This blog uses the word "semiotics" a lot.  What does that mean?  What does this discipline that involves the "systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning" itself actually involve? 

Surprisingly enough, one of the Dominican students of St. Thomas Aquinas, John Poinsot (1589-1644), was an early theorist of this discipline that now joins the study of literature together with biology and thus, by extension, the study of Holy Scripture (and the Divine Liturgy) with natural processes.

For much of modern history, the two "Trees of Knowledge"-- Science & the Humanities-- have mistakenly been taken as distinct and unrelated.  Not so.  

Here, we give space to explore what this domain of knowledge can accomplish in elucidating God's multifaceted communication with Man. 

 

At times of great despair, uncertainty, spiritual dryness, and feeling of abandonment, such knowledge may prove useful to the Christian pilgrims on Earth!  This section of the blog is devoted to St. Patrick and his famous use of the Shamrock to teach the Heathen Irish about the Godhead.

On the Science of Signs and Signification:

 

Part Ia. A Lexicon of Thomistic Semiotics

Part Ib. A Semiotics Index of the Thomistic Corpus

Part II. The Isagogue of John of St. Thomas (for the Summa Theologiae)

Part III. Tractatus de Signis (by John of St. Thomas) [& Its Reception by Modern Semioticians]

Part IV. The Biblical Commentaries and Sermons of St. Thomas Aquinas

Part V. Patristic Commentaries on "Signs and Wonders" [More to Come]

Part VI. Research in Biosemiotics: Phytosemiotics & Zoosemiotics (or, Ethology)

Part VII. 'Signposts in a Strange Land' --- Meditations on Walker Percy's Literary and Scholarly Output

Appendix A: The "Religious-Turn" in Wittgenstein Studies

Appendix B: An Annotated Bibliography of Semiotic Literary Criticism

A Timeline:

Spring - Summer 2025:

Stage 1: A Close Reading of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae (Pars Prima) w/ Marginalia of Semiotic Terminology

Stage 2: An Annotated Commentary of John Poinsot's Isagogue [For Synthesis of Thomistic Philosophical Theology]

 

Fall - Winter 2025:

Stage 3: A Close Reading of John Poinsot's Tractatus de Signis [w/ Notes and Commentary]

 

Winter 2026:

Stage 4: A Compilation of Aquinas' Sermons and Biblical Commentaries w/ Semiotic References (w/ Inter-Textual Commentary)

 

Spring-Summer 2026 [Original Work]:

Stage 5a: Begin Annotated Bibliography of Semiotic Literary Criticism w/ a Focus on the interstices of Natural Theology and Foundational Theology (!)

Stage 5b: Begin Annotated Bibliography of Biosemiotics w/ a Focus on the interstices of Natural Theology and Foundational Theology (!)

Stage 6: A Critical Study of "Parson-Naturalists" of the English Reformed Tradition alongside the Jesuit Missionaries [Reflections on Nature & Grace, Faith & Reason, Religion & Science, etc.]

 

Ongoing Contributions:

A Compilation of Patristic Authorities on the Topic of "Signs and Wonders" and the Miraculous

Outlining Scientific Journals and Books on Biosemiotics, Phytosemiotics, and Zoosemiotics/Ethology

Book Reviews in Semiotic Literary Criticism

Annotated Bibliography of Cleric-Scientist Publications

A Necrology of Tertiaries and Oblates