Some abstracts for papers for the 31st Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies, "The Metaphysics of Aquinas and its Modern Interpreters: Theological and Philosophical Perspectives," are available.

Is John Knasas still the most prominent proponent of existential Thomism?

It is not clear to me that the existential Thomists are so apart from the neo-Thomists (including the Aristotelian Thomists) with regards to their understanding of St. Thomas's metaphysics. But since I am barely a student of metaphysics, this is only a guess. I do not know if Ralph McInerny wrote anything about Maritain on this point of controversy. I do know the existential Thomists and Aristotelian Thomists differ as to whether metaphysics needs physics as a preparation in the order of learning. (Fr. Ashley's paper.) It has been a while since I took that undergraduate course in metaphysics, which was with an existential Thomist. It seems to me that for the class, we were simply taking it for granted that God existed because we were all believing Catholics. The act of faith replaced proof of God's existence. I'll have to look again at how Gilson, Maritain, and Knasas deal with this point.

Being and Some Twentieth-Century Thomists

John Knasas on Thomist Metaphysics: Past, Present and Future