Welcome to The Open Door! This week (Aug. 10) we move, virtually, to Australia. We’re heading to Perth, the capital of West Australia. We’ll discuss theology and philosophy in the context of Catholic life there. Our welcome guest is Frank Calneggia. He’s the author of Assertion and Refutation (En Route Books and Media, 2022). In it he challenges another Australian thinker, the theologian Tracey Rowland. On what grounds? Her understanding of natural law, a subject dear to our Thomist hearts. Among the questions we will ask are the following. Please feel free to suggest your own.

1. Frank, if we may, could you first tell us a bit about yourself?

2. How fares the Church in Australia today? What kind of leader is Archbishop Anthony Fisher, Cardinal George Pell's successor?

3. What’s the philosophical climate in Catholic educational institutions? Can you give us more background on John Finnis and Peter Singer, two well known Australian philosophers.

4. How did you come to lock horns, as it were, with Tracey Rowland? What are some of the chief claims in her influential essay “Natural Law: From Neo Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism” (Communio: Fall, 2008)?

5. Can we understand natural law apart from Catholic theology?

6. Does St. Paul appeal to natural law in his Epistle to the Romans?

7. Just what is natural theology?

8. Following St. Thomas Aquinas, the guiding principle of your book is “The study of philosophy does not consist in knowing what others have thought but to know the truth of things.” Why is this principle controversial in our “interesting times”?

9. Pilate asks Jesus “What is truth”? How would St. Thomas answer this question?

10. You are a keen student of papal encyclicals. The American Solidarity Party is sometimes called “the party that reads the encyclicals.” If there were such a party in Australia how might it challenge status quo politics in your country?

https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/assertions-and-refutations/