Volume 2 ofThe Writings of Charles De Koninckis part of the three-volume series presenting the first English edition of the collected works of the Catholic Thomist philosopher Charles De Koninck (1906–1965). Ralph McInerny is the project editor and has prepared the excellent translations.
The second volume begins with two works published in 1943:Ego Sapientia: The Wisdom That Is Mary, De Koninck's first study in Mariology, andThe Primacy of the Common Good Against the Personalists(withThe Principle of the New Order), which generated a strong critical reaction. Included in this volume are two reviews ofThe Primacy of the Common Good, by Yves R. Simon and I. Thomas Eschmann, O.P., and De Koninck's substantial response to Eschmann in his lengthy “In Defense of St. Thomas.” The volume concludes with a group of short essays: “The Dialectic of Limits as Critique of Reason,” “Notes on Marxism,” “This Is a Hard Saying,” “[Review of]Between Heaven and Earth,” and “Concept, Process, and Reality.”
“Volume Two ofThe Writings of Charles De Koninckreveals a Thomist at home not merely in the deepest questions of natural science and natural philosophy, but also in the highest reaches of ethical and political philosophy, and in the most wonderful realm of revealed theology. De Koninck combines a justified confidence in his wisdom about the highest things with humility and gratitude for the gift of that wisdom. The series edited by Dr. McInerny is taking shape as a recovered treasure of a philosopher who labored to receive, and to pass on, the gift of wisdom.“ —David Quackenbush, Thomas Aquinas College
Charles De Koninckwas on the faculty of Quebec's Universite de Laval and was Director of Laval's philosophy faculty from 1939 to 1956. He determined the course of philosl39