An Introduction to the Aritculus

CWR: Reading St. Thomas: A beginner’s guide to the articulus by Joseph G. Trabbic
Most of the things that Thomas deals with whether by way of the question or other methods are quite complicated. But Thomas sees no point in making complicated matters more complicated.

Permissive Will, Again

But is this what Francis meant?

CWR: Which God’s Will? by Dr. Randall B. Smith
On permissive and positive will, the multiplicity of religions, salvation, and the mystery of evil.

The Best of Silver Age Scholasticism?

Church Life Journal

James Ginther, Robert Grosseteste and Byzantine Theology

The Confession of Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem

The Confession of Dositheus (Eastern Orthodox, 1672)

Holy Orders: Bishops

Fr. Hunwicke: EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION: a Tale of Two Meddlers

Church Life: The Birth of Scholasticism from a Series of Fortunate Mistakes by Mark J. Clark

Is Liturgy More than Worship?

I have been considering this question for the past few days, in connection with Bouyer and Schmemann. Worship is part of St. Thomas's catalog of the virtues, but I suspect that the Latin equivalent can be found in the texts of the Roman rite going back to the earliest days, when Latin was first introduced. (If this is the case, was it a translation of a Greek word introduced by the first Roman Christians, or was it adopted later?)

Youth, liturgy, and the need for true worship by Peter M.J. Stravinskas

Liturgy – like the Faith it celebrates – never admits of an “erector-set” approach; good liturgy, true liturgy is received, not fabricated, and it takes seriously the human person in all his complexity of body and soul.

Latin Sacramental Theology

Were there any alternative explanations by the schoolmen for the Real Presence in the Sacred Species, other than that offered by St. Thomas? Or was his the "standard" explanation?

Is it possible to formulate an explanation of the Real Presence without relying on Aristotle's metaphysics, and at the same time acknowledging that the Sacred Species is a sign (sacramentum) and a symbol, but not a symbol that refers to something else completely apart from itself? The Sacred Species conveys or signifies the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, localizes and realizes this Presence. Can the Real Presence be explained through participation? It is more than the causal presence of Christ in the natural matter or artifact of bread, nor is it the accidental conjunction of two different things.

Can the Real Presence be explained by other than an analogue to the Hypostatic Union?

It does not seem that if bread is not a substantial unity but an accidental unity that this would pose a problem for a "Aristotelian" explanation -- we would hold that the Real Presence is in all of the parts of bread which are substances.

The Litany of...

2017 Norcia Theology Program

Rorate Caeli

Scholasticum

An interview with Dr. Patrick Owens from July of last year:
New institute to offer online classes in medieval theology and philosophy by Jim Graves
The Scholasticum has a campus in Italy, but is bringing medieval scholasticism to anyone with an Internet connection.


What future for the school if the global economy tanks?

Another Article on Scholasticum

CWR Blog: New institute to offer online classes in medieval theology and philosophy
7/15/2016 12:00:00 AM
By Jim Graves
The Scholasticum has a campus in Italy, but is bringing medieval scholasticism to anyone with an Internet connection.

No Master of Theology is 100% Correct?

Does God permit theologians to make some errors for the sake of their humility and for the sake of ours, so that we recognize that no human teacher has all of the answers? If this is the case then how does this affect our understanding of what teaching [of theology] is? It is not just recognizing that some teachers are better than others (authorities) and going over their reasoning but we also have to return to the sources as another check?

A Greek Summa

I have not looked at De Fide Orthodoxa by St. John Damascene for some time. If a Thomistic summa were reworked so that the Trinity is covered first, then the Oneness of God, would Latin scholasticism be more palatable for the Greeks? How do the manuals of Byzantine scholasticism differ in their order of exposition from Latin scholastic manuals? What if one were to attempt to harmonize Latin theology (medieval or otherwise) with Byzantine theology in Latin and in Greek?

In a new summa, it seems that the question of scriptural interpretation would have to come in the beginning, in the treatment of Divine Revelation. And a discussion of liturgical theology would come under Divine Revelation or sources of Tradition? As well as under the topic of theology itself = theologia prima vs. theologia secunda. One of the questions at the very beginning...

Jacques Maritain’s Service to Truth by Christopher Shannon

Without minimizing the importance of his writings, Maritain initially exerted his most powerful influence at a personal level through his Thomistic Study Circle, which he founded in 1914. Although placed under the spiritual direction of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., renowned as the leading guardian of Thomistic orthodoxy, the Circle nonetheless attracted a broad range of avante-garde, modernist intellectuals in various degrees of association with the Church. The appeal of the meetings was as much spiritual as intellectual, for Maritain intended his circle to pursue both sanctity and study. He understood the work of the Circle as in part making reparation for the sins against the intellect committed in the modern period. This aspect of the Thomistic revival was often lost on those who knew Maritain only through his writings, and continues to elude many. For Maritain, as for Thomas and the best of the Thomistic tradition, the truths of philosophy and theology were guides for a spiritual journey toward a deeper personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Bloy had directed Maritain toward the lives of the saints and the writings of Catholic mystics well before he began his study of St. Thomas. Maritain’s turn to scholastic rationality in no way entailed an abandonment of the more experiential and existential approaches that first drew him to the Church.

The Lynchpin of High Scholasticism: Hugh of St. Cher by Donald S. Prudlo

Ite ad Thomam: Announcing a New Master's Program in Scholastic Philosophy (Institute Catholique de Toulouse)

What's going on with the Society of Scholastics?

Christopher J. Malloy, Objections to the Summa's Structure
Joseph G. Trabbic, Is the Summa Structurally Flawed?

One may read criticisms of the Summa that it is too rationalistic in its theology; I recall reading this objection from Orthodox apologists as well. The Summa presupposes the Creed; could there be a scientific exposition of the Trinity without a exposition of the unity of God?

Joseph G. Trabbic, How to Read an Article in Aquinas's Summa Theologiae