Giles Of Rome Research Articles

The Grammar of Esse: Re-Reading Thomas on the Transcendentals

THE GRAMMAR OF ESSE: RE-READING THOMAS ON THE TRANSCENDENTALS SIGLA. For ease in argument, Thomas's works will be cited according to the following sigla: DV, De Veritate; Sent, Smiptum on the Sentmices; SCG, Contra Gentiles; ST, Summa Theologiae; InMet, commentary on the 1Vfetaphysics; Quod, Quaestiones Quodlibetales; lnDivNom, commentary on the Divine Names. The number appearing before the siglum indicates a Book or Part number; thus, ' 1 Sent' means the commentary on the first book of the Sentences and '4 SCG' means the fourth Book of the Contra Gentiles. 0 NE OF THE ADVANTAGES of the desuetude into which Thomism has lately fallen is that interpreters of Thomas Aquinas must address fundamentals. The effect of the last decade's convulsions was to break up a discourse within which Thomism figured as something immediate . For such discourse, Thomas was a thinker rather than an artifact; he was an interlocutor, not an instance. But in the immediacy of discourse, peripheral issues often acquired disproportionate force. Familiarity with the basic formulae passed for intelligibility. Today, when scholasticism seems to have the bad odor of an ancien reginie, the interpreter of Thomas must work to secure the first things, the central insights, since it is these that are controverted and misunderstood.1 There is no time for the peripheral and no ground for assuming familiarity. If this is the only advantage of the change of fortune, it is still an important one. The first thing in Thomism is the doctrine of esse. It is first in two ways, as a distinguishing characteristic and as a structuring principle. Its being first as a characteristic needs little demonstration. Even if Giles of Rome is seen as a vulgarizer of 1 Michel Corbin has described the present state of Thomist exegesis with great acuity in Le chemin de la theologie chez Thomas d'Aquin (Paris: Beauchesne, 1974), pp. 26-35. His own solution to the current dilemma-the project of the "lecture speculative "-resembles the present reading in result, but not in justification . 1 MARK D. JORDAN authentic Thomism, he is evidence that the doctrine of esse has characterized Thomism-even constituted it in its uniquenessfrom the earliest days.2 The doctrine of esse serves as centerpiece in the encyclopedic commentary of Capreolus, in the Thomistic fundamentalism of certain Renaissance masters/ and even in the unfortunate " Approved Theses of Thomistic Philosophy ." 4 But if the doctrine about esse has characterized historical Thomism, it is not the case that the doctrine has informed the reflection of Thomists. The twenty-four "Theses" illustrate the inverse relation between doctrinal peremptoriness and reflective appropriation. The more one insists on esse as the shibboleth of some ' true Thomism,' the less room there is for showing how full of questions are Thomas's texts about esse. The force of these questions became apparent in the half dozen works published in the years around 1940 by Fabro, Rahner, Gilson, de Finance and others.5 The questions remain. To insist that the doctrine of esse is characteristic of Thomas's thought can only underscore that its work as a principle has yet to be grasped. As a step towards clarifying this first thing in Thomism, I 2 See the introduction to the edition of his Theoremata de ente et essentia by Edgar Hocedez (Louvain: Museum Lessianum, 1930). The authenticity of Giles's reading of Thomas was challenged as early as Robert Orford's Reprobationes dictorum a Fratre Egidio in primum Senfontiarum (1288-1292). 3 See the essay on Dominic of Flanders by Armando F. Verde, "Domenico di Fiandra, intransigente tomista non gradito nello studio Fiorentino," in Tomismo e antitornismo, Memorie Domenicane, N.S. 7 (1976), 304-21, but particularly pp. 310-311. •The list was published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 6 (1914), 384 ff., and reprinted in the Enchiridion Symbolorum, 32nd ed., ##36fll-!i!4. Its native defects were exacerbated in the exposition of Guido Mattiussi, p;-':1led in the Osservatore and published as Le XXIV tesi della filosofia di S. Tornrnaso d'Aquino (R-0me: Gregorian Univ., 1925); esp. pp. 28-34 and 45-51, where the doctrine of esse becomes almost mechanical. 5 The concurrence of the following books marks something like...

