- Thomism, Theological Anthropology, Liberation Theology, Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic Moral Theology, and 30 moreAquinas, Moral Theology, Thomistic Moral Psychology, Medieval Studies, Anthropology of Disability, Virtues (Moral Psychology), Disability History, Disability Theory, Christian Ethics, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic Ethics, Medieval Madness and Insanity, Intellectual Disability, Francisco de Vitoria, Thomas Aquinas (Philosophy), Tomás de Aquino, Anthropology of ethics and morality, St Thomas Aquinas, Discapacidad Intelectual, Intellectual Disabilities, Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders, Disability and Theology, Theology and disability, Disability Studies and Theology, St. Thomas Aquinas, Moral Theory of Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic Psychology, Theology and Intellectual Disability, and Roman Catholic Theologyedit
- Th.D., Duke University
Th.M., Duke University
M.Div., Fuller Theological Seminary
B.A., Colorado Collegeedit
This essay aims to show why it is important to ask questions about the way Christians raise the question of disability. The central, animating concern has to do with metaphysically thin and philosophically problematic understandings of... more
This essay aims to show why it is important to ask questions about the way Christians raise the question of disability. The central, animating concern has to do with metaphysically thin and philosophically problematic understandings of disability and the way that concept is inflected within contemporary Catholic moral discourse in the areas of biomedical ethics and social theorizing. The essay has three parts. First, through the lens of Gaudium et spes, the author discusses the source of our contemporary questions about disability and related themes. Second, the author surveys overlapping ways of framing the concept disability, as formulated within biomedical ethics, American jurisprudence, the social critique from disability studies, and the sociopolitical subversion of the biomedical outlook from critical disability theorists. Third, given those contemporary frames and in conversation with Fides et ratio, the author sketches some preliminary considerations relevant to a faithfully Christian and distinctively Catholic account of disability. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 20.2 (Summer 2020): 277–310.
Research Interests: Theology, Bioethics, Disability Studies, Systematic Theology, Critical Disability Studies, and 15 moreTheological Ethics, Catholic Social Teaching, Disability Theory, Catholic Theology, Sociology of Ethics and Morality, Moral Philosophy, Roman Catholicism, Catholic Moral Theology, Faith and Reason, Theological Method, Theology and Intellectual Disability, Disability and Theology, Fides et ratio, Disability Studies and Theology, and Roman Catholic Theology
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Theology, Disability Studies, Catholic Studies, Systematic Theology, Critical Disability Studies, and 28 moreTheological Ethics, Aquinas, Anthropology of Disability, Catholic Social Teaching, Theological Anthropology, Disability Theory, Catholic Theology, Thomas Aquinas, Moral Theology, Christian Ethics, Sociology of Ethics and Morality, Cultural Disability Studies, Moral Philosophy, Aquinas' Ethics, Religion and Disability, Disability, Christian Social Ethics, Catholic Moral Theology, Disability theology, Tomás de Aquino, Theological Method, St Thomas Aquinas, Theology and Intellectual Disability, Disability and Theology, Theology and disability, Disability Studies and Theology, Theology of Disability, and Critical Disability Theory
Aquinas remarks with some regularity on persons afflicted with the condition amentia, which is variously and inconsistently interpreted (in translation) as “imbeciles,” “fools,” “madmen,” “lunatics,” “the demented,” or “the insane.” The... more
Aquinas remarks with some regularity on persons afflicted with the condition amentia, which is variously and inconsistently interpreted (in translation) as “imbeciles,” “fools,” “madmen,” “lunatics,” “the demented,” or “the insane.” The amentes are persons who lack the use of reason in a profound and debilitating way; and, as I will show, the fact that we are sometimes found in this state informs Aquinas’s analysis of human nature and, in particular, Aquinas’s teaching on the good wrought by Christ for the members of his body. My purpose in this article is to explore what Aquinas has to say about the happiness of persons who are baptized and confirmed by the Church, and who have what neuropsychologists would describe as a profound cognitive impairment. The guiding question is this: Thinking with Aquinas, how do we account for the natural and supernatural happiness of those of us who lack the use of reason?
