Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love

Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love PDF Author: Christopher J. Malloy
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1949013227
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Christopher J. Malloy’s Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love examines the relationship between the desire for happiness and the love of another, chiefly, the love of God for His own sake. Great thinkers judge the matters connected with this problem differently. Aristotle and others contend that the desire for happiness grounds ethical activity. Others contend that a pure love of God (or of the “other”) is not founded on desire for happiness. The former charge the latter with leaving love groundless, and the latter charge the former with reducing love to egoism. Aquinas’s appreciation of the Aristotelian tradition is forefront in his classic treatment of human action, which begins with the desire for happiness. Accordingly, many readers, proponents and critics, read Aquinas as simply “eudaimonistic.” There are, however, other principles at work in his thought; these suggest a simple but profound difficulty in his thought, one reflective of the subtlety of real life. Are the two sets of principles contradictory? Juxtaposed? Considering beatific charity as the ultimate lens for this problem, Malloy proposes that Aquinas’s texts and principles are hierarchically harmonious while developmentally complex. They indicate that love of happiness has a foundational role in human action and that love of God for His own sake has priority in the order of finality. This ordered balance depends upon a conception of the common good in accord with a metaphysics of participation: as having existence and formal perfection from and in likeness to the One Who Is, created persons incline to love God more than and more intensely than themselves. Thus, love of the Divine Other, while indeed the supreme love, especially as deified through charity, does not demand “disinterested” love. God truly is man’s good: His true lover longs to be with Him.

Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love

Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love PDF Author: Christopher J. Malloy
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1949013227
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book

Book Description
Christopher J. Malloy’s Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love examines the relationship between the desire for happiness and the love of another, chiefly, the love of God for His own sake. Great thinkers judge the matters connected with this problem differently. Aristotle and others contend that the desire for happiness grounds ethical activity. Others contend that a pure love of God (or of the “other”) is not founded on desire for happiness. The former charge the latter with leaving love groundless, and the latter charge the former with reducing love to egoism. Aquinas’s appreciation of the Aristotelian tradition is forefront in his classic treatment of human action, which begins with the desire for happiness. Accordingly, many readers, proponents and critics, read Aquinas as simply “eudaimonistic.” There are, however, other principles at work in his thought; these suggest a simple but profound difficulty in his thought, one reflective of the subtlety of real life. Are the two sets of principles contradictory? Juxtaposed? Considering beatific charity as the ultimate lens for this problem, Malloy proposes that Aquinas’s texts and principles are hierarchically harmonious while developmentally complex. They indicate that love of happiness has a foundational role in human action and that love of God for His own sake has priority in the order of finality. This ordered balance depends upon a conception of the common good in accord with a metaphysics of participation: as having existence and formal perfection from and in likeness to the One Who Is, created persons incline to love God more than and more intensely than themselves. Thus, love of the Divine Other, while indeed the supreme love, especially as deified through charity, does not demand “disinterested” love. God truly is man’s good: His true lover longs to be with Him.

Questions on Love and Charity

Questions on Love and Charity PDF Author: Thomas Aquinas
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300195419
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
A fresh translation of quaestiones from the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, edited by Robert Miner. This volume provides direct access to the medieval theologian’s deepest thinking about the supreme goal of human life—blessedness—and the virtue most intimately related to this goal—charity. The edition also contains Aquinas’s treatment of charity’s effects—love, joy, peace, and mercy—and the vices opposed to them, such as hatred, envy, and war. Featuring five supplementary essays by noted Aquinas scholars, the volume will enable readers to engage more thoroughly with the thought of Thomas Aquinas. (Publisher).

