplexed’. After introducing the text of the <italic>tertia via</italic>, I shall analyze the first part and conclude that while a ‘metaphysical’, tenseless reading is correct, we should not be nervous to call Aquinas’s reasoning for what it is: flawed. Framing the problematic passage in its historical context, I shall then argue that the flaw lies not so much with Aquinas, but with the source he was borrowing from. This is Maimonides’ <italic>Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn </italic>(“The Guide for the Perplexed”), and in fact more specifically the blame is to be given to an early translator into Latin. </p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-00012023-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-0005ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-00052023-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-0002<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper traces the basic contours of Aquinas’s account of connatural knowledge in order to see what role (if any) connaturality might play in our knowledge of the precepts of the natural law. It engages a dispute between Maritain and Doolan on this topic. After considering what Aquinas means by “connaturality” in general the paper examines the main elements of his view of knowledge by connaturality in particular. I argue that the true doctrine of Aquinas probably lies between Maritain and Doolan’s opposed interpretations. Although it is not the only way of doing so, connaturality or inclination would still seem to be one possible way of knowing the natural law, while the use of reason is another. </p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-00022023-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-0004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper presents a reading of Aquinas’ treatment of the value of music in religious teaching and preaching about God that reinterprets his claim in ST II-II, q. 91, a.2 that language is of ‘a more noble kind’ than music. Through an understanding of Aquinas’ writings on ‘contemplation’ a more complex and thorough treatment of music can be outlined. Far from simply presenting an argument for the superiority of language over music for the purpose of gaining religious understanding, this paper argues that Aquinas’ wider literary corpus on the subject of contemplation provides both implicit and explicit support for the parallel value music and language. </p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2023-00042023-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper analyzes Aquinas’ understanding of persuasion and its impact for apologetics. It consists of three parts. The first explains the meaning of persuasion in his writings and the philosophical framework. The second explore the manner of convincing others towards truth. Finally, attention is drawn to Aquinas’ argumentative strategies and his recommendations on how to deal with <italic>contradicentes fidei</italic>. This permits to understand the theological value of gift of counsel as God’s persuasive manner to bring human being to the ultimate end. It demonstrates the dignity and freedom of rational creature that reach God in this way and imitate God whose will is not arbitrary force, but proceeds by reasons.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-00042022-10-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In heutigen Beschleunigungsgesellschaften werden Körper und Geist des Menschen auf eine ausserordentliche Weise beansprucht, die nicht selten zu physischen und psychischen Krankheitsverläufen führt. Medizin, Psychologie, Soziologie und Philosophie haben sich vermehrt in den letzten zwei Dekaden dieses Problems angenommen, Ursachenforschung betrieben, Diagnosen erstellt und Auswege aufgezeigt. Aufschlussreich und nicht ohne bedenkenswerte Anregung ist nun aber auch die Tatsache, dass schon Thomas von Aquin ein Phänomen aufdeckt und analysiert, das er mit der Tradition die ‘evagatio mentis’ nennt. Diese Fragmentierung des Geistes verortet der Aquinate in besonderer Weise in der menschlichen Geisteshaltung der Trägheit. Aktualisierenden Erkennungswert erreicht Thomas’ Untersuchung vor allem dann, wenn jene Zerfallsbewegung sich in mehrfacher Hinsicht des Erkennens, der Kommunikation und der inneren und äusseren Unruhe artikuliert. In neuerer Zeit haben aus philosophischer Sicht erst wieder phänomenologischexistentialistische Zugänge diesem Phänomen ihre Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt, so dass dieser Diskurs heutigentags auf vielen Feldern seine aktuelle Bedeutung und Brisanz aufzeigt.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-00022022-10-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article deals with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with infused prudence, and with the natural law. Prudence has an intimate connection both with the natural law and with the Gift of Counsel, and is thus pivotal to the argument made. In brief, it is argued that the Gift of Counsel perfects reason’s grasp of the demands of the natural law. This Gift, which proportions the believer to the <italic>instinctus</italic> of the Holy Spirit, guides him in all that pertains the attainment of ultimate beatitude. It does so, moreover, by actually enhancing human freedom rather than by undermining it. In order to make this argument, this article, in the first instance, turns to a treatment of the content of natural reasoning, dealing in particular with the primary and secondary precepts of the natural law.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-00032022-10-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In this essay, I explain why I agree with Angela Knobel’s judgement that, despite recent claims to the contrary, Aquinas did not jettison from his mature theology the distinction of ‘human mode’ and ‘superhuman mode’ of action in articulating his understanding of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and their relationship to the virtues. However, I disagree with Knobel’s claim that, in his mature thought, Aquinas saw the infused virtues as inherently part of the superhuman mode. Rather, I argue that, in Aquinas’s mature thought, the infused virtues have an inherently human mode of operation, even if they can be elevated to the higher superhuman mode, when they operate in unison with the Gifts. I also diverge from Knobel in as much as I argue that the infused virtues have a default operation that is distinct from the Gifts, whereas a gift never operates without the co-operation of an infused virtue.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-00012022-10-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-0005ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2022-00052022-10-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2021-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This essay will present Richard Rohr’s central claims about Jesus Christ and the presence of God in creation and then consider them in light of Aquinas’s teachings with particular attention to his <italic>Commentary on John</italic>. This essay attempts to show that Rohr’s claims are incomplete and ultimately misguided and that Aquinas’s participatory account of creation and the Incarnation allows him to cultivate an awareness of God’s presence in all of creation while also maintaining the salvific uniqueness of the Incarnation.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2021-00012021-11-09T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2021-0005ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/ejsta-2021-00052021-11-09T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1