Aquinas as Authority: A Collection of Studies Presented at the Second Conference of the Thomas Insituut Te Utrecht, December 14-16, 2000

Front Cover
Peeters Publishers, 2002 - Philosophy - 338 pages
There is no doubt that Thomas Aquinas, together with Augustine, is among the most influential authorities in the history of Western Christian theology. Through the centuries, theologians and philosophers have interpreted Aquinas and (re-)constructed his thought in various ways. As a result of this, a very rich variety of theological and philosophical positions have appeared that claim to be inspired by the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Positions like these are often labelled as a form of 'Thomism'. Although this can be helpful in bringing some order into the history of thought, there is also a deceptive side to it. Any classification runs the risk of obscuring the multiplicity of interests that have inspired the use of Aquinas as authority. On closer investigation many questions arise. What aims did Aquinas' recipients have in mind and how did an appeal to Aquinas function in their attempts to reach these aims? To what extent has their adoption of Aquinas' ideas and approaches been successful or unsuccessful in answering new questions, and in meeting the problems of their times? And, finally, what can we learn from these divergent forms of 'Thomism'? To these questions the Thomas Institute at Utrecht devoted its second conference, which was held from Thursday December 14 to Saturday December 16, 2000. This book collects a selection of the studies that were presented.
 

Contents

Henry
25
Influence of Thomas Aquinas in the Via Moderna and Devotio
39
On the Critical Reception of the Thought of Thomas Aquinas
65
Reflections
87
the Recovery of Aquinas after
109
Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology
123
Conflicting Interpretations in Recent Anglo
165
The Debate on the Structure of the Summa Theologiae
187
Aquinas Authority in the Contemporary Theology of the Trinity
213
Contemporary Protestant Thomism
235
Thomas Aquinas Founder of Modern Political and Social Thought?
253
Aquinas on Suicide
277
du Thomas historique au metaThomisme
295
The Reception of Aquinas in the Music of Olivier Messiaen
317
On the Authors
333
Copyright

W Norris Clarkes Retrieval
201

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