Disputationes Theologicae

 Disputationes Theologicae

The Disputationes Theologicae form a sustained series of theological disputations written in the scholastic style and directed toward the philosophical and theological questions of the modern world.

The form is medieval, but the horizon is unmistakably modern. Each disputation proceeds under the pressure of Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger, yet refuses to stop there. It also meets Quine, Putnam, Sellars, and contemporary analytic philosophy. The purpose is not antiquarian revival but confrontation: to test the intelligibility of theology within the intellectual conditions of our time.

Each disputation takes up a defined question and proceeds through theses, objections, and determinations in the manner of the classical scholastic disputation. The aim is clarity rather than rhetorical persuasion. The form forces theology to articulate precisely what it claims and why those claims remain rationally defensible.

At stake is a single overarching question:

Under what conditions is theology intelligible at all?

The disputations therefore engage themes such as

• the metaphysics of intelligibility

• the grounding of truth and meaning

• divine causality and participation

• the logic of theological language

• the relation of Logos and Spirit to the structure of reality

The series gradually develops a systematic account of theological intelligibility in conversation with both classical theology and contemporary philosophy.

The Disputationes are written in the conviction that theology will regain its intellectual dignity only when it again faces the full philosophical horizon of its age.

The grammar of theology has not been superseded.
It has only been forgotten.

On the Form of the Disputations

The disputations follow the classical scholastic structure:

• Quaeritur — the question to be considered

• Theses — the principal affirmations

• Explicatio — clarification of the argument

• Objectiones — objections to the theses

• Responsiones — replies to the objections

• Determinatio — the final determination of the question

Footnotes are deliberately omitted in order to preserve the traditional disputational form. Sources and philosophical interlocutors are usually indicated within the body of the argument.

Reading the Disputations

The disputations can be read individually, but they also form a larger argumentative arc.

Earlier disputations address the logical and metaphysical conditions of intelligibility. Later disputations develop theological implications concerning divine causality, participation, Christology, pneumatology, and eschatological hope.

Taken together they constitute a modern scholastic summa of philosophical theology.

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