This guide to the most interesting work that has recently appeared on Aquinas reflects the revival of interest in his work.

Fergus Kerr's study - which is derived from his highly-regarded Stanton Lectures, delivered in the University of Cambridge in 1994/5 - focuses on the more or less obvious theological commitments of several much-discussed contemporary philosophers. By so doing, the author daringly extends the agenda of what is usually considered to be 'philosophy of religion.'. The ramifications of his study are extensive: even if philosophy is not at bottom theology, as von Balthasar once claimed, the theological preconceptions in much modern philosophy (...) would seem to deserve considerably more attention than they have received hitherto. (shrink)

Thomas Aquinas is one of the giants of medieval philosophy, a thinker who had--and who still has--a profound influence on Western thought.

Wittgenstein's philosophical psychology -- Wittgenstein and Catholicism -- Wittgenstein, psychology, and psychoanalysis -- Wittgenstein and "other minds" skepticism.

Thomas Aquinas was first and foremost a Christian theologian. Yet he was also one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages. Drawing on classical authors, and incorporating ideas from Jewish and Arab sources, he came to offer a rounded and lasting account of the origin of the universe and of the things to be found within it, especially human beings.

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 415-416, June 2012.

Among the many fruitful and challenging sites for mutual engagement of theology and philosophy, the renewed study of St. Thomas Aquinas has proven to be both lively and controversial. Given particular impetus in recent years by the widespread assessment of modernity that occupies many academic disciplines today, this study is both interesting and relevant to a number of intellectual debates, even as it demands for itself the highest level of scholarship. This collection reflects the state of Aquinas studies throughout North (...) America, Britain, and Northern Europe, and provides an introduction to this diversity for a general and scholarly readership. Widely differing and often starkly contrasting and even contradictory interpretations of Aquinas are to be found here, which by their very differences invite readers to go deeper into the background from which each emerges and so to find for themselves a way to contemplate Aquinas. "This excellent collection of rich, sometimes controversial papers is an attempt to set the study of Thomas Aquinas in context and to extend our understanding of Aquinas's thought in the process. It is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the contemporary state of Thomistic studies and its history." --Eleonore Stump, Henle Professor of Philosophy, St. Louis University "This is a fine collection further demonstrating the sheer variety and vitality of contemporary Thomistic studies. By challenging and unsettling established assumptions the essayists help to free the work of one of the greatest educators in the ways of Christian wisdom to speak with fresh relevance. The result is an invaluable resource for teachers and students of theology alike." --Paul D. Murray, Durham University. (shrink)

In a footnote to the preface to the second edition of hisCritique of Pure Reason Kant remarked that ‘it still remains a scandal to philosophy and to human reason in general that the existence [Dasein] of things outside us … must be accepted onfaith, and that if anyone thinks good to doubt their existence, we are unable to counter his doubts by any satisfactory proof’. InBeing and Time Heidegger remarks, somewhat less famously, that the scandal of philosophy, far from being (...) the continuing absence of philosophically satisfactory proof of the existence of the world outside human subjectivity, is rather-the-very idea that such proof need be sought at all: ‘IfDaseinis understood correctly, it defies such proofs, because, in its being, it alreadyiswhat subsequent proofs deem necessary to demonstrate for it’. (shrink)

In a footnote to the preface to the second edition of hisCritique of Pure Reason Kant remarked that ‘it still remains a scandal to philosophy and to human reason in general that the existence [Dasein] of things outside us … must be accepted onfaith, and that if anyone thinks good to doubt their existence, we are unable to counter his doubts by any satisfactory proof’. InBeing and Time Heidegger remarks, somewhat less famously, that the scandal of philosophy, far from being (...) the continuing absence of philosophically satisfactory proof of the existence of the world outside human subjectivity, is rather-the-very idea that such proof need be sought at all: ‘IfDaseinis understood correctly, it defies such proofs, because, in its being, it alreadyiswhat subsequent proofs deem necessary to demonstrate for it’. (shrink)

This is a translation, by A. Létourneau, of a book by Fergus Kerr, Theology after Wittgenstein previously published by Oxford U. Press The author provides a reading of Wittgenstein, and explains how theology as a discipline can take into account his main philosophical thoughts about religion and ethics.

The philosophy of religion, as commonly understood by Christians in both the Catholic and Reformed traditions, whether they think it a worthwhile enterprise or not, begins with arguments for the existence of a deity, proceeds to show that this deity is necessarily unique, eternal, and suchlike, and leaves it to reflection on divine revelation to consider whether this deity might be properly designated as ‘three persons in one nature’. Much later, after discussing the metaphysical implications of the incarnation of the (...) second person of the triune godhead, one would arrive at theories about the death of Jesus Christ as putatively redemptive, and describable as sacrificial, atoning and the like. (shrink)