Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

20 JOSEPH A. SELLINGtaking place.Johnstone’s analysis of this is ambiguous. He seems to recognizethat the intention to give a gift needs one criterion forevaluation (“he or she is genuinely acting out of love”) while thechoice of the gift itself relies upon a very different criterion(will it “suit,” “benefit” or “please” the friend). Yet, he refuses torecognize these two, distinct and very different aspects of a unifiedevent. The loving intention to give a gift does not insurethat a ‘proper’ gift will be given, nor does the ability to determinewhat would be beneficial or pleasing to persons guaranteethat the gift-giving is not motivated by a desire to manipulate.Johnstone’s eagerness to characterize Aquinas as the patronsaint of the “unified vision” seems to have left him unawarethat the Aristotelian paradigm (form and matter) innovativelyemployed by the scholastic to expose the complexity of voluntaryactivity created the very possibility of making distinctionsthat would be necessary for the further development of moraltheology.History of the Subject-Object RelationshipWhat is presented in Johnstone’s article with regard to thehistory of what he calls the separation of subject and object issomewhat sketchy. After presenting his interpretation ofAquinas in the opening part of his essay, he devotes another twopages to him in this historical section. In the remaining fivepages, only four historical persons are mentioned: Scotus (d.1308) gets one paragraph, as does Ockham (d. 1347, others givethis as 1349). Suarez (d. 1617) receives nearly a page andHeribert Jone (1885-1967, dates not given by Johnstone) isoffered as an example of the manualists. The theology course ofthe Carmelites of Salamanca (1665-1724) is mentioned in passing,and the name of the single figure that one would haveexpected to have been singled out for particular attention withregard to “the subject” is reduced to an adjective in, “some versionof the Kantian subject” (109).Scotus and Ockham are said respectively to place moralityjust about entirely in the (divinely commanded) object or the(willing) subject (105). Suarez is represented as defending