by Revista Espíritu | Uncategorized
Debates on the question of God and religion in contemporary political philosophy often end by blending different methodological perspectives, so as to melt the peculiar point of view of political philosophy with those of political science, theology, and sociology. The essay tries to shed some light on such a theoretical situation, individuating the specific task of a properly philosophical-political research, and finally introducing an exemplar expression of it in the traditional reflection on the essential structure of human acting, especially considering the peculiar conceptual development it received through the work of Thomas Aquinas.
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
Debates on the question of God and religion in contemporary political philosophy often end by blending different methodological perspectives, so as to melt the peculiar point of view of political philosophy with those of political science, theology, and sociology. The essay tries to shed some light on such a theoretical situation, individuating the specific task of a properly philosophical-political research, and finally introducing an exemplar expression of it in the traditional reflection on the essential structure of human acting, especially considering the peculiar conceptual development it received through the work of Thomas Aquinas.
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
Philosophy has the task of rationally searching for the truth about the whole of reality. In this search, God emerges as theme principally in two fields, directly in natural theology which is the reflection on God in the light of natural reason, and indirectly in philosophy of religion insofar as God is the object of man’s religious experience. Focusing on philosophy of religion, this essay sheds some light on the main currents of thought in contemporary philosophy of religion, elucidates the meaning of religion, and reflects on God as the object of man’s religious experience and on how man subjectively experiences the divine.
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
In his interpretation of the first verse of Psalm 13 (14), Saint Thomas refers to Saint Anselm who had claimed that those who deny God’s existence are “fool” because they try to think what is unthinkable. In the light of Aristotle’s theory of science and considering how Anselm’s argument had been used by Saint Bonaventure, Saint Thomas asks whether God’s existence is immediately known. He argues that this is not the case: to know God, human beings have to search for the cause of things. However, those who are content with using things without even trying to inquire about their caus- es are “fool”
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
The profession of faith of Psalmist is consolidated in the understanding of what is opposed to it, namely atheism. In Psalm 14, it has two dimensions which are the two main places of revelation, that is the two categories of the one Jewish faith: creation and history. This article focuses on the first, starting from the biblical certainty that ori- ginally, every single creature is YHWH’s work. Psalm 14,1-3 alludes to a pragmatic atheism as a process of denaturalization, that is an ontological-oblativ corruption. The- refore, atheism is not simply theoretical. Psalm 14 runs parallels to deny of the existence of God and man’s incapacity of acting well
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
Download text Seeking for the roots of faith: A gaze on the universe of pist Author: Giulia Lombardi Location: Espíritu: ISSN 0014-0716, Year 70, Issue 161, 2021, pages 17-37 Language: Italian Abstract: The paper shows a line of continuity with Greek philosophy in the...
by Revista Espíritu | 161-2021
Download text Reflections on God. The ISA research. Introduction Author: Lorella Congiunti Location: Espíritu: ISSN 0014-0716, Year 70, Issue 161, 2021, pages 9-13 Language: Italian Introduction: This monographic issue collects the results of the most recent...
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
The purpose of Descartes was to completely break with the past and with teachings of the preceeding theological and philosophical schools, in order to formulate a new Philosophy, in which, although we do not find an explicit formulation of a new Theory of the State, we can underline its important guidelines, from the new gnoseology and scientia mirabilis offered by Descartes.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
In recent years a growing interest in Biblical exegesis of Aquinas has been observed. Finally, after a long period of silence on this theme, new texts have appeared which present the characteristics of the method of Aquinas’s exegesis and its content. The aim of this article is to go further and focus on the specific nature of Thomas’ “exegetic epistemology” and the status of its spiritual sense, the significance of which has been the subject of debate between Smalley and De Lubac. The characteristic aspect of this exegetic approach is to emphasize the role of contemplation in exegesis, not only as a theme, but also as a fundamental position of an exegete towards the inspired text.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
In this paper we study the Laín Entralgo´s conception about the human person, which he describes as ‘sustantivity’ composed of soul and body, mental and biological being. This first period ends in 1989 with the book The Human Body.
