A Short Primer On Beatitudo In Aquinas

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A Short Primer on Beatitudo in Aquinas

W. H. Marshner

(A) The sense of ‘beatitudo’.

The first job is to determine what ‘beatitudo’ meant simply as a matter of ordinary language, reserving til later the question of its learned definitions (rationes). There are three options: happiness, well-being, and fulfillment. To see which option is best, one needs to consider the following facts.

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Grace And Sin At The Dawn Of Moral Experience

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Grace and Sin at the Dawn of Moral Experience

William H. Marshner

2006

In a notorious article of the Prima Secundae, Aquinas claimed that the first moral decision of an unbaptized child could not result in a venial sin. If the decision was bad, the sin could only be mortal. On the other hand, if the decision was good, the same unbaptized child was freed from original sin. The common doctor’s argument for these claims wove together threads of psychology, moral theology, and eschatology, to fashion a controversial doctrine — elegant, but hard to defend, and in conflict with his own work on faith and justification. This paper will unravel the threads and propose a revised doctrine, less elegant but more plausible, and free of conflict.[1]
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Structure Of The Church East And West

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Structure of the Church East and West

Two-Lung Traditions vs. One-Lung Deviations

William H. Marshner, S.T.D.

Orientale Lumen Conference
Washington DC 2004
San Diego 2005

I begin with this question: what is the right starting point for theological reflection on the structure of the Church? One might think, “Well, the New Testament, of course” But this answer is not enough. As Fr. Raymond Collins pointed out to us, last night, the New Testament evidence is “less than clear.” Fr. Collins indicated three New Testament pictures, as you may recall: the charismatic, the Christian rabbinic, and the household overseer. It is important to add, however, that the New Testament text itself does not tell us whether these are three structures or are three different ways of describing one structure. Continue reading “Structure Of The Church East And West”

Does Practical Reason Start with Good Or With Complete Good?

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Does Practical Reason Start with Good or with Complete Good?

W. H. MARSHNER

Faith and Reason
Vol. XXVI, No. 4
Winter, 2001
Christendom College

Aquinas said that the first precept of practical reason (FPPR) is that “good” is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided.[1] What did he mean by ‘good’?[2]
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On The Collaboration Between Bishops And Theologians

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On the Collaboration between Bishopsand Theologians

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

© 2002 Cardinal Newman Society
Published by Newman House Press. All rights reserved.
ISBN 0-9704022-3-6
Published in: Newman’s Idea of a University: The American Response
EDITED BY REV. PETER M. J. STRAVINSKAS
AND PATRICK J. REILLY
Newman House Press
PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE OF THE CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
NOVEMBER II, 2001
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE CARDINAL’S BIRTH
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D.C.
FOR INFORMATION:CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
207 PARK AVENUE
SUITE B-2
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 22046
info@cardinalnewmansociety.org
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org

The title assigned to my talk is an easy and peaceable one, but the subtitle I was given is a killer. It is the following question: Does the essential collaboration between bishops and theologians compromise the integrity of the university?

I shall proceed in three stages. First, I shall ask whether we have a real question here. Second, if we do, I shall present the affirmative answer (yes, the university’s integrity is compromised). Then, I shall consider some negative answers which I think are inadequate. Finally, I shall sketch what I think is the right negative answer (saying why the university’s integrity is not compromised).
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Implausible Diagnosis: A Response To Germain Grisez

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IMPLAUSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: A RESPONSE TO GERMAIN GRISEZ

W. H. MARSHNER

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE
An International Forum for Legal Philosophy
2001
Volume 46
NOTRE DAME LAW SCHOOL
natural law institute

For one who has learned a great deal from Grisez’s work over the years, it is an honor to be asked to comment on one of his papers. What is more (since wisdom is better than honor), I have found it rewarding to comment on a paper that covers the whole problem of human action: how it relates to volition, how it comes under norms, how it aims at personal fulfillment, and how it can achieve (when elevated by the love of God) a supernatural Kingdom. Truly systematic treatments of this are rare, even over the long haul of Church history. There was Augustine’s; then there was Aquinas’s (each tinkered with by countless subsequent disciples); now there is Grisez’s.
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Nature, Sex, And Person In Thomistic Thought

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Nature, Sex, and Person in Thomistic Thought

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
Vol.s XXIV-XXV
1999-2000
Christendom College

Certain Catholic feminists of philosophical bent have criticized a strand of Catholic thought as positing in effect two natures of human beings. Sr. Mary Aquin O’Neill, for example, says the Catholic view of complementarity between the sexes has invented a male nature and a female nature.[1] Mary J. Buckley repeats this charge.[2] Both accuse the tradition of arriving at this error by “extrapolating meanings from the male and female bodies” and thus mistakenly attributing culturally-based gender differentiations to human nature itself. Sr. O’Neill seems to prefer an androgynous view of human capability and a biological view of what is “natural” to us. Mary Buckley demands that all talk of “constant” or “fixed” human nature be replaced by a “transformative model,” as she calls it, in which the core of humanity is sheer freedom. The aim of this paper is to show that the Thomistic account of human nature does not commit the mistake the feminist philosophers allege and avoids both of the disastrous (and conflicting) reductionisms into which they fall. Man qua man is one nature, for St. Thomas, not two; yet this one nature is neither pure biology nor pure freedom.

