Jaki in Italian

Hello, dear friends of the Duhem Society! Dr Thursday has kindly invited me to contribute to this blogg and here I am.

I was born and educated in Italy. Seven years ago I moved to Ireland where I live now. I am a lecturer, I teach philosophy in a couple of colleges. My PhD thesis was on John Henry Newman and this is one of the reason I started reading Jaki, a fine Newman scholar. Moreover, philosophy of science is one of my areas of interest (I said interest, not expertise) and this is another reason I like Stanley Jaki.

In my first contribution I will tell you something about Jaki and Italy.

Jaki studied theology in Rome, at the Benedictine Pontificial University of Sant'Anselmo, on the beautiful hill of Aventino. This is how he remembers that experience in his autobiography:

In Rome I greatly profited from the historical method which was stressed in Sant'Anselmo in the teaching of various theological subjects, especially in systematic theology.It certainly suited my mind, which was never satisfied until it grasped the history of the topic. The exposure to Rome's cultural riches and to its monuments recording two millennia of history remained a lifelong experience to cherish. I would have been most please to stay in Rome, but I started going back there regularly only from 1992 on, following my appointment as an honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.

[Jaki, A Mind's Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography, 20]

Rome is also the last place where he lectured, a few days before his death.

Some of Jaki's books have been translated into Italian. Here is a provisional list:

La strada della scienza e le vie verso Dio (Jaca Book, Milano 1988);
Dio e i cosmologi (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1991);
Il Salvatore della scienza (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1992);
Lo scopo di tutto. Scienza, filosofia & teologia si interrogano sulla finalità (Ares, Milano 1994);
Cristo e la scienza (Fede e cultura, Verona 2006);
Disegno intelligente? (Fede e cultura, Verona 2007);
Il messaggio e il suo mezzo (Fede e cultura, Verona 2007);
Arcipelago Chiesa (Fede e cultura, Verona 2008);
Gesù, Islam e scienza (Fede e cultura, Verona 2009).

The Italian translation of Christ and Science was presented to Pope Benedict XVI. Here you can find an account of the event.

Next week I will tell you more about articles and interviews to Jaki available on line in Italian.

Ciao.

Angelo