JL Austin once suggested that many people think of existing as something over and above the various activities of a thing, something things do all the time: “like breathing, only quieter – ticking over, as it were, in a metaphysical sort of way.” Read more
Exploring George Hunsinger’s criticisms of Thomas’ views on grace, Kerr argues that Thomas does not, as Hunsinger suggests, make human nature “conceptually prior to and independent of divine grace.” Rather “it is by grace that the soul of the sinner is open to God. Paradoxically, fallen human beings are open to grace naturaliter but this is in virtue of their being open to grace per gratiam .” Hunsinger misreads Thomas by assuming that “Thomas has a doctrine of ‘pure nature’:... Read more
According to Fergus Kerr, it was Bonaventure, not Thomas, who first employed the axiom “grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it,” in his commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Read more
Markus wants to distinguish between the fact that people who act in the public realm always act with ultimate ends in view, and that their actions are either moral or immoral from the notion that there is a neutral public space. The public sphere, he claims, shouldn’t be thought of as “the sum of a multiplicity or a fabric woven of many actions by many people.” Rather, for Markus’s Augustine, the public sphere is “much less personal,” and consists of... Read more
RA Markus (Christianity and the Secular) argues that as the church celebrated the triumph of Christianity in the fourth century, they also wanted to maintain their continuity with the church that gave them birth – the persecuted church of the martyrs: “The great need felt by Christians of the post-Constantinian age was for the restoration of a lost continuity with the age of persecutions. It was met by three developments: a huge extension of the cult of the martyrs, a... Read more
Charles Taylor has suggested that secularism was an “exit strategy” from religious conflict. There were two exit strategies. In the summary by RA Markus, “The first, ‘the common ground strategy,’ assumes a certain range of beliefs shared by all Christians (or all theists) and minimises or eliminates confessional differences that lie outside the boundaries of this shared ground. Ths econd tries to define ‘an independent political ethic,’ a strategy he associated with Hugo Grotius. This abstracts ‘from our religious beliefs... Read more
John Locke drew up the basic contours of the modern conception of religion as internal and private in his “Letter Concerning Toleration.” He made a sharp distinction between religious and civil realms: “The end of a religious society, as has already been said, is the public worship of God, and, by means thereof, the acquisition of eternal life. All discipline ought therefore to tend to that end, and all ecclesiastical laws to be thereunto confined. Nothing ought nor can be... Read more
Comments primarily on Aquinas on Gratitude/Ingratitude (primarily ST, II-II, qs 106-7). Aquinas describes gratitude as a virtue “annexed” to justice, and so to understand his discussion of gratitude, we must get some handle on what he means by justice. In ST II-II, q. 58, he describes justice as a virtue. Virtues “make human acts and human beings themselves good,” and since justice orders human actions in a right way, it is a virtue. Unlike other virtues, however, justice is not... Read more
If you’re in the vicinity of Duke, you might be interested in a conference sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, in cooperation with the Duke Divinity School, on May 21-23, at Duke. The theme is “Preaching, Teaching, and Living the Bible.” Speakers include Robert Jenson, Rusty Reno, Richard Hayes, Amy Plantinga Pauw, and others. Registration and information is available at www.divinity.duke.edu/ccet. Read more
Marjorie Garber has, as usual, some insightful things to say about Merchant of Venice: 1) She describes the play as “Shakespeare’s great play about difference,” pointing to the apparent stark contrasts of Christian and Jew, Venice and Belmont, male and female. Yet, she also notes that the play is busy undercutting those polarities, and showing how the poles of the contrast are more alike than different. 2) Along these lines, the opening scenes establish a parallel between Antonio and Portia.... Read more
Leithart
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