AMA: "The Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act"

[Peter Pagan]

Greetings:

 

Some weeks ago I recommended Steven Long's new book, which will be discussed at one of the concurrent sessions scheduled for later this year at the American Maritian Association meeting to be held at the University of Notre Dame. Today I was visiting Amazon's website and saw some surprising reviews of his book and of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's work, Predestination. (The reviews are attached below.)

 

One thing I found curious is that the reviewer, Andrew "Jameson," is nicknamed "davidbhart." As you may already be aware, there is an actual David B. Hart [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bentley_Hart], a widely published author and speaker (e.g., [http://www.dhs.edu/academics/analogiaentis.aspx]). I don't know whether there is an actual connection, but if «Andrew "Jameson"» and D.B. Hart were in fact one and the same person, there would be genuine reason for concern, at least among those within academic circles. The enclosed reviews reflect poorly on the author.

 

Best wishes,

Peter

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter A. Pagan, Ph.D.
Philosophy, Liberal Arts Program
Aquinas College
4210 Harding Road
Nashville, TN  37205
615-297-7545 ext. 458
Fax: 615-292-6094
E-mail: ppa...@aquinascollege.edu
Web: http://www.aquinascollege.edu/

 

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[http://www.amazon.com/Teleological-Grammar-Moral-Act/dp/1932589392/ref=sr_1_1/102-3440697-1413726?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188932439&sr=8-1]

 

The Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act 
by Steven A. Long
Edition: Paperback
Price: $24.95
 
Availability: Usually ships in 4 to 6 weeks
  

Clumsy and Repetitious, August 30, 2007
By  Andrew "Jameson" (USA) - See all my reviews [http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A14LM4S71WRCNQ/ref=cm_cr_auth/102-3440697-1413726?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview]

It would be difficult to exaggerate the ineptitude of this book's arguments, or their repetitiveness. This is a short book in absolute word count, but ridiculously long in superfluous sentences. Any competent editor could have reduced it to 25 pages. The argument, though, would be just as full of logical gaps, unjustified presuppositions, and ponderously snide swipes at superior scholars. A disaster of a book.

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[http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A14LM4S71WRCNQ/ref=cm_cr_auth/102-3440697-1413726?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview]
 
Predestination 
by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Edition: Paperback
Price: $18.50
 
Availability: In Stock 7 used & new from $9.79

 

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

An idiotic book promoting a disastrously stupid theology, January 22, 2007

Garrigou-Lagrange was the last miserable champion of the Baroque Thomist tradition of Banez, which upheld a view of God that in some formal aspects--but in no real essentials--was as foul as that of Calvin. Garrigou himself, moreover, was a rank mediocrity and found it impossible to construct a coherent argument; he makes his case through sheer, relentless repetitiousness.

 

Actually, there is no doctrine of predilective predestination in the Bible. No serious student of Greek could approve the translation of proorizein as praedestinare. And only the most inept of readers actually thinks that Romans 9-11, read in its entirety, is a treatise on praedestinatio ante praevisa merita towards the salvation and reprobation of individual souls (it is a treatise on the election of Israel and the election of the Church and the eschatological reconciliation of the two persons when God will "have mercy on all").

 

Even if the full Baroque Thomist theology of grace and predestination could be wrested from the Bible, this cretinous volume would scarcely serve as a convincing precis. It is, moreover, an argument for a theology decisively rejected by the modern magisterium, quite incompatible with the explicit teachings of Vatican II on the nature of God's universal will to salvation, and (as even the late Garrigou himself came to realize) already implicitly condemned in Rome's five condemnations of Jansenism.

 

This book remains a favorite of those Catholics who have some sort of sadistic investment in the idea of God's sovereignty displayed in his willful abandonment of most of humanity to hell and his arbitrary preference of a very few, destined for salvation; and it is a book that suits the agenda of those ill-educated enough to believe that this was the teaching of Paul; but it is a book that merits contempt, and whose admirers merit something less than contempt.

 

 

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A14LM4S71WRCNQ/ref=cm_aya_pdp_profile/102-3440697-1413726]

Andrew's Profile
"Jameson" 
Location: USA
Reviewer Rank: 342,971
See all 6 reviews (24 helpful votes)
Nickname: davidbhart
Birthday: 2/20