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A Century of ‘Pontifical’ Thomism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Terence McGuckin
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Theological attention to St Thomas Aquinas, from over one hundred years ago to the present day, has featured in the work of a great number of theologians, many of them outstanding in the formation of twentieth-century theology. There is, however, another important aspect to the revival of interest in Aquinas: the very effective official ecclesiastical promotion of Thomistic philosophy and theology led by the succession of popes from Leo XIII to John Paul II.

A point of entry for these observations is provided by the occasion of the inauguration of the Chair of St Thomas Aquinas at the Lateran University, Rome on 10 March 1963. Archbishop Dino Staffa, as Secretary of the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities, delivered a paper on the ‘Revival of Thomism’. His comments, as indeed much in the early years of the revival of Thomistic studies, had been largely inspired by another inauguration, that of the officially stated fundamental place of St Thomas in Catholic philosophy and theology by the encyclical Aterni Patris of Pope Leo XIII, dated August 4, 1879. The specific interest of the encyclical was the restoration of scholastic philosophy in general and that of St Thomas Aquinas in particular. It emphasized the Church’s concern for teaching ‘true philosophy’ because of its relation to theology. Declaring false philosophy to be the root of ‘many modern evils’ and mentioning the esteem in which St Thomas had been held, the encyclical urged the revival of St Thomas’ philosophy and of the spirit of investigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 72 , Issue 852 , September 1991 , pp. 377 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Cf. ‘St Thomas Aquinas Revisited’, Priests and People, (February 1990).

2 Published in The Thomist, 26 (1963) 129–137.

3 Cf. Maritain, J., Le docteur angelique (Paris 1930) 168Google Scholar.

4 Cf. Staffa, D., ‘The Revival of Thomism’, The Thomist, 26 (1963) 132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Emcyclical Sludiorum ducem, 29 June 1923: Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS) 15 (1923) 323.

6 Cf. AAS 42 (1950) 573.

7 Cf. D. Staffa, op. cit., 135.

8 Summa Theologiae, I, q. 29, a.3.

9 J. Maritain, Le docteur angelique, 168.

10 Cf. L. Ciappi, in L'Enciclica ‘Aterni Patris’ nell’ arco di un secolo, Atti dell'VIII Congresso Tomistico Intemazionale, I, Studi Tomistici 10, (Citta del Vaticano 1981) 22.

11 Cf. C. Fabbro, ‘Il significato e i contenuti dell’ Enciclica Aeterni Patris’, ibid., 72.

12 Lumen Ecclesiae 13, AAS 66 (1974) 686.

13 Ibid., 22.

14 Ibid., 8–12.

15 From the discourse to the promotion committee of the Index Thomisticus (Osservatore Romano 20/21 May 1974), cited in Lumen Ecclesiae 1.

16 Benedict XV, Encyclical Fausto appetente die, AAS 13 (1921) 332, cited in Lumen Ecclesiae 23.

17 R. Spiazzi, ‘Parallelismo tra L'Enciclica Aeterni Patris et la lettera Lumen Ecclesiae di Paolo VI’, (Atti 1), Studi Tomistici 10 (1981) 134.

18 Lumen Ecclesiae 3, referring to Pius XI, Encyclical Studiorem Ducem, AAS (1923) 323.

19 Cf. Lumen Ecclesiae 3.

20 Cf. R. Spiazzi, op. cit., 138–139.

21 Cf. Lumen Ecclesiae 26.

22 Cf. Optatam Totius 16 and Lumen Ecclesiae 24.

23 Cf. Lumen Ecclesiae 24 and Gravissimum Educationis 10 (A. Flannery translation).

24 Cf. Lumen Ecclesiae 24.

25 Ibid.

26 Cf. Lumen Ecclesiae 14.

27 R. Spiazzi, op. cit., 158.

28 Ibid., 159.

29 Lobato, A., ‘L'attualita di San Tommaso nel pensiero e nell’ insegnamento del Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II’, Doctor Communis, 40 (1987) 3Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., 4.

31 Cf. Insegnamenli di Giovanni Paolo II (1980) I, 1639.

32 Cf. Redemptor Hominis 9, note 63; Laborem Exercens 14; Dominum et Vivificantem 10, 25, 37, 46, 50 and 58.

33 Reconciliatio et Poenitentia 11, 17.

34 Cf. A. Lobato, op. cit., 14.

35 John Paul II, ‘Discourse at VIII International Thomistic Congress, 13 September 1980′, AAS 72 (1980) 1044–1045.

36 Cf. ‘In Pontificia Universitate S. Thomae Aquinatis, saeculo expleto a datis Litteris Encyclicis Aeterni Patris.’ AAS 71 (1979) 1475.

37 Ibid., 1478.

38 Cf. AAS 78 (1986) 637.

39 Ibid., 637.

40 Cf. AAS 71 (1979) 1481.

41 Cf. A. Lobato, op. cit., 27.