The Natural Desire to See God

A little while ago, I mentioned a couple of books that I had spotted concerned with the twentieth century controversy over Henri de Lubac’s thesis on the supernatural.

I couldn’t resist, and these books have now arrived from over the seas (unfortunately, Sapientia Press doesn’t appear to have a UK distributor, so they have to be ordered from the US). I have already thrown myself straight into the first one as it looks utterly fascinating.

Lawrence Feingold, "Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas and His Interpreters" 2nd Edition. Sapientia Press.

The first edition of this book is already famous for the controversy that it has reignited. For example, John Millbank described it as “arch-reactionary” in his interesting, but sadly shallow, “The Suspended Middle”

I don’t pretend to be qualified to offer an adequate review of this book, but I thought I might offer a few reflections on some of the themes it discusses as I come across them. Like the controversy de auxiliis of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the controversy over the supernatural is bound to run and run! I’ll start in the next post with a general introduction to what the controversy is about.

More New Books

While wandering around the web, I came across these two titles on the website of Sapientia Press that should be of interest to any card carrying Thomist!

Lawrence Feingold, "Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas and His Interpreters"

Serge-Thomas Bonino (ed.), Surnaturel: A Controversy at the Heart of Twentieth-Century Thomistic Thought

I presume that the Feingold book is a reprint or new edition of his Angelicum thesis. This has been much talked about and very hard to obtain, so this edition is much to be welcomed. Bonino's book promises to be a useful collection of essays on the same topic.

A New Book on Gregorian Chant

David Hiley's "Western Plainchant" has long been seen as an authoritive resource. I've just noticed that he has a new textbook at a more introductory level called "Gregorian Chant". It should be good; I'll find out in a few days...

Books on Aquinas

Over at the other place, I've given some suggestions for books on Aquinas and on some of the philosophical background that it's useful to have when reading Aquinas. You can find these suggestions here, here and here.

Another good place to look is Edward Feser's blog. In particular, he has a series for anyone wanting to build a Scholastic's bookshelf. You can find these posts here, here and here.