The Practice of Hierarchy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Heron
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Social Organisation ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
The Third ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
Internal Order

By disclosing the liturgical principle that articulates it, the third chapter advances a novel interpretation of what is arguably Christianity’s most important contribution to the theorisation of power. As the angelological tradition from Pseudo-Dionysius through to St. Thomas Aquinas clearly demonstrates, hierarchy is neither simply the expression of ordered relations of natural superiority, nor merely a form of objective social organisation, but a practice: a practice, moreover, that serves a distinctly soteriological function and whose elaboration thus constitutes a chapter of critical importance in the larger genealogy of governmentality. But because hierarchy is not only the practice of (internal) order, but also its (external) manifestation, its concept confirms the intimate yet unexpected link between government and glory which Agamben has sought to highlight.

scholarly journals Jan Paweł II wobec badaczy antyku chrześcijańskiego

Vox Patrum ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 241-247
Author(s):  
Wiesław Dawidowski
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Third ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Critical Method ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
Main Message ◽  
Theology And Philosophy ◽  
The Church

Anyone undertaking a task to describe an attitude of John Paul II towards scholars of antiquity faces two problems: the innumerable mass of people he met throughout his life carrier and his personal scholar path which was not primarily patristic. He went from John of the Cross, Thomas Aquinas, Max Scheller towards contemporary phenomenology. Yet, „the Polish Pope” was gradually getting more and more interested in patristic studies. This article is a short study in Wojtyla’s understanding of the work, the method and the tasks of contemporary patrologists. In an allocution to the representatives of the Institute Sources Chretiennes, John Paul II declared that the development of patristic studies stayed in the bottom of his heart, for a credible formation of Christian intelligentsia, must always appeal to the fathers of our faith. Consequently, he considered patristic scholars’ work, as a bridge between life giving sources of theological knowledge i.e. Holy Scripture, Tradition of the Fathers and still unknown bank of the third millennium. Holy Father appraised and highly estimated historical-critical method applied in patristic studies. To understand the meaning of dogmas, the relation between the Holy Scriptures, Tradition and Magisterium, the Church cannot withhold from studies in antiquity. Humility, patience and perseverance are the most distinguished Christian virtues that should characterize scholars of antiquity. To a certain degree, Pope’s esteem towards patristic scholars, was noticeably accentuated by numerous nominations of the most distinguished patristic scholars to the honor of episcopate. The main message that John Paul II implicitly directed towards contemporary scholars of antiquity seemed to concentrate on pastoral dimension and reduced to a one phrase. If there is anything that, in the deformed and chaotic world of contemporary theology and philosophy, could restitute harmony and balance, it is the teaching of the Fathers of the Church.

The Journey of the Dialectic

1998 ◽  
pp. 113-122
Author(s):  
Anthony Mansueto
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Market Order ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Universe

This paper argues that: a) philosophy generally, and the dialectical tradition in particular, first emerged in Ancient Greece in response to the nihilism and relativism generated by the development of a market economy; b) despite differences between its 'idealist' and 'materialist' wings, it is possible to speak of a basically unified dialectical tradition extending from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle through the great medieval Aristotelians (Ibn Sina, Ibn Rusd, Maimonides, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas), up to Hegel, Marx and their interpreters, a tradition unified around the proposition that we can rise by rational means to a first principle which in turn serves as a principle of value and a criterion for ethical norms, thus becoming a standard by which to criticize the market order and argue for an alternative allocation of resources; c) the historic difficulties and current crisis of the dialectical tradition arise from a failure to demonstrate that the universe is a teleological system ordered to the perfection of form or the development of increasing levels of organization; and d) recent developments in the physical, biological and social sciences suggest that we may soon be in a position to remedy this difficulty. This paper criticizes those who say that it is no longer possible to "do philosophy the old way," and argues for the critical importance of philosophy generally and the dialectical tradition in particular for the future of the human civilizational project.

