Thomas Aquinas and Church Fathers

The rehabilitation of tradition, as developed in its most influential form by Gadamer, occurred simultaneously with the rediscovery of the patristic sources of the most influential Christian thinkers. This Ressourcement movement in theology, beginning in the first half of the twentieth century, argued for the importance of a renewed interest of patristic authors and texts in order to understand the Christian faith.

Simultaneously, scholars of the works of Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) began to approach his works from a similarly historically-oriented perspective, reading his works as a series of philosophical and theological reflections in which Aquinas progressed over the years, in significant part due to Aquinas’ own active search for and renewed understanding of the patristic sources.

This commitment and interaction between tradition and speculative reason has led some to claim Aquinas’ theology might be characterized as “being ad mentem patrum”. The details of this undertaking, however, remain to be researched.

The primary objective of this conference is to increase our knowledge of the patristic sources of Thomas Aquinas and of the way in which Aquinas used these sources in developing his own position.

The keynote and other main lectures will be given by Serge-Thomas Bonino O.P. (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome), Carmelo Conticello (CNRS-Paris), Dominic Legge O.P. (Dominican House of Studies, Washington D.C.), Enrique Alarcón (University of Navarra, Pamplona), Paul van Geest (Tilburg University) and Martin Morard (CNRS – Paris).

Organizing committee:

Dr. Piotr Roszak, Dr. Jörgen Vijgen (principal organizers)