Cornelius Ernst

{{Short description|Sri Lankan Dominican theologian (1924–1977)}} '''Cornelius Ernst''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=OP}} (1924–1977) was a Sri Lankan Dominican theologian.

==Biography== Ernst was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1924 to an ethnically Dutch Anglican father and Sinhalese Buddhist mother. For a period he was a member of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. He shared the Anglicanism of his father, but later converted to Catholicism after reading John Henry Newman's ''Apologia Pro Vita Sua''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kerr |first1=Fergus |title=CORNELIUS ERNST: SERMON PREACHED at the REQUIEM MASS at Blackfriars, OXFORD, on 26th January 1978 |journal=New Blackfriars |date=December 1978 |volume=59 |issue=703 |pages=549-54 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43246959}}</ref> He was ordained in 1954, following this he taught at Hawkesyard Priory in Staffordshire, England from 1957 until 1966 when he moved to Oxford Priory.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kopack |first1=Austin C. |title=Nothing is hidden: nonsense and the revelation of limits |journal=International Journal of Philosophy and Theology |date=2024 |volume=85 |issue=1-2 |pages=80–94 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21692327.2024.2377628?scroll=top&needAccess=true}}</ref>

==Work== While at Cambridge (1946–7) he attended lectures by Ludwig Wittgenstein,<ref>{{cite book |title=Aquinas as Authority |date=2002 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |page=175}}</ref> which had a lasting impression on him, leading him to attempt a synthesis of the ideas of Wittgenstein and Aquinas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keenan |first1=Oliver James |title='Sacrament of the Dynamic Transcendence of Christianity': Cornelius Ernst on the Church |journal=New Blackfriars |date=July 2013 |volume=94 |issue=1052 |pages=396-414 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43251741}}</ref>

Ernst was significantly influenced by Karl Rahner and acknowledged "my profound debt" to him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rahner |first1=Karl |translator=Cornelius Ernst |chapter = Translator's Introduction |title=Theological Investigations Volume 1: God, Christ, Mary and Grace |date=1961 |publisher=Helicon Press |page=xix}}</ref> He produced the first English translation of Rahner's ''Schriften zur Theologie'' which he penned the foreword to and named ''Theological Investigations''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fritz |first1=Peter Joseph |title=Karl Rahner's Theological Aesthetics |date=2014 |publisher=Catholic University Press of America |page=112}}</ref> This title choice was influenced by Wittgenstein's book ''Philosophical Investigations''.<ref name=Kerr>{{cite journal |last1=Kerr |first1=Fergus |title=Anscombe, Ernst And McCabe |journal=Divus Thomas |date=April 2022 |volume=125 |issue=1 |pages=42–70 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48728386}}</ref> Ernst edited a series of volumes entitled ''Sacramentum Mundi: an Encyclopedia of Theology'' alongside Rahner and Kevin Smyth,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark Lee |first1=Howard |title=Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology by Karl Rahner, Cornelius Ernst, Kevin Smyth |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |date=September 1969 |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=339-41. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3263727}}</ref> and also Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler's ''Theological Dictionary''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rahner |first1=Karl |last2=Vorggrimmler |first2=Herbert |title=Theological Dictionary |date=1965 |publisher=Herder and Herder}}</ref>

A major focus of Ernst's work was on grace. He edited and wrote the introduction to a Latin-English bilingual translation of the section on grace in Thomas Aquinas' ''Summa Theologiae'', which he published in 1972.<ref name=Kerr/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Justin M. |title=Virtue and Grace in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=312}}</ref> In 1974 he published a book, ''The Theology of Grace''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Edmund |title=Multiple Echo by Cornelius Ernst, O.P. (review) |journal=The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review |date=October 1982 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=631–6}}</ref>

Ernst was a long time contributor to the ''New Blackfriars'' journal.<ref>See bibliography section below</ref>

In 1979 many of his essays were posthumously published as a book, ''Multiple Echo'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roy |first1=Louis |title=Cornelius Ernst's Theological Seeds |journal=New Blackfriars |date=July 2004 |volume=85 |issue=998 |pages=459–70 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43250847}}</ref> featuring a foreword by Donald M. MacKinnon.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bowyer |first1=Andrew |title=Donald MacKinnon's Theology: To Perceive Tragedy Without the Loss of Hope |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |page=149}}</ref> Ernst work influenced theologians Nicholas Lash,<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Plested |editor1-first=Marcus |editor2-last=Levering |editor2-first=Matthew |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Reception of Aquinas |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=512}}</ref> Fergus Kerr,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kerr |first1=Fergus |title=Theology After Wittgenstein |date=1997 |publisher=SPCK |page=VIII}}</ref> and Timothy Radcliffe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Radcliffe |first1=Timothy |title=Alive in God: A Christian Imagination |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |page=19}}</ref>