M. Anthony Hewson, Giles of Rome and the medieval theory of conception. A study of the –De formatione corporis humani in utero—, London, Athlone Press, 1975, 8vo, p. x, 268, illus., £10.00.

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Giles of Rome and Anthony of Parma in an Anonymous Question on the Intellect

Giles of Rome and Anthony of Parma in an Anonymous Question on the Intellect

Hervaeus Natalis, O. P. and the Controversies over the Real Presence and Transubstantiation by Kenneth Plotnik

BOOK REVIEWS 351 bias by inventing something that is fictitious. But again the author's methodology is too limited and preordained to deal with this option. Finally, the phenomenon of celibacy in its many forms past and present within the Christian community is a constant irritant for the author. His criticism of some of the theology on celibacy and its justification in the Christian lives of men and women is quite valid at times. But his contribution to the present debate is minimal. If those who seriously question the present discipline of the Church on this point need the support of this book, they could be in serious intellectual difficulty. In conclusion, one wonders who the author has in view as the readers of his work. It seems impossible that he could expect any intelligent and knowledgeable reader to be satisfied with the feeble and offensive polemics of his study. And what is the value of appealing to those who already agree with him about the distortion of Jesus' life and morality perpetrated by the Church? The author should be informed that a " celibate" is the author of this review (the word might be added to the list of pejoratives in the English language after its usage in this book) ; this may allow him to dismiss the preceding observations as Pavlovian responses to his conclusions . But I looked forward to more from this book; I am disappointed that it was much less than it could have been. The topic is too serious to be handled in the way in which it was in this book. The Catholic University of America Washington, D. C. JAMES P. CLIFTON, c. F. X. Hervaeus Natalis, 0. P. and the Controversies over the Real Presence and Transubstantiation. By KENNETH PLoTNIK. Paderbom: Verlag Ferdinand Schoningh, 1970. Pp. 83. DM 9,80. Once again the name of the Grabmann Institute is associated with a valuable contribution to the history of theology. This time, in connection with the Theological Faculty of the University of Munich, the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, and St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, the spirit of the Grabmann Institute finds expression in a study of medieval controversies over the Eucharist. Kenneth Plotnik reviews the positions of Hervaeus Natalis, 0. P. and his opponents in the questions of the mode of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation, offering interpretations of important texts and evidence for possible reconciliations among the adherents of opposing schools of thought. 352 BOOK REVIEWS Plotnik addresses himself to a segment of the rational effort of medieval theologians to express the richness of the Christian doctrine of the Eucharist. Evident in his work are the strange interaction and interdependence of the medieval disciplines which forced commitments to set formulas and produced contrived philosophical positions ostensibly in defense of orthodoxy. However remote in time its subject might be from current Process Theology, this study provides a useful link between the simplistic presentation of New Testament doctrine and the expected complexities of the sophisticated theology common to speculative thinkers today. The work is divided into three chapters. The first introduces the reader to the life of Hervaeus Natalis, his basic writings, and the character of the controversies over the Real Presence and Transubstantiation after the death of Thomas Aquinas. The second offers a brief treatment of the views of Aquinas and Hervaeus concerning the mode of Christ's presence, discusses in some detail Hervaeus's conception of relational presence , and considers the positions of Durand of St. Pourgain and Giles of Rome. It takes up the problem of quantity in the Eucharist and concludes with an overview of the relevant disputations between Hervaeus and Durand. The third chapter treats the question of Transubstantiation as decided by Giles of Rome, Henry of Ghent, Godfrey of Fontaines, James of Metz (through an anonymous commentator), and Durand; and the question of consubstantiation as decided by John Quidort of Paris and William of Occam. Plotnik succeeds in presenting clearly the positions of the opponents, even though, at times, they appear to be over-simplified, and he sets in good historical perspective their textual bases. It is his purpose to bring to the attention of current...

Nolan, Kieran, O. S. B., The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body according to Giles of Rome

Nolan, Kieran, O. S. B., The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body according to Giles of Rome

Godfrey of Fontaines and the Real Distinction between Essence and Existence

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.

Giles of Rome and the Subject of Theology

Giles of Rome and the Subject of Theology

Giles of Rome

Giles of Rome