Cornelius Ernst (1924–1977) was a Sri Lankan Dominican theologian.
Ernst was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1924 to an ethnically Dutch Anglican father and Sinhalese Buddhist mother. For a period he was a member of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. He shared the Anglicanism of his father, but later converted to Catholicism after reading John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua.[1]
While at Cambridge (1946–7) he attended lectures by Ludwig Wittgenstein.[2] He produced the first English translation of Karl Rahner's Schriften zur Theologie which he penned the foreword to and named Theological Investigations.[3] This title choice was influenced by Wittgenstein's book Philosophical Investigations.[4]
He was ordained in 1954, following this he taught at Hawkesyard Priory in Staffordshire, England from 1957 until 1966 when he moved to Oxford Priory.[5]
He edited and wrote the introduction to a Latin-English bilingual translation of the section on grace in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, which he published in 1972.[4][6] Ernst work attempted a synthesis of the ideas of Wittgenstein and Aquinas.[7]
In 1974 he published a book, The Theology of Grace.[8] He was a long time contributor to the New Blackfriars journal.[9]
In 1979 many of his essays were posthumously published as a book, Multiple Echo,[10] featuring a foreword by Donald M. MacKinnon.[11] Ernst work influenced theologians Nicholas Lash,[12] Fergus Kerr,[13] and Timothy Radcliffe.[14]
Selected bibliography
edit- Ethics and the Play of Intelligence in Blackfriars, Vol. 39, No. 460-1 (JULY-AUGUST 1958), pp. 324-327.
- Truth and Verification in Theology in Blackfriars, Vol. 40, No. 468, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (MARCH 1959), pp. 100-111.
- Christianity and Sex: Orientations in Blackfriars, Vol. 42, No. 493 (JUNE 1961), pp. 244-250.
- Words, Facts and God in Blackfriars, Vol. 44, No. 517/518 (JULY/AUGUST 1963), pp. 292-306.
- A Theological Chronicle: Sin in Blackfriars, Vol. 42, No. 498 (DECEMBER 1961), pp. 502-50.
- Holy, Holy, Holy in Life of the Spirit, Vol. 18, No. 203 (JULY 1963), pp. 12-21.
- The Significant Life of a Dominican House of Studies in New Blackfriars, Vol. 48, No. 566 (July 1967), pp. 533-540.
- Priesthood and Ministry in New Blackfriars, Vol. 49, No. 571 (DECEMBER 1967), pp. 121-132.
- World Religions and Christian Theology in New Blackfriars, Vol. 50, No. 593 (October 1969), pp. 693-699.
- The Concilium World Congress: Impressions and Reflections in New Blackfriars, Vol. 51, No. 607 (December 1970), pp. 555-560.
- Meaning and Metaphor in Theology in New Blackfriars, Vol. 61, No. 718 (March 1980), pp. 100-112.
- Thinking about Jesus in New Blackfriars, Vol. 61, No. 720 (May 1980), pp. 208-215.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Kerr, Fergus (December 1978). "CORNELIUS ERNST: SERMON PREACHED at the REQUIEM MASS at Blackfriars, OXFORD, on 26th January 1978". New Blackfriars. 59 (703): 549–54.
- ^ Aquinas as Authority. Peeters Publishers. 2002. p. 175.
- ^ Fritz, Peter Joseph (2014). Karl Rahner's Theological Aesthetics. Catholic University Press of America. p. 112.
- ^ a b Kerr, Fergus (April 2022). "Anscombe, Ernst And McCabe". Divus Thomas. 125 (1): 42–70.
- ^ Kopack, Austin C. (2024). "Nothing is hidden: nonsense and the revelation of limits". International Journal of Philosophy and Theology. 85 (1–2): 80–94.
- ^ Anderson, Justin M. (2020). Virtue and Grace in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas. Cambridge University Press. p. 312.
- ^ Keenan, Oliver James (July 2013). "'Sacrament of the Dynamic Transcendence of Christianity': Cornelius Ernst on the Church". New Blackfriars. 94 (1052): 396–414.
- ^ Hill, Edmund (October 1982). "Multiple Echo by Cornelius Ernst, O.P. (review)". The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review. 46 (4): 631–6.
- ^ See bibliography section below
- ^ Roy, Louis (July 2004). "Cornelius Ernst's Theological Seeds". New Blackfriars. 85 (998): 459–70.
- ^ Bowyer, Andrew (2019). Donald MacKinnon's Theology: To Perceive Tragedy Without the Loss of Hope. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 149.
- ^ Plested, Marcus; Levering, Matthew, eds. (2021). The Oxford Handbook of the Reception of Aquinas. Oxford University Press. p. 512.
- ^ Kerr, Fergus (1997). Theology After Wittgenstein. SPCK. p. VIII.
- ^ Radcliffe, Timothy (2019). Alive in God: A Christian Imagination. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 19.