The Etienne Gilson Lecture

Each academic year the Institute has invited a senior medievalist to give the annual Etienne Gilson Lecture, established in honour of the Institute’s founder, and the remarkable range of his activities as historian, philosopher, and critic. Among the distinguished contributors to the series are fellows of the Institute, past and present, as well as scholars from Canada, Europe, and the United States. For the full list of contributors, see below.

Recent and Forthcoming Lectures

The 2023 Gilson Lecture, “God and the One: A Critical Tribute to Etienne Gilson,” was delivered by Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago) on 4 April 2023. For information on forthcoming lectures, please contact Jonathan Clemens, Institute secretary (phone 416 926 7142).

The Gilson Lectures on Thomas Aquinas

This volume, which marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of scholarly publishing at the Pontifical Institute and the thirtieth anniversary of Gilson's death, reprints the lectures devoted to Thomas Aquinas, and is introduced by James P. Reilly.

Gilson Lectures

The Gilson Lectures on Thomas Aquinas
With an Introduction by James P. Reilly
Etienne Gilson Series 30. 2008. xxx, 246 pp.
ISBN 978–0–88844–730–2 • $30.95

This volume contains nine lectures from this prestigious series by some of the most prominent Thomists, including Leonard Boyle, Edward Synan, James Weisheipl, Mark Jordan, and James P. Reilly.

View prelims and contents • Print order form

Lectures in Print

Many (although not all) of the Gilson lectures are published as part of the Etienne Gilson Series (EGS), a collection of works by and about the Institute founder. Complimentary copies of those still currently in print are available on request; copies of some of the lectures are available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format (see below). In order to make a request, please write to Megan Jones at the Department of Publications, 59 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C4, and please include your mailing address.

The following lectures are currently in print:

2000: Marcia L. Colish. “Remapping Scholasticism.” EGS 21. 2000. 21 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–721–0 • Also available in a PDF version
2002: Francis Oakley. “Omnipotence and Promise: The Legacy of the Scholastic Distinction of Powers.” EGS 23. 2002. 28 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–723–4 • Also available in a PDF version
2003: John D. North. “Time and the Scholastic Universe.” EGS 25. 2003. 32 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–725–8
2004: Karl F. Morrison. “The Male Gaze and Other Reasons for the Hypothetical End of Christian Art in the West.” EGS 26. 2005. 36 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–726–5 • Also available in a PDF version
2005: F. Donald Logan. “The Medieval Historian and the Quest for Certitude.” EGS 27. 2005. 17 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–727–2
2006: Paul Edward Dutton. “The Mystery of the Missing Heresy Trial of William of Conches.” EGS 28. 2006. 48 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–728–9
2007: William Courtenay. “Changing Approaches to Fourteenth-Century Thought.” EGS 29. 2007. 40 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–729–6
2008: M. Michèle Mulchahey. “‘The use of philosophy, especially by the Preachers ...’: Albert the Great, the Studium at Cologne, and the Dominican Curriculum. EGS 32. 2009. 38 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–732–6
2010: Timothy B. Noone. “Of Angels and Men: Sketches from High Medieval Epistemology.” EGS 34. 2011. 45 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–734–0 • Currently only available in a PDF version
2011: Peter Howard. “Aquinas and Antoninus: A Tale of Two Summae in Renaissance Florence.” EGS 35. 2013. 30 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–735–7
2017: Richard J. Fafara. “Etienne Gilson: Formation and Accomplishment.” EGS 36. 2018. 40 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–736–4 • Currently only available in a PDF version
2020: Willemien Otten. “Creation and Gender in Eriugena, Hildegard, and Hadewijch.” EGS 37. 2023. 36 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-737-1

Related Lecture: Anthony J. Celano. “From Priam to the Good Thief. The Significance of a Single Event in Greek Ethics and Medieval Moral Teaching.” EGS 22; Studies in Medieval Moral Teaching 2. 2001. 24 pp. ISBN 978–0–88844–722–7 • Also available in a PDF version

