Steve Baldner

Photo of Steve Baldner

Steve Baldner

Campus Location
Nicholson Tower Rm 706
Email
Phone
(902) 867-2115
Biography

Dr. Steven Baldner was educated at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto where he specialized in mediaeval philosophy. His main academic interest is the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, especially Aquinas’ natural philosophy and the problem of creation. Dr. Baldner likes to publish articles on various saints: Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great (Thomas’ teacher), Bonaventure, and Anselm. In 1996, he designed and proposed the Program in Catholic Studies; he currently coordinates the Humanities Colloquium, which he helped to inaugurate in 2008, and, as a temporal punishment for his sins, served as Dean of Arts, 2006-10. He has taught at StFX since 1992, having taught previously at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon. He is personally shifting his interest from middle ages to old ages. 

Education: M.S.L. (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto)

Fields of expertise: Mediaeval Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas, Philosophy of Human Nature.

Publications

"The Use of Scripture for the Refutation of Error, According to St. Thomas Aquinas," in Hamartia:  The Concept of Error in the Western Tradition.  Essays in Honor of John M. Crossett, ed. Donald V. Stump (Lewiston, NY:  Edwin Mellen Press, 1983) 149-170.

"St. Bonaventure and the Temporal Beginning of the World," The New Scholasticism 63(1989) 206-228.

"St. Thomas Aquinas and Charles Hartshorne's Process Philosophy" Lyceum 1(1989) 1-18.

"St. Thomas Aquinas and Charles Hartshorne on Change and Process" in Philosophy and the God of Abraham:  Essays in Memory of James A. Weisheipl, OP, ed. R. James Long (Toronto:  PIMS, 1991) 17-29.

"The Soul in the Explanation of Life:  Aristotle Against Reductionism" Lyceum 3(1991) 1-14.

"The Past Just Ain't What it Used to be:  A Response to Kevin Staley and Ronald Tacelli, S.J."  Lyceum 4(1992) 1-4.

"Is St. Albert the Great a Dualist on Human Nature?" Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (Annual Supplement to the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly) 67 (1993) 219-229.

“St. Albert the Great on the Union of the Human Soul and Body,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 70 (1996) 103-120.

“St. Bonaventure and the Demonstrability of a Temporal Beginning:  A Reply to Richard Davis,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 71 (1997) 225-236.

Thomas Aquinas on Creation: Writings on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Book 2, Distinction 1, Question 1), with William E. Carroll.  Translation of the text of Aquinas with historical and analytical introduction, notes, glossary, and bibliography.  Toronto:  Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1997.

“St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Presence of Elements in a Compound,” Sapientia 54 (1999) 41-57.

"Christian Philosophy, Etienne Gilson, and Fides et ratio” in Faith and Reason:  The Notre Dame Symposium edited by Timothy L. Smith (Notre Dame, IN:  St. Augustine’s Press, 2001) 153-166.

“Sources of St. Thomas’ Teaching on Prime Matter” in Aquinas’ Sources, edited by Timothy L. Smith.  Edited by Timothy Smith (Notre Dame, IN:  St. Augustine’s Press, 2014).

“Prime Matter:  A Thomistic Reply to Some Recent Criticisms” in Restoring Nature:  Essays in Thomistic Philosophy and Theology, ed. Michael M. Waddell, with introduction by Ralph McInerny.  Notre Dame, IN:  St. Augustine’s Press, 2014.

“Thomas Aquinas on Celestial Matter,” The Thomist.  68,3 (July, 2004) 431-467.

“The Problem of Motion:  Mediaeval and Modern,” Science et Esprit 57,3 (2005) 215-228.

“Albertus Magnus and the Categorization of Motion,” The Thomist 70,2 (2006) 2-3-235.

“An Argument for Substantial Form,” The Saint Anselm Journal (e-journal), 5 (2007)

“Introduction to Albert’s Philosophical Work,” with David Twetten, in A Companion to Albert the Great:  Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, edited by I.M. Resnick.  (Leiden:  Brill, 2013) 165-172.

“Albert’s Physics”, with David Twetten and Steven C. Snyder, in A Companion to Albert the Great:  Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, edited by I.M. Resnick (Leiden:  Brill, 2013) 173-219, esp. 173-188.

“Albertus Magnus on Creation:  Why Philosophy is Inadequate,” The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 88 (2014).

“Albertus Magnus:  Matter, Motion, and the Heavens.”  [Submitted to The Thomist]