Research Article

Can Christians Possess the Acquired Cardinal Virtues?

The article proposes, contrary to much of contemporary Thomistic scholarship, that according to Thomas Aquinas’s categorizations of virtue, the person in a state of grace cannot possess the acquired cardinal virtues. Arguing from Aquinas’s theory of virtue as to why this is the case, the article examines texts that are commonly interpreted to say otherwise,

The Difference Nothing Makes: Creatio Ex Nihilo, Resurrection, and Divine Gratuity

In response to recent charges that creatio ex nihilo imposes a dubious metaphysics upon biblical theologies of creation, with the result that divine power is valorized at the expense of a creation in process, the author argues that such criticisms misrepresent the doctrine’s logic that illuminates those biblical theologies while making explicit in philosophical terms

Paul’s Use of dikaio Terminology: Moving Beyond N. T. Wright’s Forensic Interpretation

The article argues that Paul’s use of dikaio- terminology, the language of “justification,” has been too narrowly construed by N. T. Wright in his latest monograph on the subject. Wright’s position, that Paul employs the language of justification to signify a divinely bestowed change in status, tells only part of the story. This language also

Ecclesial Impasse: What Can we Learn from Our Laments?

Occasioned by current challenges facing the Catholic Church, the article explores the role of lamentations and impasse in the life of the church. By drawing on resources in the Scriptures, Augustine’s Expositions on the Psalms, and classic texts in spirituality, the author advances the claim that ways must be developed in ecclesiology and pastoral practice

Christological Polemics of Maximus the Confessor and the Emergence of Islam onto the World Stage

The article examines Maximus the Confessor’s reaction to the ArabMuslim invasion of the Byzantine Roman Empire. It also appraises Islam’s place in the 7th century as presenting a view of divinehuman relations as an alternative to the views of Christian confessions. The article concludes by advancing a hypothesis about the antithetical relationship between Islam and

Levinas and Christian Mysticism after Auschwitz

An ethics of disinterested goodness governs the testimony of Auschwitz survivors Primo Levi and Jean Amery. For Emmanuel Levinas, ethical goodness such as we find in Levi’s and Amery’s disinterested testimony to the German people leaves the only possible trace of the divine. Levinas proceeds to dismiss mysticism as an interested, self-serving, a-ethical search for

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