A New Earth: David Bentley Hart responds to Edward Feser

David Bentley Hart's essay (much of it tongue in cheek) declaring that animals may experience heaven met with a characteristically humorless and extravagantly verbose series of responses from Edward Feser. (1, 2, 3)

Hart has responded in his "Back Page" feature in First Things. The article, "Romans 8:19-22" is behind a paywall, but here are a few choice excerpts:

Of the few things I can say about Edward Feser with any confidence, perhaps the most obvious are that he is an adherent of The [Thomist] System, that he is one of its more uncompromising advocates in popular Christian apologetics, and that he is valiant (if not always subtle) in attacking any deviation from the vision of reality it promotes. To this, I can subjoin the observation that, like many guardians of The System, he exhibits a severely limited knowledge of the larger Christian intellectual tradition, and so does not always recognize it when it comes into conflict with certain of The System's principles....

Thomas M. Cothran is now blogging at www.thomasmcothran.com. The rest of this article may be viewed at www.thomasmcothran.com/hart-feser-animals-heaven/.

Being, Beings and God: A Few Thoughts on an Ongoing Debate

Dale Tuggy and William Vallicella have been debating whether God is a "being among beings" in a series of blog posts. Fr. Aiden Kimel has also weighed in. Tuggy posted a timeline of the debate, which appears to include everything except his most recent response.

It's an interesting debate for a number of reasons. It involves some of the most fundamental issues in metaphysics and theology. The debate is timely, because it is often said that the new atheist movement falsely supposes that God is a being among beings. It is striking to see someone on the theistic side of the fence defend a flat sort of ontology against the radical ontological distinctions that have been traditionally drawn.

I won't summarize the debate. Interested readers should just read through it chronologically. But perhaps a few comments on Tuggy's most recent response are in order. 

Is There Such A Thing As Aristotelian-Thomism?

Is there such a thing as an Aristotelian-Thomist tradition? There are a number of philosophers at present who claim to belong to an Aristotelian-Thomist tradition (or A-T), such as Edward Feser, Benedict Ashley, and Charles De Koninck.

It is, of course, true that Aquinas was heavily influenced by Aristotle. Nevertheless, it is not the case that Aristotle and Aquinas were in agreement on all the important fundamentals. Aristotle should not be read as a proto-Thomist, nor Aquinas as a Christian Aristotle. Aquinas sided with the Platonist tradition against Aristotle on some of the most fundamental issues, and Aristotle's own views are often much different than what Thomists make of him.

Aristotle is not a Thomist, Primitive or Otherwise

I'll begin briefly with the mistake of reading Aristotle as a proto-Thomist. It is striking that Aristotle's ousia continues to be referred to as "substance." This is a mistranslation that tends to lead to misunderstanding. Substance etymologically refers to what "stands under" and does not evince the direct relation to being in the manner of ousia. The colloquial notion of "substance" as matter only intensifies this pre-existent problem. Interestingly, earlier Latin translators used "essentia" to translate ousia.