Distinguished Contributors

1979: Edward A. Synan, “Thomas Aquinas: Propositions and Parables”
1980: James A. Weisheipl, O.P., “Thomas d’Aquino and Albert his Teacher”
1981: Laurence K. Shook, lecture incorporated into his Étienne Gilson (Toronto: PIMS, 1984)
1982: Leonard E. Boyle, O.P., “The Setting of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas”
1983: Armand A. Maurer, C.S.B., “Art and Beauty”
1984: Walter H. Principe, C.S.B., “Thomas Aquinas’ Spirituality”
1985: Jaroslav Pelikan, “The Spirit of Medieval Theology”
1986: Joseph Owens, C.Ss.R., “Towards a Philosophy of Medieval Studies”
1987: Kenneth L. Schmitz, “What Has Clio to Do with Athena? Etienne Gilson: Historian and Philosopher”
1988: James P. Reilly, Jr., “St. Thomas on Law”
1989: Otto Hermann Pesch, “Christian Existence according to Thomas Aquinas”
1990: Mark D. Jordan, “The Alleged Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas”
1991: Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, “Who Read Thomas Aquinas?”
1992: John Finnis, “‘Historical Consciousness’ and Theological Foundations”
1993: John F. Wippel, “Thomas Aquinas on the Divine Ideas”
1994: Édouard Jeauneau, “Translatio Studii: The Transmission of Learning”
1995: James K. McConica, C.S.B., “The Waning of the Middle Ages”
1996: Brian Stock, “The Traditional Roots of Mind/Body Medicine”
1997: Richard H. Rouse, “Illiterate et Uxorati: The Beginnings of Commercial Book Production”
1998: Jaroslav Pelikan, “Doctrinal History and Its Interpretation”
1999: Brian Davies, “Aquinas and the Problem of Evil”
2000: Marcia L. Colish, “Remapping Scholasticism”; Anthony J. Celano, “From Priam to the Good Thief”
2001: Giles Constable, “The Abstraction of Personal Qualities in Medieval Letters”
2002: Francis Oakley, “Omnipotence and Promise: The Legacy of the Scholastic Distinction of Powers”
2003: John D. North, “Time and the Scholastic Universe”
2004: Karl F. Morrison, “The Male Gaze and Other Reasons for the Hypothetical End of Christian Art in the West”
2005: F. Donald Logan, “The Medieval Historian and the Quest for Certitude”
2006: Paul Edward Dutton, “The Mystery of the Missing Heresy Trial of William of Conches”
2007: William J. Courtenay, “Changing Approaches to Fourteenth-Century Thought”
2008: M. Michèle Mulchahey, “‘The use of philosophy, especially by the Preachers ...’: Albert the Great, the Studium at Cologne, and the Dominican Curriculum”
2009: Jacqueline Hamesse, “The Medieval Philosopher's Reference Tools: Essential Aids to Scholastic Formation”
2010: Timothy B. Noone, “Of Angels and Men: Sketches from High Medieval Epistemology”
2011: Peter Howard, “Aquinas and Antoninus: A Tale of Two Summae in Renaissance Florence”
2013: Faith Wallis, “Medicine and the Renaissance of the 12th Century”
2014: Peter Brown, “Alms, Work and the 'Holy Poor': Early Monasticism between Syria and Egypt”
2015: Bonnie Kent, “How Could We Become Equal to the Angels? Late Thirteenth-Century Debates about Human and Angelic Capacities”
2016: Vincent Gillespie, “'Approved Women': Birgitta of Sweden and the Politics of Late Medieval English Spirituality”
2017: Richard J. Fafara, “Etienne Gilson: Formation and Achievement”
2018: Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, “‘Silent Friends’: Christian Hebrew Learning in Medieval England”
2019: John Van Engen, “Fidelity, Faith, and Doubt in the Twelfth Century: Writings of William of St Thierry (1075/85–1148) in Cultural Context”
2020 (delivered in 2022): Willemien Otten, “Creation and Gender in Eriugena, Hildegard, and Hadewijch”
2021 (delivered in 2022): Peter Adamson, “Avicennan Scholasticism”
2023: Bernard McGinn, “God and the One: A Critical Tribute to Etienne Gilson”