A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Volume 2: An Introduction to Ragamuffin Thomism

by Dr. Peter Redpath

Nothing short of a metaphysical disturbance and metaphysical revolution of the highest order can resolve the West’s and the world’s current cultural, political, and civilizational problems. Dr. Redpath’s contribution to resolving this metaphysical crisis has been chiefly to add to the vision of his mentors the dimension that the only way to reunite science and wisdom is through uniting philosophy and science, and the only way to reunite philosophy and science is through a new interpretation of Western intellectual history, especially that of the nature of ancient philosophy and of the teachings of St. Thomas.

While in the first volume of this series, Dr. Redpath endeavored to accomplish this re-interpretation, in this second volume, he has sought chiefly to consider essential implications regarding the nature of the reunion between philosophy and science and the teachings of St. Thomas. He expects that he has helped his mentors give birth to a radically new interpretation of St. Thomas (what some colleagues of his and he have started to call “Born Again Thomism” or “Ragamuffin Thomism”) as well as a radically new interpretation ofphilosophy and science. Download Chapter 1 of Volume 1 for free and buy the book to read the rest.

Paperback $19.99 | Hardback $32.99 | Kindle $9.99

TESTIMONIALS

“A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is a rich book, and Redpath has a clear style. He breaks complicated issues into short, intelligible units. He repeats difficult points, and then he repeats them again, rephrasing them to make them understandable. This is a book I wish I’d had in my earlier years of studies. In reading it, I found that many notions and points I had often wondered about, or about which I needed more explanation, were much clearer after Redpath dealt with them. For us metaphysicians, this is a book of refreshment and a review of what we thought we knew….A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is one of those rare, to-the-point books that argues forcefully about the heart of things. The book is remarkably whole. It relates the order of the mind and the order of things in a way we seldom see in a brief space. Yes, it remains a difficult book. We must take time to read it….The advantage of this book is its constant, step-by-step guidance to knowing how to achieve such an end of understanding what is, if we would have it. This is the highest service a professor can perform for those who wonder, for those who seek to know reality.” – Fr. James V. Schall, New Oxford Review, May 2018, Volume LXXXV, Number 4.

“Standing on the shoulders of the intellectual principles that he has synthesized from classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas and twentieth-century intellectual giants like Mortimer J. Adler, Jacques Maritain, Armand A. Maurer, and Charles Bonaventure Crowley, Redpath has, in the tradition of Adler, composed a monumental work that challenges as false and civilizationally dangerous prevailing opinions of leading philosophical scholars, scientists, and ethicists ‘falsely-so-called’ about the nature and history of the subjects in which they profess to have an expertise.” – Max Weismann, Co-founder, with Mortimer J. Adler, of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas


“This present book, ‘written,’ as the author tells, ‘in the hope of ending the centuries-old separation between philosophy and science and science and wisdom,’ has only one counterpart known to me, and that is The Way toward Wisdom by the late Benedict Ashley, O.P.. The thematic synchronicity of these two volumes so close in time may well suggest that a veritable Tsunamic revision of modern philosophy’s ‘standard picture’ is approaching the shore of our time! Ragamuffin Thomism may well prove to be the next major wave in philosophy’s future.” – John N. Deely, Saint Vincent Seminary and College


“This volume II brings the wisdom of volume I to new heights. For a modern person, struggling with the complexities of today’s world, Metaphysics sounds like an antique, useless, with no personal value. Redpath shows how Christian Metaphysics is a central piece in the development of personal and organizational leadership. Christian Metaphysics provides what modern sciences were incapable of doing: unveiling the best of life, what are the secrets of happiness, the elements to empower every person and organization, to develop a vision, motivate and energize everyone towards such vision, in summary: leadership. Christian Metaphysics is a central piece in discovering the best life, to unify each person’s psychology, to reintegrate the society, towards its best. This book is unique, for anyone, to develop wisdom and leadership.” – Dr Juan Pablo Stegmann

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter A. Redpath is presently Rector of the Adler-Aquinas Institute (www.adler-aquinasinstitute.org); founder and former Chair of the St. John Paul II Thomistic Studies Graduate Philosophy Concentration in Christian Wisdom for Holy Apostles College and Seminary; CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership (www.aquinasschoolofleadership.com); and a contributing scholar in the Thomistic Studies graduate program at the University Abat Oliba, Barcelona, Spain. Former Full Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, New York, Redpath has taught philosophy on the college and university level for over 52 years, plus courses at the Staten Island, Arthur Kill Correctional Facility and New York City’s Riker’s Island. He is author/editor of 17 philosophical books and dozens of articles and book reviews; has given over 200 invited guest lectures nationally and internationally; is president and co-founder of the International Étienne Gilson Society; co-founder and vice president of The Gilson Society, former vice-president of the American Maritain Association, Chairman of the Board of the Universities of Western Civilization and the Angelicum Academy home school program; a member of the Board of Directors of the Great Books Academy home school program; a former member of Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Philosophic Research; a member of Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Catholic Education Foundation; Academician of The Catholic Academy of Sciences in the United States of America; editor of the Brill/Rodopi Gilson Study Special Series; former executive editor of Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS) for the Dutch publisher Editions Rodopi, B. V.; former editor of the Studies in the History of Western Philosophy special series for Editions Rodopi and former editor of the Editions Rodopi Gilson Studies Special Series; former associate editor, and current advisor of the journal Contemporary Philosophy; a recipient of St. John’s University’s Outstanding Achievement Award; a distinguished alumnus of Xaverian High School; a Fellow of the Priority Thinking Institute; and former Graduate Fellow at the SUNY at Buffalo. He currently resides with his wife, Lorraine, in Cave Creek, Arizona.

One of the books Dr. Redpath has edited and highly endorses is Origin of the Human Species by Dr. Dennis Bonnette. Dr. Bonnette has also written an article on the topic entitled, “The rational credibility of a literal Adam and Eve.” When combined with the article, the book provides a Thomistic interpretation of mainstream evolution theory that is consonant with Catholic teaching, including that regarding our first parents.The article is found in the peer reviewed Spanish philosophical journal, Espiritu. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

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