This volume contains the first publication in book form of an English translation of Thomas Aquinas's controversial disputed question De unione Verbi incarnati. This disputed question is a remarkable portal into the Angelic Doctor's theology of the hypostatic union, which is recognized as an area in which Aquinas forged some of his most original and penetrating articulations of the Christian faith. In the De unione Verbi incarnati Aquinas presents in five articles material that occupies more than eighteen questions in the (...) third part of the Summa theologiae. The attribution of an esse secundarium to Christ, in the fourth article of the De unione, has been the object of intense debate, for it seems to contradict the account of the Summa. In addition to Professor Nutt's English translation, the volume includes the critical Latin text published by Barbara Bartocci, Klaus Obenauer, and Walter Senner, as well as a substantial introduction. Professor Nutt's introduction carefully unfolds the historical background, technical concepts, sources, and speculative claims needed for understanding the breadth of the biblical and metaphysical contemplation represented in this work; it also includes a detailed exploration of the debate over the fourth article. (shrink)

This article examines the theology of Charles Journet in light of the Second Vatican Council's teaching on sacerdotal and episcopal character. Journet's theology is placed in dialogue with the teaching of the Council and subsequent questions that have resulted from it, from three overlapping perspectives. First, Journet's theology of Orders, especially as articulated in his celebrated work The Church of the Word Incarnate, is presented. Second, in light of his theology of Orders, the content of Cardinal Journet's written submission on (...) the draft of Presbyterorum Ordinis during the final session of the Council is brought to light. Finally, Journet's own reflections on Lumen Gentium are examined for the sake of further pinpointing his own position on sacerdotal character in relation to the teaching of the Council. This article seeks to highlight the value that Journet's thought has in its own right for probing contemporary theological questions and, additionally, to draw attention to his role and presence at the final session of the Second Vatican Council. Journet's presence and role at the Council have, heretofore, been largely untreated by Anglo-American theologians. (shrink)

This article considers Aquinas' doctrine of predestination as an eternal reality in God in light of its temporal realization in time by the incarnation of the eternal Son. In particular, Aquinas' repeated recourse to the ratio of the divine goodness as the motive of predestination is documented in conjunction with his teaching on the fittingness of the incarnation. In this light, the relation of the natural sonship of Christ to the grace of adoption is developed by Aquinas as the temporal (...) realization of the eternal reality of predestination in God. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Father’s Will: Christ’s Crucifixion and the Goodness of God by Nicholas E. Lombardo, O.P.Roger W. NuttThe Father’s Will: Christ’s Crucifixion and the Goodness of God. By Nicholas E. Lombardo, O.P. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 270. $99.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-19-968858-6.The centrality that Christ’s death by crucifixion has in Christian life, doctrine, and culture is scarcely in need of elaboration. Nevertheless, the relation between the (...) will of the Father and the violent and humiliating manner of Christ’s death raises substantive questions concerning the internal coherence of Christian claims about the love, goodness, and justice of God. In The Father’s Will: Christ’s Crucifixion and the Goodness of God, Nicholas E. Lombardo, O.P., confronts these questions, openly acknowledging their difficulty and seriousness, and provides a philosophically precise and theologically fresh response to the challenges they pose to the credibility of the Christian message.The ten chapters of The Father’s Will are divided into tripartite units that progress in logical sequence from “philosophical prolegomena” (part 1) to “New Testament evidence” (part 2), culminating with a “theological [End Page 317] evaluation” (part 3). The question at the heart of the book is how to reconcile the Christian doctrine that God and evil are incompatible with the theology of the Cross, which seems to require that God’s will is implicated in the evil actions that bring about Christ’s death.The first five chapters (part 1) provide a philosophical analysis of intention (chap. 1), value and obligation (chap. 2), double-effect reasoning (chap. 3), the ethical problems associated with self-sacrifice (chap. 4), and God’s will in relation to the crucifixion (chap. 5). Drawing on his analysis of intention and employing the principle of double effect, Lombardo establishes that it is not necessary to conclude that God wills the evils that are attendant on Christ’s death. “Actions performed by rational intentions,” Lombardo explains, “are not only intended; they are also willed. Rational intending implies rational choice, and rational choice is an act of the will” (32). This understanding of intention and willing, as distinguishable from intentional action, provides a foundation upon which the moral goodness of actions can be determined. “For an action to be good,” Lombardo argues, “it must do more than simply advance our natural inclinations: it must also avoid frustrating them. Only actions that both advance our natural inclinations and avoid frustrating them are morally good” (49). When moral actions have good effects and nonintended bad effects that do not outweigh the good effects—as in cases of self-defense or the use of medicine and medical procedures—these complex actions retain their moral goodness, notwithstanding the bad effects. The reason for this is that the bad effects are not included in the agent’s intention. Lombardo presents the crucifixion of Christ as one of these complex cases in which the bad effects can be separated from the agent’s intention. Chapter 3 explores the reasoning associated with the principle of double effect to clarify how actions implicated in bad or evil effects can be judged to be morally good. Lombardo is hesitant to identify double effect as an isolated principle that is applicable within unique circumstantial cases. Rather, he presents double effect as “merely an algorithm for applying basic concepts to morally ambiguous actions” (72). For example, in addition to affirming that the intended effects of the action are consistent with our natural inclinations, in cases of double-effect reasoning “the action’s positive, intended effects [must] outweigh the action’s negative, nonintended effects” (73). This material, in turn, connects logically with the conclusion of chapter 4 on the ethics of self-sacrifice: “double effect reasoning shows that it can be acceptable, and even heroic, to cause our own death non-intentionally for the sake of some greater good” (79). The last chapter in part 1 applies these distinctions to the problem of God’s will and the moral evil involved in Christ’s crucifixion. Here, the basic dilemma that the book addresses is succinctly restated: “Being all good, God never wants... (shrink)