The discussion is divided into five parts. I begin (part I) by locating those who “lack the use of reason” within the theological infrastructure of Aquinas’s moral psychology and I identify the main problematic. With respect to that problematic, the principal conceptual resources provided by Aquinas are then outlined and two challenges are identified (part II). The first challenge is methodological, concerning the speculative import of the sacramental life of the Church. Francisco de Vitoria’s ‘Relectio de eo ad quod tenetur homo veniens ad usum rationis’ (1534) highlights for us (part III) a constellation of judgments relevant to interpreting Aquinas on these themes. The second challenge is to show the continuity between Aquinas’s account of the human being and his practical remarks on those who lack the use of reason. Specifically, given the various ways that, and degrees to which, the human being can lack the use of reason, I trace (part IV) Aquinas’s analysis of the power and operation of intellect, focusing on the intellectual acts which can be impaired and, concurrently, the intellectual acts which cannot be impaired in a living human being. I conclude (part V) with a description of the path of contemplative happiness that, on Aquinas’s terms, remains open for baptized persons who, like the amentes, suffer an involuntary alienation from bodily sense and who, thereby, utterly lack the use of reason.
The discussion is divided into five parts. I begin (part I) by locating those who “lack the use of reason” within the theological infrastructure of Aquinas’s moral psychology and I identify the main problematic. With respect to that problematic, the principal conceptual resources provided by Aquinas are then outlined and two challenges are identified (part II). The first challenge is methodological, concerning the speculative import of the sacramental life of the Church. Francisco de Vitoria’s ‘Relectio de eo ad quod tenetur homo veniens ad usum rationis’ (1534) highlights for us (part III) a constellation of judgments relevant to interpreting Aquinas on these themes. The second challenge is to show the continuity between Aquinas’s account of the human being and his practical remarks on those who lack the use of reason. Specifically, given the various ways that, and degrees to which, the human being can lack the use of reason, I trace (part IV) Aquinas’s analysis of the power and operation of intellect, focusing on the intellectual acts which can be impaired and, concurrently, the intellectual acts which cannot be impaired in a living human being. I conclude (part V) with a description of the path of contemplative happiness that, on Aquinas’s terms, remains open for baptized persons who, like the amentes, suffer an involuntary alienation from bodily sense and who, thereby, utterly lack the use of reason.
Research Interests: Christianity, Moral Psychology, Media Studies, Theology, Medieval History, and 95 moreDisability Studies, Historical Theology, History of Christianity, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, Critical Disability Studies, Medieval Studies, Theological Ethics, Virtue Ethics, Aquinas, Anthropology of Disability, Virtues (Moral Psychology), Disability History, Theological Anthropology, Disability Theory, Personal and Moral Autonomy, Theology and Culture, Catholic Theology, Thomas Aquinas, History of Roman Catholicism, Moral Theology, Christian Ethics, History Of Madness And Psychiatry, Thomism, Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Moral Philosophy, Thomistic Ethics, Medieval Madness and Insanity, History of Moral Philosophy, Intellectual Disability, Free Will and Moral Responsibility, Francisco de Vitoria, Disability, Thomas Aquinas (Philosophy), Roman Catholicism, Thomistic Moral Psychology, Anthropology of ethics and morality, Catholic Moral Theology, Mental Retardation, Tomás de Aquino, Metaethics, moral psychology, Morality and Rationality, St Thomas Aquinas, Discapacidad Intelectual, Intellectual Disabilities, Aristotle and Aquinas, Theology and Intellectual Disability, Psicología Moral, Catholic Church History, Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders, Thomism, Thomas Aquinas, Medieval History, Disability and Theology, Theology and disability, Disability Studies and Theology, Severe Disablities, Moralidade, Late Medieval and Early Modern Moral Psychology, Summa Theologiae, Ethics and Morality, Cogito and the History of Madness, Thomistic Theology, Tomismo, St. Thomas Aquinas, Discapacidad, Theologia, Summa Theologica, Moral Theory of Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas on Human Action, Psicología De Tomás De Aquino, Thomas Aquinas and Psychotherapy, Personas Con Discapacidad, Aquinas on human nature and life after death, Aquinas on the order of nature, grace and glory, Thomistic Psychology, Tomas Aquinas and Psychology, Tomistic Psychology, Santo Tomás De Aquino, Studies in Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology/Metaethics, Psychologie Morale, Morality and Personhood, Comentarios De Tomás De Aquino, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Psychology Moral, Santo Tomas De Aquino, Filosofia Morale E Psicologia Della Mente, Sao Tomas De Aquino, Vitoria, Representaciones Mentales En Santo Tomás De Aquino, Tomas Aquino, Aristóteles Y Tomás De Aquino, Psicología Tomista, amentes, amentia, and amentibus
Church Life, Vol. 4, No. 4 (2014): 79-94. This essay concerns the Catholic understanding of the vocation and graced freedom that belongs to adult Christians who have a profound cognitive impairment and who have been in that condition... more
Church Life, Vol. 4, No. 4 (2014): 79-94.
