En este artículo defiendo la tesis de que la estética de la naturaleza puede ofrecer a la ética de la naturaleza uno de los mejores argumentos ecologistas. Creo que el valor estético de la naturaleza, tradicionalmente olvidado por la filosofía, puede revitalizar las discusiones que tienen lugar en la ética de la naturaleza, y permite enfocar de un modo nuevo la cuestión de si la naturaleza posee un valor intrínseco o un valor instrumental.

While the story of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio engaging in a friendly contest, at the behest of Pope Urban IV, to compose the Mass and Office of Corpus Christi is likely a pious fiction, one can still ponder the fascinating hypothetical scenario: had such a contest taken place, who might have won? To consider that question, this paper embarks on a close reading of Bonaventure's hymns in his Office of the Passion, comparing his poetic approaches to those of (...) Aquinas in the hymns for Corpus Christi. After an introductory historical examination into the supposed involvement of both friars in the composition of the Corpus Christi liturgy, this article proceeds in three sections. First, a look into select excerpts from Bonaventure's Office of the Passion will establish his general poetic technique. In the transitional second section, a direct comparison between Bonaventure and Aquinas on the composition of the final doxological verses of their respective hymns will place their different poetic styles into greater relief. Third, a broader reading of Aquinas's Eucharistic hymns will highlight the unique qualities of his versified praises. Finally, in light of the foregoing analyses, a prospective winner of the hypothetical contest will be suggested. (shrink)

This paper advances a provisional case denying the attribution of the medieval liturgical sequence Sanctitatis nova signa, written in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, to Thomas of Celano (died c. 1260), who is best known for writing the earliest biography of the saint. The Conventual Franciscan friar and bishop, Pietro Ridolfi, provides the oldest extant attribution of this sequence to Celano. Luke Wadding (died 1657) echoes this point in his Annales Minorum; several recent critical editions of early Franciscan texts, (...) as well as countless secondary sources, cite Wadding for the attribution to Celano. This identification remains problematic, not only due to the lateness of the Ridolfi-Wadding claim; the sequence's use of Dionysian mystical motifs and details unique to Bonaventure's Legenda Major (completed 1262) should exclude the possibility of Celano's authorship. Consequently this study tentatively dates the sequence to the latter part of the thirteenth century. Unlike the earlier sequences for Saint Francis attributed to Pope Gregory IX (died 1241) and Thomas of Capua (died 1243), Sanctitatis depicts Francis as a model Dionysian mystic. This mystical exemplarity becomes the image of unity advanced by the Franciscans to heal the internal crises plaguing the order in the later thirteenth century. (shrink)

Se propone una aproximación a las significaciones del argumento estético utilizado en defensa de paisajes y territorios naturales ante intervenciones industriales mayores. Se indaga en algunas variables que entran en juego en este argumento, como la representación de y actitudes hacia la naturaleza, el paisaje, los lugares, el territorio, atendiendo a los ambivalentes efectos que tiene o puede tener la apelación a la belleza paisajística: desde su conversión en fetiche estético para beneficio de las elites que tienen recursos para (...) hacer de su relación con la naturaleza experiencias de postal hasta su perfilamiento como un argumento genuinamente crítico, político y ético, contra una modernidad industrial que ha hecho de la naturaleza (y de los lugares y sus habitantes) objetos de uso desechables. This article proposes an approach to the meanings behind the aesthetic argument used in defense of natural landscapes and territories facing major industrial interventions. It explores some variables that enter into play in this argument, such as the representations of and the attitudes toward nature, landscape, places, territory, paying particular attention to the ambivalent effects that the invocation of landscape beauty has or can have: from its conversion to aesthetic fetish for the elite who have resources to make of their relation with nature postcard experiences, to its profile as a genuinely critical, political and ethical argument against an industrial modernity that has made of nature (and of places and their inhabitants) disposable objects. (shrink)

"Case notes." Ethos: Official Publication of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory, (199), pp. 34–35.