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This study explores the doctrine of the latency of forms in the Middle Ages, with a particular focus on Albert the Great’s elaboration through his theory of inchoatio formarum. The doctrine, whose origins date back to Anaxagoras and was further developed in the Arabic philosophical tradition, posits that matter contains all the manifest qualities of substances, though in a latent form. Albert reworks this doctrine, correcting the immanentist and paradoxical implications attributed to Anaxagoras’ error, and proposes an interpretation in which matter, while potentially active, receives the perfection of forms from an external causal principle. The study highlights how Albert’s inchoatio formarum provides a response to the doctrine of the latency of forms and fits into the broader medieval debate on the relationship between matter and forms, both in philosophical and theological contexts. The discussion also examines the commentators of Peter Lombard’s Sentences and the connection with Augustine’s doctrine of rationes seminales. Lastly, Albert’s contribution to the debate on Augustine’s rationes seminales and his interaction with the Thomist tradition and other 15th-century authors are analyzed.

The landscape of current trinitarian theology seems to be settling into three chief domains: Latin (or classical) trinitarianism, social trinitarianism, and apophatic (or mysterian) trinitarianism. In this article I look at three main objections to social trinitarianism. The first objection, voiced most forcefully by Karen Kilby, is that the social view follows a vicious pattern of projection. The second objection, related to the first, is raised on grounds of anthropomorphism. According to this objection, social trinitarians employ the notion of mutual love, a notion which raises big concerns among cotemporary Thomists. The third objection is grounded in the inability of humans to know much about the divine being, or for our language to make true statements about God. If we do not know about God’s essence, then social trinitarians do not know most (or all) of what they claim to know. This line of thinking is very recently proposed by Katherine Sonderegger. I detail the main contours of each of the three objections and argue that none of them are strong enough to warrant the rejection of social trinitarianism. However, if apophaticism ultimately forces trinitarians to reject the social theory, there is still some room for a mysterian social trinitarianism. I outline the contours of such a view and explain its motivations and limits.

In his De Trinitate (c.1170) Richard of St Victor gives one of the more intriguing examples of trinitarian philosophical theology. Beginning with our common beliefs about and experiences of love, he argues for the existence of three, and only three, divine persons (call this The Argument). This essay explores several points of interaction between The Argument and current discussions in analytic theology of the Trinity. In part one I briefly survey Richard’s views on three topics of interest to philosophical trinitarians, namely, the distinction of divine persons, his model of the Trinity, and intra-trinitarian love. In part two I look at some work in these areas by analytic thinkers. My intention here is to apply some elements of The Argument and to show how its appeal may go beyond that of social trinitarians. I propose that Richard’s argument cannot receive unqualified adoption by social trinitarians and, alternatively, is more appealing to non-social trinitarians than has thus far been recognized.

In his Third Oration on Peace Gregory of Nazianzus seeks to refute Eunomian claims that the Son and Spirit do not proceed from God’s essence and, therefore, are not fully divine. To do so, Gregory modifies a piece of triadic speculation – used by Origen and others – to fit his particular polemical and doctrinal needs. My aim in this study is to give an exposition of Gregory’s argument. After outlining the main points of Eunomius’ view of the Son’s deity, I investigate the four dilemmas that compose Gregory’s anti-Eunomian argument. The argument is negative insofar as it attacks Eunomius’ brand of trinitarianism directly. Even so, in the wider rhetorical context of Oration 23 this argument leads naturally into a positive account of the Father’s essential production of the Son and Holy Spirit. I conclude by detailing some of the main moves of this positive trinitarian theology.

Mikro Primary School is an Afrikaans medium public school whose governing body refused to accede to an order of the Western Cape Department of Education to change the language policy of the school so as to convert it into a parallel medium Afrikaans/English school. The Supreme Court of Appeal held that section 29(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, means that everyone has a right to be educated in an official language of his or her choice at a public educational institution to be provided by the State if reasonably practicable, but not the right to be so instructed at each and every public educational institution, subject only to it being reasonably practicable to do so. The court held that the language policy and admission policy of Mikro were not contrary to any provision of the Constitution, the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, the Western Cape Provincial School Education Act 12 of 1997 or the Norms and Standards. The MEC and the department were prohibited and restrained from compelling or attempting to compel the school or its principal to admit learners for instruction otherwise than in compliance with its language policy and applicable provisions of the Schools Act and the Norms and Standards. The court declared the conduct of the department’s officials to be an unlawful interference with the government and professional management of the school in contravention of section 16 of the Schools Act and prohibited and restrained them from interfering unlawfully. The court rejected a previous interpretation of the term “organ of state” and relied on the Constitution which determines that any institution exercising a public power or performing a public function in terms of any legislation is an organ of state (section 239(b)(ii)). This means that the public school (acting through its governing body) is clearly an organ of state because as an institution it exercises a public-education power and performs public-education functions in terms of the Schools Act, for example.

OASIS is an automatic internet interface that provides a wide set of statistical and cartographic tools for the analysis of spatial variables. Compared to what already exists, OASIS displays several advantages. Firstly, it is a complete platform that proposes new tools and includes a very large range of standard tools currently scattered in several software and interfaces. Secondly, OASIS provides access to a series of variables frequently used in the literature on spatial inequalities and segregation, which are available here at municipal scale for the entire metropolitan France (base maps included). Lastly, OASIS brings forward novel tools that allow for the testing of the statistical significance of all segregation and auto-correlation indexes with the help of Monte Carlo simulations. To our best knowledge, this kind of fully automatized tools are available nowhere, despite the obvious importance of ensuring the statistical reliability of spatial analyses.

Peptidoleukotrienes (LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4) have been proposed as important mediators of asthma. Twenty years of research in the field of peptidoleukotriene (pLT) antagonists have generated a number of biologically active compounds from different structural classes. Several drugs have been or are currently in clinical trials. The first generation peptidoleukotriene antagonists (e.g. FPL 55712) showed disappointing results in asthmatic patients, due to insufficient potency. However, new classes of highly potent antagonists (e.g. ICI 204219) are proving successfull in clinical trials in asthma patients. Thus, peptidoleukotriene antagonists may represent a new principle in asthma therapy. In this paper, the in vitro potency and clinical data of different classes of peptidoleukotriene antagonists are reviewed.