Summaries & Keywords

Ceferino Muñoz Medina, “Razón y Revelación en la Edad Media: la primacía de la Razón", Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 9–33, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150101

SUMMARY: The Primacy of Reason analyzes the emergence of a medieval rationalism of a strictly philosophical nature, independent of both modern science and Christian theology, whose decisive representative is Averroes. In contrast to earlier attempts to reconcile philosophy and faith in the Islamic world, the Andalusian thinker upholds the primacy of Aristotelian demonstration as the only full access to truth, relegating religion and theology to a pedagogical and normative function directed toward the non-philosophical majority. On the basis of a classification of human beings according to their intellectual capacities–rhetorical, dialectical, and demonstrative– Averroes justifies the coexistence of reason and religion without granting them epistemic equality. According to Gilson, this conception leads to a form of philosophical esotericism and accounts both for Averroes’ biographical difficulties in the Islamic world and for the conflictive reception of his thought in the Christian West. The text then examines thirteenth-century Latin Averroism, distinguishing between a believing variant, grounded in the separation of reason and faith, and another of an directly irreligious orientation. Finally, it shows how the Parisian condemnations of 1277 underscore the historical significance of this rationalism and its decisive role in shaping later scholastic thought, particularly in relation to the Thomistic response.

KEYWORDS: Reason, Revelation, Averroes, Middle Ages, Étienne Gilson

Justyna Melonowska, “The Metaphysics of Liturgical Beauty”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 37–80, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150102

SUMMARY: The purpose of this article is to address the problem of the liturgy—understood here in terms of the conceptual models of the new (post–Vatican II) and old (pre-conciliar, “Tridentine”) forms of the Roman Catholic rite—in the context of the notion of beauty as developed within the tradition of philosophical realism. As an act of praise, the liturgy takes up and gives expression to the intelligibility and lovability of being, with particular emphasis on the liturgical causation of the personal, in which the agent is both the human subject and the Logos (Christ). As a result, philosophical reflection necessarily encounters a significant theological dimension that must be taken into account. Moreover, liturgy involves essential aesthetic elements, insofar as it makes use of material forms and artifacts that are ontologically meaningful and directed toward praise, and thus toward beauty. The liturgy is a particular act of cognition and contemplation—one that is necessarily embodied and visible—and for this reason, beauty plays a decisive role within it. However, this also implies that liturgical non-beauty plays a significant role. Establishing the ontological status of non-beauty makes it possible to raise the question of orthodoxy and unorthodoxy with regard to both ritual in general and the liturgical act in particular. The article proposes that beauty functions as a criterion and measure of liturgical orthodoxy. 

KEYWORDS: liturgy, ritual, beauty, non-beauty, Logos

Manuel Alejandro Gutiérrez González, “Exousía (Poder) como don y responsabilidad. La crítica teológica de Ratzinger a la concepción del poder en la teología política moderna y a su crisis de legitimidad”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 81–104, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150103

SUMMARY: Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI analyzes the concept of power that emerged in the modern and contemporary eras, showing that understanding this concept from these philosophical standpoints has led to the disasters experienced in the 20th and 21st centuries. Therefore, this article examines the notion of power in light of Joseph Ratzinger's thought. The study is divided into two parts: first, an analysis of the characteristics of political theologies in ancient civilizations—Egypt and Rome—contrasted with the theology of election manifested in the Jewish people; second, an exposition of its corruption through anonymous powers of terror, and Ratzinger’s theological and philosophical response through the Greek concept of ἐξουσία, which proceeds from being, is received as a gift, and is exercised in obedience to the truth.

KEYWORDS: political theology, politics, right, power, authority, totalitarianism, truth, divine reason, ἐξουσία, Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI

Antoni Śmist, “Saint Augustine and the Problem of Christian Philosophy. Part 2”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 105–133, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150104

SUMMARY: The starting point of my considerations in the article (Part 1) is a debate among historians of philosophy about the existence of such a thing as Christian philosophy. Within this debate, the question of the very legitimacy of the use of such a term in historical-philosophical discourse has arisen. I try to show how the use of the term Christian philosophy can be justified by using the example of thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who, in many respects, can be considered the historical model of the Christian philosopher. Christianity is not a censoring factor for him, but rather facilitates his reflections by showing a way out of intellectual problems born in pagan culture. In Part 2, I present a particular philosophical problem that could have not been resolved by Augustine when he relied on pagan sources. Only with the aid of Christian revelation was he able to undertake it and to give it its proper intellectual framework. It is the linguistic and theological problem of the so-called verbum interius.