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Church Teaching Against Contraception Prior To 1054

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Church Teaching against Contraception prior to 1054

W. H. Marshner

1. General comment.

People do not receive moral instruction about things that hardly anyone tries to do. And people do not try to do what they do not believe they can do.

It must be hard for modern Americans to believe it, but there was a time when “birth control” was not a thing commonly attempted by people, nor a frequent topic in Christian instruction. In fact, that time lasted from antiquity to the end of the 19th century. Continue reading “Church Teaching Against Contraception Prior To 1054”

Don Federico: Presente!

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Don Federico: Presente!

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

FAITH AND REASON
Vol. XXII, No. 4
Winter 1996

Fritz Wilhelmsen and Bernard Lonergan first met in a hotel bar at an American Catholic Philosophical Association convention forty-some years ago. Lonergan was already glued to a barstool when Fritz came in and headed for a seat several stools away. The brash young author of Man ‘s Knowledge of Reality had recognized the author of Insight but didn’t think that the converse held. He sat down quietly, not desiring an “encounter.” But after a few minutes Lonergan swiveled around and fixed eyes on him. “You don’t like my stuff, do you?”

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Can A Couple Practicing NFP Be Practicing Contraception?

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Can A Couple Practicing NFP Be Practicing Contraception?

W.H. MARSHNER

GREGORIANUM
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSITAS GREGORIANA ROMA
Vol. 77, Fasc. 4, 1996

Among Catholics who follow the Church’s teaching, it is well accepted that a couple practicing Natural Family Planning (NFP) with an intention of a certain kind is doing a morally good act, quite different from contracepting. It is also accepted that a couple practicing NFP with an intention of a different kind is doing a morally wrong act, similar to contracepting.[1] These two intentions — how exactly do they differ?
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Aquinas on the Evaluation of Human Actions

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AQUINAS ON THE EVALUATION OF HUMAN ACTIONS

BY William H. Marshner

Christendom College
Front Royal, Virginia
[Reprinted from The Thomist, 59, 3, July, 1995]

Among the questions dealt with in the Prima Secundae are those of what moral goodness “is” and on what basis it is attributed to some human actions but denied of others. Aquinas’s answers are currently a matter of contention between the proportionalists and their critics, as is his answer to the question of how human actions are classified. Continue reading “Aquinas on the Evaluation of Human Actions”

“What Still Divides Us?” Debate

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A high-powered Catholic/Protestant debate! Held before an audience of over 1,000 people at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, California in March, 1995.

Dr. William Marshner joins Patrick Madrid and Bob Sungenis, a team of three Catholic apologists, against a three-man team of Protestant apologists: Dr. Robert Godfrey (Calvinist; president of Westminster Theological Seminary, Escondido), Dr. Rod Rosenbladt (Lutheran; professor of theology, Scripture, and apologetics at Concordia University), and Dr. Michael Horton (Reformed Episcopalian; author and host of “The White Horse Inn” radio show).
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Rahner’s Basic Stencil

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Rahner’s Basic Stencil

W. H. Marshner

0.0 The following text is a hypothesis as to how the late Karl Rahner, S.J., applied in his theology a certain fixed pattern in construing the mysteries of the Faith. I call this pattern his stencil. Under my hypothesis, certain conceptual moves distinctive of his theology were made so as to put him in a position to apply the stencil. By its repeated applications he was able to impose upon the mysteries both a far-reaching isomorphism and a transcendental meaning. The first and basic application was as follows.

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Veritatis Splendor Outshines Dissenters

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Veritatis Splendor Outshines Dissenters

W. H. Marshner

Human Life International
Volume II, Number 12
December 1993

Superlatives are rash, but I am going to risk two: Veritatis splendor is the most comprehensive teaching on morality in the entire history of the Holy See, and it is the most important papal encyclical since Vatican II.

My first superlative can be proved. The second is trickier. Richard McCormick, S.J., has told the readers of America that he is betting on the future. History will bury this encyclical, he thinks, as it has long since buried the warnings of Pius XII against “new theology.” Well, this writer is prepared to bet on the other side, and I’ll match any sum Fr. McCormick is prepared to put up. I’ll bet that in ten years the doctrine of John Paul II will be triumphant in the Church, and the “proportionalism” of McCormick will be well on its way to oblivion.

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Concept, Judgment, and Dogmatic Relativism

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Concept, Judgment, and Dogmatic Relativism

W. H. Marshner

1993

It is a central claim of Christianity that certain teachings formulated in the Mediterranean world two thousand years ago are divinely revealed. It is also a central claim that this revelation has been grasped and repeated ever since as the “same Gospel” — an achievement which heresies did not prevent and from which legitimate developments did not detract.

