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Being and Knowing: Reflections of a Thomist
– Introduction by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Reasons for Hope
– Contributed to by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Defending the Faith: An Anti-Modernist Anthology
– Translated and edited by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Pre-Modern Philosophy Defended
– Translated by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Cultural Conservatism: Theory and Practice
– Contributed to and edited by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Cultural Conservatism: Toward a New National Agenda
– Contributed to and edited by W. H. Marshner
Available on Amazon

Natural Desire And Natural End: A Critical Comparison Of Cajetan, Soto And Bañez

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March, 1999

Table of Contents

Preface
vii

Chapter 1. The Source of a Divergence
1

Chapter 2. Cajetan’s First Account of the Desire to See God
23
  A. Aquinas’s Text (1 ST q. 12, a. 1)
23
  B. Cajetan’s Commentary
32
  C. Analysis of Cajetan’s Text
46
   — 1. What was the core of Cajetan’s solution?
47
   — 2. What of theological interest followed from this core?
51
   — 3. Why two “ways of considering” intellectual creatures?
62
   — 4. Which consideration was St. Thomas using?
69
   — 5. Given the above, what was Cajetan’s solution to the second dubium?
71
   — 6. Given the above, what was Cajetan’s solution to the first dubium?
72
 D. Concluding evaluation
74

Chapter 3. Beatitudo and Cajetan’s Second Account of the Desire
77
  A. A short primer on beatitudo
77
   — 1. The sense of `beatitudo’
77
   — 2. The ratio beatitudinis on the general level
80
   — 3. Transition: the job of further rationes
82
   — 4. The rationes beatitudinis on the special level
84
   — 5. This life and the next
86
   — 6. Concrete ideal vs. what one settles for
87
  B. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 6; Aquinas’s text
90
  C. Cajetan’s commentary on article 6
93
  D. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 7; Aquinas’s text
105
  E. Cajetan’s commentary on article 7
106
  F. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 8; Aquinas’s text
109
  G. Cajetan’s commentary on article 8
112
  H. Concluding evaluation
121

Chapter 4. Cajetan on Man’s Potency to Supernatural Gifts
123
  A. Nature, art, and the supernatural
125
  B. Connatural vs. supernatural in 1 ST q. 12, a. 5 and in the commentary thereon
138
  C. The hidden end in Aquinas’s texts
153
  D. Cajetan’s explanation of the hiddenness in his commentary on 1 ST q. 1, a. 1
157
  E. Quaestio 1 of De potentia neutra
165
  F. Quaestio 2 of De potentia neutra
175
  G. Concluding evaluation
194

Chapter 5. Dominico Soto: in the Cause of an Augustinian End
197
  A. NG I, c. 3. On man conceived purely in his natural features
199
  B. NG I, c. 4. What duties a man with only his natural features could perform
213
  C. Soto attacks Cajetan on `natural end’
220
  D. Concluding remarks
244

Chapter 6. Dominic Bañez: Triumph of a Scholastic Nature
249
  A. First disputation — Is it true that a created intellect can see God clearly?
252
   — 1. The second objection and Bañez’s response
254
   — 2. The sixth objection and Bañez’s response
269
  B. Second disputation — what to make of the desiderium naturae
273
   — 1. Bañez’s first conclusion
278
   — 2. Bañez’s second conclusion
281

After word
305

Bibliography
311

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On The Implicit

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Abstract

Every theory of doctrinal development makes some appeal to the concept of implicit information. But no theologian or Church historian has bothered to explore this concept philosophically with the contemporary tools for doing so. I refer to tools such as an up-to-date philosophy of language and an up-to-date logic of significance and context. It was to fill this lack that “On the Implicit” was written in the mid-1980s. Continue reading “On The Implicit”

Marc Sangnier’s Dilemma

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An Essay on Religious Democracy

Charles Maurras

English translation by W. H. Marshner and Joan Longua
1982
Property of W. H. Marshner. Reproduction or distribution without his permission is prohibited.

This is a translation of a short but famous work by the great French monarchist writer, Charles Maurras, founder of the pro-monarchy movement L’Action Française (very active between 1895 and World War II). This book was written between 1905 and 1907 as a series of newspaper articles (really essays) dealing with the interesting figure of Mark Sangnier, son of a banker and prominent Catholic, but also the oratorically gifted leader of a pro-democracy youth movement called the Sillon. Continue reading “Marc Sangnier’s Dilemma”

Annulment Or Divorce

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Annulment or Divorce?

A CRITIQUE OF CURRENT TRIBUNAL PRACTICE AND THE PROPOSED REVISION OF CANON LAW

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

© Christendom Educational Corporation 1978
Crossroads Book
Crossroads Books is an imprint of the Christendom College Press designed to offer scholarly insights on current Catholic issues in a format accessible to a broad spectrum of readers.

William H. Marshner brings a unique background to his authorship of the first of the Crossroads booklets. Formerly a contributing editor to The Wanderer and an assistant editor of Triumph magazine, Mr. Marshner has long experience in the apostolate of the Catholic Press.
A Ph.D. candidate in Languages at Yale University and in Theology at the University of Dallas, Mr. Marshner is completing his dissertation on Cardinal Newman’s notion of doctrinal development. He is also professor and acting chairman in Theology at Christendom College.

CONTENTS

Introduction, Rev. Mark A. Pilon
Author’s Preface
Historical Background
Preliminary Remarks
Canonical Perspective
Definition of Marriage
Theologico-Juridical Critique
Conclusion/Summation

Notes
Appendix/Staffa Letter

The incredible increase in the numbers of marriage annulments in the churches of Holland, Canada and our own United States is rapidly becoming one of the greatest scandals in recent Church history, and yet the true proportions of this problem are still relatively unknown to many American Catholics. In 1976 alone over 15,000 annulments were declared in this country, and that number can be expected to greatly increase in the years ahead, given the present orientation of growing numbers of our tribunal officials.
Continue reading “Annulment Or Divorce”

Principles Of Sufficient Reason: Selected Questions

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Principles Of Sufficient Reason: Selected Questions

Abstract

In graduate school at the University of Dallas, I was exposed to a school of phenomenologists who defend the principles of sufficient reason.  This famous invention of Leibniz is an all-purpose replacement for the causal principles known and explored in the Middle Ages.  It guarantees that every proposition, if true, and every fact has a sufficient reason why it is so and not otherwise. The crucial question is whether free choice is compatible with this “principle.”  This essay explores several versions of it and argues that most of them are, indeed, incompatible with liberty and with several theological truths emphasized in the Thomist tradition. Continue reading “Principles Of Sufficient Reason: Selected Questions”