Sorry for the long hiatus. I will be blogging more regularly from now on.
I have just ordered a copy of Fran O'Roark's Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas, published in 2005.
The Aristotelian focus that Etienne Gilson and his disciples have emphasized receives a fair balance by more recent scholarship on the Neo-Platonic aspect of St. Thomas' work. Here O'Roark pays special attention to the way that St. Thomas tries to harmonize the Dionysian tradition with the new learning brought about by an Aristotelian renaissance, and how the two do not contradict each other. Given Pseudo-Dionysius' dominance in the faculties of theology in the burgeoning universities of the West, it is no wonder that St. Thomas should pay such detailed attention to the ways in which Dionysius and Aristotle engage in a conversation in his Christian metaphysics. We must keep in mind that in the medieval universities, disagreeing with the Areopagite was just not done.
I will be interested in seeing how the issue of being and existence is seen within the broader Dionysian vision of the chain of being and the various cosmic hierarchical perfections. How does the Dionysian notion of the chain of being, and the apophaticism it ultimately comes to, contribute to a robust Thomistic notion of natural law?
Stay tuned!
