Talk:List of Catholic philosophers and theologians

Untitled
I tried not to repeat much from the article on Doctors of the Church. When it came to those from before 787 I made sure to only choose those from the Western Roman Empire or the Western part of it anyway to avoid picking one whose strongly claimed as Eastern Orthodox.(Although some overlap still might exist)--T. Anthony 11:58, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

I think I'll have to prune and elaborate to avoid the purging. (This crud is keeping me up later then I wanted)--T. Anthony 18:39, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

I think that is a problematic criterion. If both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox claim a church father, then that person should be listed on both pages, not omitted from one. To do otherwise would be to take an editorial stance on whether or not the Catholic Church is correct to consider itself the same entity as the Church that began in 1st-century Palestine. Polsky215 (talk) 19:22, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

Organization of Page
I have subdivided the page considerably so that it is now divided between ancient, early medieval, late medieval, early modern, late modern, and contemporary. The previous division between medieval, modern, and contemporary led to the awkward consequence that theologians a whole millennia apart (!) were in the same era. Augustine and other church fathers are not medieval theologians, but ancient ones. The list now reflects this.

I have also begun (but not finished) reordering names within the sections themselves. Names should be ordered by date of birth. This is important to give a rough sense of influence between thinkers. It is also consistent with other list pages such as List of political philosophers.

Polsky215 (talk) 20:34, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

20th Century Philosophers Clean-up
I'm happy to discuss standards for inclusion under 20-21st century philosophers, but right now it seems as if this page has not been edited for a while. So, I am going to be bold WP:BOLD and clean up that section.

In doing this, my criteria for 20-21st century philosophers/theologians are as follows:
 * No philosophers/theologians born after 1970. This is not a page of every person who has called themselves a philosopher or held a position in philosophy, but should only show prominent/influential ones. Thus, more recent philosophers/theologians should not be included insofar as we cannot yet tell their lasting impact.
 * No philosophers/theologians who have been excommunicated or disavowed by their local bishop/Rome without this decision ever being reversed. In order to be a Catholic philosopher (as opposed to one merely influenced by Catholic thought--as just about any philosopher is), the philosopher/theologian needs to be in line with Rome.
 * No authors whose Wikipedia pages do not even state their date of birth.
 * No authors who have not held an academic position at an institution of higher learning.

There should probably be stricter standards even than this, but in any case, this is a start.

Polsky215 (talk) 15:17, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Given the enormous mess that is the 20th century section, I propose that all entries in that section be deleted unless:
 * a) the entry meets the criteria stated above.
 * b) there is a note attached to the author's name, citing a published work of theirs that has received an impramatur. Absent this, there is no way to discriminate between people who personally claim to be Catholic and those who are actually working within the tradition of the Church.

Unless I hear opposing arguments within the next two weeks, this criteria will be implemented as quickly as possible thereafter. Polsky215 (talk) 19:16, 20 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Why do you want to be a gatekeeper here? Wikipedia is not an arm of the Catholic Church. Nobody on this list should have to have published with an imprimatur. This list should be broad enough to include any thinker who self identified as Catholic, thought seriously about Catholicism etc.
 * It can include bad and good Catholics. Pascalulu88 (talk) 13:01, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Wittgenstein's Catholicism
Though Wittgenstein did receive Last Rites before his death, this was not his own request, and right until the end he would have refused to self-identify as a Catholic. Though I don't think this immediately disqualifies him from appearing on this list, I think he probably shouldn't be on it. 4.243.98.91 22:56, 17 February 2007 (UTC)John S.


 * Someone must have added that after I left, good call.--T. Anthony 01:24, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Wittgenstein was born Jewish and did not self-identify as a Catholic. In my understanding, there is nothing in his philosophical works that is even remotely Catholic.  so why is he on this list?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pilgrim144 (talk • contribs) 17:09, 18 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Agree. Will remove him.KD Tries Again (talk) 21:34, 4 September 2011 (UTC)KD Tries Again
 * Yes, but did Wittgenstein identify as Jewish either? I don't see that he did. He was baptized a Catholic and educated as a Catholic. And there is plenty of evidence in his personal life of him practicing what might be called Franciscan virtues. He's just another thinker who started out Catholic and diverged from that later. None of this detracts from us having him identified as Jewish, also. Including him on a list of Catholic philosophers does not impugn his ethnicity. Catholic is not an ethnic thing. Pascalulu88 (talk) 13:07, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Catechism.jpg
Image:Catechism.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 13:24, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Needs More Images
I think it would enhance the article to put in some images of some of these folks--71.50.7.162 (talk) 06:44, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Joan Chittister?
Nothing in the Wiki article on Joan Chittister indicates that she is a philosopher or theologian, unless commenting on religious matters makes one a philosopher or theologian, which I don't think it does. --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 19:11, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

useful distinction
I think it would be more useful to have separate lists of Catholic philosophers and Catholic theologians (even if there is overlap). --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 19:28, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

It may be helpful to have a separate article for 20th century Catholic philosophers, but for an article about all of Catholic history, it does not make sense to distinguish between Catholic philosophers and theologians. Until the 20th century, there were hardly any Catholic philosophers who were not also theologians. So, the list of Catholic philosophers would simply be a shorter version of the same list. Polsky215 (talk) 20:36, 8 May 2019 (UTC)