This essay concerns the Catholic understanding of the vocation and graced freedom that belongs to adult Christians who have a profound cognitive impairment and who have been in that condition since birth. The article shows that Catholics have a way to think about the properly human happiness and holiness of Christians who ‘lack the use of reason.’ Integral to the Catholic account of our Life in Christ is the commonsense recognition that some people have a profound, life-long cognitive impairment. Coordinate with that recognition is the Catholic presumption that severe intellectual disability cannot alienate a person from the grace of God. On the Catholic view, no disability and no measure of cognitive impairment can undermine the sanctifying gifts and perfecting work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, in and through the sacrament of Baptism, every Christian is called to the happiness of beatitude and every Christian is made capable of the holiness called virtue.
This essay concerns the Catholic understanding of the vocation and graced freedom that belongs to adult Christians who have a profound cognitive impairment and who have been in that condition since birth. The article shows that Catholics have a way to think about the properly human happiness and holiness of Christians who ‘lack the use of reason.’ Integral to the Catholic account of our Life in Christ is the commonsense recognition that some people have a profound, life-long cognitive impairment. Coordinate with that recognition is the Catholic presumption that severe intellectual disability cannot alienate a person from the grace of God. On the Catholic view, no disability and no measure of cognitive impairment can undermine the sanctifying gifts and perfecting work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, in and through the sacrament of Baptism, every Christian is called to the happiness of beatitude and every Christian is made capable of the holiness called virtue.
Research Interests:
This article discusses the relationship between the teaching of Veritatis Splendor and the principle in Catholic social doctrine called the preferential option for the poor. The goal is to locate the common vocation to preferential love... more
This article discusses the relationship between the teaching of Veritatis Splendor and the principle in Catholic social doctrine called the preferential option for the poor. The goal is to locate the common vocation to preferential love for the poor within the anthropological and moral horizon indicated by Blessed Pope John Paul II’s encyclical. And, in that light, to reflect upon the moral implications of Jesus’s invitation to the rich young man into the perfection of charity called mercy: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor . . . then come, follow me” (Mt 19:21).
Toward that end, the morality tale Deutsches Requiem by Jorge Luis Borges highlights for us an important gesture in Veritatis Splendor regarding the virtue mercy and vicious sloth (acedia): an inchoate thesis concerning themes addressed in Pope John Paul’s encyclical Dives in Misericordia (1980) and the apostolic exhortation Salvifici Doloris (1984). Throughout, St. Thomas Aquinas will help us specify key aspects of the option for the poor in relation to Veritatis Splendor and identify some of the important work that lies ahead.
Toward that end, the morality tale Deutsches Requiem by Jorge Luis Borges highlights for us an important gesture in Veritatis Splendor regarding the virtue mercy and vicious sloth (acedia): an inchoate thesis concerning themes addressed in Pope John Paul’s encyclical Dives in Misericordia (1980) and the apostolic exhortation Salvifici Doloris (1984). Throughout, St. Thomas Aquinas will help us specify key aspects of the option for the poor in relation to Veritatis Splendor and identify some of the important work that lies ahead.
Research Interests: Virtue Ethics, Liberation Theology, Catholic Social Teaching, Jorge Luis Borges, Catholic Theology, and 17 moreTheological Aesthetics, Thomas Aquinas, Moral Theology, Aesthetics and Ethics, Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Moral Theology, Mercy, St Thomas Aquinas, Works of Mercy, St. Thomas Aquinas, Ethics of Forgiveness, Mercy and Responding to Evil, Preferential Option for the Poor, Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II, Pope Francis, Veritatis Splendor, and Seven Works of Mercy
In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI describes the Christian vocation to overcome the obstacles that hinder the establishment of authentic fraternity in the world. Through the theme integral human development, the pope maps a... more
In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI describes the Christian vocation to overcome the obstacles that hinder the establishment of authentic fraternity in the world. Through the theme integral human development, the pope maps a theological grammar for Catholic social doctrine that takes charity in truth as its principle and purpose. This understanding of charity in truth is developed in continuity with the teachings of Paul VI and John Paul II, and as an explicit continuation of the interpretive tradition of Populorum Progressio. In this essay I focus on the aspect of that interpretive tradition having to do with the theologies of liberation. My central claim is that the magisterial response to the liberation theology movement is important background for our interpretation and reception of Caritas in Veritate. In the first section of this essay I briefly introduce three texts that show the relationship between the themes “liberation,” “development,” and “authentic human advancement” in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, and I outline the figuration of those themes in anticipation of Caritas in Veritate. Second, taking my cue from Caritas in Veritate, I sketch a retrospective “doctrinal grammar” of human advancement toward authentic fraternity as it unfolds in Paul VI’s and John Paul II’s social teachings on development and liberation. In section three I describe…