David of Dinant (fl. c.1210)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Albert The Great ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
To Receive

A twelfth- and early thirteenth-century philosopher who may have taught at Paris, David of Dinant was noted for a heretical, pantheistic view that identified God, mind and matter. None of his works survive intact, and we know of them primarily through the works of other authors. His major work, the Quaternuli, was condemned at Paris in 1210. His heretical views were influential enough to receive critical attention in the works of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.

[Pro]passio Doloris: Early Dominican Conceptions of Christ's Physical Pain

2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
DONNA TREMBINSKI
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Albert The Great ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
The University

In the thirteenth century Dominican theologians studying and teaching at the University of Paris began to debate how Christ experienced physical pain during his crucifixion. Drawing upon patristic arguments these considerations culminated in the conclusions of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas that Christ's physical pain was the most severe that had ever been experienced in the history of humanity. The reasons for Dominican concern to emphasise the unique severity of Christ's pain are complex and not always complimentary. The debate can be understood as part of the high medieval revival of interest in humanity and human achievement, but it can also be read as a challenge to Cathar beliefs and as a form of resistance to increasingly popular modes of affective piety.

Natural Rights in Albert the Great

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica García-Salmones Rovira
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Early Appearance ◽  
Albert The Great

Paying careful attention to his use of language, this chapter introduces Albert the Great’s contribution to natural rights into the scholarly debate between subjective and objective rights. Teacher of Thomas Aquinas, Albert’s work on ius naturale has been overshadowed in many aspects by the significance and impact of his student’s. However, Albert’s early appearance on the stage of empirical sciences as a student of nature has been widely recognized. Eclectic in his use of sources, Albert would generously use Stoic writings, and would become as well a first-rate commentator of Aristotle’s works. As a theologian, Albert’s Augustinian influences cannot be neglected. The text examined here, De bono (1242), constitutes an early and thorough elaboration of an original doctrine of natural right and, importantly, of natural rights.

scholarly journals Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus on the Problem of Evil: Insights from their Commentaries on the Book of Job

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Franklin T. Harkins
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Albert The Great ◽  
The Problem Of Evil

Abstract This article broadly considers the commentaries on Job of Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great as offering a helpful theological alternative to some modern philosophical approaches to the ‘problem of evil’. We seek to show that whereas some modern philosophers understand evil as a problem for the very existence of God, whether and how God can coexist with evil was never a question that evil seriously raised in the minds of Aquinas and Albert. In fact, although the suffering of the just in particular led our medieval Dominicans to wonder about divine providence and our ability to know God in this life, they understood the reality of evil as compelling evidence for the existence of God.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 276-284
Author(s):  
Adam J. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Social Reciprocity ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Conducive Environment

This epilogue reflects on the manifold ways that charitable institutions benefited from commerce—whether from their own commercial activities or those of their patrons. Church reformers criticized hospitals for accepting donati, who were permitted to receive room and board without taking vows. The reality, however, was that the donati at times brought in valuable resources that could be used to serve the poor and sick. In addition, the increased commercialization of late twelfth- and thirteenth-century society, particularly in a region like Champagne, may have contributed to the idea of a moral economy, including the obligation of charitable giving and service. The twelfth- and thirteenth-century social conditions that created a conducive environment for the flourishing of commerce were also advantageous for fostering charity and pious giving more generally. During a period of urban transformation, which created greater prosperity for some but also increasing poverty and insecurity for many others, the medieval hospital opened up new opportunities for social reciprocity and mutual assistance. For those with various kinds of needs, the hospital served as a source of physical, social, and material support in this earthly world, with all of its vagaries and vulnerabilities. In addition, though, the medieval hospital held out the promise of spiritual redemption in the world to come.

Denys the Carthusian (1402/3–71)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent Emery
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Nicholas Of Cusa ◽  
Albert The Great ◽  
Master Of Arts ◽  
The University ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Way

Denys de Leeuwis was born in the village of Rijkel, in modern Belgium. In 1421 he matriculated at the University of Cologne, where he received the Master of Arts degree in 1424. There he followed ‘the way of Thomas Aquinas’, whom he calls his ‘patron’ in his early works. Later Denys adopted ‘Albertist’ against ‘Thomist’ positions on a number of philosophical issues. After leaving the University, he entered the Carthusian monastery in Roermond, where, save for brief periods, he spent the rest of his life. He corresponded with Nicholas of Cusa and dedicated two or three works to him. Denys was a voracious reader of the ancient and medieval philosophers whose writings were available in Latin, and of scholastic theologians. Because of his extensive references to authorities, historians often call him ‘eclectic’. Yet from his sources he educes his own distinctive philosophy. Like Albert the Great, Denys practised philosophy and theology by paraphrasing and analysing their histories.

