James J. McEvoy (14 October 1943 – 2 October 2010) was a Northern Irish

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and priest. His principal academic interests were related to medieval philosophy, particularly the work of

John Scotus Eriugena John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877), was an Irish Neoplatonist philosopher, theologian and poet of the Early Middle Ages. Bertrand Russell dubbed him "the most ...

and

Robert Grosseteste Robert Grosseteste ( ; ; 8 or 9 October 1253), also known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was an Kingdom of England, English statesman, scholasticism, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of ...

. He also wrote about the philosophy of friendship.

Biography

McEvoy undertook undergraduate and postgraduate study in the Department of Scholastic Philosophy at Queen’s University of Belfast, where he wrote his MA thesis on

's commentary on

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' ...

's ''Celestial Hierarchy.'' He studied for his Bachelor of Divinity at

St Patrick's College, Maynooth St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mou ...

, and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1968 for the Diocese of Down and Connor. In 1974, he was awarded his PhD by the

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

for a dissertation on the philosophy of Grosseteste, which he wrote under the supervision of Fernand Van Steenberghen. McEvoy held chairs of philosophy at The Queen’s University Belfast (1975–88), Louvain-la-Neuve (1988–95), and Maynooth (1995-2004). He served as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the

National University of Ireland Maynooth Maynooth University (MU) (), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Maynooth University was formerly known as National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ). It was Ireland ...

. He was elected a member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

in 1982 and conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

at Lincoln Cathedral in 2004, the same year that a volume on friendship, ''Amor amicitiae'', was published in his honour.

Bibliography

* ''The Philosophy of Robert Grosseteste'' (Clarendon Press, 1982) * ''Robert Grosseteste: Exegete and Philosopher'' (Variorum, 1994) * ''Roberti Grosseteste: New Perspectives on his Thought and Scholarship'' (Brepols, 1995) * (ed.) ''Roberti Grosseteste: Expositio in Epistolam Sancti Pauli ad Galatas'' (Brepols, 1995) * (ed., with J. Follon) ''Sagesses de l'amitié'' (2 vols, Editions du Cerf, 1997, 2003). An anthology of texts on friendship from Antiquity to the Renaissance. * ''Robert Grosseteste,'' Great Medieval Thinkers Series (Oxford University Press, 2000) * (ed., with Michael Dunne) ''History and Eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and his Time'' (Leuven University Press, 2002) * (ed.) ''Mystical Theology: The Glosses by Thomas Gallus and the Commentary of Robert Grosseteste on De Mystica Theologia'' (Peeters, 2003) * (ed., with Maurice P. Hogan) ''The Mystery of Faith: Reflections on the Encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia"'' (Columba Press, 2005) * (ed., with Michael Dunne) ''The Irish Contribution to Scholastic Thought'' (Four Courts Press, 2009) * (ed., with Declan Lawell and J. Stanley McQuade) ''Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi Lincolniensis Versio Caelestis Hierarchiae Pseudo-Dionysii Areopagitae'' (Brepols, 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McEvoy, James J. 1943 births 2010 deaths Academics of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Université catholique de Louvain alumni Roman Catholic priests from Northern Ireland 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests 21st-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Philosophers from Northern Ireland 20th-century Irish philosophers 21st-century Irish philosophers

Biography

Bibliography

Further reading

References