Vermigli on the Good of Unbelievers: Grace Perfects the Civil Realm

The common Reformed Christian ethic rejects Aristotle’s virtue theory as semi-Pelagian if not full-blown Pelagian.  Recent studies of the works of Peter Martyr Vermigli have shown that if the above premise is true then an irreconcilable conflict exists within Reformed theology.  If Vermigli, the man who was highly respected by John Calvin as an orthodox [...]

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C.S. Lewis Puts Reason ‘Out There’

In so far as thought is merely human, merely a characteristic of one particular biological species, it does not explain our knowledge.  Where thought is strictly rational it must be, in some odd sense, not ours, but cosmic or super-cosmic.  It must be something not shut up inside our heads but already ‘out there’ – [...]

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Nature/Grace Union In Proof-Text Mode

Aquinas did not create a nature/grace dichotomy.  Read de Lubac, Pinckaers, O’Meara, etc.  Heck, even read Copleston.  There’s no such thing as “pure nature”, most Thomas scholars agree. Ergo, I shall resort to proof-text mode but just this one:
For the affection of charity, which is the inclination of grace, is not less orderly than the [...]

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The Holy Grail and Tight-Ropes: Nothing to Blog About?

On this blog I tend to post about the things that I am interested in at the moment. Most of this year I have been reading primary and secondary sources on Thomas Aquinas and Medieval philosophy, metaphysics particularly.  I have not been posting anything lately because I’ve switched geers a bit – to something “practical”. [...]

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