Antonio Russo is one of the scholars who have contributed the most to
the knowledge of Franz Brentano in recent decades. His investigations have given priority to the formation of the young Brentano, showing various aspects of his scholastic formation and, in particular, his relations with Heinrich Denifle.
“Why is there something and not nothing?” Leibniz formulated this question a few centuries ago and there have been not a few philosophers who, taking up the challenge, have tried to give an answer. But, regardless of how the question has been resolved, it is interesting to note that the same question can include several lines of answer.
Many theologians who support the theistic evolutionary position willingly accept Aquinas’s distinction between first and second causes, to describe theologically “the mechanics” of evolutionary impersonation. However, his description of the character of second causes in relation to the action of God often lacks precision.
We seek to combine relevant reflections on Philosophy and History to think about the theory of historical knowledge according to Thomas Aquinas. The first question of the Summa Theologiae is used here as a central axis for the development of the theologian’s arguments on this subject, precisely because it deals with the scientific nature of the biblical historical accounts that are later used as a foundation by the sacred doctrine. Also, as a central argumentative line, the reflection of Francisco Canals Vidal will be placed on this subject because it seems to us one of the most faithful interpretations of Aquinas. In the present article it is tried, therefore, to analyze the foundation of said tomasian arguments and elucidate the epistemological status of historical knowledge from the philosophical-theological argumentation and therefore recognize, from the thought of Aquinas, if history is a science or not.
The concept of infinity and the Aristotelian conception is compared with the Platonic one. The discussion between Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas on the question of the demonstrability of the temporal finiteness of the world is reviewed. The position of Georg Cantor is critically presented, analyzing its diagonal process, as well as the Alan Turing variant, and the opposition that his ideas had at the time is commented. The paradox of the lord of the abscissa is introduced, which shows the inconsistency of actual infinity theory, and its logically disgusting character. The impact of the elimination of actual infinity in physics, mathematics and theology is indicated, in response to G. Boffi.
In this paper, the fifth way is analysed in the texts of Thomas Aquinas, highlighting the argumentative and conceptual structure. It is argued that today the fifth way is misunderstood with the argument from design and their conceptual difference is shown. The peculiar rational actuality of the Thomistic fifth way is argued.
In this article, the author intends to carry out an analysis of the Aristotelian concepts of “wisdom” and “wise man” as they emerge from the consideration of some texts written by St. Thomas Aquinas and Boethius of Dacia. The question on the relationship between philosophy and theology, as well as that on the use of reason in theology, appear likewise fundamental in the confrontation between the two thinkers, both interested, each in his own way, in integrating the Aristotelian ideal of wisdom in a Christian context.
This work presents a facet of the religious-philosophical prose of Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) in which the presence of Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy, assimilated by the poet both in the Jesuit Colleges at the University of Alcalá and through numerous Thomistic readings, is evident. Quevedo lived in a Baroque environment of great theological interest and wrote his religious treatise Providencia de Dios from prison in the Convent of San Marcos de León. There he wrote an admonition to atheists and those who denied the immortality of the soul, relying on different authorities, especially the scholasticism of Francisco Suárez and Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Since its rediscovery in the first half of the 20th century, the ‘separatio’ as an intellectual operation typical of metaphysics in the thought of Thomas Aquinas has been the subject of very different interpretations. In fact, it is probably one of the most debated issues in the field of contemporary Thomism. Our work, which provides elements for an update of the status quaestionis, identifies three directions that the investigations on the Thomistic separatio have followed in recent years. We try to make known the main characteristics of these studies and leave some challenges for future analysis.
The Augustinian doctrine of gratuitous union in Christ (and his union with the rest of mankind) emphasized in the struggle against the Pelagian theory concerning the merit of the just prior to Christ or the beginning of grace, finds its undoubted Christological influence in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. The conception of the grace of union, the linking of capital grace with habitual grace, and the nexus of both with the first, have a very strong Augustinian imprint in general and the anti-Pelagian writings in particular.
The first Church councils of the Church, which took part in the Ancient Christian East, are commonly associated with theological formulas that seek to defend the orthodox faith in the One and Triune God, and in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly human. These dogmatic formulations are inseparable from a deep concern for man and his salvation. This article follows the history of the first councils, pointing out the importance of this anthropological and soteriological factor.
The article is about grace and salvation in Thomas Aquinas’ commentaries on the Pauline letters. First, it gives an overview of the content of the commentaries. Then it focuses on the divine missions as a historical moment in which salvation is fulfilled and grace is abundantly given. Next, it explores the mystery of the Trinitarian intimacy that Christ reveals. Afterwards, it deals with the reality of the human creature as the beneficiary of the salvific relationship with the divine Persons. Finally, it offers some conclusions that can be deduced from the Thomistic commentary.
This research aims to reconstruct the main characteristics of Gnostic soteriology and eschatology to finally present the doctrine of Irenaeus of Lyon in this regard. After some necessary methodological clarification, first, the Gnostic pattern of salvation and the world prefigured by this salvation are reconstructed. Finally, the doctrine of Irenaeus of Lyons is presented, which is based on the mystery of the Incarnation and an eschatology with the intra-historical millennium at its center. The doctrine of Irenaeus is accompanied by some clarification by Thomas Aquinas to show a continuity in this refutation of gnosis.
The reviewed work, authored by a researcher at the Department of Philosophy of Culture and Rhetoric at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, aims at “analysing different cultural works in order to answer the question concerning the essence of culture, its place, and the role it plays in the personal life of the human being as both its subject and purpose.”
We present the careful German translation of the treatise On the Unity of the Intellect by Saint Albert the Great. This work has not yet been translated into our language, despite the fact that we have the Spanish translation of one of his books most related to it: San Alberto Magno, Sobre el alma. Translation, introduction and notes by J. A. Tellkamp. Pamplona: EUNSA, 2012.
The 2021-2022 academic year was the eighty-third in the history of the Balmesiana Foundation, and the nineteenth of the Santo Tomás Institute. The academic activity developed by the Santo Tomás Institute through the courses it offers annually began on September 28, 2021 and lasted until May 17, 2022.
Continuing the repertoire started nine years ago, in this issue of Espíritu we collect the Hispanic Thomist bibliography for 2021. With the adjective “Hispanic” we specify that this catalog includes publications in any of the languages born in ancient Hispania: the Iberian Peninsula.
This article introduces a metaphysical interpretation of saint Thomas Aquinas’s First Way, according to which this argument is in itself sufficient to conclude the existence of a First Cause of being, that is also Pure Actuality. This interpretation is based on the idea that the hierarchical chain of moved movers that leads to the First Unmoved Mover should be explained in a way that goes from more particular and less fundamental modes of actuality to more universal and fundamental ones, until the ultimate actuality of being is reached.
The article studies, in the first place, the importance that Clement of Alexandria assigns to philosophy, highlighting its role as a space to dialogue with paganism. Emphasizing that man has as his goal his perfection, which is salvation, which is given through gnosis and moral virtue, the author highlights the importance of knowledge of principles (above all of the Principle) and the practice of the various virtues, where piety (of Platonic origin) stands out, based on the knowledge and recognition of God.
In this work we propose to reflect, supported by the theological-historical synthesis of the Thomist School of Barcelona, about the importance that the heresy of Ebionism has had in the political philosophy of Marxism. In this heresy we find a secularizing engine of Christian hope that has left its traces in different moments of philosophical and political thought, reappearing in the bowels of Marxist secularizing dynamism, properly configuring a philosophy of history that will later justify its entire ideology. politics both in theory and in practice.
