Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas

REL 230 | PHL 268 | PHL 468

Spring 2008

Professor Edward Wierenga
Office: Rush Rhees Library 430
Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 1:00-1:50, or by appointment
Phone: x5-9370 (office), x5-5378 (department)
email: edwd@troi.cc.rochester.edu
Course website: http://courses.ats.rochester.edu/wierenga/REL230/

Description:

Critical examination of the writings of these important philosophers/theologians, with particular attention to their views that are relevant to the philosophy of religion. Topics to be discussed include the nature of knowledge, the relation of faith and reason, the attempt to prove that God exists, the nature of God, and the analysis of divine attributes, such as, omnipotence.

Requirements:

Participation in class discussion
Three 5-6 page papers (due on February 20, March 26, and May 5, respectively).

Texts:

Vernon Bourke, ed., The Essential Augustine (Hackett)
Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will (Hackett)
Anselm of Canterbury, The Major Works (Oxford)
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Questions on God (Cambridge)

Tentative Schedule

Week One: Jan. 16-Introduction

No class Jan. 21-Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Weeks Two and Three: Jan. 23, 28-Augustine's Platonism

Plato, The Republic, Bk VI 507-Bk VII 519d (available on Blackboard)

On Free Choice of the Will, Bk. I

Essential Augustine, pp. 11-66

Week Four: Feb. 4-Belief, Understanding, and Volitional Consent

On Free Choice of the Will, Bk. II

Essential Augustine, 121-148

Week Five: Feb. 11-Augustine's "Ontological" Argument

On Free Choice of the Will, Bk. III

Essential Augustine, pp. 183-185

Week Six: Feb. 18-Foreknowledge and Free Will

On Free Choice of the Will, Bk. III

Feb. 20: Paper Due

Week Seven: Feb. 25-Anselm's Ontological Argument

Proslogion, Preface, chs. 1-5

Week Eight: Mar. 3-Guanilo's Reply and Other Versions of the Argument

Gaunilo's Reply on Behalf of the Fool, and Anselm's Reply

Week Nine: Mar. 17-Divine Omnipresence

Monologion, chs. 20-22, Proslogion, chs. 6-23

Week Ten: Mar. 24-Anselm's Theory of Atonement

Why God Became Man

~~Mar. 26~~ April 7: Paper Due

Week Eleven: Mar. 31-Aquinas on Knowledge of God

Summa Theologica Part I, Qs 1-2.

Week Twelve: Apr. 7-The Five Ways

Week Thirteen: Apr. 14-Simplicity and other Divine Attributes

Summa Theologica, Part I, Qs 3-13

Week Fourteen: Apr. 21-Divine Knowledge and Providence

Summa Theologica, Part I, Qs. 14, 19, 22

Week Fifteen: Apr. 28-Omnipotence

Summa Theologica, Part I, Q. 25

May 5: Paper Due