On Being a Thomist
Cornelius Ernst's Meta-Theology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21363639 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oliver James Keenan (0000-0002-4147-3256, College of Menominee Nation, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue | 1101 |
| Pages | 795-814 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Blackfriars (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0028-4289 • E-ISSN: 1741-2005 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/nbfr.12686 |
| OpenAlex | W3207079915 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
Thomism is a contested category that exhibits considerable plasticity in its application. An examination of the role played by such invocations of proper names in contemporary theological discourse indicates the importance of textual accessibility and engagement. The role played by texts is examined in terms of an often-elided distinction between ‘intelligibility’ and ‘readability’, with the former aligned with propositional contents and the latter a more expansive attentiveness to the text's performative operations. The historical remoteness of Aquinas coupled with the importation into theology of secularised reading strategies is seen to have alienated the full readability of Aquinas's texts. Acting against Cartesian modes of reading, Cornelius Ernst's re-performance of Thomistic pedagogy as ‘engaged contemplation’ is concerned to enact a horizon of meaning within which Aquinas's texts retain enduring readability. This article develops Ernst's Thomistic meta-theology into an account of Thomism as ‘meta-reading’. On this account, authentic Thomism involves the intentional cultivation of a total human culture, within which the inherently theological discipline of textual engagement exercises a quasi-liturgical function
Art · Contemplation · Epistemology · Immediacy · Intelligibility (philosophy) · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Readability · Reading (process) · Sociology · Theology · Thomism · Medieval Literature and History · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |