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    Fr. Barron comments on The Indecipherable Writing of Thomas Aquinas





     
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Chatto
I've just finished reading Chesterton's spirited biography of the Angelic Doctor. It's fantastic. Here's a snippet: "As he entered Paris they showed him from the hill that splendour of new spires beginning, and somebody said something like, "How grand it must be to own all this." And Thomas Aquinas only muttered, "I would rather have that Chrysostom manuscript I can't get hold of."
5/11/2011 6:36:18 PM
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Vincent
In my own humble way, I would like to see myself as part of this new movement along the via of The Dumb Ox. As a university student now making my way the seminary without I have found that without a deep grounding in the brown bread philosophy of Aquinas All the others (Nietzsche!!!) would have driven me mad.
5/11/2011 9:03:43 PM
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michael jaffray king
Because of the engaging way that you recounted your time in the Vatican Library, I was able to accompany you and feel some of what you experienced.
Let's pray that his great and vastly important contributions to Holy Mother Church will experience a revival in these coming days.
Thank yo Father B for sharing so graphically with us and taking us on your pilgrimage.
5/11/2011 11:34:49 PM
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Jim
Can anyone here explain the differences among Aquinas writings and thought embraced by the Church from Aquinas time around the 13th century, and the rejection of Scholasticism around the Reformation in the 16th century, and the Aquinas comeback during the 19th century into the present? Aquinas embraced Aristotle; whereas by the Reformation, Aquinas turned into Scholasticism; and, by the 19th century, Aquinas was considered an alternative remedy to rationalism. Lastly, by the time Aquinas finished his writings, did not Aquinas consider it all as straw compared to a possible mystical Beatific Vision, which brings to mind questions regarding the relationship of reason to faith?
Belief in the modern world is considered a matter of a conclusion from empirical, inductive, logical thought. Are not atheists and fundamentalists arguing on the same premise of biblical literalism, whereas atheists are rejecting such literal faiths in favor of their own fundamentalism from observable fact?
5/12/2011 1:53:21 PM
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joyce crain
Tell me, please--if St.Thomas' writings were indecipherable, how have they been accurately translated since his time? I graduated from seminary (Fuller)with the M.A.Theology and studied Aquinas a little, but never thought about how accurate translation of his work came about.
5/16/2011 4:13:14 PM
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John
Joyce -- I don't think Fr. Barron meant that these texts are literally indecipherable but rather that his writing is famously hard to read. That's true of many medieval manuscripts, but they are certainly readable by those trained to do so (it's called codicology, or paleography, and every grad student in medieval studies has to take classes on it). The task of editing a critical Latin edition of the works of St. Thomas was entrusted by Pope Leo XIII to the Dominican Order (hence its name, the "Leonine Commission").
5/24/2011 6:33:38 PM
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John
Jim -- You might read A Short History of Thomism, by Romanus Cessario, OP (CUA Press, 2005). It's a nice, succinct (120 pages) overview of the subject. St. Thomas certainly embraced Aristotle, but not only him. People tend to say that St. Augustine was a Platonist and St. Thomas an Aristotelian, but that's a gross oversimplification. St. Thomas read Plato as well, and I believe he cites St. Augustine more than any other source apart from Scripture. Scholasticism emerged in the 12th century, not the Reformation era. Even though St. Thomas considered his works as straw compared to his mystical experience of God, that certainly doesn't call into question the importance of reason and faith. Read Pope Benedict XVI on that!
5/24/2011 7:02:45 PM
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Harry Pickett
I am working my way through His writings in Latin and is worth every second of my time.
I am welland truly a Thomist, working in an Augustinian world
10/4/2011 1:10:13 PM
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