Project MUSE®: Communio: International Catholic Review - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Communio: International Catholic Review.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 46 (2019) through current issueLatest Articles: Communio: International Catholic ReviewTWOProject MUSE®Communio: International Catholic Review2374-86990094-2065Latest articles in Communio: International Catholic Review. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Introduction: 800 Years of Thomas Aquinas
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986988
<p></p>
The year 2025 marks the eighth centenary of the birth of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose thought continues to stand at the center of the Christian philosophical and theological tradition. Few thinkers have articulated with greater clarity the intelligibility of being and the mind’s natural orientation toward the knowledge of God. Yet the enduring significance of Aquinas lies not only in the historical authority of his thought, but in the way his work continues to illuminate the fundamental questions of theology and philosophy. For Thomas, the intelligibility of the world reflects its origin in divine wisdom, and the human mind is ordered by nature toward the knowledge of truth and ultimately toward the vision of God.
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallIntroduction: 800 Years of Thomas Aquinas2026-04-02text/htmlen-USIntroduction: 800 Years of Thomas Aquinas2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®132602026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Beauty as the Wellspring of Human Action in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986989
<p></p>
“Beauty is first of all a revelation of what is good in itself. Under the sign of beauty, the world presents itself most fundamentally as something to marvel at, something that provokes wonder and even awe, and if and when we pursue our interests in this world, we do so with an encompassing spirit of gratitude and reverence.”In a recent, well-regarded book entitled The Ethics of Beauty,1 Orthodox priest Timothy G. Patitsas has argued for a paradigm shift in the way we conceive human behavior and activity, the various expressions of which we can gather under the name “ethics.” In contrast to what he has called the “truth-first” approach, which he believes has dominated the rationalistically-inclined West, Patitsas
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallBeauty as the Wellspring of Human Action in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas2026-04-02text/htmlen-USBeauty as the Wellspring of Human Action in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®548872026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Theological Discourse, Analogical Language, and the Impact of the Incarnation: Hans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on Divine Naming
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986990
<p></p>
“The very transcendence of God does not falsify, but rather affirms, the legitimacy and operation of created reason . . .even as it calls them to previously unimagined heights.”Hans Urs von Balthasar’s unique style of theological discourse is frequently one of the first things noticed by his readers: the field of language employed by Balthasar is vividly expressive, not only in describing humanity, creation, and other contingent realities, but also—and perhaps especially—when speaking about God. In the classic book that broke open the English-language discussion of Balthasar’s theological discourse in 1990, Gerard O’Hanlon writes,at the heart of [Balthasar’s] approach is the concern to be true to the scriptural
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallTheological Discourse, Analogical Language, and the Impact of the Incarnation: Hans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on Divine Naming2026-04-02text/htmlen-USTheological Discourse, Analogical Language, and the Impact of the Incarnation: Hans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on Divine Naming2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®2056162026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Hans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on the Discovery of Being
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986991
<p></p>
“Together with Josef Pieper, Balthasar holds that the major creative achievement of Thomas Aquinas is a vision of reality informed by the metaphysics of creation, understood as God’s generous donation of being.”From his early essay “Die Metaphysik Erich Przywaras,”1 through his programmatic article “On the Tasks of Catholic Philosophy in Our Time,”2 to the Epilogue to the trilogy, Hans Urs von Balthasar’s philosophical writings represent an interpretation and development of the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas. As Peter Henrici notes: Although Thomas does not really appear as a “figure” (Gestalt) in von Balthasar’s work, his thinking is omnipresent, evidenced by explicit citations. In Apokalyspe, Thomas’s role is
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallHans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on the Discovery of Being2026-04-02text/htmlen-USHans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Aquinas on the Discovery of Being2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®597022026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Can Aquinas and Balthasar Be Reconciled? On a Disputed Question in Trinitarian Theology
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986992
<p></p>
