April 14, 2012 Spring Thomistic Circles: "Creation and Modern Science."

Spring Thomistic Circles 2012:

Creation and Modern Science

On Saturday, April 14, 2012, the Thomistic Institute hosted its Spring Thomistic circles conference.  This conference focused on issues concerning the intersection between modern science and theological accounts of creation.  Speakers included William E. Carroll (Blackfriars, Oxford), Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. (Providence College) and Edward Feser (Pasadena City College). 

The following synopsis of the conference was composed by Bro. Raymund Synder, O.P.

"On Saturday, April 14th the Thomistic institute hosted a conference on "Creation and Modern Science".  The three speakers both clarified the terms of and entered into some of the hottest topics of debate concerning physics, creation, evolution, human origins, original sin, human thought and neuroscience.

William Carroll delivered an enlightening paper that offered a Thomistic response to the contemporary debates concerning physics and creation.  Carroll argued that since the natural sciences are only concerned with change, it is the concern of metaphysics to indicate the necessity of a creator.  Cosmology can point to the need for an origin of motion, but one can only arrive at a radical foundation for existence (i.e. creation) through arguments that are properly metaphysical.  He proposed that it is a mistake to use arguments from the natural sciences to deny creation (as do Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss) but it is also a mistake to use arguments from the natural sciences to argue for creation (as do Robert Spitzer and William Craig).

Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. gave a lively presentation that attempted to show the harmony of magisterial teaching and recent developments in human genomics.   All human beings may have descended from a small population in Africa that survived after the eruption of a supervolcano in Indonesia.  Fr. Austriaco argued that it is not inconsistent with faith to suppose that God directly infused such a group with rational souls and grace but that this same population quickly fell into sin.

Edward Feser offered an informative paper outlining several different arguments to show that human thought is not explainable simply in terms of material processes.  He opened with some arguments from neo-scholastic authors but focused on an argument from Sir David Ross based on the determinacy of formal thinking.  Feser was careful to note that thought has both material and immaterial aspects.  To acknowledge the material aspects of thought (e.g. the use of a mental image as formed by the brain) is not a desperate concession to modern science, but an unsurprising consequence of hylomorphism."

*If you are interested in receiving email updates about programming offered by the Thomistic Institute, please email: infoti@dhs.edu. 

January 26, 2012 Russell Hittinger: Modern Thomism on the Social Character of Human Existence

                                 Prof. Russell Hittinger

 Can You be the Imago Dei on Your Own?
Modern Thomism on the Social Character of Human Existence

On January 26, 2012, Professor Russell Hittinger gave a lecture sponsored by the Thomistic Institute titled, "Can You be the Imago Dei on Your Own?  Modern Thomism on the Social Character of Human Existence."  Dr. Hittinger spoke on the social implications of St. Thomas' theory of Deification in grace, focusing on the two-fold division of charity, arguing that perfection in the Divine image necessarily connects us to both God and neighbor.  Dr. Hittenger explained the social and cultural ramifications of this teaching. 

Dr. F. Russell Hittinger is the Warren Professor of Catholic Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Tulsa, where his research is focused on the intersection of philosophy, law, and theology. He holds advanced degrees from the University of Notre Dame and St. Louis University. Dr. Hittinger has the unique distinction of being one of only two people in the world appointed to multiple Pontifical Academies: the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

A prolific scholar, Dr. Hittinger is the author of numerous books and articles including: The First Grace: Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World and A Critique of the New Natural Law Theory. His newest book, Paper Wars: Catholic Social Doctrine and the Modern State (forthcoming from Yale University Press) examines the development of Catholic social theory and doctrine during the 19th and 20th centuries.

*If you are interested in receiving email updates about programming offered by the Thomistic Institute, please email: infoti@dhs.edu.

December 1, 2011 Jean Bethke Elshtain: Augustine on Modern Culture

Prof. Jean Bethke Elshtain

Christian Realism:

Augustinian Reflections on Modern Public Culture

On December 1, 2011, Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago gave an honorary lecture hosted by the Thomistic Institute.  Her lecture was titled, "Christian Realism: Augustinian Reflections on Modern Public Culture." In the City of God, St. Augustine famously proposed the heavenly city as the model for the political goals and social governance of the Earthly City.  Professor Elshtain spoke about the relevance of St. Augustine's political theory even in a contemporary secular society, and sought to defend Augustine from those modern scholars who would list him as one of the originators of political realism in the West, a precursor to Hobbes, Hume and even Machiavelli.  Elshtain believes that this is made possible by a deeper reading of certain features of St. Augustine's Christian theology, such as the concept of Charity.

Professor Elshtain has has been a leading American intellectual for decades, and has consistently made insightful contributions at the intersections between theology, culture and anthropology.  She is the author of numerous books, including Augustine and the Limits of Politics (Notre Dame, 1996). She has also written over five hundred articles and has lectured extensively in the United States and internationally.  Dr. Elshtain has been a Fellow at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, and has served on the Council of the National Endowment of the Humanities at the request of President George W. Bush.  Jean Bethke Elshtain is currently the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School, University of Chicago. 

To see pictures from the event, click here.