The Passion of Love in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas

The Passion of Love in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas PDF Author: Daniel Joseph Gordon
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813236851
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book is an introduction to three questions on love according to St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae I?II, qq. 26?28). These three questions reflect on the nature of love (q. 26), the causes of love (q. 27), and the effects of love (q. 28). It is thus an introduction to the entire phenomenon of love, both as a bodily passion and an act of the will. The purpose is to present the Thomistic and broadly scholastic account of human and divine love from a philosophical and theological perspective. It aims to be a theological and philosophical study of the topic, useful both for a graduate/professional audience, as part of an undergraduate or graduate course, and perhaps for the educated reader. The thesis of the book is that, contrary to contemporary conceptions, not all loves are created equal. Some loves perfect us and some loves corrupt us. The worth of a love depends on its object and end. St. Thomas thus presents an objective and teleological account of human and divine love that is of philosophical and theological interest. The method is broadly exegetical, presenting a careful reading of the text and supplying the philosophical and theological background which the text of Aquinas assumes. The scope of the work is limited to three questions (ST I?II, qq. 26?28). References to interpretative disputes of Aquinas and references to further resources in the secondary literature will be mostly limited to the footnotes, making the body of the text accessible to more readers.

The Ecstasy of Love in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas

The Ecstasy of Love in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas PDF Author: Peter Kwasniewski
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1645851060
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Those interested in the concept of ecstasy would be forgiven for assuming that a sober scholastic like St. Thomas Aquinas had little place for the idea. Yet in this groundbreaking study, sure to refine our understanding of the Angelic Doctor, Peter Kwasniewski shows that St. Thomas contemplates the nature of ecstasy at key stages in the development of his thought and that it plays a crucial role in his doctrine of love. After a stimulating study of treatments of ecstasy in ancient philosophy, Sacred Scripture, and the medieval tradition prior to Aquinas, Kwasniewski finds that he can be seen as breathing new life into the concept. While his contemporary, St. Bonaventure, for example, tended to restrict ecstasy to the soul’s union with God, St. Thomas admitted the place of ecstasy in a variety of human activities. Furthermore, St. Thomas recognized that all love involves ecstatic transcendence, whether it be the creature’s self-oblation to the Creator, the reverence of an inferior for a superior, a superior’s generosity toward an inferior, or the mutual affection and help of equals joined in friendship. Love of persons for their own sake generates an ecstatic love in which the self is borne as a gift to another subject by sharing a common life aspiring to common goods. Kwasniewski also examines Aquinas on the question of whether or not God experiences ecstasy, and if so, in what ways. The Ecstasy of Love in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the doctrine of love and to the interpretation of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is more than an analysis of key texts; it is an illuminating guide to the grammar of ecstasy.

The Love of God Poured Out: Grace and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in St. Thomas Aquinas

The Love of God Poured Out: Grace and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in St. Thomas Aquinas PDF Author: John Meinert
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1947792407
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
What is the relationship between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the action of grace? John Meinert’s The Love of God Poured Out enters into the major positions and debates within Thomism to forge a new synthesis on this topic within the greater body of scholarship existing today. Meinert reads Aquinas’s thought on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and grace in an integral and analogous way. Not only does The Love of God Poured Out aid scholars in understanding Aquinas’s thought on these two issues, it also once more clarifies the truth that the Holy Spirit and his gifts are neither a devout appendix to moral theology nor a pious nod to tradition. They are the heart and height of the moral life, a life lived subditus Deo.

On Love and Virtue: Theological Essays

On Love and Virtue: Theological Essays PDF Author: Michael S. Sherwin
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1947792970
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
What does it mean to love? What are the traits of character that support love’s activity? How does the economy of grace—the mission of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit—elevate and transform human love, virtue, and the desire for happiness? In On Love and Virtue: Theological Essays, the eminent Dominican theologian Michael Sherwin considers how the Catholic tradition has addressed these questions. Fr. Sherwin places this tradition in dialogue with contemporary questions. Taking St. Thomas Aquinas as his primary guide, Fr. Sherwin reads St. Thomas in light of his biblical and patristic sources (especially St. Augustine) and engages contemporary developments in philosophy in order to deepen our understanding of how grace both heals and elevates human nature. Along the way, Fr. Sherwin considers the vocation of the theologian and the biblical and patristic understanding of the Christian call to moral apprenticeship and friendship with God.

