<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Current political and social climate seems to have as a presupposition the view that truth-telling has a merely instrumental value. This paper will explore Thomas Aquinas’ writing on truth and truth-telling, arguing that truth-telling is an intrinsic good, a human virtue and a component of human flourishing. In Aquinas’ view the virtue of truth-telling is a satellite virtue within the cardinal virtue of justice, and as such imperative for the flourishing of human society.</abstract>

Truth Matters: Living in Dangerous Times - Aquinas on the Virtue of Truth-Telling

Aquinas on Contemplation: A Neglected Topic

De Predikheer En De Filosoof

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In heutigen Beschleunigungsgesellschaften werden Körper und Geist des Menschen auf eine ausserordentliche Weise beansprucht, die nicht selten zu physischen und psychischen Krankheitsverläufen führt. Medizin, Psychologie, Soziologie und Philosophie haben sich vermehrt in den letzten zwei Dekaden dieses Problems angenommen, Ursachenforschung betrieben, Diagnosen erstellt und Auswege aufgezeigt. Aufschlussreich und nicht ohne bedenkenswerte Anregung ist nun aber auch die Tatsache, dass schon Thomas von Aquin ein Phänomen aufdeckt und analysiert, das er mit der Tradition die ‘evagatio mentis’ nennt. Diese Fragmentierung des Geistes verortet der Aquinate in besonderer Weise in der menschlichen Geisteshaltung der Trägheit. Aktualisierenden Erkennungswert erreicht Thomas’ Untersuchung vor allem dann, wenn jene Zerfallsbewegung sich in mehrfacher Hinsicht des Erkennens, der Kommunikation und der inneren und äusseren Unruhe artikuliert. In neuerer Zeit haben aus philosophischer Sicht erst wieder phänomenologischexistentialistische Zugänge diesem Phänomen ihre Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt, so dass dieser Diskurs heutigentags auf vielen Feldern seine aktuelle Bedeutung und Brisanz aufzeigt.
</abstract>

Die Einheit und Fragmentierung des menschlichen Geistes. Thomas von Aquin über die <italic>evagatio mentis</italic>

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>This essay explores Thomas’ thoughts about the virtue of obedience (based on <italic>STh</italic> II-II, q.104), which is particularly valued as a link between the moral virtues and the theological virtue of charity (love of God). Obedience generates in the human person the moral disposition required for all the other virtues, a disposition which consists in the readiness of the will to submit itself to the rule of God’s will. Reflecting on the question whether one should be obedient to God in every respect, Thomas is confronted with an objection pointing to the story of how God commands Abraham to kill his innocent son, which is prohibited by natural law. I use the scarce but intriguing remarks Thomas made in response to this objection to propose a meaningful interpretation of obedience as a religious virtue, essentially different from its distorted imitation which consists in an immediate identification of one’s own will with the presumed divine will.</abstract>

Obedience as a Religious Virtue

St. Thomas Aquinas’s Theory of Pagan Virtues: A Pilgrimage Towards the Infused Cardinal Virtues

Book reviews 

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper traces the basic contours of Aquinas’s account of connatural knowledge in order to see what role (if any) connaturality might play in our knowledge of the precepts of the natural law. It engages a dispute between Maritain and Doolan on this topic. After considering what Aquinas means by “connaturality” in general the paper examines the main elements of his view of knowledge by connaturality in particular. I argue that the true doctrine of Aquinas probably lies between Maritain and Doolan’s opposed interpretations. Although it is not the only way of doing so, connaturality or inclination would still seem to be one possible way of knowing the natural law, while the use of reason is another. 
</abstract>

Connatural Knowledge of the Natural Law 

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper reopens the debate on the possibility that Aquinas borrowed his <italic>tertia via </italic>from a Latin translation of Maimonides ‘Guide for the Perplexed’. After introducing the text of the <italic>tertia via</italic>, I shall analyze the first part and conclude that while a ‘metaphysical’, tenseless reading is correct, we should not be nervous to call Aquinas’s reasoning for what it is: flawed. Framing the problematic passage in its historical context, I shall then argue that the flaw lies not so much with Aquinas, but with the source he was borrowing from. This is Maimonides’ <italic>Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn </italic>(“The Guide for the Perplexed”), and in fact more specifically the blame is to be given to an early translator into Latin. 
</abstract>