Oct. 21-22, 2011 Fall Thomistic Circles Conference: "Christian Marriage: Nature and Sacrament"

From October 21-22 (2011), The Thomistic Institute hosted a Conference titled, "Christian Marriage: Nature and Sacrament."

This conference approached the idea of marriage from both theological and cultural perspectives, reflecting on the implications of Christian matrimony in contemporary contexts.  The speakers addressed a variety of philosophical and theological issues related to marriage, family, sexuality and culture by recourse to Thomistic anthropology and natural law theory. 

 The following papers were given at the Conference 

Dr. Paul Gondreau (Providence College)  “The Natural Institution of Marriage as Foundation and Norm for Sacramental Marriage”

Dr. Paige Hochschild (Mount St. Mary’s University)  “What are Children for? St. Thomas and Frederick Engels on the Purpose of Marriage”

Dr. Reinhard Huetter (Duke Divinity School)  “The Anthropology of Chastity and the Integrity of the Person”

Dr. Steven Long (Ave Maria University)  “Nature vs. Sincerity: On the Possibility of 'Same Sex Marriage'”

Dr. Holly Taylor Coolman (Providence College)  “Proposing the Christian Vision of Marriage Today: What Can the Dominican Tradition Teach Us?”

Fr. Michael Sherwin, O.P. (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)  “Love in the Ruins: Pastoral Ministry in a Time of Sexual Confusion”

June 23-26, 2011 "Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Philosophy" A workshop for Scholars and Students

A report from Br. Philip Neri, O.P.

From the 23^rd to the 26^th of June, The Catholic and Dominican Institute of Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York, in collaboration with our own Thomistic Institute, hosted an inaugural philosophy workshop on the subject of “Aquinas and Contemporary Philosophy.” The conference's official description announced that it would “bring together scholars and students interested in philosophy, especially the work of Thomas Aquinas.” This it did in spades, both in terms of the quality of the papers presented and the collaborative tone of the workshop as a whole.           

The papers of Fr. Charles Morerod, O.P. (the rector of the Angelicum in Rome and this year's Keynote Speaker) and Fr. James Brent, O.P. (Catholic University of America) served as the perfect bookends for the conference, giving inspiration and impetus to the work of Thomistic philosophy. Fr. Morerod spoke of both the service that faith provides to philosophy by acting as a negative norm, and the role that Christian friendship must play in providing the context for fruitful philosophy.  Fr. Brent discussed six different sets of relations between “creature-knowledge” and “sacred knowledge.” These six relations in turn provided conference-goers with six different tasks for philosophy to perform in its mediation between the Christian faith and the secular world, and so worked to send forth those who attended with a renewed mission and zeal.          

Dr. John O'Callaghan (University of Notre Dame) and Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J. (Fordham University) each took contemporary philosophy as the “matter” of their papers. Agreeing that analytic philosophy is not a set of doctrines, but rejecting the claim that it is simply a method, Dr. O'Callaghan concluded that it is a sociological term covering both the logicist reformers and the ordinary language philosophers. It is with the latter that he sees the most potential for Thomistic-Analytic dialogue, and the participants of the conference were given a glimpse of what this might look like vis-a-vis Aquinas' Third Way. Fr. Koterski, taking a step back, considered both Analytic and Continental philosophy insofar as they suffer from an inattention to and an over-emphasis of history, respectively, and showed how Aquinas' moral philosophy is safeguarded from both errors.

In contrast, the papers of Dr. Gyula Klima (Fordham University) and Dr. Alfred Freddoso (University of Notre Dame) each incorporated aspects of contemporary philosophy into the “form” of their argumentation. Dr. Klima put the symbolic tools of analytic philosophy to use in articulating Thomas' metaphysical distinction between essence and existence, while Dr. Freddoso used the debates between materialists and dualists in contemporary philosophy of mind to dialectically establish questions regarding the soul to which Thomism can give the demonstrative answer

Fr. Lawrence Dewan, O.P. (Dominican University College) and Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. (Thomistic Institute) each gave papers whose themes, central to Thomism, have much to say to contemporary philosophy. Fr. Dewan gave a brilliant commentary on the internal ordering of Aquinas' Five Ways in light of Book IX of the Metaphysics. Fr. White discussed how Aquinas' doctrine of analogy and divine naming – developed in dialogue with both Aristotle and Proclus – can overcome the inadequacies of Maimonides' theory (and, incidentally, that of many contemporary schools of theology).

Dr. Joshua Hochschild (Mount Saint Mary's University), discussing virtue ethics in an age of relativism, pointed out the fundamentally sapiential character of Thomism, arguing that even something as important as virtue has its proper place and must be seen within the broader context of St. Thomas' comprehensive vision. Only this perspective of wisdom will be able to speak to the relativism – or, better, positivism – of our contemporary world.

The collaborative and informal tone of the conference manifested a unity amongst those attending the conference that can only come from the shared desire to grow in this wisdom. It was to nourish such a desire that the conference was hosted and – it is hoped – will be hosted again.

Br. Philip Neri, O.P. is a student brother with the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, currently studying for the priesthood at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

Click here to view a slide-show of pictures from the conference