I am grateful to Nathaniel Peters for his in-depth review of my book, The Mortara Case and Thomas Aquinas’s Defense of Jewish Parental Authority (The Catholic University of America Press, 2025).
www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2026/03/1005...
Today I received copies of my new book, which I have been working on for the last seven years. Many colleagues, friends, and institutions provided assistance along the way. For those interested, you can read more about it here:
www.cuapress.org/978081323874...
I think I will have to call you Dr. Gnocchi for the rest of your life.
Wow.
beyond the will of those in power, since such a criterion, in given circumstances, could be used to judge their actions. This explains why totalitarianism attempts to destroy the Church, or at least to reduce her to submission, making her an instrument of its own ideological apparatus." Cent Ann 45
"The culture and praxis of totalitarianism also involve a rejection of the Church. The State or the party which claims to be able to lead history towards perfect goodness, and which sets itself above all values, cannot tolerate the affirmation of an objective criterion of good and evil...
"Not even the majority of a social body may violate these rights, by going against the minority, by isolating, oppressing, or exploiting it, or by attempting to annihilate it." Centesimus Annus, St. John Paul II
"The root of modern totalitarianism is to be found in the denial of the transcendent dignity of the human person who, as the visible image of the invisible God, is therefore by his very nature the subject of rights which no one may violate — no individual, group, class, nation or State."
Stations of the Cross for Overcoming Racism
www.usccb.org/resources/st...
"…[T]he very doctrine of catholic doctors derives its authority from the Church. Hence we ought to abide by the authority of the Church rather than by that of an Augustine or a Jerome or of any doctor whatever.” ST II-II 10.12 co
A full-time visiting faculty position is available at Saint Leo University’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, beginning fall 2025: the Cohn Visiting Chair in Jewish Thought, Assistant Director of the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies
myemail.constantcontact.com/CCJS-Invites...
Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, Dean of Philosophy the Philosophy Faculty at the Pontifical University of
Saint Thomas Aquinas, and former secretary general of the Vatican’s International Theological
Commission
My forthcoming book on the Mortara Case as it relates to Aquinas’s thought was endorsed by Fr. Serge Bonino, OP. His endorsement is in the comments below.
www.cuapress.org/978081323874...
I'm looking forward to joining this important conversation next week. forum2024.nd.edu/events/2025/...
The Challenge of Catholic-Jewish Theological Dialogue, which I co-edited with Alan Brill and Matthew Levering, arrived today. I’m so grateful to the fine scholars who contributed essays, and I hope the volume advances the conversation. www.cuapress.org/978081323898...
Read the CCJS Statement on the U.S. President's Declaration to Transfer Palestinians from Gaza
conta.cc/4hQ01Sk
Reviewing the typeset pages of my forthcoming book, The Mortara Case and Thomas Aquinas’s Defense of Jewish Parental Authority.
The intellectual turning point in Augustine’s journey was his attunement to how all creatures relate to God, hearing them say, “We did not make ourselves." Confessions IX.10.25
...I started to think about jobs and having money when I am older, buying nice things, living the rich life, becoming possibly famous…but I started to realize if God alone constitutes the human person’s happiness, no created good can constitute my happiness, as Aquinas states."
This quote from one of my undergraduate students shows that our study of Aquinas's modification of Aristotle's account of happiness was fruitful: "God alone constitutes the human person’s happiness...
Looking forward to this program featuring @vjbarnett
Unpacking Bonhoeffer’s Legacy Today
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Online Via Zoom
icjs.org/events/unpac...
"Scholars of Jewish-Christian relations, working in a field committed to dialogue and interreligious learning, will benefit greatly from this book."
- Adam Gregerman, Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA www.cuapress.org/978081323898...
It was an honor to deliver a lecture yesterday at a special conference organized by the Association of Italian Friends of the University of Jerusalem. The meeting was held at the Shoah Memorial in Milan.
Correct. Aquinas says there is no spiritual benefit (I.e. no longer efficacious for sanctifying grace) after the passion. However, it does not mean that there is no longer a theological significance to the ongoing observation of the rites which I make clearer in the forthcoming chapter.
In his defense of "outward" Judaism, which he takes to mean circumcision, Aquinas undermines the cessatio
legalium tradition and resists the relativizing force of Gal. 5:2, which he thinks teaches that circumcision is superfluous. See p. 179-181. This part is more important than the 9:4-5 comments.
I should also say, as I do in the 2014 book, that his high view of the theological status of Jewish worship after Christ is most clearly evident in his handling of the question of “outward” Judaism in Rom 2–3.
In my chapter on Rom. 11:25-6 in the forthcoming book, Challenge of Catholic-Jewish Theological Dialogue, I point out texts that indicate this. So, my view has developed a bit. Happy to chat more about this!
In his comments on 9:4-5, Aquinas speaks of prerogatives of Israel that include figures of spiritual benefit but in those comments he thinks the benefits are ultimately transferred to the Church. However, other places in his thought indicate an ongoing, positive figuring function of ceremonial law.
