Aquinas in Context, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 2019-20
Academic Year: 2019-2020 (course code:‘W0Q05a’). Time: on Thursdays from 4PM to 6PM. Location: MSI, room 02.15.
This normally co-taught course will be taught this year by Prof. Andrea A. Robiglio only, since Prof. Richard C. Taylor is currently on research leave: see at https://irh.wisc.edu/staff/taylor-richard-c/. Links to past collaborative courses are available at http://richardctaylor.info/graduate-courses-at-marquette-and-ku-leuven/. For information on the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group‘s 2019-2020 events, see http://richardctaylor.info/aaiwg/2019-2/
Contact information: Andrea.Robiglio@kuleuven.be
Abstract
It has recently been said that, “The specifically modern problem of evil was, of course, unknown to Aquinas.” (Brian Shanley). This seems to imply that Aquinas as thinking was mostly concerned with good (rather than evil), order (Rather than disorder), and reason (rather than evil), order (rather than disorder), and reason (rather than unreason). It also implies that his conception of Divine Providence dwarfed the problem of ‘theodicy’ (viz., explaining why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing Creator permits evil). However, this standard focus can be misleading or at least one-sided. Evil not only posed an intellectual problem for Aquinas, but also the Thomist articulation of Providence and human action were seen against the challenges of “the negative”.
The aim of the course is to sketch a detailed overview of the question regarding the negative in Aquinas’s thought: the Dark Side of Thomist Thought.
First, we shall start with a series of analyses of concrete instances of negative feeling, disorder, and evil which Aquinas encounters and addresses in his work. Special attention will be paid to the anthropological dimensions of negativity (with an in-depth investigation into the notion of ‘privation’).
Building on these initial explorations, the course will then introduce the positions of a few selected authors who helped shape the intellectual landscape in which Aquinas lived and worked including voices from: the Jewish tradition (e.g. from the Bible’s Old Testament to Moses Maimonides), the Greek philosophical tradition (e.g. from Plato to Proclus), the Islamic tradition (e.g. from the Qur’an to Avicenna) as well as other forms of western Gnosticism (e.g. from Augustine to the Cathars’ revival).
Finally, an extended analysis of Aquinas’s Commentary on the Book of Job will constitute the third and last part of the course.
Besides the core of this year’s study of Aquinas, there will also be room for a timely reflection on the philosophical significance and historical impact of the religious doctrine of ‘original sin’.
A few suggestions for getting acquainted with the course’s topic may be found in the following bibliography:
MARTIN D. YAFFE, “Providence in Medieval Aristotelianism: Moses Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas on the Book of Job”, Hebrew Studies 20/21 (1979-1980)
CARLOS STEEL, «Does Evil Have a Cause? Augustine’s Perplexity and Thomas’s Answer», Review of Metaphysics 48 (1994)
TIMOTHY JACKSON, «Must Job Live Forever? A Reply to Aquinas on Providence», The Thomist 62 (1998)
CARLOS STEEL, «Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas on evil», in JULES JANSSENS – DANIEL DE SMET (eds.), Avicenna and his heritage, Leuven, Leuven university press, 2002
LUCIANO COVA, Original Sin: Augustine and the Middle Ages, Bologna 2014
ROGER NUTT, «Providence, Wisdom, and the Justice of Job’s Afflictions: Considerations from Aquinas’ Literal Exposition on Job», The Heythrop Journal 46 (2015)
FRAN O’ROURKE, «Evil as Privation: the Neoplatonic background to Aquinas’s De malo I», in MICHAEL V. DOUGHERTY (ed.), Aquinas’s Disputed Questions on Evil: A Critical Guide, Cambridge 2016.
Course Schedule
September 26, 2019 – General Introduction
The class meets at 4:00 PM and stops at 5:00 PM on this day so that those who wish will be able to attend the Fourteen IJsewijn Lecture by Professor James Hankins (Harvard University) who will lecture on “The Italian Humanists and the Virtue of ‘Humanitas'” at 5 PM in the Justus Lipsiuaal (LETT. 08.16), Faculty of Arts, Blijde-Inkomstraat, 21, Cf. https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/sph/IJsewijn2019
October 3 — Even the Angels: introducing an instance of perverse will. READING: Disputed Questions on Evil (De Malo). q/16, aa.1-4.
October 10 — ‘For the flesh lusteth against the spirit’: should the mind be at war with the body? READING: Commentary on Saint Pauls’ Epistle to the Galatians, Ch. 5
October 17 — The Case for Envy (with participation of Ellen De Doncker, MA). READING: Summa theologiae, II-II, q.34, a.6; Disputed Questions on Evil (De Malo), q.10, a.1; Commentary on Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, Ch. 3, Ch. 13, and Ch. 14; and Sheryl Overmyer, “Is Aquinas’s Envy Pagan?,” Journal of Moral Theology 6 (2017).
October 24 — Emotions are not Sins — Aquinas on negative emotions (e.g., sorrow, hatred, fear, et al.). READINGS: Summa theologiae, I-II, qq.22-48 (selection concerning negative emotions)
October 31 — Ratio negationis: the Negation and its Implication. READINGS: Disputed Questions on the Power of God (De potentia), q.7 and q.8, a.2; Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book I, lectio 17, and Book 4, lectiones 6-17.
November 7 — Trial and Error: the Case of the Biblical Job. READING: Commentary on the Book of Job, Ch.1-6.
November 14 — The opposige of Peace and Good is Calamity and Evil — not Sin. READING: Commentary on the Book of Job, Ch.7-10.
November 21 — Adversity, not Aversion. READING: Commentary on the Book of Job, Ch.11-36.
November 28 — The Powers of Evil. READING: Commentary on the Book of Job, Ch.37-42.
December 5 — The Greek and Jewish backgrounds; Student presentations and common discussion. READING: Timothy Gombis, “Saint Paul,” in Tom Angier, Chad Meister, Charles Talgliaferro, eds., The History of Evil in Antiquity, London 2018; and Marian Hillar, “Philo of Alexandria,” ibid., Ch. 15.
December 6 — Student presentations and common discussion. (N.B.: only the students who are presenting are concerned.)
December 12 — The Muslim Background (with the participation of Prof. Richard C. Taylor). READING: George F. Hourani, “Averroes on Good and Evil,” Studia Islamica 16 (1962); more readings forthcoming.
December 13 — Student presentations and common discussion. (N.B.: only the students who are presenting are concerned.)
December 19 — Student presentations and common discussion. (N.B.: only the students who are presenting are concerned.)
December 20 — Student presentations and common discussion. (N.B.: only the students who are presenting are concerned.)