Research

Published Articles 

"Potens Per Accidens Sine Accidentibus: Ockham on Material Substances and Their Essential Powers." Vivarium 59, no. 1-2 (2021): 102-122.

Abstract. Medieval scholastics share a commitment to a substance-accident ontology and to an analysis of efficient causation in which agents act in virtue of their powers. Given these commitments, it seems ready-made which entities are the agents or powers: substances are agents and their accidents powers. William of Ockham, however, offers a rather different analysis concerning material substances and their essential powers, which this article explores. The article first examines Ockham’s account of propria and his reasons for claiming that a material substance is essentially powerful sine accidentibus. However, the article subsequently argues that, given Ockham’s reductionism about material substance, only substantial forms – never substances – are truly agents and powers. Thus, a material substance is essentially powerful but only by courtesy – per accidens, as Ockham calls it – because it has a non-identical part, its substantial form, which does all the causal work by itself, per se.

"Reframing Aquinas on Art and Morality." American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 92, no. 2 (April 2018): 295-311.

Abstract. Can a work of art be defective aesthetically as art because it is defective morally? Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain both develop Thomistic accounts of the arts based on Aquinas’s distinction between the virtues of art and prudence, but they answer this question differently. Although their answers diverge, I will argue that both accounts make a crucial assumption about the metaphysics of goodness that Aquinas denies, namely, that moral and aesthetic goodness are distinct species, not inseparable modes, of metaphysical goodness. I propose a new way to develop a Thomistic account of the arts that begins with Aquinas’s treatment of the three inseparable modes of metaphysical goodness: the virtuous, the useful, and the pleasant. This foundation seems metaphysically, methodologically, and explanatorily prior to the accounts of Gilson and Maritain, because art is a virtue, and virtue is related to goodness, and goodness is “divided” into three inseparable modes.

Works in Progress

Translations

From the Father Alone: The Anti-unionist Works of St Mark of Ephesus on the Procession of the Holy Spirit

Abstract. This is the first ever Greek-English translation of a number of St Mark of Ephesus's anti-unionist works on the procession of the Holy Spirit, which can be found in the critical edition, Marci Eugenici Metropolitae Ephesi Opera anti-unionistica (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1977):

1. Florilegium on the Procession of the Holy Spirit (Testimonia a Marco Ephesio collecta quibus probatur, ut ait, Spiritum Sanctum e solo Patre procedere)

2. Syllogistic Chapters Against the Latins (Marci Ephesii capita syllogistica adversus Latinos de Spiritus Sancti ex solo Patre processione)

3. Dialogue on the Latin Addition to the Creed (Marci Ephesii dialogus de additione ad symbolum a Latinis facta)

4. Confession of the Right Faith, Expounded at Florence (Marci Ephesii confessio fidei Florentiae scripta sed post absolutam synodum in lucem edita)

5. Statement and Explanation of the Council at Florence (Marci Ephesii relatio de rebus a se in synodo Florentina gestis)

6. Encyclical Against the Latin-minded Greeks (Marci Ephesii epistola encyclica contra Graeco-Latinos ac decretum synodi Florentinae)

A Treatise of Orthodox Theology on the Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father Alone: A Translation of Adam Zoernikav’s Tractatus Theologici Orthodoxi de Processione Spiritus Sancti a Solo Patre

Abstract. This is the first ever Latin-English translation of the magnum opus of the 17th century Lutheran convert to Orthodoxy, Adam Zoernikav, who, in nineteen treatises, defends the Orthodox dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father alone:

1. In which it is demonstrated, that the holy eastern Fathers in the first ten centuries believed by unanimous consent that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.

2. In which are discussed the corruptions perpetrated in the writings of the eastern Fathers by the Latins and latinizing Greeks concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son. 

3. In which are discussed the corruptions perpetrated in the writings of the western Fathers by the Latins concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

4. In which it is demonstrated, that the Fathers of the western churches up to the end of the eighth century believed by unanimous consent that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.

5. In which it is demonstrated, that the Latins themselves when certain of them at the end of the eighth century first introduced the dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well as its addition to the Holy Symbol in the Latin church, for a long time squabbled litigiously among themselves about this matter, although especially the first authors among them were condemned by other Latins of the same time.

6. In which it is demonstrated, from theological principles that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.

7. In which it is shown, by that decree of the ecumenical synods lest any other definition of the faith be introduced in the churches besides that of Nicaea, that not only is it commanded not to introduce anything contrary, but also is it prohibited to insert anything within the Holy Symbol itself; and therefore even if it were true that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, by no means would it be possible to introduce that into the holy Symbol.

8. In which it is demonstrated, that the fact that the Holy Spirit is sent from the Son is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

9. In which it is demonstrated, that the fact that the Holy Spirit breathed upon the apostles and said “Receive the Holy Spirit” is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

10. In which it is demonstrated, that the fact that the Son has all things of the Father is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

11. In which it is demonstrated, that the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

12. In which it is demonstrated, that the fact that the Saviour said “Let him receive the Holy Spirit from me” is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

13. In which it is demonstrated, that the Holy Spirit speaks, not by itself but whoever hears, is not an argument for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son.

14. In which the arguments of the Latins sought from the Holy Scriptures for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son are dispelled. 

15. In which the testimonies sought from the writings of the eastern Fathers for the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son are dissolved.

16. In which it is shown, that neither do the remaining arguments of the Latins conclude that the procession of the Holy Spirit is from the Son.

17. In which it is demonstrated, that the union with the Roman Church under Innocent III was enforced by violence upon the Easterners and henceforth has been resisted and extinguished by them whenever possible.

18. In which it is demonstrated, that the union of the eastern and western church, promoted by the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, was of no assistance to the cause of the Latins.

19. In which it is demonstrated, that the Florentine Council was not a legitimate council, and by no means should it be numbered among the holy universal councils.

Questions on Aristotle's Physics: A Translation of William of Ockham's Quaestiones in libros Physicorum Aristotelis

Abstract. This is a translation of William of Ockham's Quaestiones in libros Physicorum Aristotelis, in which he raises over one hundred-fifty quodlibetal questions on motion, space, time, primary and secondary qualities, efficient causation, and so on. This work complements his Quodlibetal Questions Volumes 1 and 2, Quodlibets 1-7.

Manuscripts

Latina Scholastica Per Se Illustrata

Abstract. This is the first ever book to introduce students to medieval scholastic Latin and philosophy by using Hans Ørberg's "direct method" of teaching Latin in Latin. This  intermediate Latin book applies Ørberg's method to a number of Scholastic works on natural philosophy, such as Thomas Aquinas's De principiis naturae, to introduce students to (1) Scholastic Latin syntax and grammar and (2) fundamental concepts in scholastic metaphysics.