Eleonore Stump

Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. Trained in classics and medieval studies before turning to philosophy, she became one of the leading figures in analytic philosophy of religion and the contemporary revival of Thomistic thought. Her major monograph 'Aquinas' (2003) offers a comprehensive analytic reconstruction of Aquinas's metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. In 'Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering' (2010) she develops a Thomistic response to the problem of evil grounded in second-person knowledge and biblical narratives (Job, Samson, Abraham, Mary of Bethany), arguing that propositional theodicy alone is inadequate. Stump has also written extensively on the atonement, divine simplicity, eternity (notably with Norman Kretzmann), free will, and personal relationship with God. Her 'Atonement' (2018) offers a non-Anselmian Thomistic account centered on love and union. She co-edited 'Reasoned Faith' (1993) in honor of Norman Kretzmann. Critics including J. L. Schellenberg and proponents of evidential arguments from evil have questioned whether her narrative approach adequately addresses horrendous suffering, while others debate her reading of Aquinas on simplicity and divine action. She has served as president of several professional societies, including the Society of Christian Philosophers and the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and delivered the 2003 Gifford Lectures.