Habits and Holiness

Habits and Holiness PDF Author: Ezra Sullivan
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813233291
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
"This comprehensive exploration of Thomas Aquinas's theology of habit takes habits in general as a prism for understanding human action and its influences and provides a unique synthesis of Thomistic virtue theory, modern science of habits, and best practices for eliminating bad habits and living good habits"--

“Grace Abounds More”: Balthasar’s Eschatological Universalism in Dialogue

“Grace Abounds More”: Balthasar’s Eschatological Universalism in Dialogue PDF Author: Joshua R. Brotherton
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004681671
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The problem of eternal damnation is one that should trouble all believers and impels many to seek answers to fundamental questions outside of the Church. For this reason, theologians with a missionary heart of the last century or more from across the ecclesial spectrum have sought to refashion the gospel in our own estranged image. In dialogue with one of the leading figures of this movement, Joshua Brotherton tackles the question of the plausibility that all will be saved. Sympathetic to their cause, this volume seeks to revise the way in which they envision the reconciliation of divine love and moral evil.

Journal of Moral Theology, Volume 12, Issue 2

Journal of Moral Theology, Volume 12, Issue 2 PDF Author: Caesar Montevecchio
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666788260
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
ORIGINAL ARTICLES The Boundaries and Authority of Catholic Social Teaching: A Reply to John Finnis Bernard G. Prusak Struggling with Self-Love: A Thomistic Perspective on Anxious Attachment and the Vice of Self-Debasement Sheryl Overmyer Synodality in the Catholic Church: Toward a Conciliar Ecclesiology of Inclusion for LGBTQ+ Persons Ish Ruiz CATHOLIC PEACEBUILDING IN TIMES OF CRISIS Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World Caesar A. Montevecchio Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation: The Challenge for Future Relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church Maka Black Elk Walking Towards Peace: Generating Synergies at a Regional Level Isabel Aguilar Umaña and Cecelia Suárez Trueba Peacebuilding in an Interfaith Context in the Great Lakes Region of Africa: The Challenges of Creating New Approaches Emmanuel Ntakarutimana, OP Imagination in Catholic Thought and Peacebuilding Eduardo Gutiérrez González BOOK REVIEWS Gary Chartier, Understanding Friendship: On the Moral, Political, and Spiritual Meaning of Love Nickolas L. Becker, OSB David C. Cramer and Myles Werntz, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace David Kwon David DeCosse, Created Freedom under the Sign of the Cross: A Catholic Public Theology for the United States Matthew A. Shadle Christine Firer Hinze, Radical Sufficiency: Work, Livelihood, and a US Catholic Economic Ethic Mary M. Doyle Roche Kate Jackson-Meyer, Tragic Dilemmas in Christian Ethics Thomas Ryan Bradford E. Hinze, Confronting a Church in Controversy Federico Cinocca Richard Horsley, You Shall Not Bow Down and Serve Them: The Political Economic Projects of Jesus and Paul Najeeb T. Haddad Marc A. Pugliese and John Becker, Process Thought and Roman Catholicism: Challenges and Promises Simeiqi He

The Order and Division of Divine Truth: St. Thomas Aquinas as Scholastic Master of the Sacred Page

The Order and Division of Divine Truth: St. Thomas Aquinas as Scholastic Master of the Sacred Page PDF Author: John F. Boyle
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
ISBN: 1645851753
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
St. Thomas Aquinas is best known for his Summa Theologiae and is regarded as the great exemplar of systematic theology. Yet St. Thomas himself might be surprised at this legacy. He may well have saw himself principally as a commentator and teacher of Sacred Scripture. When it comes to engaging St. Thomas’ scriptural work, readers are at a significant disadvantage. They are arguably more foreign and more dense than his Summa yet have been scarcely studied. This book by one of the foremost experts on St. Thomas’ use of Scripture is a significant and much needed contribution. In The Order and Division of Divine Truth: St. Thomas Aquinas as Scholastic Master of the Sacred Page, John Boyle opens up the riches of St. Thomas as a master of the Sacred page. Readers will find explorations not just of the style of Aquinas’ commentaries, which differs from that of the modern biblical commentary, but also the overarching theological and methodological perspective that shapes his approach to Scripture. Boyle gives insight into how Aquinas would have understood the task of biblical commentary as a university lecturer, how Scripture is ordered to divine revelation, how medieval masters divided up the text, and how Aquinas’ biblical commentaries relate to his theological summaries. This book will be important for anyone seeking to better understand St. Thomas’ theology and the often-overlooked role that Scripture plays in his work.