Recent decades have seen great progress in our understanding of the tradition of Scotism. Thanks to the work of historians of late medieval and early modern philosophy and theology, the importance, but also the doctrinal complexity, of Scotus’ legacy have been brought to light. Historians of the Reformation, however, have remained cautious regarding the broad impact of this intellectual legacy.  In order to do justice to the diversity of early modern Scotism, it is therefore time to have a fresh look at Scotus’ legacy in the Reformation era and to bring together historians of philosophy, of late medieval theology, and of the Reformed traditions to discuss the import of Scotism in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is the aim of our conference.

Geneva, September 9 to 11, 2024

Final conference of the SNSF project « A Disregarded Past - Medieval Scholasticism and Reformed Thought  »

With keynotes by Simon Burton (University of Edinburgh) and Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame)

Organization: Ueli Zahnd (IHR)

Presentation

Recent decades have seen great progress in our understanding of the tradition of Scotism. Thanks to the work of historians of late medieval and early modern philosophy and theology, the importance, but also the doctrinal complexity, of Scotus’ legacy have been brought to light. Historians of the Reformation, however, have remained cautious regarding the broad impact of this intellectual legacy. While it has been argued that there are Scotist traits in the thought of such important Reformers as Zwingli and Calvin, the recent discussions – provoked in particular by Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation (2012) – have focused almost exclusively on the doctrines of analogy and univocity of being, and have emphasised from there the Protestant affinities with Thomism, as if modern intellectual history had not abandoned the historiographical concept of a Zentraldogma to describe an intellectual tradition. But there is obviously more to Scotism, than univocity of being, just as there is more to Calvinism than predestination or more to Thomism than analogy. In order to do justice to the diversity of early modern Scotism, it is therefore time to have a fresh look at Scotus’ legacy in the Reformation era and to bring together historians of philosophy, of late medieval theology, and of the Reformed traditions to discuss the import of Scotism in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is the aim of our conference.

The conference is the final event of the project “A Disregarded Past : Medieval Scholasticism and Reformed Thought”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. In this project, which has been running since August 2020, we have sought, among other things, to improve our knowledge of Scotus and Scotism in the Reformation era. In particular, we have demonstrated the existence of Scotist patterns among the early Reformers, as well as the use of Scotist concepts and doctrines among Post-Reformation thinkers. This has allowed us to argue that Scotus and Scotism are important cultural and conceptual references in the mind of Reformed theologians and philosophers alike, even if they did not identify as Scotists - just as they would not identify as Thomists. In order to further clarify the early modern legacy of Scotus, we invite the scholarly community to share their research on Scotism and participate in the discussion from the historical, philosophical, theological, and historiographical perspectives.

Preliminary Program

Monday, September 9

S4-S5 / Zoom: https://unige.zoom.us/j/66462021018#success 

14:00-14:30 - Conference Opening

• 14:30-15:15 - Giovanni Gellera (Geneva): Scotisms
• 15:15-16:00 - Vitali Ivanov (Tel Aviv): Quaestio de prima divisione entis in G. Zerbi et A. Trombetta: How does the Scotist Tradition of Metaphysics Work?
• 16:30-17:15 - Claus A. Andersen (Louvain-la-Neuve): Thomist Formalities: A Neglected Aspect of Scotist Influence in the 16th Century
• 17:15-18:00 - Andreas Beck (Leuven): “Moments of Nature” and the Pivotal Role of the Divine Will in the Necessary and Contingent Dimensions of Divine Knowledge: An Identity Marker for Scotist Influences in Early Modern Thought

18:30 - Keynote I

Simon Burton (Edinburgh): The Scotist Impulse in Reformed Metaphysics: From Christian Philosophy to Scientia Transcendens

Tuesday, September 10

S4-S5 / Zoom: https://unige.zoom.us/j/66462021018#success 

• 9:30-10:15 - Arthur Huiban (Geneva): Medieval Legacy: Methodological Considerations 10:15-11:00 - Caleb Abraham (Lausanne): “Comment sera-ce messieurs les Scotistes ?” Jean Ménard’s (d. 1570) Polemical Use of Scotus and Scotists in Two Vernacular Theological Treatises on the Sacraments
• 11:30-12:15 - Matthew Baines (Sydney): Scotist Aesthetics in the Reformation Era: Soundings in William Ames (1576–1633), Gisbertus Voetius (1589–1676) and Paul Voetius (1619–1667)
• 14:30-15:15 - Nicola Milanesi (Paris/Salerno): From Scotus to Suárez via Fonseca. The Scotist Conception of Matter in Jesuitic Counter-Reformation
• 15:15-16:00 - Francesco Pica (Toronto): Helping Scotus Decide: Fabri and Vulpes on Scotus’s Synthesis of the Aristotelian and Augustinian Views of Intellectual Cognition.
• 16:15-17:00 - Francesco Fiorentino (Bari – on Zoom): Claude Frassen on Divine Ideas in the Scene of Scotism

18:00 - Keynote II

Richard Cross (Notre Dame): Seventeenth-Century Debates on Divine Omnipresence, and Their Background in Aquinas and Scotus

Wednesday, September 11

D60 / Zoom: https://unige.zoom.us/j/66462021018#success 

• 9:30-10:15 - Guus Labooy (IJsselmuiden): Theory of Atonement: Scotist Tools in John Owen’s Analysis of the Attribution of Guilt
• 10:15-11:00 - Zachary Seals (Geneva): Johann Heidegger’s (1633-1698) Reformed Scotism: The Beatific Vision in Systematic Theology
• 11:30-12:15 - Pieter Rouwendal (Apeldoorn): Comrie and Holtius on Supralapsarian Christology and Predestination (1756)

12:15-12:45 - Concluding Remarks