St. Thomas Aquinas preaches in his sermon Puer Iesus, "Just as your father begot you bodily, your teacher begot you spiritually." St. Thomas himself has been blessed with prodigious fecundity through the centuries for his teaching in the Holy Spirit. Always, he leads us to think of the Blessed Trinity and all things from God's own view. With new insights into St. Thomas's spiritual teaching in its sources, context, breadth, wisdom, and influences, Thomas Aquinas as Spiritual Teacher presents chapters inspired (...) by an international conference cosponsored by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University and the Thomistic Institute of the Dominican House of Studies. The volume, like its conference, honors Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, for his dedication to the spiritual teaching of St. Thomas in several decades of service to the Church and the academy. Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, contributed the volume's foreword. Contributors to this book include: Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP; Romanus Cessario, OP; Therese Scarpelli Cory; Michael A. Dauphinais; Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP; Bishop Daniel E. Flores; Wojciech Giertych, OP; Andrew Hofer, OP; Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ; Dominic Legge, OP; Steven A. Long; Roger W. Nutt; Michael Root; Daria Spezzano; Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap.; and Thomas Joseph White, OP-- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Journal of Mathematical Logic, Ahead of Print. We prove that the forcing axiom [math] (stratified) implies [math]. Using this implication, we show that the forcing axiom [math] is inconsistent. We also derive weak Chang’s Conjecture from [math] (stratified) and use this second implication to give another proof of the inconsistency of [math].

The transcription factor Pax5 is essential for the initial commitment of hematopoietic progenitors to the B cell lineage. Recently, our understanding of the lineage commitment process has been extended with the finding that Pax5 is also continuously required throughout B cell development to reinforce commitment, as inactivation of Pax5 in mature B cells results in their de‐differentiation to a progenitor stage that is capable of multi‐lineage potential.1 The reliance of B cell identity on a single gene is not without its (...) problems as the loss of Pax5 results in B cell malignancies in mouse models and mutation in human PAX5 is the most‐common genetic lesion in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. BioEssays 30:203–207, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Many potential therapeutic agents are discarded before they are tested in humans. These are not quack medications. They are drugs and other interventions that have been developed by responsible scientists in respectable companies or universities and are often backed up by publications in peer-reviewed journals. These possible treatments might ease suffering and prolong the lives of innumerable patients, yet they have been put aside. In this paper, we outline a novel mechanism—the Plutocratic Proposal—to revive such neglected research and fund early (...) phase clinical trials. The central idea of the Proposal is that any patient who rescues a potential therapeutic agent from neglect by funding early phase clinical trials should be offered a place on the trial. (shrink)

Die Editionswissenschaft, aber auch die editorisch arbeitenden Fachdisziplinen haben sich bisher nicht besonders intensiv um das spezifische Verhältnis von Kanon und Edition bemüht. Der vorliegende Band legt in einem interdisziplinären Zugriff exemplarische Studien aus der Literaturwissenschaft, der Musikwissenschaft und der Philosophie vor, die theoretische Fragestellungen der Kanonforschung mit Fällen der fachgeschichtlichen Editionspraxis verbinden, um so Konturen einer fachübergreifenden Beziehungsbeschreibung von Kanonbildung und Editionspraxis sichtbar zu machen. Dazu schlägt der Band vier Wege ein. In einer ersten, wissenschaftsgeschichtlich orientierten Rubrik werden „Aspekte (...) der Fachgeschichtsschreibung" aus philosophischer und neu- wie altgermanistischer Perspektive in den Blick genommen. Die zweite Rubrik „Ausgabentypologische Aspekte" befragt die Editionsformen in ihrem Bezug zu Kanonbildungsprozessen. Wie sich Autor-, Editor- und Leser-/Benutzer-Perspektiven auf Kanonisierungsphänomene niederschlagen, erörtert die dritte Rubrik „Produktions- und rezeptionsästhetische Aspekte". Schließlich wirft die vierte Rubrik „Wissenschaftspolitische Aspekte" ein Augenmerk auf die Auswirkungen von institutionellen, lebensweltlichen und biografischen Rahmenbedingungen auf Kanonisierungsfragen im Kontext von Editionen. (shrink)

Earp, Lewis, and Hart make a comprehensive and compelling argument for ending the “war on drugs,” highlighting the importance of both ending the criminalization of people who use drugs, and...

We prove that the forcing axiom [Formula: see text] (stratified) implies [Formula: see text]. Using this implication, we show that the forcing axiom [Formula: see text] is inconsistent. We also derive weak Chang’s Conjecture from [Formula: see text] (stratified) and use this second implication to give another proof of the inconsistency of [Formula: see text].

For live-related kidney donation, the current UK guidance specifies that the donor has a right to know the recipient’s HIV status. This guidance may prevent some potential recipients from asking friends or family to donate, as they do not wish them to know they are HIV positive. Currently, it is felt necessary that the donor should know the HIV status of the recipient in order to give fully informed consent to the operation. However, the specific medical details are not required (...) in order to allow for donor informed consent. This consent requires knowledge of the general expectation for survival of a graft and the specific expectation for survival of this graft in the recipient; it does not require specific knowledge of the recipient’s medical condition. (shrink)