In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Thomas Aquinas on the Priesthood:Temple, Allegory, and the Humanities of Christ*Reginald M. Lynch O.P.In this lecture, I will examine Aquinas's approach to the concept of priesthood and its place in the economy of salvation, drawing upon Aquinas's systematic presentation of Christ's priesthood and sacramental priesthood within the Church, as well as the figural representation of these incarnational and ecclesial realities within the liturgical world of the Mosaic covenant. (...) Theologically considered, in the context of the New Law Aquinas's notion of priesthood in the Church begins with Christ, then extending to the members of the Church in Baptism, and in a special sense to those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. In the case of both Christ himself and the Church's membership, however, the concept of priesthood is fundamentally associated with human nature, both soteriologically and anthropologically considered: human persons have at once a need for a salvation that can come only from Christ and a corresponding need to give fitting worship to God that likewise finds its fulfillment in Christ alone. The concept of priesthood, concretized and perfected in the priesthood of Christ, provides for the actualization of these same dimensions of human nature.Beginning with his treatment of Christ's priesthood in the tertia pars of the Summa theologiae (ST), in the first part of this essay I will explore the [End Page 789] broader systematic context in which Aquinas's account of Christ's priesthood should be understood, focusing in particular on the necessity of sacra doctrina and the Incarnation for the salvation of human nature, and the specific capacity of human nature for sacrificial, and ultimately priestly, acts in relation to God. Following this, in the second section I will examine the figural role of Christ's priesthood under the Mosaic Law. Although the Church now lives in the full reality of what was only foreshadowed in the Old Law, Aquinas's description of the figurative sense of this law—which is surprisingly rich—gives us a picture of the full ecclesial implications of Christ's priesthood in relation to the people that Aquinas describes in his systematic treatment of Christ's priesthood in ST III. Perhaps because of the correspondence between its literal sense and the scope of the natural law, the figurative treatment of Christ's priestly role in relation to the Church that is found in these questions on the Old Law provides a profound account of the elevation of human nature in the context of Christ's offering. First in outward ritual actions and then within human nature itself, Christ's realization of what is held in figure under the Old Law's letter offers a powerful account of the personal and social implications of Christ's singular sacrifice, understood as an offering made first in his humanity, and subsequently in ours by participation.Lastly, in my third and final section, I will return to priesthood within the Church as it is described in the tertia pars, exploring the baptismal priesthood and the ordained priesthood in relation to the priesthood of Christ. In each of these three sections, the divinizing relationship between the assumed humanity of Christ and the humanity of those who participate in his body will remain a point of emphasis, contextualized accordingly in each section. Beginning from the heart of Aquinas's sapiential treatment of Christ's priesthood in relation to the reality of the Incarnation, I hope to show not only that these same principals are reflected in Aquinas's treatment of Old Testament figures, but that the figurative dimension of these previous epochs of salvation history in fact provide a living illustration of Christ's priestly relationship with human nature in the context of the Church—because Christ is a priest, something foreshadowed in the Old Law and in the law of nature itself is fulfilled, and the image of God is restored in the rational creature.Christ's PriesthoodIn ST III, q. 22, a. 1, Aquinas offers a general definition of the priesthood, in the context of his description of the priesthood of Jesus Christ: "The office proper to a priest is to be a mediator... (shrink)

This article criticizes Mathias Risse and Richard Zeckhauser's recent utilitarian defense of racial profiling. I use a novel thought-experiment to argue that even if a negative phenomenon could be reduced by profiling members of certain groups who happen to be disproportionately associated with it, the practice can be implausible. Specifically, I explore the possibility that in a given society, platinum blondes have a higher per capita incidence of a serious sexually transmitted disease, D. And I argue that doctors and health (...) officials in the society would not be justified in profiling such blondes, given that there is nothing about being a platinum blonde that causes one to have D. (shrink)

Rape is an important topic in feminist philosophy and the real world. This paper argues that three influential feminists understate the gravity and brutality of rape. They are Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and Rae Langton. I also propose an alternative analysis of rape that captures its appalling nature. Dworkin and MacKinnon construe rape as something that actors in pornography, with notoriously poor acting skills, can portray as pleasurable. Langton construes rape as a kind of sex act: as sex that is (...) “unwanted,” “unconsensual,” “refused,” or “forced.” I argue that rape and sex are categorically distinct. Rape is an act of violence, not an act of sex. I argue that rape occurs when 1) the genitals, fingers, or hands of one subject, or a foreign object, penetrate the genitals or anus of another subject and 2) one subject (the victim): (a) refuses to penetrate the other’s genitals or anus with one’s genitals, (b) refuses to have one’s genitals or anus penetrated by the other’s genitals, fingers, or hands, or a foreign object; or (c) is incapable of thus refusing (e.g., because one is unconscious, dissociating, or suffering debilitating fear). (shrink)