Current theory, work from which he will defend, until the end of its production, a kind of monism of materialistic style.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
Juan Zaragüeta, Spanish philosopher from the Basque Country (1883-1974), Cardinal Mercier’s disciple, published an article comparing the criteriology of Cardinal Newman to the Catalonian philosopher during the centenary of Jaime Balmes death (1948). In this writing he warns about lots of coincidences in both authors, which show a similar attitude towards the search for a knowledge for and about life. A knowledge for every man, and not only for the philosopher. It thus goes beyond the demonstrative character of scholastic philosophy to a life’s epistemology.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
The humanism arising from the Christian concept of man falls into crisis with the emergence of atheistic humanism of 19th and 20th centuries (Feuerbach, Bakunin, Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre). Nédoncelle and Maritain agree on identifying the roots of this new approach in the problem of the relationship between nature and grace which arose in Patristic and Scholastic theology.
However, it seems to be rather Luther´s negative view of man that is responsible for the anthropology which underlies atheistic humanism.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
The paper emphasizes that the acts of charity are intrinsic to the nature of the process of teaching and learning. The act of education is a unique connection of contemplative and active life. The act of education frees the evil from the man who experiences it. This evil –explained St. Thomas– is ignorance, lack of knowledge and understanding of the truth. Every person has the right to education because it is his natural and necessary good, by which he improves his personal life.
Teacher’s work appears as a very important and responsible occupation; the acquisition of knowledge about reality and its transmission.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
We shall see that C. S. Lewis, with intellectual foundations from the Aristotelian philosophy, thought that both spirituality (as ethics) and its cognitive effects (as scientific praxis) are incompatible with relativistic theses that, inevitably, lead to a devastating nihilism.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
This article analyzes the syntagma causa sui to seek an understanding of human liberty in the thought of Aquinas, in light of recent research.
The thomistic causa sui finds its inspiration from Aristotle and denotes the final causality of the agent. Some sustain that in Thomas, it acquires new connotations, that is, it implies the efficient causality of the subject. The author reviews the use of syntagma in the main thomistic authors so as to individuate the sense in which it is used in these contexts and later confirm whether it can be used as a valid element for a thomistic theory of subjectivity.
by Revista Espíritu | 152-2016
An introduction describes the meaning of temperance in the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoa. Ambrose considered it a cardinal virtue. Thomas brings clarity by dividing temperance into integral, subjective and the potential parts. Can a virtue be opposed to natural inclinations? Temperance does not withhold us from those pleasures which are conform to reason, it concerns the pleasures of touch consecutive on operations, ordained to the conservation of the individual and the species. Contrary vices intemperance and insensitivity. An integral part is feeling shamed. Subjective parts are abstinence and fasting, chastity and purity.
Finally, the so called potential parts are mentioned such as clemency, studiousness and curiosity.
by Revista Espíritu | 160-2020
According to Thomas, although it is universal, Providence cares about persons in a particular way, since they are partly incorruptible and directly contribute to the common good of the universe, which is the end of the divine government. The traditional doctrine of the guardian angel effectively highlights this eminent dignity of any person.
by Revista Espíritu | Uncategorized
According to Thomas, although it is universal, Providence cares about persons in a particular way, since they are partly incorruptible and directly contribute to the common good of the universe, which is the end of the divine government. The traditional doctrine of the guardian angel effectively highlights this eminent dignity of any person.
by Revista Espíritu | 160-2020
Jacques Maritain presents Thomism as the most valid form of existentialism inasmuch as it affirms the primacy of existence yet without denying the essence, as many existentialists have done. In that primordial metaphysical relation, subsistence is the mode or state of the essence that introduces it into the existential order so that, in this way, it can exist. This concept, which begins with formulations that are very close to those proposed by Cajetan, are developed with a particular vision of Thomistic existentialism and in it his personalism finds its metaphysical foundation. The objective of this work is present precisely this notion and its development in the thought of Maritain.
by Revista Espíritu | 160-2020
The aim of this article is to introduce Francisco Suárez’s definition of obediential potency in the context of one of his first essays: De beatitudine. When analysing this notion, we are able to understand the link between deity and human agency, and also give account of Suárez’s progressive distancing from Aristotle and Aquinas. His conception of obediential potency manifests the novelty of his philosophical system, where human autonomy and will are highlighted, and, at the same time, it represents the confluence point of his metaphysical, theological and ethical theses.
