The philosophical views of philosophers and theologians are shaped, among other things, by their religious beliefs, and vice versa. Therefore there is, unsurprisingly, a broad and multifaceted tradition of modern Catholic philosophy that has roots in medieval scholasticism but differs in many ways from its Protestant and atheistic counterparts. Even though this tradition is heterogeneous and polyphonic, a characteristic element of Catholic thought in modernity is that it tends to take metaphysics in general, and natural theology in particular, more seriously than other varieties of modern philosophy, no matter whether this engagement with metaphysics takes place as an affirmation or a partial or even total rejection, or perhaps as an attempt to find new, alternative approaches to metaphysical questions.
What we want to explore during the conference are two things:
(1) Why are metaphysical questions particularly pressing for Catholic philosophers and theologians? Why are philosophers and theologians with a background in Catholicism so frequently drawn to metaphysical questions, no matter whether they are about the problem of Being, the proofs of God’s existence, the metaphysics of incarnation, or determinism and free will.
(2) How does Catholicism inform the way these thinkers address metaphysical problems? Are there distinctively Catholic ways of approaching metaphysical realism, affirmative and negative theology, Christology, or human freedom.
Program
Friday, 10 October
Romero Room, Collegium Veteranorum 02.10, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
09:00 Stephan van Erp: Introduction
09:30 Henning Tegtmeyer: Catholic Realism
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Thomas Joseph White: The Analogy of Essence
11:45-12:30 Olivier Riaudel: Metaphysics and Theology in Wolfhart Pannenberg. Why Theology should never be systematic
14:00 Short paper presentations
Vittorio Bortolai A. Alves: Metaphysics and Theology in Schelling
Anna Zvolikevych: Participation of the Soul with the Spirit According St. Irenaeus of Lyon and Pavel Florensky
Albrecht De Preter: Towards A Natural Theology of Presence in the Arts
15.30 Coffee break
16:00 Schillebeeckx lecture 2025
John Betz: Analogical Metaphysics. After Rationalism and Hermeneutics
17.15-18.30 Reception
Saturday, 11 October
Pedagogical Institute, Room 00.32, Andreas Vesaliusstraat 2
09:00 Andrea Bellantone: Intimate Experience. French Spiritualism and Its Contribution to Contemporary Thinking
09:45 Gert-Jan van der Heiden: Toward a New Sense of Contemplation. The Turn to Metaphysics in Hermeneutic Philosophy
10.30 Coffee break
11:00 Inigo Bocken: Order and Freedom in Tension. Equity, Epieikeia, and the Space of Conjecture in Cusan Thought
11:45-12:30 Walter Van Herck: The Language of Religion and Metaphysics
14:00 Short Paper Presentations
Zane D. Leach: Beyond Analogy? Nicholas of Cusa's Theological Response to the Univocal Contraction of Metaphysics
Déogratias Bahizi: Maréchal on Metaphysics after Kant
Matthew MacLeod: The Mytho-Poetic Ground. Language, Prayer, and Theological Knowledge in Sergei Bulgakov
Rohan Vinu Abraham: Phenomenology through Metaphysics: A Critical Theological Appraisal of Falque's Retrieval of Christian Metaphysics
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 William Desmond: Metaphysics and Being Catholic. An Abiding Companionship
17:15 Concluding discussion
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