First principles and the challenge of Parmenidean monism -- St. Thomas on analogia entis in the Scriptum super sententiis and in De veritate -- Consideration of objections to the view that the analogia entis is the analogy of proper proportionality -- The analogy of being and the transcendence and analogical intelligibility of the act of faith.

Univocità o equivocità del linguaggio umano applicato alle realtà divine. Analogia di attribuzione e analogia di proporzionalità: fondamento metafisico e valore conoscitivo.

The paper has two aims: firstly, to present Fichte’s transcendental ontology as a theory of the analogia entis. This allows to comprehend in which sense his Doctrine of science is different from Kant’s or Hegel’s thought. Secondly, i aim to outline the twofold nature of Fichte’s analogical ontology, depending on whether the intellectual concept or the concept of love is in the foreground. i distinguish these two approaches and evaluate them both with regard to the relation between the (...) Absolute and his manifestations and to the immanent connections among the creatures. (shrink)

This book is an introduction to twentieth-century Catholic thinker Erich Przywara, retrieving and extending Przywara's vision of the analogy of being as the metaphysical touchstone of a specifically Christian understanding of being. The author offers a detailed exploration of Przywara's thought in conversation with Edith Stein, the Nouvelle Théologie, and leading figures in contemporary postmodern theology.

The medicalization of risk rests on foundational assumptions shared by economics and public health. Economists, however, think in terms of pursuing an array of goods, and hence, they offer useful critiques of the irrationality involved in trying to subordinate all goods to one narrow good, like avoiding death from a particular disease. Many of our approaches to health do not appear to be fully rational, suggesting that the deeper motivation lying behind our concerns about health are to be found in (...) something other than the impulse to extend human lives as much as possible. This paper draws on the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas to sketch a richer way of thinking about the goods we pursue in health care that can help us to avoid the pitfalls associated with the medicalization of risk. (shrink)

While Erich Przywara’s philosophical theology, or theological philosophy, and especially his Analogia Entis has been the subject of some research, less is known about the broader cultural and political framework of his thought in the 1920s in the Weimar Republic and in the 1930s during the NS period. Here Przywara is presented in context of his unique religious, political and social milieu. His writings on social, religious and political issues, including his account of the analogia entis (...) concept, are brought into relationship with his context and some of his contemporaries. Przywara’s reflections on the Reich are analyzed and his engagement with the popular Volk concept is also addressed in connection with his anti-Semitism. (shrink)

Just hearing the names of Brentano and Plato put together is enough to highlight the queerness of a matching which finds almost no evidence in critical literature. The study of the texts in which Brentano explicitly deals with Plato, in particular in his lectures on the history of Greek philosophy, does not change much of the negative impression that emerges from a general overview: the place of Plato in the history of philosophy depends, for Brentano, on Aristotle or, better, on (...) the accomplishment of Greek philosophy occurs in Aristotle’s work. We shall turn our attention towards the of certain relevant problems in order to open up, if possible, a less negative prospect for the relationship of Brentano to Plato: not so much directly by examining Platonic philosophy from a Brentanian point of view as by considering the concrete solution that Brentano provides to some Aristotelian questions. To put it differently, we shall take into account not so much what Brentano says of Plato, as what Brentano does with Aristotle, by tracking the Platonizing traces that can be found in the Brentanian commentary to Aristotle’s categories, the philosophical consequences of which seem to be reflected in Brentano’s overall philosophical project. (shrink)

Przywara lived in the Jesuit community in Munich until the close of the second world war. He belonged to the group of Southern German Catholic scholars of widely ranging philosophical and theological interests, which included Karl Adam, Martin Grabmann and Guardini among others. Contributing frequently to the magazine of his order, Stimmen der Zeit, he was the leading German Jesuit philosopher of religion in the period between the two world wars. Przywara attracted special attention because he welcomed, more than most (...) of his Catholic colleagues, discussions with all schools of German philosophy, Kantian, Hegelian idealist and modern existentialist, as well as with Protestant dialectical theologians. His own position was always defended with wide historical knowledge and philosophical understanding. There is more frequent reference in most of the periodicals and books of the period to Przywara's argument in some particular discussion or controversy than to his own systematic exposition and philosophy. His philosophical interests were stimulated by his personal friendship with Martin Heidegger which dates from their early association together as pupils at a Jesuit school in Austria. Przywara, probably more than any other Catholic thinker, has not only been attracted to but really shared in the new speculation and positive insights of existential philosophy. (shrink)

La doctrine de l'analogie de l'être (analogia entis) doit-elle être considérée comme la tentative, la plus fidèle à l'esprit aristotélicien, pour ordonner unitairement la polysémie de l'être et parer au risque de dissémination du ...