“In God strength and weakness, majesty and humility, glory and kenosis, paradoxically go together, not just in the economy of salvation, but even in God secundum quod Deus.”Vis capere celsitudinem Dei? Cape prius humilitatem Dei. . . . Cum ceperis humilitatem eius, surgis cum illo.1The property of love is never to seek itself, to keep back nothing, but to give everything to the one it loves.2 One of the more disputed theological questions of the last fifty years has been the question of whether the kenosis of the Son of God in time (Phil 2:6–11) points to a kenosis within the immanent Trinity as its transcendent archetype. Hans Urs von Balthasar famously answered this question in the affirmative and strikingly so:
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallCan Aquinas and Balthasar Be Reconciled? On a Disputed Question in Trinitarian Theology2026-04-02text/htmlen-USCan Aquinas and Balthasar Be Reconciled? On a Disputed Question in Trinitarian Theology2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®2225422026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02God the Son’s Humility according to von Balthasar: Analogy or Contradiction? A Response to John Betz’s “The Humility of God”
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986993
<p></p>
“In contrast to Betz’s claim, some of Balthasar’s teachings cannot be reconciled with Aquinas by taking his words analogically.”In his monograph Christ, the Logos of Creation: An Essay in Analogical Metaphysics, John Betz includes a chapter entitled, “The Humility of God: On a Disputed Question in Trinitarian Theology.”1 In this chapter, Betz confronts the question “of whether the kenosis of the Son of God in time (Phil 2:6–11) points to a kenosis within the immanent Trinity as its transcendent archetype.”2 He answers in the affirmative, enlisting the support of Hans Urs von Balthasar to articulate his argument that humility is rightly attributed to God because “it is the nature of love to lower itself, indeed, to
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallGod the Son’s Humility according to von Balthasar: Analogy or Contradiction? A Response to John Betz’s “The Humility of God”2026-04-02text/htmlen-USGod the Son’s Humility according to von Balthasar: Analogy or Contradiction? A Response to John Betz’s “The Humility of God”2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®674152026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Wonder and the Longing for the Face of God
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986994
<p></p>
“Wonder can only be satisfied by the apprehension of the most desirable truth, the first cause which is God, and since all men desire to know, all men implicitly desire to see God.”The Ethiopians say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, and could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle; and they would each shape bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.The great Greek philosophers sought to purify ancient beliefs regarding the human relation to the divine. Xenophanes realized that we could not grasp the nature of God
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallWonder and the Longing for the Face of God2026-04-02text/htmlen-USWonder and the Longing for the Face of God2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®655692026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02On the Thomistic Problem of the Beatific Vision
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986995
<p></p>
“The beatific vision crowns the natural desire to see God as the most noble of our natural desires. By supernaturalizing it, it does not change its nature.”The most serious of the difficulties to overcome within Thomistic studies is the rediscovery of the problems specific to St. Thomas Aquinas. What problems, exactly, did he propose to resolve? Because we do not know, we interpret his responses in terms of more or less different problems and, in the end, we impose on him doctrines that he has not professed, while those that he has professed are denied or fade from view and finally are forgotten.1 The damage is inevitable. We do not approach St. Thomas himself directly. Between him and us is interposed, first of
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallOn the Thomistic Problem of the Beatific Vision2026-04-02text/htmlen-USOn the Thomistic Problem of the Beatific Vision2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®902502026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02Index: Volume 52 (2025)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996
<p></p>
Atkinson, Joseph C. The Theological Meaning of Water in the Old Testament. 52, no. 1 (2025): 61–89.Betz, John. Can Aquinas and Balthasar Be Reconciled? On a Disputed Question in Trinitarian Theology. 52, no. 4 (2025): 765–817.Butler, Robert C. and Nicholas J. Healy, Jr. A Sign of Contradiction: John Senior and the Integrated Humanities Program. 52, no. 2 (2025): 421–47. NC.Ciraulo, Jonathan Martin. Baptism is First: Infant Baptism and the Sacramental Inversion. 52, no. 1 (2025): 35–60.Dal Santo, Matthew J. “No Authority except from God” (Rom 13:1): A Defense of Christian Political Hellenism from Plato and Ecphantus to (St.) Constantine. 52, no. 3 (2025): 556– 610.Duncan, Roger B. Toward a New Philosophy of Being
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986996">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/884/image/coversmallIndex: Volume 52 (2025)2026-04-02text/htmlen-USIndex: Volume 52 (2025)2026-04-022026TWOProject MUSE®57592026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-02