Ebook: Wisdom in the Face of Modernity: A Study in Thomistic Natural Theology (Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy)

This book considers the merits of Thomas Aquinas's arguments for the existence of God. Aquinas portrays philosophical reason as a form of wisdom that can attain to true knowledge of God. Should his views matter for contemporary Christian theology? What are the Aristotelian presuppositions required for these arguments to make sense, and are such presuppositions rationally defensible today? Particularly, should the modern Kantian and Heideggerian objections to any possible philosophical approach to God (as onto-theology) apply to the arguments of Aquinas? The author argues robustly in favor of the recovery of a sapiential conception of Thomistic philosophy.

Review:
A restatement of Aquinas s natural theology that takes account of the controversies in which Maritain, Gilson, and Rahner engaged has been badly needed for quite some time. So has an extended and creative reply to Heidegger s accusations of ontotheology. To have met both needs in one book is an impressive and unexpected achievement. This book should become a focus for discussions within and about Thomism from now on. --Alasdair MacIntyre, University of Notre Dame

Scientism and fideism share the conviction that there is no path leading from human experience to God. By way of contrast, models of wisdom have defined themselves from antiquity on by their abilities to show the transcendent significance of the ordinary. T.J. White s Wisdom in the Face of Modernity looks at several of the leading attempts to discern in the human experience of our self-doubting times reasons for the affirmation of God: which is, at the same time, an affirmation of human dignity. Metaphysics is a privileged space where mercy and truth come together again. --Richard Schenk, O.P.

Few Thomists since Maritain and Journet have been ready to accept the challenges of philosophical modernity head on. Fr. Thomas Joseph White refuses to concede the philosophical battle to the spirit of the times; still less does he allow himself to become a Thomist fellow traveler of Kant or Heidegger. Instead he offers a spirited and stimulating argument against the secular tilt of modern philosophy, in defense of St. Thomas on the natural knowledge of God. --Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University

About the Author:
Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. earned his D.Phil. from Oxford University in 2003. He is an Instructor in Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, in Washington, D.C. He is the co-editor, with James F. Keating, of Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering (Eerdmans Press, 2009).