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Philosopher James Wetzel named Augustinian Chair
By Maureen McKew

The Rev. Kail C. Ellis, O.S.A. dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announced the appointment of Dr. James Richard Wetzel, professor and chair of philosophy and religion at Colgate University, to the Augustinian Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine. He will become a member of the faculty of the Department of Philosophy.

A distinguished scholar on Augustine and the Augustinian tradition; modern philosophy and religious thought, he is the author of Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 1992), among numerous other works.

    Wetzel received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University (1982. He earned the degrees of master of arts (1984) and master of philosophy (1986), as  well as his doctorate in philosophy (1990)from Columbia University.

    In 1988, he joined the faculty of Colgate, where he remained until his appointment. From 1991-1992, he was a visiting assistant professor of philosophy and fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.

   Weztel’s areas of focus are Augustine and the Augustinian tradition, modern philosophy and religious thought. His interests include classical philosophy (especially Plato), medieval philosophy and religious thought, moral psychology, philosophical muses of mythology, political philosophy, theory and method in the study of religion, and gender studies.

   Wetzel is the author of the highly acclaimed Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 1992) and has contributed to many books, most recently “Augustine: Prodigal Heart,” which will appear in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Religion and the Emotions, edited by John Corrigan. His essay on Sin appeared in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Eerdmans, 1999), edited by Allan D. Fitzgerald, O.S.A. He also contributed “Snares of Truth: Augustine on Free Will and Predestingation” to Augustine and His Critics (Routledge, 2000), edited by Robert Dodaro, O.S.A. and George Lawless, O.S.A.

     The Augustinian Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine was endowed by the Augustinians of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova in 1994. In making the announcement of Wetzel’s, Father Ellis stated that the Augustinian Order has always recognized the enormous influence that the works of St. Augustine have had on its ministry of higher education.  “This influence extends to the very origins of the Order when the Constitutions of 1290 mandated that general study houses  be established for students from all provinces studying for advanced academic degrees.  These houses were aggregated to universities in such centers as Paris, Bologna, Padua, Rome, Florence, Cambridge, and Oxford, and granted academic degrees.  From this promising beginning emerged leaders of what came to be called the Augustinian School.” 

   Father Ellis noted that scholars such as Giles of Rome (d. 1316), James of Viterbo (d. 1308), and Gregory of Rimini (d.1358),earned for themselves a place in the history of medieval scholasticism because of their recourse to the authority of St. Augustine and their view of theology as an affective science whose purpose was the love of God.  This tradition of scholarship extended throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the modern period both through scholarly works and in the founding of universities.

  “The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is pleased to host the Augustinian Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine,” the dean stated. “It is a tangible manifestation of the commitment that Villanova University and the Augustinian Order have to interdisciplinary Augustinian scholarship that is consonant with Augustine's view of the integration of knowledge in the quest for truth and wisdom.”