White House Chitchat

White House Chitchat

Conference Announcement: "Aquinas and the Arabs" (Paris & Leuven, May 31 - June 5)

Conference Announcement: "Aquinas and the Arabs" (Paris & Leuven, May 31 - June 5)

Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, and ‘the Arabs’:  Paris & Leuven 30 May - 5 June 2012

Organized by J.-B. Brenet (Sorbonne), Cristina Cerami (CNRS, Paris), Isabelle Moulin (Institute Catholique de Paris) & Richard C. Taylor (Marquette University, Milwaukee, & DeWulf Mansion Centre, K. U. Leuven)

1. 1.Thomas d’Aquin et ses souces arabes / Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’

Paris 30 May, 31 May & 2 June 2012

1.1 The Sentences of Lombard and the Commentary of Aquinas

30 May 2012

Institut Catholique de Paris

Programme provisoire Journée du 30 mai 2012 : 

Pierre Lombard en ses Traditions

1.2 “Matière, Génération, Création” and Other Topics

31 May & 2 June 2012

Université Paris-Sorbonne

(full day sessions program: planning in process)

Among the speakers will be Marta Borgo (Commissio Leonina, Paris), Silvia di Donato (CNRS, Paris), R. E. Houser (University of St. Thomas, Houston), David B. Twetten (Marquette University, Milwaukee), Fabio Gibiino (Commissio Leonina, Paris), Joel Lonfat (Blackfriars, Oxford), Richard C. Taylor (Marquette University, Milwaukee), Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo (Guadalajara, Mexico), and others.

2. 2.             Translation and Transformation in Philosophy:

Albert, between Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’

DeWulf Mansion Centre 

for Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 4-5 June 2012

(Plenary lecture evening 4 June, full day program 5 June)

Program forthcoming

(For the conference website, click here.)

Don Paco's Abstract:

Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo (Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, Mexico)

Averroes and Aquinas on the Dialectical Nature of Revealed Theology

Abstract

Two of the greatest Aristotelian commentators, Averroes and Aquinas, used the Aristotelian distinction between demonstrative, dialectical, and rhetorical discourses to assign an epistemological status to religious or theological knowledge, that is, to conclusions drawn from revelation. But their respective views on this point turned out to be very different, even opposite. Averroes considered religious knowledge to be dialectical in nature, whereas Aquinas believed revealed Christian theology to be a demonstrative science. The author shows that both of these greater Aristotelian commentators strive, although very differently, to be faithful to Aristotle concerning the epistemological status of theology. Ultimately, however, their approaches converge, particularly insofar as in both accounts, theology is dialectical in nature, at least in a qualified sense in the case of Aquinas.

Link to official conference page.