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Professor Rik Van Nieuwenhove's Outputs (51)

Providence, Divine Causality, and the Gratuitousness of Love: A Thomist Perspective (2023)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2023). Providence, Divine Causality, and the Gratuitousness of Love: A Thomist Perspective. New Blackfriars, 104(1114), 796-817. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12868

Broadly drawing on the writings of Thomas Aquinas, this article is a systematic-theological (rather than historical-theological) engagement with the theme of providence and divine causality. It aims to dispel some modern misunderstandings of these to... Read More about Providence, Divine Causality, and the Gratuitousness of Love: A Thomist Perspective.

Thomas Aquinas on the Sacrifice of Christ and the Eucharist: A Defence (2022)
Journal Article
Nieuwenhove, R. V. (2023). Thomas Aquinas on the Sacrifice of Christ and the Eucharist: A Defence. New Blackfriars, 104(1109), 4-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12804

In this paper I will discuss one of the soteriological models Thomas Aquinas outlines in his Summa Theologiae, namely ‘sacrifice’. This is only one of several, but not mutually exclusive, ways in which Thomas interprets our salvation in Christ. I wil... Read More about Thomas Aquinas on the Sacrifice of Christ and the Eucharist: A Defence.

Divine Nothingness, Ecstasy and Self-transcendence in the Evangelical Pearl (2022)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2022). Divine Nothingness, Ecstasy and Self-transcendence in the Evangelical Pearl. Medieval Mystical Theology, 31(1), 33 - 40. https://doi.org/10.1080/20465726.2022.2084840

This article considers a key topic from medieval theological anthropology by examining how ecstasy and self-transcendence relate to divine nothingness. It discusses this topic by examining a spiritual classic written by a female author and published... Read More about Divine Nothingness, Ecstasy and Self-transcendence in the Evangelical Pearl.

Introduction to Medieval Theology: Second Edition (2022)
Book
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2022). Introduction to Medieval Theology: Second Edition. (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108884426

This classic book, now in a second, expanded edition, is an invitation to think along with major theologians and spiritual authors, men and women from the time of St Augustine to the end of the fourteenth century, who profoundly challenge our (post-)... Read More about Introduction to Medieval Theology: Second Edition.

Trinity, regiratio and mind: an exploration of the systematic-theological resources of Ruusbroec's regirative model (2022)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2022). Trinity, regiratio and mind: an exploration of the systematic-theological resources of Ruusbroec's regirative model. International Journal of Systematic Theology, 24(4), 505-522. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijst.12552

This article discusses the original and highly dynamic doctrine of the Trinity of Jan van Ruusbroec (1293–1381) and explores its potential for systematic theology today. Ruusbroec characterizes the Trinity as ‘a flowing, ebbing sea’ in which the divi... Read More about Trinity, regiratio and mind: an exploration of the systematic-theological resources of Ruusbroec's regirative model.

Book Review: Shawn M. Colberg, The Wayfarers End: Bonaventure and Aquinas on Divine and Rewards in Scripture and Sacred Doctrine (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020) in The Thomist 85.3 (2021), pp. 489-493. (2021)
Journal Article
Crozier, W., & Van Nieuwenhove, R. (online). Book Review: Shawn M. Colberg, The Wayfarers End: Bonaventure and Aquinas on Divine and Rewards in Scripture and Sacred Doctrine (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020) in The Thomist 85.3 (2021), pp. 489-493. The Thomist,

The Trinity (2020)
Book Chapter
Crozier, W., & Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2020). The Trinity. In The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology (465-485). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Trinitarian Indwelling (2020)
Book Chapter
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2020). Trinitarian Indwelling. In E. Howells, & M. McIntosh (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of mystical theology (388-403). Oxford University Press

This chapter discusses two models of the Trinity: the so-called social or interpersonal model, and the psychological or intrapersonal model. How we conceive of the indwelling of the Trinity will be determined by the extent to which we espouse one of... Read More about Trinitarian Indwelling.

Protest Theism, Aquinas, and Suffering (2019)
Book Chapter
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2019). Protest Theism, Aquinas, and Suffering. In K. Kilby, & R. Davies (Eds.), Suffering and the Christian life (71-86). Bloomsbury

Searching for a Connection: Prayer and contemplation 'broadly conceived' in Thomas Aquinas (2019)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2019). Searching for a Connection: Prayer and contemplation 'broadly conceived' in Thomas Aquinas. Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses (Gedrukt), 95(2), 283-298. https://doi.org/10.2143/etl.95.2.3286477

This article considers the connection – or lack of connection – between prayer and contemplation in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas from his Commentary on the Sentences to the Summa Theologiae. The first part examines the meaning of 'contemplation'... Read More about Searching for a Connection: Prayer and contemplation 'broadly conceived' in Thomas Aquinas.

Contemplation, Intellectus, and Simplex Intuitus in Aquinas: Recovering a Neoplatonic Theme (2017)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2017). Contemplation, Intellectus, and Simplex Intuitus in Aquinas: Recovering a Neoplatonic Theme. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 91(2), 199-225. https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq2017227108

This contribution examines two related points in relation to Aquinas’s understanding of contemplation, which is a sorely neglected topic in scholarship. First, after having outlined that the final act of contemplation culminates in an intellective, s... Read More about Contemplation, Intellectus, and Simplex Intuitus in Aquinas: Recovering a Neoplatonic Theme.

Contemplation, Attention, and the Distinctive Nature of Catholic Education (2016)
Journal Article
Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2016). Contemplation, Attention, and the Distinctive Nature of Catholic Education. Journal of Catholic higher education, 35, 193-209

Catholic education should be primarily understood in terms of the contemplative disposition it fosters among students, i.e., a theocentric focus of knowing and loving God, rather than in terms of values. This argument will be developed by drawing on... Read More about Contemplation, Attention, and the Distinctive Nature of Catholic Education.