This article readdresses the Przywara-Barth controversy concerning analogia entis. The main point of our analysis is the question of whether the concept of analogy presented by Erich Przywara was in line with the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic definition and use of analogy in theistic predication. First, we ask about Przywara’s strong conviction that analogy is primarily a metaphysical and not merely a grammatical doctrine. Secondly, after presenting the complexity of Aquinas’ notion of analogy, as well as the variety of opinions (...) on this subject among his commentators, we analyze the objectives of Przywara’s view of analogia entis, his grounding it in the terminology taken from the typology offered by Cajetan and juxtaposing analogia proportionalitatis and analogia atributionis, and his introduction of the concept of “a new ‘attributive analogy’” proceeding from above to below and sustaining the tension within analogia entis. We show that Przywara remained a faithful student and interpreter of Thomas, where this makes Barth’s accusation that the Catholic doctrine of analogia entis puts God and creatures on a common plane of being unjustified. (shrink)

Analogy as a scientific method has been criticized during the last decades; only for heuristic purposes it has been accepted. On the other side especially proportional analogies have a long tradition in European thought since Plato and Aristotle, for, as Aristotle puts it, analogies allow a connection between different and unbridgeable ontological areas. As examples for such connections the analogia entis of Thomas of Aquino and the Kantian Analogies of Experience are discussed. They give us hints for a (...) new view of analogies, which during the Middle Ages were not only of heuristic value, but were accepted as a proof: Analogies do not only produce hypotheses, moreover, they build up new views of the world, they are the background of paradigms, for they create structures by introducing similarities and proportions. (shrink)

The need to find clarity concerning (1) the relationship between scientific and religious cosmological discourses and (2) the imagining of a space where various religions could meet in fruitful conciliation as far as (1) is concerned, formed the basis of the article. The aim of the article was to investigate the relevance of Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga (5th CE, Pali compendium of Theravāda Buddhism) with regard to the above problems. The methodology employed involved clarifying the historical context of the Visuddhimagga ; understanding (...) the subjective intentions of Buddhaghosa and extrapolating non-emphasised but promising underlying tendencies in his magnum opus, conducive to a perspective of ultimate, universal peace as far as Cosmos, all of humanity and its various religious discourses are concerned. The reading of the Visuddhimagga revealed a mythology of many deities, tolerated but demoted to a status lower than that of enlightened humans; the denial of a Creator God; no notion of an analogia entis between humans and a living Cosmos, nor any tendency towards pantheism and a commitment to the ideal of universal happiness for all beings. The main conclusion was that Theravāda Buddhism (and, to a lesser extent, Christian theology) could be extended towards the notion of a living, evolving Cosmos, appearing from and disappearing into non-substantial silence. It is not claimed that Buddhaghosa succeeded in achieving a great cosmology. It remains an unrealised possibility, latently possible as an extension of Theravāda. Contribution: The contribution of the article is that it uncovers deeply hidden lines in Buddhism (and Christianity) that are emerging and converging. ‘Theo-logy’, re-interpreted as mystical ‘cosmo-sophy’, would not amount to a cynical debunking or irresponsible annexation of Buddhaghosa for utterly unthinkable ends, but as a topic worthy of investigation. The article is part of work in progress. (shrink)

Summary Plato and Aristotle understood phenomena to be knowable to the extent that they participate in the reality of the unchangeable, and this attitude was appropriated by the church fathers as a way of exploring the world’s dependence on its Creator. Luther’s insistence on the world’s sinfulness and on salvation as one-sidedly dependent on divine agency has been criticized as a rejection of this understanding of the inherent goodness of the world, thus paving the way for the secularized world view (...) of modernity. Among these critics is Erich Przywara in his works up to and including his book Analogia Entis from 1932. However, in 1952 Przywara published an article where he found Luther’s theology of exchange to be a close parallel to his own doctrine of analogia entis, the implication being that Luther is closer to a Catholic understanding of the world’s relationship with God than mainstream post-Enlightenment Protestantism, and this article is an attempt to substantiate that claim. (shrink)