Scholasticism, Dialogue and Universalism

2012

Contemporary approaches to systematic theology as a theology of discourse constitute a re-visioning of the theological task through critical reflection of ways in which language and relationality both inform and are formed by the Christian faith. This re-visioning requires an engagement with texts from the tradition. St. Augustine’s De doctrina christiana and Confessions manifest a foundational example of the Christian tradition’s expression of the vertical and horizontal spiritual exercises that David Burrell has identified in Johannine reflections on friendship and its expression in the world. Two texts from the medieval tradition will be offered as both confirming and developing Augustine’s contributions. The Letters of Heloise and Abelard constitute a twelfth-century correspondence that has received substantial scholarly attention from the work of medievalists, historians and literary critics, but now requires more intentional reflection from the work of systematic theologians i...

Studia Neoaristotelica, 2006

Themelios, 2013

book review (open access)

Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages, 2011

Inocent-Mária Vladimír Szaniszló OP, 2016

Abstract: The medieval culture of the 13th century on the campus of the University of Paris was a place of great scientific and cultural controversy. A large part of the Iberian Peninsula still belonged to the Muslim world and the West European thinkers so often sought scientific dialogue in search of philosophical and theological truth with the Muslim, but also the Jewish culture. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote an extensive work during his professorship at the University of Paris called “Summa contra gentiles”. Through it he sought to lead an in-depth dialogue with these great cultures. This dialogue was based on the truth of things as well as the spirit of truth and not some episodic or tactical opportunism. The disputes with the renegade believers are somewhat simpler because we can turn to the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but if their participants are Muslims or Jews, we must resort to the authority of the Old Testament. For a dialogue with non-believers, we must turn to argue only on the basis of reason. However, this would be insufficient in religious matters. Nevertheless, logos provides legal rules and criteria to understanding. Unlike the Muslims, we cannot rely on force or the army, or the lure of worldly promises. Even miracles are not the first argument. The crucial importance in this dialogue is given to the gospel, which, far better than any miracles, shines through the witness of the worn and simple people who are able to believe the difficult truth, hope the high-profile reality and lead difficult lives. The introduction of Avicenna and Averroes into the controversy with Christian truth was not without consequences for St. Thomas. It lasted more than a century after his death. After a temporal ban by the Parisian bishop, the doctrine of St. Thomas was again allowed at this university. Ultimately, however, faith and reason cannot be opposed but only understood in their mutual compliance. This “theologically substantiated secularity” of St. Thomas, mainly based on Aristotle’s doctrine, represents an important message of the medieval Christian West for today.

2009

This book presents a new critical Latin edition and an English translation of Johannes Maccovius' (1588-1644) seminal and fascinating work on theological and philosophical distinctions. The Distinctiones are immensely helpful for today's students of Post-Reformation theology who try to understand Protestant scholastic discourse in light of its own concerns and vocabulary.

The Heythrop Journal, 2008

Ut credat quod tu, nullum ui cogere tempta; sola quippe potest huc racione trahi. extorquere potes fidei mendacia frustra: ipsa fides non ui, set racione venit.

Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth Century Theology (ed. David Fergusson, Oxford: Blackwell, 2011), 2010

"""'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 This remark, taken from the preface to the second version of the Critique of Pure Reason, is one of Kant’s most famous. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (17241804) has unparalleled significance for the theology and philosophy of the nineteenth century and beyond. The roles of knowledge and faith are central to that philosophy, a fact that until recently was heavily downplayed by philosophers who investigated epistemology and ethics in ways that ignored theological and historical questions. In this article, Kant’s philosophy will be presented in ways that make his theological commitments explicit, in two sections. The first section will sketch the shape of Kant’s thinking, and the second will present some of the technical arguments in relation to what are known technically as his theoretical, practical and aesthetic philosophy. These divisions will be explained in due course. Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""