Stephen L. Brock (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
If, as Christians believe, God is all-wise and all-good, what sense does it make to ask Him for things? He is already perfectly aware of our true needs, and He already wants to provide for them. Many of our petitions, it seems, will be ignorant and misguided; and the others, unnecessary and superfluous. And if He already knows everything that will happen, can our requests really make a difference anyway? Yet petitionary prayer is part of the whole Christian tradition. Jesus himself practiced it, exhorted His followers to do so, and taught them how. In this seminar, we will first look at how petitionary prayer is defended by two 20th-century Christian thinkers, C. S. Lewis and Peter Geach. Then we will examine Thomas Aquinas’s position on the question. The discussion will take us into such thorny topics as time and eternity, divine foreknowledge and human freedom, and even predestination.
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the readings will be provided. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.
Fr. Brock will also be leading a summer seminar for graduate students in Rome this summer on “Metaphysics and the Soul in Thomas Aquinas.”