Averroism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sten Ebbesen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

‘Averroism’, ‘radical Aristotelianism’ and ‘heterodox Aristotelianism’ are nineteenth- and twentieth-century labels for a late thirteenth-century movement among Parisian philosophers whose views were not easily reconcilable with Christian doctrine. The three most important points of difference were the individual immortality of human intellectual souls, the attainability of happiness in this life and the eternity of the world. An ‘Averroist’ or ‘Radical Aristotelian’ would hold that philosophy leads to the conclusions that there is only one intellect shared by all humans, that happiness is attainable in earthly life and that the world has no temporal beginning or end. Averroists have generally been credited with a ‘theory of double truth’, according to which there is an irreconcilable clash between truths of faith and truths arrived at by means of reason. Averroism has often been assigned the role of a dangerous line of thought, against which Thomas Aquinas opposed his synthesis of faith and reason. The term ‘Averroism’ is also used more broadly to characterize Western thought from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries which was influenced by Averroes, and/or some philosophers’ self-proclaimed allegiance to Averroes.

Godfrey of Fontaines and the Real Distinction between Essence and Existence

Traditio ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 385-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Wippel
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Real ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Henry Of Ghent ◽  
Siger Of Brabant

If a definitive history of the controversy during the final decades of the thirteenth century regarding the real distinction between essence and existence still remains to be written, an exposition of the views expressed by Godfrey of Fontaines on this point may provide one more step in this direction. It seems probable that Godfrey had studied in Paris during Thomas' final years there (1269-1272) and that he may have studied under Henry of Ghent as well as under Siger of Brabant. He lectured as Master of theology at Paris for some thirteen years (1285-1297), and again around 1303-1304, when he composed his fifteenth Quodlibetal Question. Giles of Rome had also studied at Paris under Thomas (1269-1272) and served there as Bachelor in theology (1276-1277), and later as Master in theology (1285-1291). Henry of Ghent had taught at Paris around 1271 (apparently on the faculty of Arts) and later, beginning in 1276, on the faculty of Theology. Between 1276 and 1292 he delivered the courses which resulted in his Summa and in his Quaestiones Quodlibetales. Because Godfrey was familiar with the work of Thomas Aquinas (in Q[uodlibet] 2 q.3 one finds an almost verbatim reproduction of a section of Thomas' De aeternitate mundi), because he witnessed the famed debate on the real distinction between Henry of Ghent and Giles of Rome, and because his work was well known to Duns Scotus, clarification of his own position should be of historical interest. In addition, it is to be hoped that such a study will show that his views are distinctive enough to merit investigation for their own sake.

‘[C]allee me Oscar’: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Aestheticism, and Opium

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-87
Author(s):  
Ya-feng Wu
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
East End ◽  
House Beautiful ◽  
To Receive

Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), one of the flagship novels of Aestheticism, contains an intricate opium narrative that has yet to receive adequate critical attention. The novel consists of two nested units: the House Beautiful that subsumes a Gothic nursery where Dorian's portrait is placed, and London the Metropolis that harbours Blue Gate Fields in the East End. The former might be read as a miniature of the latter. This double mechanism hinges on a Chinese box in which opium is stored. The structure, which evolves from the classic opium narrative established by Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821), enables Wilde to stage a critique on the connection between Aestheticism and the imperial trade of opium. Besides, Wilde's aesthete trio in the novel, Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray, and Adrian Singleton, are cast as opium smokers in order to disrupt the imperialist mindset showcased in the cartoons appearing on trade cards and in magazines that satirise Wilde's promotion of Aestheticism. This essay contends that Wilde's opium narrative exposes the hypocrisy of Empire by demonstrating that the coloniser and the colonised are anamorphic reflections of each other.

Towards an Understanding of Anabase

PMLA ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-343
Author(s):  
Arthur J. Knodel
Keyword(s):  
Critical Attention ◽  
Saint John ◽  
To Receive

Anabase was the first of Saint-John Perse's poems to be widely translated into other languages, as well as the first to receive widespread critical attention. Yet, despite several recent attempts at detailed exegesis, the poem remains baffling in many of its details and even in some of its more general implications. Close scrutiny of the text of the poem is, of course, the most natural and legitimate way of coming to grips with its meaning, but the more recent commentaries on Anabase too often prove that close textual examination alone is not an adequate safeguard against runaway interpretation. The present study, therefore, seeks to supplement close scrutiny of the text with references to other of Saint-John Perse's writings, especially to certain of his pronouncements on the nature of poetry in general and, most particularly, to his declaration of intent in writing Anabase.

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