Neo-scholasticism

Neo-scholasticism (also known as neo-scholastic Thomism[1] or neo-Thomism because of the great influence of the writings of Thomas Aquinas on the movement) is a revival and development of medieval scholasticism in Catholic theology and philosophy which began in the second half of the 19th century.

"[3] A further idea of the longstanding historic continuity of Dominican scholasticism and neo-scholasticism may be derived from the list of people associated with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

In the mid-19th century, interest in scholastic thought began once again to flourish, in large part in reaction against Modernism inspired by thinkers such as René Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel, whose principles were perceived to conflict with Christian dogma.

"[7] The influential German Jesuit Joseph Kleutgen (1811–83), who taught at Rome, argued that post-Cartesian philosophy undermined Catholic theology, and that its remedy was the Aristotelian scientific method of Aquinas.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and the proclamation of papal infallibility (1870) all heralded a move away from Modernist ideas.

[9] The most decisive impetus was Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Aeterni Patris of 4 August 1879, which set out and strongly endorsed the principles of neo-scholasticism, calling for "Christian philosophy to be restored according to the spirit of St Thomas".

"Neo-Scholasticism is characterized by systematic investigation, analytical rigor, clear terminology, and argumentation that proceeds from first principles, chief among them that objective truth is both real and knowable.

Each substance is in its nature fixed and determined; and Scholasticism excludes a theory of evolution which would regard even the essences of things as products of change.

The movement spread outside Italy, finding supporters in Germany,[14] Spain,[15] the Netherlands,[16] Belgium,[17] England,[18] Switzerland,[19] France,[20] Hungary,[21] the United States,[22] Argentina,[23] Mexico,[24] Brazil[25] and Australia.

[26] At Louvain in Belgium (then still a francophone university), Leo XIII in 1891 established the Institut de philosophie to teach the doctrine of Aquinas together with history and the natural sciences.

Two months later, he issued the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, in which he unequivocally condemned the agnosticism, immanentism, and relativism of Modernism as the 'synthesis of all heresies'.

In 1917, the Church's new Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici) insisted that the doctrine, methods, and principles of Thomas should be used in teaching philosophy and theology.

[29] Thomist thought therefore became the basis of the manuals and textbooks in Catholic colleges and seminaries before Vatican II, and was promoted also to the laity.

Gilson and Maritain in particular taught and lectured throughout Europe and North America, influencing a generation of English-speaking Catholic philosophers.

Some relatively recent proponents are treated in Battista Mondin's Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti (2002), which treats Carlo Giacon (1900–1984), Sofia Vanni Rovighi (1908–1990), Cornelio Fabro (1911–1995), Carlo Giacon (1900–1984),[32] Tomáš Týn (1950–1990), Abelardo Lobato (1925–2012), Leo Elders (1926–2019), and Enrico Berti (1935–2022), among others.

[1] Anglophone theologians such as Edward Feser, Ralph McInerny, Brian Davies have defended a contemporary revival of traditional neo-scholastic Thomistic metaphysics in response to modern philosophy.