Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 1995 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

8 H.J.M. SCHOOT
place in the education to the priesthood of the archdiocese of Utrecht.
According to Haarsma, the thread that runs back from the Utrecht
tradition of theology, to the teaching of Kreling, is the permanent
desire to give due respect to the mystery of God.
Another historical contribution, by Lodewijk Winkeler,
employed at the Catholic Documentation Centre of Nijmegen, records
the history of the growth of interest in the thought of Thomas Aquinas
at Utrecht, in which De Grijs played such a prominent role.
A bibliography of De Grijs, composed by the undersigned,
closes the first section of this Jaarboek, dedicated to Ferdinand de
Grijs, whom we did not ask his permission to carry through this small
project, knowing of his probable unwillingness to grant such a
permission... But he will, so I trust, acknowledge this strange
academic way of, heartfelt indeed, saying thanks.
The second section of this Jaarboek consists of two studies by Marcel
Sarot, lecturer in philosophy of religion at the Theological Faculty of
the University of Utrecht, and Herwi Rikhof. Sarot, in a paper
originally presented to a German audience, discusses a part of the
research that he undertook which developed into his dissertation, now
concentrating on Thomas Aquinas on the impassibility and
incorporeality of God. Aquinas' main thesis is that since emotions
(passiones animae) presuppose corporeality, God cannot be said to
have emotions. This argument, says Sarot, is widely neglected in
present-day theology, which for the main part favours God's
passibility. Sarot makes a plea for pulling this argument into the
discussion, also with regard to the wide support in present-day
psychological and philosophical theories of emotion for the idea that
emotions have an essential corporeal component. Sarot deerns
Aquinas' position highly relevant for present-day theology, and
proposes a strategy to deal with it.
Marcel Sarot belongs to a group of Utrecht philosophers that
organised a day of study on November 17, 1995, and is co-editor of a
book on the divine attributes. Presenting a lecture to this occasion,
Rikhof reacts to the criticism, contained in this book, of the efforts
made by the research group of Utrecht theologians to interpret
Aquinas. He thinks that the way in which some of the philosophers
proceed in their 'philosophical theology' implies an unwilling return to