Reports, notes, and reflections on teaching and learning
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
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
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 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
Below are the links to all of my posts this semester on St. Thomas’s Summa contra Gentiles, based upon course and lecture notes for an upper-division medieval philosophy seminar. The Sapiential Cosmology of St. Thomas Aquinas (introductory overview of ScG) The Polyvalent Hierarchy of Wisdoms (introductory chapters of ScG) God’s Power and Creative Act (ScG, … Continue reading Series on the Summa contra Gentiles
We conclude our examination of Summa contra Gentiles with an overview of ScG, III.114–146 and the surrounding chapters; a consideration of why Aquinas talks about law, and what topics are omitted in our course; on the legal and religious nature of the human person; in light of providence, on the possibility of a philosophy of … Continue reading The Theocentric Drama of History
We now begin our study of God’s providence, which will occupy our attention for the remaining two posts of this series. In this post, we discuss ScG, III.64–113 as follows: an overview of ScG, III.64–77; some details from the above chapters; an overview of ScG, III.78–97; look at some aspects of the governance of creation … Continue reading God’s Providence, Governance, and the Stewardship of Creation
We now reflect briefly upon ScG, III.37–63. We consider: the lay of the land, an outline of topics; the principal arguments in these chapters, a higher via negativa regarding human felicity; some concluding reflections on the result of this argumentation. consider the nature of the beatific vision; the relationship of nature and grace to man’s … Continue reading The Heavenly Vision of Love Itself
Having set the stage of the universe’s dramatic return to God, Aquinas discusses in ScG, III.25 in incipient terms the height of creation’s likeness to God. a summary of ScG, III.25; a deeper consideration of the notion of “natural desire”; a brief review of alternative positions and objections to Aquinas; some concluding thoughts and questions … Continue reading The Natural Desire to See God
John G. Brungardt 