Over the past several years, I have been fortunate to teach philosophy to the seminarians of the Wichita Diocese. They attend Newman University and live in community at the St. Joseph House of Formation. Since Newman has a very small philosophy faculty, I’ve also had to teach most of the curriculum. In this post, I … Continue reading Philosophy Course Guides
Over at Thomistica, Professor John F.X. Knasas has kindly responded to my rejoinder to his reply to my review of his book. Here is the sequence for those interested: My essay-length review of Knasas, Thomistic Existentialism & Cosmological Reasoning (July 2020) Knasas’s response to my review, “Aquinas’ Metaphysics and Aristotle’s Arguments for the Eternity of … Continue reading Debate with Knasas
There are many famous prefaces and introductions to the great and the good books of human tradition. Some are masterpieces in their own right, able to be studied with profit apart from the main work. One thinks of the prefatory materials to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason; of Hegel’s introduction in The Phenomenology of Spirit; … Continue reading Newman, Grammar of Assent, Draft Preface
Thomistica has published recently my review of Prof. Andrew Davison’s Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine. An excerpt: Davison’s book is divided into five parts: on creation, revelation and theological knowledge, the imago Dei, soteriology, and eschatology. Part I discusses the possibility of life—intelligent or otherwise—on worlds other than our own, all within the modality of the … Continue reading Review of Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine
Fr. Philip-Neri Reese, O.P., has recently written “Losing the Forest for the Tree: Why All Thomists Should (Not) Be River Forest Thomists,” an open-access article in the journal Religions. Here is the abstract: One of the most influential and controversial schools of 20th century Thomism—especially in North America—is the “River Forest School” or “River Forest … Continue reading The Natural Path to Saving the Old River Forest “Tree”
The argument which follows is a recapitulation of a tradition of arguments found in Aristotle’s Physics (VII.1 and book VIII), as well as Aquinas’s “First Way” or proof from motion. Here is the argument in nuce, in its Aristotelian form. 1. Every mobile in motion is put in motion by another mover.2. Every mover (moving … Continue reading From Physics VII.1 to Free Energy
The following remarks are a slightly updated and revised version of a talk given at the Thomistic Institute at Clemson University on April 18, 2024. Derby, An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (1768; Wikimedia Commons) Atoms Neither Fast Nor Feast: Reflections on Scientific Inquiry and the Good Life When we think about … Continue reading Atoms Neither Fast Nor Feast: Reflections on Scientific Inquiry and the Good Life
Recently, I was asked to join The Boethius Institute as an associate fellow. From their website: The Boethius Institute helps scholars and leaders to grow in their understanding and practice of the traditional liberal arts and sciences, forming a fellowship that unites those passionate about liberal education in a bond of friendship and common effort … Continue reading Boethius Institute
Over at Thomistica, I have reviewed Daniel Shields’s book Nature and Nature’s God. It is highly recommended. An excerpt from the review: For too long has Aquinas’s motion proof languished in the gaol of a contemporary Thomistic metaphysics unwilling to fully countenance the debt which Aquinas’s metaphysics owes to Aristotelian natural philosophy and unable to … Continue reading Review of new book of the First Way
The following is the prepared copy of a paper I delivered on September 15, 2023, at “Aquinas After 750 Years: Still the Common Doctor?” a conference at the Dominican House of Studies. Despite the observation by Pope Leo XIII that “there is no conflict worthy of the name”[1] between scholastic philosophical principles and the modern … Continue reading St. Thomas Aquinas’s Sapiential Vision for the Philosophy of Nature
John G. Brungardt 