KEYWORDS: Augustine, wisdom, Christian philosophy, Plato, NeoPlatonism

Eleni Procopiou, “Nature in Aquinas’s Theory of Jus Naturale”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 135–147, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150105

SUMMARY: The incorporation of the Aristotelian “nature” with its own ontological consistency into the Christian universe created by God is the most important component of Aquinas’s thesis. The concept of “nature” is also fundamental for the foundation of the “right” in Aquinas’s philosophy of law. The ancient Greek philosophy and especially the Aristotelian idea of natural right (dikaion physikon) is the leading source for his perception of the “jus naturale.” The “nature of things” is the foundation of natural right, while the positive right is posited by the human law as an outcome of agreement. In this context, juridicity is conceived in relation to justice and is not constituted by a law or by a moral (lex naturalis) or legal norm. Finnis’s reading of Aquinas’s Natural Law is a subjectivist one which is based on the tradition of modern natural law as the source of subjective rights and is not compatible with Aquinas’s doctrine of “jus naturale” proceeding from the Aristotelian conception of “nature.”

KEYWORDS: nature, natural law, jus naturale, lex naturalis, nature of things, justice

Zbigniew Pańpuch, “Is It Time to Change a Paradigm? Reflections Based on the Article by A. Maryniarczyk „Is the Human Soul Sexed? In Search for the Truth on Human Sexuality” (Part 2)”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 149–173, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150106

SUMMARY: The second part of this article presents and comments on the metaphysical argumentation justifying the thesis about the sexuality of the soul which was presented by Rev. Prof. A. Maryniarczyk. The necessary introduction outlined the metaphysical foundations of understanding the sexuality of the human soul. Then six metaphysical arguments were developed to make the thesis evident: 1. The argument from the unity of form (soul) in being, 2. The argument from the indestructibility and immortality of the human being, 3. The argument from sexuality as a personal property of man, 4. The argument from the natural forms of human existence, 5. The argument from the nature of personal love, 6. The argument from the analysis of the reason for the existence of the human person. This led to the thesis that human sexuality is determined by the soul, which itself must be sexual. 

KEYWORDS: sexuality, corporeity, sexed soul, human being, philosophical anthropology

Maciej Kulik, “Hatred as an Act of Will. An Aristotelian-Thomistic Grounding for a Definition of Hateful Speech”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 175–201, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150107

SUMMARY: Hateful speech is a problem that bothers contemporary societies, and the lack of clear and coherent theoretical foundations contributes to problematic misconceptions. In particular, the understanding of hatred as a mere emotion is too narrow to encompass all instances of hateful language. In this paper, we draw on the Aristotelian-Thomistic account, proposed by the Lublin School of Philosophy and Sędłak, to provide an ethical framework to ground a definition of hateful speech. We argue that the problems with viewing hatred as a mere emotion disappear once it is seen as an act that involves both sensory and rational faculties. With this approach, we engage one of the central debates in hate speech scholarship, which concerns the question whether its harm resides in the act itself or in its consequences. Such a framework, built upon the Aristotelian-Thomistic anthropology and Anscombe’s account of intention, allows us to address the challenge hateful speech poses for contemporary societies. 

KEYWORDS: hateful speech, hatred, intention, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Anscombe

William McVey, “Radical, Soulful Motivational Psychology and the 21st-century Passionate Organization”, Studia Gilsoniana 15, no. 1 (January–March 2026): 203–254, DOI: 10.26385/SG.150108

SUMMARY: This essay examines the problem of employee motivation as it relates to job performance in a business organization. We begin the examination by presenting the situation from a recognized study released by Deloitte University Press in 2017, titled “If you love them, set them free.” It was published as a business paper addressing the problem of low worker engagement as a motivational issue of worker passion. We address the topic of leader-management motivation from the perspective of an organizational psychology. However, we argue in this essay that it is a problem beyond the meta-theory, principles, and methodology of empirical psychology. We do, however, hold that empirical organizational psychology on the subject of the relationship of leadership-management motivation and employee engagement does offer necessary ideas worthy of application; however, the meta-theoretical assumptions and applications of empirical organizational psychology are insufficient for addressing the issue of leadership-management motivation. We argue that motivation for the 21st-century passionate organization is a matter best treated from the perspective of a radical soulful organizational motivational psychology based on Aristotelian-Thomistic principles.  

KEYWORDS: Aristotelian-Thomistic Radical Organizational Psychology, Intrinsic Motivation, Virtue/Virtuous Habits, Exemplar-Executive Leader, Love (Virtue of), Passions (Emotions), Hope and Fear, Prudence, Social Intelligence/Estimative Intelligence, Friendship (Organizational), Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Herb Kelleher, Abraham Maslow, Kai-Fu Lee