Saint Thomas and the Gentiles (Aquinas Lecture 2)

115 Pages·1985·0.37 MB·English

by  Mortimer Jerome Adler

Saint Thomas and the Gentiles Aquinas
title:
Lecture ; 1938
author: Adler, Mortimer J.
publisher: Marquette University Press
isbn10 | asin: 087462102X
print isbn13: 9780874621020
ebook isbn13: 9780585306254
language: English
Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274,
subject
Learning and scholarship, Wisdom.
publication date: 1988
lcc: B765.T54M23 1988eb
ddc: 922.245
Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274,
subject: Learning and scholarship, Wisdom.
Page i
St. Thomas and the Gentiles
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PERMISSU SUPERIORUM
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The Aquinas Lecture, 1938
Saint Thomas and the Gentiles
Under the Auspices of the Aristotelian Society of
Marquette University
by
Mortimer J. Adler
FIFTH PRINTING
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS
MILWAUKEE
1948
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COPYRIGHT, 1938
BY THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY
OF MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
First Printing March, 1938
Second Printing June, 1938
Third Printing August, 1943
Fourth Printing October 1948
Fifth Printing June, 1988
PRINTED AT THE MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
Page v
Prefatory
The Aristotelian Society of Marquette University each year invites a
scholar to deliver a lecture in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Customarily delivered on the Sunday nearest March 7th, the feast day
of the Society's patron saint, these lectures are called the Aquinas
Lectures.
This year the Aristotelian Society has the pleasure of recording the
lecture of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler, associate professor of the philosophy
of law in the University of Chicago since 1930. Dr. Adler was
instructor in psychology in Columbia University, from 1923 to 1929,
assistant director of the People's Institute, New York City during 1928
and 1929, and has been visiting lecturer at St. John's College,
Annapolis, Maryland since 1937. As
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a member of the Thomistic Institute of America and of many other
learned societies he has forcefully defended the cause of Thomistic
philosophy. Among his publications are Dialetic (New York, 1927),
Crime, Law and Social Science, in collaboration with Prof. Jerome
Michael (New York, 1933), Art and Prudence (New York, 1937), and
What Man Has Made of Man (New York, 1937). To this list the
Aristotelian Society has the honor of adding St. Thomas and the
Gentiles.
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I.
In the sixty years which have elapsed since the encyclical Aeterni
Patris, the study and teaching of the philosophy of St. Thomas
Aquinas have been pursued with increasing vigor. In works of
exposition and commentary, in polemical tracts against adversaries, in
countless panegyrics which have rivalled each other to reach the
summit of praise, and even in attempts, necessarily fewer in number,
to supplement or extend the doctrine itself, ample evidence has been
given of the vitality of a philosophy which dared to be called
perennial. It would be pleasant for us to celebrate the name and work
of St. Thomas by rejoicing in these manifestations. We could do no
more than repeat, of course, what has already been often repeated by
voices more eloquent than ours and speaking from a fuller vision than
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we have attained. If I depart from this procedure, it is not from a wish
to avoid reiteration, for that necessarily occurs when the members of a
community express to each other their common sentiments and
devotions. It is rather because I cannot help thinking of the larger
company of men who have heard the clearest voices, but have not
heeded. If they have read St. Thomas or what has been written in his
tradition, they have not discovered why it is that we rejoice. On the
contrary, the praises which might arise here would not re-echo in other
corridors of learning. We would be deaf if we did not hear a
reverberation of a different sort, an answering cry of dissidence,
almost vituperation. Let us forego, then, the pleasure of congratulating
ourselves on this anniversary of the teacher to whom we hold all men
should be disciples, to ask the unpleasant question whether our
discipleship has been at fault.
I would first be sure that you are acquainted with the facts which
cause me to invite you to join in this course of self-exami-