Timothy Brian Noone

Il Commento di Rufo alla Metafisica aristotelica è tradito integralmente nel Vat. lat. 4538 e parzialmente in altri quattro mss.: Erfurt, Bibl. Amplon., Q. 290 ; Praha, Archiv Prazského Hradu, M. 80 ; Oxford, New College, 285 ; Oxford, Bodl. Libr., misc. lat. C. 71 . Per l'ed. dello Scriptum sono stati utilizzati V, E, e N. In questa sezione del Commento , dove il francescano inglese si propone di conciliare la dottrina dell'immutabilità divina con la dottrina della creazione e dei futuri contingenti, l'A. individua la presenza di argomenti utilizzati da Roberto Grossatesta nel De libero arbitrio

In this delightful and handy introduction, Professor Richard Cross of Oriel College, Oxford University, has provided students, researchers, and general readers with a guided tour to the theology of John Duns Scotus. Written in a direct and concise style, the volume allows readers to follow Scotuss rather sophisticated argumentation with remarkable ease. As Cross himself remarks in his preface to the volume, his intention is to construct an overview of Scotuss theological thought for the ordinary reader who is correctly presumed to be more acquainted with the ideas of Thomas Aquinas than with Scotuss immediate historical interlocutors: Henry of Ghent, Godfrey of Fontaines, and Giles of Rome. Yet, in a manner that can only be described as enviable, Cross strikes the proper balance between losing the salient elements of Scotuss doctrines in a welter of details bearing on historical background and failing to give enough historical and systematic context to render Scotuss nuanced objections and counterpositions intelligible. Indeed, what Cross manages to do is to give an accurate though perforce brief sketch of the relevant dialectical setting for Scotuss major theological teachings. Furthermore, since Aquinas is kept to the forefront for most of the comparisons drawn, the average reader will find the book a quite useful guide for further study of Scotuss texts. Altogether the volume must be accounted a major success, as it brings much of the recent historical scholarship on Scotuss theology into dialogue with contemporary discussions in the philosophy of religion.

In this outstanding work, Fr. Armand Maurer has produced a study of Ockham’s philosophy that is evidently the product of years of reflection and analysis. The masterful command that Maurer has of the relevant primary and secondary sources, the adroit manner in which he marshals those sources to argue for a particularly delicate point of interpretation, and, above all, the clarity of his English prose distinguish the work as both a contribution to scholarship and an excellent resource for those just beginning the study of Ockham’s philosophy. Clearly years of study and disciplined inquiry underlie the gracefulness of any such book.