==Bibliography== {{col-begin}} {{col-2}} * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43814937 Morals and Language]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 35, No. 415 (OCTOBER 1954), pp. 414-419. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43815558 The Relevance of Primitive Religion]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 38, No. 453 (DECEMBER 1957), pp. 524-528. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43815668 Ethics and the Play of Intelligence]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 39, No. 460-1 (JULY-AUGUST 1958), pp. 324-327. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43815668 Ethics and the Play of Intelligence]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 39, No. 460-1 (JULY-AUGUST 1958), pp. 324-327. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43705177 Reflections on the Theology of the Blessed Trinity]'' in Life of the Spirit, Vol. 12, No. 141 (MARCH 1958), pp. 388-392 * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43815774 Truth and Verification in Theology]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 40, No. 468, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (MARCH 1959), pp. 100-111. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43815818 The New Herder]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 40, No. 470 (MAY 1959), pp. 226-228. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816004 A Theological Chronicle]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 41, No. 482 (JUNE 1960), pp. 220-227. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43705778 Faith and Reality: Two Major Works of Biblical Theology]'' in Life of the Spirit, Vol. 16, No. 181 (JULY 1961), pp. 3-10. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816205 Christianity and Sex: Orientations]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 42, No. 493 (JUNE 1961), pp. 244-250. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816318 A Theological Chronicle: Sin]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 42, No. 498 (DECEMBER 1961), pp. 502-50. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816412 Theological Survey - The Herder Lexikon: A Report on Progress]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 43, No. 502 (APRIL 1962), pp. 185-187. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816472 The Gospel and the Church]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 43, No. 505/506 (JULY - AUGUST 1962), pp. 301-313. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43706221 Holy, Holy, Holy]'' in Life of the Spirit, Vol. 18, No. 203 (JULY 1963), pp. 12-21. {{col-2}} * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43816669 Words, Facts and God]'' in Blackfriars, Vol. 44, No. 517/518 (JULY/AUGUST 1963), pp. 292-306. * ''[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/642308 The Ontology of the Gospel]'' in The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review, vol. 27 (1963), pp. 170-181. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43245375 Philosophy in the Seminary]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 46, No. 537 (March 1965), pp. 330-339. * ''[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002114006503200306?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.8 Some Themes in the Theology of Karl Rahner]'' in Irish Theological Quarterly, Vol. 32, no. 3 (1965) 251-257. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43244473 The Significant Life of a Dominican House of Studies]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 48, No. 566 (July 1967), pp. 533-540. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43244557 Priesthood and Ministry]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 49, No. 571 (DECEMBER 1967), pp. 121-132. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43244577 The New Dutch Catechism]'' (with Peter Hastings) in New Blackfriars, Vol. 49, No. 572 (JANUARY 1968), pp. 190-198. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43245565 World Religions and Christian Theology]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 50, No. 593 (October 1969), pp. 693-699. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43245160 The Concilium World Congress: Impressions and Reflections]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 51, No. 607 (December 1970), pp. 555-560. * ''[https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:417bc6ac-2214-4a94-8e41-e90a26bf1728 A Preface to Theology]'' in Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, Vol. 2, no. 1 (1971), pp. 1–8. * ''[https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/16/article/639940/pdf Metaphor and Ontology in Sacra Doctrina]'' in The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review, vol. 38 no. 3, 1974, pp. 403-425. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43247138 Meaning and Metaphor in Theology]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 61, No. 718 (March 1980), pp. 100-112. * ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43247147 Thinking about Jesus]'' in New Blackfriars, Vol. 61, No. 720 (May 1980), pp. 208-215. {{col-end}}

==See also== * Fergus Kerr

==References== {{Reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ernst, Cornelius}} Category:1924 births Category:1977 deaths Category:20th-century English Roman Catholic theologians Category:20th-century Sri Lankan male writers Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Analytical Thomists Category:Catholic philosophers Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Category:Heidegger scholars Category:Members of the Dominican Order Category:Sri Lankan people of Dutch descent Category:Sri Lankan philosophers Category:Sri Lankan Thomists Category:Students of Ludwig Wittgenstein Category:Wittgensteinian philosophers