The human face conveys a myriad of social meanings within an overlapping array of features. Herein, we examine such features within the context of gender-emotion stereotypes. First we detail the pervasive set of gender-emotion expectations known to exist. We then review new research revealing that gender cues and emotion expression often share physical properties that represent a confound of overlapping features characteristic of low versus high facial maturity/dominance. As such, gender-related facial appearance and facial expression of emotions often share social (...) meaning and physical resemblance. Thus, stereotypic and phenotypic information conveyed by the face are intertwined—sometimes confounded, sometimes clashing. We discuss implications of this work for gender-emotion stereotypes, as well as for emotion and face processing more generally. (shrink)

Mettre à la question l’éthique de Heidegger, c’est répondre à l’impossibilité d’en dire le fondement dans les termes de ses propres préoccupations thématiques. Car si l’éthique évoque une « patrie » du Dasein, celui-ci demeure tragiquement étranger à son appel. Étrangeté entretenue par un inextricable conflit du langage et de l’Être, ainsi que due au privilège de la « mortalité » sur la puissance créatrice de la « natalité ». D’où une lecture de cette « analytique des ultimes » dont (...) est porteur le texte Des Hégémonies brisées. Lecture qui ne gage du reste pas du succès d’une éthique « heideggérienne », mais ouvre la voie vers une reprise fondationnelle du rapport du Dasein à son éthique. (shrink)

Biblical ethics -- The insights of history.

This paper argues that illegal migrant laborers who are currently in the United States should be granted permanent residency if they have contributed to its economy for a certain period of time, which I will not attempt to specify, and if they have not committed any serious crimes in the country . My argument is theoretical and tentative. For some of my points would benefit from empirical support, but there are no definitive statistics on the relevant issues. The aim, accordingly, (...) is to create a framework, and I hope a demand, for empirical investigations of illegal immigration that could lend factual support to my claims. (shrink)

In the permissive society of today, where vice is so often paraded as virtue and where the sense of moral obligation is feeble, it is time for the church, following the lead of the New Testament, to restore the Decalogue to a prominent place in its liturgy and catechism.

In this article, I suggest that exclusive attention to questions of individual moral responsibility for the killing of Vietnamese civilians in raids on My Lai and Thanh Phong (March 16, 1968, and February 24.25, 1969, respectively), while important, may serve only to silence equally important ethical questions like: Are these cases genocide and mass murder? What does the response or lack thereof of the American government and public to these events tell us about our quest for justice? If we cannot (...) ascertain a reliable account of the facts, does this relegate such actions to meaninglessness? What role does memory play in our representation of horror as well as our memorializing the past? Do we have to be both victims and executioners or can we, in Albert Camus.s words, become “neither victims nor executioners”? My point is that the relevance of this issue is less about returning to the past and assigning guilt and moral culpability and more about the pragmatic-ethical concern of addressing the conditions that make such actions possible. (shrink)

Short inspirational selections from the great masters of Tibetan Buddhism, past and present--now part of the Shambhala Pocket Library series. Here is a portable collection of inspiring readings from the revered masters of Tibetan Buddhism.The Wisdom of Tibetan Buddhismincludes quotations from major lineage figures from the past such as Padmasambhava, Atisha, Sakya Pandita, Marpa, Milarepa, and Tsongkhapa. Also featured are the writings of masters from contemporary times including the Dalai Lama, Dudjom Rinpoche, Khyentse Rinpoche, Sakya Tridzin, Chogyam Trungpa, and others. (...) Topics include cultivating compassion, letting go of ego, learning to become more alert and present in our lives, and developing a clear perception of our own true nature. This book is part of the Shambhala Pocket Library series. The Shambhala Pocket Library is a collection of short, portable teachings from notable figures across religious traditions and classic texts.The covers in this series are rendered by Colorado artist Robert Spellman.The books in this collection distill the wisdom and heart of the work Shambhala Publications has published over 50 years into a compactformat that is collectible, reader-friendly, andapplicable to everyday life. (shrink)

Plato's 'Euthyphro' is important because it gives an excellent example of Socratic dialogue in operation and of the connection of that dialectic with Plato's earlier 'Theory of Forms'. This edition of the dialogue provides a translation with interspersed commentary.

