A new, much-anticipated book by the late Fr. William A. Wallace, O.P. and published by the Catholic University of America Press is coming out this winter and names two University of St. Thomas-Houston individuals and a third as editors. They are Professor and Director of St. John Paul II Institute Dr. John Hittinger; UST alumnus and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Aquinas College Dr. Daniel C. Wagner ’18; and Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University Dr. Michael Tkacz. All have a connection to the author of the book titled “Intelligibility of Nature: A William A. Wallace Reader.”  

Dr. Hittinger said, “Fr. Wallace was my teacher and mentor at Catholic University, and it was an honor to participate in editing his newest work. The book is a collection of essays edited by myself and Michael Tkacz, also a student of Fr. Wallace; and Dan Wagner, who received his Ph.D from the Center for Thomistic Studies at UST, was a student of both myself and Professor Tkacz.”

Fr. Wallace, who was a professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America for many years, stands as “one of the most prolific Catholic scholars of the late twentieth century.” He has authored 16 books and more than 300 scholarly articles. In addition to his doctorates in philosophy and theology, he holds physics and electrical engineering degrees. Wallace was a central person in the revival of scientific realism.

“Intelligibility of Nature” contains 29 previously published essays written over the past 40 years and not readily accessible. They are divided into five groups. One reviewer, Steven Baldner of St. Francis Xavier University, wrote, “…will be very useful to philosophers, scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, and general readers.”

“Fr. Wallace’s retrieval of the philosophy of nature of Aristotle and Aquinas is itself a major achievement; but in addition, he showed the historic influence of Aristotle on Galileo and other figures in the history of science and he applied its principles to some pressing issues in contemporary philosophy of science. These essays open up for the reader these achievements of his great scholarly career,” Dr. Hittinger said.