THE THOMIST - CURRENT ISSUE

* Previous issues of The Thomist can be accessed electronically through Project Muse.

Volume 90, Number 1 (January 2026)

Articles

"A Most Fruitful Understanding of the Mysteries": William of Auxerre on the Nature of Theology

Abstract: With his Summa Aurea ("Golden Summa"), William Auxerre, was a pioneering secular (i.e., non-mendicant) master at the University of Paris in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Though typically eclipsed by a more famous, younger generation of scholastic masters at Paris, including Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and, of course, Sts. Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, William made important, seminal contributions to the emerging mode of scholastic theology, including its scientific character and its systematic presentation. But William also strove to hold on to older theological traditions, which viewed theology as both the pursuit of sapiential insight into the coherence and fittingness of its overarching account of reality and also as having a contemplative, indeed experiential telos. In these ways, William's theology stands as a kind of transition and watershed moment, which merits greater scholarly appreciation.

pp. 1-48

Aquinas on Responsibility for Effects and Moral Luck

Jordan McFadden

Abstract: In this essay, I clarify in which cases Aquinas ascribes responsibility to agents for the effects of their human acts. In doing so, I elucidate the nature of the per se and per accidens effects of human acts. I argue that not all per se effects of human acts are intended; nor do they all follow for the most part. Rather, a per seeffect of a human act is what follows from the intrinsic teleology of an act when brought to bear upon a certain patient. Furthermore, I argue that Aquinas's attribution of responsibility to some effects of human acts, combined with his views on the non-necessitation of causes, entails that he is committed to resultant moral luck.

pp. 49-78

Aquinas and the Renewal of Religious Life: An Exploration of the Five Principles of Perfectae Caritatis

Thomas Aquinas Pickett O.P.

Abstract: The renewal of religious life called for by the Second Vatican Council in its decree Perfectae Caritatisis meant to be a continuous, constant reality. This article explores the five principles of such renewal drawing from the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. It argues that (1) exemplar causality can illuminate the following of Christ; (2) the ordering of ends to charity can clarify and support the special work and characteristics of religious orders; (3) the Eucharist is the source for religious to share in the life of the Church; (4) Aquinas's understanding of the relation between nature and grace can bolster the ability of religious to judge and act wisely; (5) the virtue of penance is integral to any project of spiritual renewal. This article shows, therefore, the continued vibrance of Thomistic thought for the theology of religious life.

pp. 79-106

Book Symposium: The Oxford Handbook of Deification

Reconsidering Scriptural Perspectives on Deification

Michael J. Gorman

pp. 107-118

Anthropoieisis or Theopoieisis?: Deification in the Patristic Church

J. Warren Smith

pp. 119-128

Deification: Three Observations on its Understanding

Rowan Williams

pp. 129-137

Ecumenism and the Theology of Deification: Quo Vadis?