The beginning of Advent

The holy prophets prophesied both the first coming in his birth, and also the second at the great judgement. We too, God's servants, strengthen our faith by the services of this season, because in our hymns we confess our redemption by his first coming, and we remind ourselves that we should be ready for his second coming, so that we may follow him from that judgement to the eternal life, as he promised us.

[From Aelfric's sermon on the First Sunday of Advent. Discussed on A Clerk of Oxford blog here]

YEAR after year, as it passes, brings us the same warnings again and again, and none perhaps more impressive than those with which it comes to us at this season. The very frost and cold, rain and gloom, which now befall us, forebode the last dreary days of the world, and in religious hearts raise the thought of them. The year is worn out: spring, summer, autumn, each in turn, have brought their gifts and done their utmost; but they are over, and the end is come. All is past and gone, all has failed, all has sated; we are tired of the past; we would not have the seasons longer; and the austere weather which succeeds, though ungrateful to the body, is in tone with our feelings, and acceptable. Such is the frame of mind which befits the end of the year; and such the frame of mind which comes alike on good and bad at the end of life.

[From The Newman Reader, 'Worship, a Preparation for Christ's Coming' here]

Image: The Advent and Triumph of Christ by Hans Memling c 1480. Details here.

Feast Day of St Albert the Great

Happy Feast Day of St Albert the Great, our patron!


Albertus Magnus, also known as Albert the Great, was one of the most universal thinkers to appear during the Middle Ages. Even more so than his most famous student, St. Thomas of Aquinas, Albert’s interests ranged from natural science all the way to theology. He made contributions to logic, psychology, metaphysics, meteorology, mineralogy, and zoology. He was an avid commentator on nearly all the great authorities read during the 13^th Century. He was deeply involved in an attempt to understand the import of the thought of Aristotle in some orderly fashion that was distinct from the Arab commentators who had incorporated their own ideas into the study of Aristotle. Yet he was not averse to using some of the outstanding Arab philosophers in developing his own ideas in philosophy. His superior understanding of a diversity of philosophical texts allowed him to construct one of the most remarkable syntheses in medieval culture.

[Read more here from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article]


The influence exerted by Albert on the scholars of his own day and on those of subsequent ages was naturally great. His fame is due in part to the fact that he was the forerunner, the guide and master of St. Thomas Aquinas, but he was great in his own name, his claim to distinction being recognized by his contemporaries and by posterity. It is remarkable that this friar of the Middle Ages, in the midst of his many duties as a religious, as provincial of his order, as bishop and papal legate, as preacher of a crusade, and while making many laborious journeys from Cologne to Paris and Rome, and frequent excursions into different parts of Germany, should have been able to compose a veritable encyclopedia, containing scientific treatises on almost every subject, and displaying an insight into nature and a knowledge of theology which surprised his contemporaries and still excites the admiration of learned men in our own times. He was, in truth, a Doctor Universalis. Of him it in justly be said: Nil tetigit quod non ornavit [he touched nothing which he did not adorn]; and there is no exaggeration in the praises of the modern critic who wrote: "Whether we consider him as a theologian or as a philosopher, Albert was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men of his age; I might say, one of the most wonderful men of genius who appeared in past times" (Jourdain, Recherches Critiques).

[Read more here from the Catholic Encyclopedia article]



Podcasts from History of Philosophy without any gaps:

Albert on nature here

Albert's metaphysics here


[Details of image: Fresco of St Albert by Tommaso da Modena 1352 (full details of image here)]

What's coming up

Monday 7 November 7pm: 

'God is not a thing!': Science and religion debates among young Catholics today.
19:00, Mon 7th Nov, 2016
The Garden Room, St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD. Entrance via George Square Lane.
Free.

To celebrate 800 years since the bull of foundation of the Dominican Order by Pope Honorius III, the Albertus Institute will be offering a series of three talks this autumn on Dominican influence on the teaching of the sciences. Lectures will be chaired by Dr Sara Parvis, Senior Lecturer in Early Church History at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

The lecture by Michael O'Duffin on "God is not a thing!": Science and religion debates among young Catholics today' will be the third talk in this series. Michael is a schoolmaster and a Glasgow Lay Dominican.

Whilst lectures are free, we suggest a donation of a £5 for each lecture to cover costs. Tea and coffee will be available after the talk and questions.

Saturday 26 November

Conference on 'Modern Security and Human Values: The Changing Face of Conflict' - Saturday 26th November 2016

 Explore how modern security, conflict, the use of emerging technologies to counteract terrorism impacts on the state, civil liberties and the individual.


Speakers will include Hon Richard Stearns, a US Federal Judge; Dr Laura Cleary, Head of the Centre for International Security & Resilience, Cranfield University; General Zoltan Szenes, a retired military officer in the Hungarian Army; Richard Hoskins, retired senior official in the US FBI and Andrew Dolan, a consultant in training simulation exercises in various aspects of security. The Conference will be chaired by Professor Juliet Kaarbo, co-director of the Centre for Security Research, The University of Edinburgh and the Revd. Dr David G Coulter, CB, QHC, Chaplain General to HM Land Forces.

This day conference will be held at the Appleton Tower, University of Edinburgh, Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE. For further information and booking details visit the conference details on our main website here.