St Thomas' ‘Third Way’

1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
Michael Durrant
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Plausible Account

In this paper it is my intention to do the following: first, to make some general observations on the ‘Third Way’ of St Thomas Aquinas as set out in Summa Theologica, Pt. I Quaest. ii Art. 3; secondly, to offer interpretation of, comment on, and present an account of, the first premiss of the ‘Third Way’; and finally to offer a provisional account of what someone who advocates the ‘Third Way’ might be conceived of as doing in the light of the account offered of the first premiss of that ‘Way’. I do not suggest thai the account I offer of the first premiss under consideration or the account of the argument as a whole which I shall offer, is one which St Thomas would have accepted. My claim is only that for reasons to be offered, it is a possible and plausible account I also want to make it clear from the outset that I shall not be discussing the validity of the ‘Third Way’; this is an independent question to my inquiry.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Paul Tillich ◽  
Albert The Great ◽  
Personal Library ◽  
The City ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
Ramon Llull

Also called Nicolaus Cusanus, this German cardinal takes his distinguishing name from the city of his birth, Kues (or Cusa, in Latin), on the Moselle river between Koblenz and Trier. Nicholas was influenced by Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Ramon Llull, Ricoldo of Montecroce, Master Eckhart, Jean Gerson and Heimericus de Campo, as well as by more distant figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius and John Scottus Eriugena. His eclectic system of thought pointed in the direction of a transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In his own day as in ours, Nicholas was most widely known for his early work De docta ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance). In it, he gives expression to his view that the human mind needs to discover its necessary ignorance of what the Divine Being is like, an ignorance that results from the infinite ontological and cognitive disproportion between Infinity itself (that is, God) and the finite human or angelic knower. Correlated with the doctrine of docta ignorantia is that of coincidentia oppositorum in deo, the coincidence of opposites in God. All things coincide in God in the sense that God, as undifferentiated being, is beyond all opposition, beyond all determination as this rather than that. Nicholas is also known for his rudimentary cosmological speculation, his prefiguring of certain metaphysical and epistemological themes found later in Leibniz, Kant and Hegel, his ecclesiological teachings regarding the controversy over papal versus conciliar authority, his advocacy of a religious ecumenism of sorts, his interest in purely mathematical topics and his influence on the theologian Paul Tillich in the twentieth century. A striking tribute to Nicholas’ memory still stands today: the hospice for elderly, indigent men that he caused to be erected at Kues between 1452 and 1458 and that he both endowed financially and invested with his personal library. This small but splendid library, unravaged by the intervening wars and consisting of some three hundred volumes, includes manuscripts written in Nicholas’ own hand.

scholarly journals Democratic Government and Development: A Survey

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piergiuseppe Fortunato
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Socioeconomic Variables ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World

Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of democracy. During the third wave of democratization, as described by Samuel Huntington, democracy spread well beyond its historical boundaries and it is now adopted in all major regions of the world. Yet, not all democracies are equally effectual in delivering good governance and progrowth policies. Why do democratic institutions induce good governance and prosperity only in some economies? This paper presents an overview of the dimensions along which successful and unsuccessful democracies differ. It argues that four socioeconomic variables are of critical importance to create and maintain a well-functioning democracy: (i) social capital, (ii) information, (iii) education, and (iv) equality. History also plays an important role as do the contingencies characterizing the collapse of authoritarian regimes and the emergence of democratic institutions.

Multiple Embeddedness and Systemic Implications: Struggles over Natural Resources in Minangkabau since the Reformasi

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz von Benda-Beckmann ◽  
Keebet von Benda-Beckmann
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Organisation ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The Third ◽  
West Sumatra

AbstractThis article deals with struggles over natural resources in West Sumatra, the homeland of the Minangkabau after the end of the Suharto regime in 1998. In these processes, actors often follow ambiguous strategies in pursuing their interests. We argue that these ambiguities to a large extent derive from a combination of factors: One is the multiple embeddedness of property rights at different layers of social organisations, in particular in social and general legal relationships. The second is the systemic implication of property rights in other domains of social organisation, for instance, authority and power relations. The third is the specific complexity and concomitant legal insecurity within plural legal orders. Actors who draw on rules from different legal orders — for designing regulations, for validating transactions, and for making decisions in disputes — have to deal with the problem that property relations are embedded differently in different legal orders and have different logics and systemic implications. This often leads actors to a strange combination of highly legalistic reasoning and a very pragmatic search for solutions.