Traditionally, these two claims have been understood to demand the following explanation: the expressions used in formulating the original teachings have been understood within the main body of the Church with enough invariance, over all the intervening centuries and in widely different civilizations, to ensure that the “same doctrine” has been handed down.[1] Continue reading “Concept, Judgment, and Dogmatic Relativism”

Translation of The Twenty-Four Thomistic Theses

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The Twenty four Thomistic Theses

Newly translated and annotated by

W. H. Marshner

Decree of the Sacred Congregation for Studies
July 27, 1914

1. Act and potency divide the set of beings in such a way that anything which “is” has to be either (1) pure act or else (2) a combination of potency and act, having these as the primordial factors within it.[1]

2. Since anything’s “act” is a completion it has, act is limited only by a potency which is the thing’s capacity for being completed.[2] Hence, in any order of being where there is a “pure act,” the pure act is unlimited and unique; but wherever an act is limited and has more than one instance, it is occurring in a genuine composition with potency.
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Episcopal Conferences: A Question Of Purpose

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Episcopal Conferences: A Question of Purpose

W. H. Marshner

Episcopal conferences grew up with little or no theory behind them. Invented here and there for local reasons, they were marked off from synods and councils by expensive traits: the bishops had to meet on an annual schedule, with by-laws and elected officers, and with the interim support of a permanent staff. Everything seemed affordable in the golden years of Pius XII and John XXIII, and so the creation of more conferences was strongly recommended at Vatican II (especially in the decree Christus Dominus). Before long about a hundred of them had come into existence throughout the world.

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A Tale Of Two Beatitudes

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Reviews: A Tale of Two Beatitudes

Review of Russell Hittinger, A Critique of the New Natural Law Theory (Notre Dame, 1987), 232 pp.

By W. H. MARSHNER

FAITH AND REASON
Vol. XVI, No. 2
Summer 1990

The job of ethics is to tell us which actions are right and wrong, while the job of a “grounding” for ethics is to tell us why. For example, a “grounding” might show that right actions measure up to something, and the wrong ones don’t, and then tell us why this measure matters. Different kinds of grounding have been tried in the history of ethics; one is called “natural law” theory, and the three authors at issue in this review — Thomas Aquinas, Germain Grisez, and Russell Hittinger — all favor some version of it.
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Three Problems in Calvinism

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Three Problems in Calvinism

W. H. Marshner

Suppose God pulls me up by my armpits to make me stand. If my legs stay jelly, does He succeed in making me stand? No. My muscles and sinews must become such that, in real terms, I am standing on them. The same is true when we take ‘stand’ more broadly to refer to our being alive and upright before God spiritually. God lifts me up by His grace to make me alive and upright. If my inner faculties remain dead as doornails, does He succeed in making me alive? If they remain utterly prostrate in sin, does He succeed in making me stand? No. My mind and will must be-come such that, in real terms, I am living-for-God in them. This point Calvinism recognizes (against Luther) and rightly so: in those whom He is saving, God accomplishes a real work of sanctification.

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Letter To Doris Gordon

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Letter To Doris Gordon

W. H. Marshner

May 3, 1990

Dear Miss Gordon:

I have reviewed the material published by Libertarians for Life, including your brochure entitled, “A Wrong. Not a Right: An Atheist Libertarian Looks at Abortion,” and the one entitled “Abortion and the Question of the Person,” by John Walker. In light of these, I have reviewed the correspondence between you and William F. Buckley, Jr.

Before detailing points of contention, let me concur in Mr. Buckley’s overall commendation of the LFL material. It is lucid and deserves to be persuasive. I particularly think that your use of premises drawn from the obligation of parents toward their dependent children, combined with the fact that the existence of such children is a consequence for which the parents are responsible, represents a fresh and important line of justification for the pro-life position. Perhaps you will allow me to illustrate.
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Episcopal Conferences And Teaching Authority

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EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES AND TEACHING AUTHORITY

by William H. Marshner

The Light
Vol. V No. 10, October 1988
ANGELA GRIMM, Editor
The Catholic Center
721 Second Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202)546-3004
A Non-Profit, Tax-Exempt Educational Organization

A key item on the agenda of the meeting of the U.S. bishops next month is the Vatican’s draft guidelines on the theological and juridical nature of episcopal conferences. The central question up for debate is whether episcopal conferences, such as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, possess any magisterial teaching authority of their own.
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The Counterfeits Of Transcendence

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The Counterfeits of Transcendence

W. H. Marshner

Cultural Conservative Policy Insights
721 Second Street N.E., Washington, D.C 20002
(202) 546-3004
Institute for Cultural Conservatism Policy Insight Number Three
May 12, 1988

Cultural Conservative Policy Insights is published by the Institute for Cultural Conservatism, a division of The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, Inc, a non-profit tax-exempt educational organization, nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the view of the Institute for Cultural Conservatism or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress.

In a previous policy insight, entitled “Cultural Conservatism and Transcendent Norms,” it was argued that a high understanding of right and wrong is implicit in the stance of cultural conservatives.

The present essay takes the argument a step further. It deals with the problems of moral relativism, because the relativist position is often based on ideas about culture. Challenging those ideas will expose the dangers which emerge when transcendence is misallocated to sheer “human consciousness,” or to the alleged future of our consciousness, and when transcendent right and wrong are thereby mismanaged. In the hands of cultural radicals, the mismanagement is common and multifarious.

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