Some argue that same-sex marriage is not an equal rights issue because, where same-sex marriage is illegal, heterosexuals and homosexuals have the exact same right to marry—i.e., the right to marry one adult of the opposite sex. I dispute this argument by pointing out that while societies that prohibit same-sex marriage equally permit individual heterosexuals and homosexuals to marry one adult of the opposite sex, same-sex couples in such societies are denied an important right that opposite-sex couples enjoy—i.e., the right (...) to marry. I argue that the right to marry is fundamentally, not an individual right, but a couple’s collective right, analogous to assembly rights. (shrink)

For decades the study of social perception was largely compartmentalized by type of social cue: race, gender, emotion, eye gaze, body language, facial expression etc. This was partly due to good scientific practice, and partly due to assumptions that each type of social cue was functionally distinct from others. Herein, we present a functional forecast approach to understanding compound social cue processing that emphasizes the importance of shared social affordances across various cues. We review the traditional theories of emotion and (...) face processing that argued for dissociable and noninteracting pathways, as well as more recent evidence for combinatorial processing of social cues. We argue here that early, and presumably reflexive, visual integration of such cues is necessary for adaptive behavioral responding to others. In support of this claim, we review contemporary work that reveals a flexible visual system, one that readily incorporates meaningful contextual influences in even nonsocial visual processing, thereby establishing the functional and neuroanatomical bases necessary for compound social cue integration. Finally, we explicate three likely mechanisms driving such integration. Together, this work implicates a role for cognitive penetrability in visual perceptual abilities that have often been ascribed to direct encapsulated perceptual processes. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to explore, and clarify, some key features in Aquinas’ account of the virtue of temperance, with an eye to answering some common objections raised against a positive evaluation of temperance. In particular, I consider three features of Aquinas’ understanding of temperance: First, the role of the rational mean in temperance; second, the role of rightly ordered passions in temperance; and third, the ‘despotic’ control of reason over the passions in temperance. Along the way I (...) consider three common objections to Aquinas’ account of temperance: the objection that temperance can be misused for evil, the objection that temperance devalues effort, and the objection that temperance devalues strong passions and thereby implicitly devalues the goodness of sexuality. In responding to these objections on behalf of Aquinas, I take the opportunity to clarify and slightly extend Aquinas’ account of temperance. (shrink)

Quand, en 1747, Diderot et d’Alembert reprennent la direction de l’Encyclopédie, ils héritent d’un projet conçu au départ comme une traduction de la Cyclopaedia d’Ephraïm Chambers. Celle-ci ayant laissé son empreinte sur ce qui sera présenté par la suite comme un ouvrage original, les éditeurs seront souvent amenés à revenir sur leur relation au modèle anglais. Dans les polémiques autour de la publication des premiers volumes, les emprunts à Chambers, entre autres, ont été relevés par les défenseurs de la religion, (...) qui accusaient les encyclopédistes à la fois de plagiat et d’impiété. À partir de ces remarques, cet article propose de considérer la contribution de l’abbé Mallet, l’un des premiers collaborateurs recrutés par Diderot et d’Alembert, et auteur de plusieurs centaines d’articles de l’Encyclopédie. Définir ce qui y relève de l’emprunt ou de l’invention révèle des erreurs majeures dans l’histoire de la réception de cet ouvrage, ce qui nécessite une réévaluation de son théologien principal. (shrink)

I discuss Eckhart’s and Aquinas’ conception of human-divine union with reference to what I call the problem of intrinsic goods, a problem concerning how to reconcile the pursuit of actions which are prima facie sought for their own sake (e.g. pursuing justice for the marginalized, listening to a work of music) with the pursuit of God as the ultimate end of every action. I introduce the problem with the help of Germain Grisez’s critique of Aquinas’ account of union with God, (...) and I suggest that Eckhart’s alternative conception of union may be understood as an attempt to resolve (or dissolve) the problem. (shrink)

This is all the more necessary because, more often than not, the context in which the three words occur together is a philosophical one and I do not, in these ...

Excerpts: The wider the range of a piece of research the less adequately can any one worker deal with each of its specialized aspects.