Christianity’s Content: (Neo)Platonism in the Middle Ages, Its Theoretical and Theological Appeal

Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 245-270
Author(s):  
Willemien Otten
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Meister Eckhart ◽  
Marguerite Porete ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The development of medieval Christian thought reveals from its inception in foundational authors like Augustine and Boethius an inherent engagement with Neoplatonism. To their influence that of Pseudo-Dionysius was soon added, as the first speculative medieval author, the Carolingian thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena (810–877ce), used all three seminal authors in his magisterial demonstration of the workings of procession and return. Rather than a stable ongoing trajectory, however, the development of medieval Christian (Neo)Platonism saw moments of flourishing alternate with moments of philosophical stagnation. The revival of theTimaeusand Platonic cosmogony in the twelfth century marks the achievement of the so-called Chartrian authors, even as theTimaeusnever acquired the authority of the biblical book of Genesis. Despite the dominance of scholastic and Aristotelian discourse in the thirteenth century, (Neo)Platonism continued to play an enduring role. The Franciscan Bonaventure follows the Victorine tradition in combining Augustinian and Dionysian themes, but Platonic influence underlies the pattern of procession and return — reflective of the Christian arc of creation and salvation — that frames the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Echoing the interrelation of macro- and microcosmos, the major themes of medieval Christian Platonic thought are, on the one hand, cosmos and creation and, on the other, soul and self. The Dominican friar Meister Eckhart and the beguine Marguerite Porete, finally, both Platonically inspired late-medieval Christian authors keen on accomplishing the return, whether the aim is to bring out its deep, abyss-like “ground” (Eckhart) or to give up reason altogether and surrender to the free state of “living without a why” (Marguerite), reveal the intellectual audacity involved in upending traditional theological modes of discourse.

Teaching Bodies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
The Third ◽  
Original Reading

This book is an original reading of the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas. It reads the main parts of the Summa backwards, starting from the conclusion, to discover Thomas’s purpose: the unification of persuasive Christian wisdom in a pattern of ongoing moral formation. The book is not another “synthesis” of Thomistic ethics. It argues instead that the Summa offers a series of exercises in evaluating the theological traditions that grew up around the original scenes of instruction: the incarnation, the Gospels, and the sacraments. God provided those scenes so that human beings might learn the most important moral lessons in ways they would find most compelling. The task of writing theology, as Thomas understands it, is to open a path through the inherited languages so that divine pedagogy can have its effect on the reader—in a memory of the original scenes but also in their present repetition. This understanding of moral formation determines the structure of the third part of the Summa, which moves from God’s choice of incarnation through the scriptural retelling of the life of Christ to the events of Christian sacraments. It also determines the structure of the Summa’s second part, which begins and ends with claims on the reader’s life.

Would Christ Have Become Incarnate Had Adam Not Fallen?

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Lindholm
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
The Third

In this paper I examine the notion of Christ as Mediator apart from sin in the reformed scholastic theologian, Jerome Zanchi (1516–1590). Calvin developed a rich notion of Christ as Mediator but left an ambiguous heritage to his followers—it led some later interpreters to think of it as imply that the incarnation would have happened apart from sin. In the first part, I lay out some background and positions and in the second I deal with what I argue is a misunderstanding of Zanchi’s use of Christ as Mediator (that it implies incarnation apart from sin). In the third part I will further explore Zanchi’s notion of Christ as Mediator and make comparisons with Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Francis Turretin.

Quelques problèmes théologiques discutés par Gilles d'Orléans et la censure de 1277

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Zdzisław Kuksewicz
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Negative Answer ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
A Chain

Abstract Giles of Orleans' philosophy evolved from an orthodox Christian interpretation of Aristotle to an Averroism; and his successive commentaries testify to this evolution: De generatione version I, De generatione version II, Physics version I and Physics version II. The first work presents orthodox Christian solutions, the second and the third testify to some Averroistic influences and the last is a clearly Averroistic commentary. Giles did not obey the regulation of 1272 which forbade the masters of the facilitas artium to discuss theological problems. De generatione I discusses the question of world history as a chain of eternal reversions and solves it according to Christian orthodoxy. De generatione II and Physics I put forward the question whether accidents can exist without substance. The first work cites amply the Aristotelian solution and tries to reconcile it with a Christian understanding of the problem, whereas the second commentary accepts the opinion of Thomas Aquinas. In De generatione II and Physics II, Giles inquires whether an annihilated substance can reappear. The first commentary cites <Aristotelian> arguments for the negative answer, but it also gives a short declaratio fidei. The second commentary cites an <Aristotelian> and an orthodox solution, stating that one can solve the problem on two different planes - Christian or philosophical, both offering a different solution and unable to be reconciled. All three questions are listed in Tempier's Condemnation of 1277 - propositions 92, 196 and 215 - censuring heterodox answers.

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