ABSTRACT
Since the specifi c issue of whether the culture of modernity is or can be another praeparatio evangelii continues to be a subject of controversy within the Thomist tradition, and thus represents an example of what MacIntyre calls an ‘epistemological crisis’ – an issue that retards the development of the tradition until it is resolved – each chapter in Part II presents arguments in favour of the case that the culture of modernity is in fact hostile to the instantiation of the principles of the Thomist tradition. Whereas those Thomists who favour a more positive reading of modernity and who seek to synthesise elements of the Liberal tradition to Thomism are marshalling their arguments behind the banner of Whig Thomism, those who take the view that the relationship between the Liberal tradition and Thomism is dialectical rather than complementary or genetic have not organised themselves into a particular school. Nor are their arguments against the culture of modernity organised in a systematic manner. Each chapter in Part II therefore represents an attempt to marshal the various critiques into a more systematic synthesis. The synthesis is labelled a postmodern Augustinian Thomism for reasons which have been given in the introduction, and it is submitted that, in the absence of any self-labelling by its proponents, this expression encapsulates the substance of the arguments that have been advanced by individual scholars against the presuppositions of Whig Thomism. Further, in each chapter of Part II, the particular aspect of the culture of modernity that is the subject of discussion will be related back to aspects of the problematic created by the treatment of culture in Gaudium et spes.