Reconsidering Arabic Roots for the <italic>Tertia Via</italic>

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In light of recent biblical scholarship claiming that the God of the Hebrew Bible has a body, this article investigates how Aquinas reads Isaiah’s description of God in embodied, anthropomorphic terms in 6, 1 (<italic>I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up</italic>, etc.) in tandem with the prophet’s denial that God is like any creature in 40, 18 (<italic>To whom have you likened God? Or what image will you make for Him?</italic>). We seek to show that, according to Aquinas, Is. 6, 1 teaches not that God has or is a body, but rather that He is not. 
</abstract>

Is God a Body? Isaiah, Divine Dissimilitude, and Scriptural Signification 

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper presents a reading of Aquinas’ treatment of the value of music in religious teaching and preaching about God that reinterprets his claim in ST II-II, q. 91, a.2 that language is of ‘a more noble kind’ than music. Through an understanding of Aquinas’ writings on ‘contemplation’ a more complex and thorough treatment of music can be outlined. Far from simply presenting an argument for the superiority of language over music for the purpose of gaining religious understanding, this paper argues that Aquinas’ wider literary corpus on the subject of contemplation provides both implicit and explicit support for the parallel value music and language. 
</abstract>

<italic>Nobilior Modus Est: </italic>The Importance of Music in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article deals with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with infused prudence, and with the natural law. Prudence has an intimate connection both with the natural law and with the Gift of Counsel, and is thus pivotal to the argument made. In brief, it is argued that the Gift of Counsel perfects reason’s grasp of the demands of the natural law. This Gift, which proportions the believer to the <italic>instinctus</italic> of the Holy Spirit, guides him in all that pertains the attainment of ultimate beatitude. It does so, moreover, by actually enhancing human freedom rather than by undermining it. In order to make this argument, this article, in the first instance, turns to a treatment of the content of natural reasoning, dealing in particular with the primary and secondary precepts of the natural law.
</abstract>

The Gift of Counsel, Infused Prudence, and the Natural Law

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Employing a work of modern conceptual art, a manipulated photograph entitled ‘The Missing Person’, the author studies Thomas Aquinas on the concept of human beings as image of (the Triune) God. Typical for Aquinas’ approach is the theocentric focus of his Christian anthropology. The threefold (nature, grace, glory) ‘image of God’, a central and dynamic concept in Aquinas’ <italic>Summa Theologiae</italic>, is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, corresponding to an account of both analogical naming of the divine ánd living according to the vocation to become more and more image of the Triune God.</abstract>

Thomas Aquinas on Human Beings as Image of God

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The so-called. ‘Christianization’ of Aristotle in the Middle Ages and in particular by Thomas Aquinas remains a vexed debate. A case by case study seems to be a fruitful approach. One of these cases concerns Aristotle’s definition of the soul in <italic>De anima</italic> II, 1(412b10-25). Applying this philosophical claim to the theological question <italic>Utrum Christus fuerit homo in triduo mortis</italic> seems to be not without difficulty, as St. Thomas’ frequent treatments of this question show. In this paper I analyze these texts and show how Aquinas on multiple occasions follows <italic>De anima</italic> II, 1 and similar texts of Aristotle and defends a robust Aristotelian position, even in light of the significance of his recovery of Greek Church Fathers.</abstract>

In Defense of Aristotle: Thomas Aquinas on the Identity of the Living Body and the Corpse of Christ

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper analyzes Aquinas’ understanding of persuasion and its impact for apologetics. It consists of three parts. The first explains the meaning of persuasion in his writings and the philosophical framework. The second explore the manner of convincing others towards truth. Finally, attention is drawn to Aquinas’ argumentative strategies and his recommendations on how to deal with <italic>contradicentes fidei</italic>. This permits to understand the theological value of gift of counsel as God’s persuasive manner to bring human being to the ultimate end. It demonstrates the dignity and freedom of rational creature that reach God in this way and imitate God whose will is not arbitrary force, but proceeds by reasons.
</abstract>

Persuasive Faith. Aquinas on Convincing and Its Apologetical Significance

<italic>Misericordia</italic> in Aquinas

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Fundamental to theology is the ordering of all things to God, yet this ordering is directly tied to the topic of relation. Thus, while the category of relation is inherited by Aquinas from ancient philosophy, it mostly shows up in Aquinas’ theological treatments. This paper will look specifically at the distinction between God and creatures as understood through Aquinas’ use of mixed relations. It will provide an expository treatment of Aquinas’ use of mixed relation in attempt to bridge his philosophy and theology while seeking to encourage and aide others to more actively incorporate the category of relation in theological work, as Aquinas himself did.</abstract>

Aquinas on Relations: A Topic Which Aquinas Himself Perceives as Foundational to Theology

Instructions for Authors

Peer Review Process