Rethinking Intellectual Ecumenism in Interfaith Debates on God's Existence: From Avicenna's Salvation and Maimonides's Guide to Aquinas's De Ente

, precis:, Scholars have long contended that Aquinas managed to escape the devastating critique launched by Averroes against the being/essence distinction by reimagining being/essence according to an analogy of act/potency rather than Avicenna's model of accident/substance. This essay complicat...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Reising, Matthew K. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: University of Pennsylvania Press 2024
In: Journal of ecumenical studies
Year: 2024, Volume: 59, Issue: 2, Pages: 242-262
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:, precis:, Scholars have long contended that Aquinas managed to escape the devastating critique launched by Averroes against the being/essence distinction by reimagining being/essence according to an analogy of act/potency rather than Avicenna's model of accident/substance. This essay complicates the scholarly consensus that Aquinas defined his metaphysical thought on being and essence against the philosophy of Averroes and instead argues that Aquinas's De Ente et Essentia can be seen as modeling interfaith dialogue, intellectual ecumenicism, and hybridity. Aquinas developed his thought through interlocution and philosophical interchange rather than opposition, a process that emphasized openness rather than alterity. After showing through the source material that Aquinas would not even have had access to Averroes's critique, I offer a reexamination of the historical development of Aquinas's reimagining of being/essence as act/potency and argue that Aquinas developed his thought not in opposition to Averroes's Long Commentary of the Metaphysics but, rather, in dialogue with Maimonides.
ISSN:2162-3937
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of ecumenical studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/ecu.2024.a931513