Conferences

Here are some recent and upcoming conferences:

• Les Éléments de théologie et le Livre des causes du Ve au XVIIe siècle (Paris, Nov. 13-14, 2015). This is the first of a three-part series, with future events scheduled for Spring 2016. Details here.
• Limit Decision Problems: Medieval and Contemporary Perspectives (Berlin, Nov. 20-21, 2015)
• Finnish Workshop in Medieval Philosophy (Jyväskylä, Nov. 20, 2015)
• L’homme comme animal parlant, entre France et Italie médiévales (Rome, Dec. 2-4, 2015)
• Journée thomiste (Paris, Dec. 3-4, 2015). Celebrating the 750th anniversary of the commencement of the Summa theologiae
• Passions in Baroque: from Scholastic acedia to modern melancholy (Salamanca, April 7-8, 2016). Send abstract by Feb. 15 to mpulido@porto.ucp.pt. (No web page yet, evidently.)
• III Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Tomista (Santiago de Chile, July 19-21, 2016). Send abstract by March 31, 2016, to cet@santotomas.cl. (No web page yet, evidently.)
• Personal Identity in the History of Philosophy (Melbourne, August 5-6, 2016). Abstract due Dec. 15, 2015.

Notably, not a single one of these conferences is in North America!

Aquinas and Gay Marriage

Adriano Oliva (CNRS), Dominican friar and president of the Leonine Commission, has generated some controversy with a new book entitled Amours: L’église, les remariés, et les couples homosexuels (Cerf, 2015). The book makes the case, from a Thomistic perspective, for marriage within the Church for divorced and gay couples. According to Cerf’s blurb:

L’examen théologique de la naturalité de l’inclination homosexuelle, que Thomas d’Aquin reconnaît, n’ouvre-t-elle pas à des possibilités nouvelles d’accueil de couples de même sexe au sein de l’Église? … Telle est l’amitié la plus grande qui n’exclut pas plusieurs formes d’amour.

There’s a 24-minute interview with Oliva on YouTube.

The book has, of course, been met with dismay in some circles. See, e.g., here and here.

Awards etc.

• Congratulations to Joseph Stenberg (CU-Boulder), who has won the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly‘s 2015 Rising Scholar Award. The paper, “Aquinas on the Relationship between the Vision and Delight in Perfect Happiness,” will appear in the ACPQ’s Fall 2016 issue.
• Congratulations as well to Jacob Tuttle (a Purdue PhD, on a postdoc at Loyola Marymount) for winning the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy‘s Founders Award. The paper, “Suárez’s Non-Reductive Theory of Efficient Causation,” will appear in  Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy volume 4 (2016).

On the subject of Suárez on causality, there’s an interesting new exchange at The Mod Squad between Sydney Penner and Stephan Schmid, regarding Schmid’s recent paper, “Finality without Final Causes? – Suárez’s Account of Natural Teleology” (Ergo 2015). If you start with the most recent post, you’ll find links to the earlier posts.