The Metaphysics of Theism

Norman Kretzmann, Susan Linn Sage Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Cornell University, New York, completed this book at the beginning of 1998, and died in the summer of that year. He taught philosophy at Cornell for more than thirty years, and also held appointments at Bryn Mawr College, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois, and visiting positions at Wayne State University and the Universities of Minnesota, Arizona, and Oxford.This is the follow-up to Professor Kretzmann's 1997 Clarendon Press volume The Metaphysics of Theism: Aquinas's Natural Theology in Summa contra gentiles I. He also published scholarly editions of various medieval texts (by William of Sherwood, William of Ockham, Paul of Venice, and Richard Kilvington), many learned articles and essays, and a number of edited collections. He was the principal editor of The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy (1982), and co-editor with Eleonore Stump of The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas (1993).

Review from previous edition Kretzmann's treatment highlights the systematic and cumulative nature of Aquinas's natural theology ... It is comparatively hard ... to find books that both come to grips with Aquinas's arguments in all their rich detail, and address the sorts of worries that a contemporary philosopher (especially a contemporary analytic philosopher) might have about their cogency. The Metaphysics of Theism is thoroughly successful on both scores, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in Aquinas, or more broadly in philosophical theology.

• Introduction ; 1. Theology from the bottom up ; 2. The God of the self-movers ; 3. The existence of alpha ; 4. From independence to perfection ; 5. From perfection to infinity ; 6. Intellect ; 7. Will ; 8. Joy, love, and liberality ; Appendix 1: Chronology of Aquinas's life and works ; Appendix 2: Pera (Marietti) edition and Pegis translation ; References, index locorum, general index