The Thomistic Institute

Aug 17, 2023 • 1h 3m

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023, at Saint Louis University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Aug 16, 2023 • 43 min

This lecture was given on April 18th, 2023, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Matthew Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His dissertation, "A Thomistic Account of the Habituation of the Passions," explored the ways in which people can develop virtuous affective inclinations. Dr. Dugandzic's scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas' anthropology, psychology, and ethics. His work on Christ's passions recently appeared in the European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas and his other writings on the passions and on bioethics have appeared in New Blackfriars and National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. His current research focuses on the sources that Aquinas used in developing his understanding of virtue and on recovering ancient and medieval wisdom regarding economics in order to apply this wisdom to contemporary financial problems (like student loan debt). In addition to his doctorate, Dr. Dugandzic holds a BSc in biology from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec and an MA in religious studies from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York. He and his wife, Audra, live in Baltimore, MD. In his spare time, he likes to play hockey, which he enjoys almost as much as reading theology.

Aug 16, 2023 • 49 min

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023 at Cornell University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. He was born and raised in Connecticut and studied philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He joined the Order of Preachers in 2007, making his solemn vows in 2011 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2013. Fr. Little has a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, where he completed a dissertation entitled Aristotelian Change and the Scala Naturae. He primarily works on topics of interest in Aristotelian-Thomism and natural philosophy. He has previously taught at Providence College and is now a member of the faculty of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

Aug 15, 2023 • 1h 20m

This lecture was given on April 4th, 2023, at Brown University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: John A. Cuddeback, PhD, is professor of Philosophy at Christendom College, where he has taught for twenty-five years. He lectures widely on topics including virtue, fatherhood, friendship, and household, and his professional writings appear in various academic journals and books. His book True Friendship was republished by Ignatius Press. His blogging at LifeCraft is renowned for applying an ancient wisdom to life today.

Aug 11, 2023 • 1h 5m

This lecture was given on June 15, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: University of Washington The Thomistic Institute at the University of Washington presents a lecture by Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies titled “The Search for Happiness: Wisdom from Aquinas and the Classical Tradition.” Friday, November 4 2:00 PM HUB 334 This lecture is free and open to the public. About the Speaker: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and Assistant Professor in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001, after having practiced constitutional law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also taught at The Catholic University of America Law School and at Providence College. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Aug 10, 2023 • 42 min

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Dr. Michael Root about his latest Thomistic Institute, "What is Our Hope? Heaven and the Kingdom of God." What is Our Hope? Heaven and the Kingdom of God w/ Dr. Michael Root and Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://on.soundcloud.com/w9AaZ About the speaker: Professor Michael Root (Catholic University of America is an Ordinary Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Root is a native of Norfolk, Virginia and studied at Dartmouth College (B.A.) and Yale University (Ph.D. in theology). He was received into the Catholic Church in August, 2010. His particular theological interests are ecumenical relations, eschatology/last things, and grace and justification. Root has been a member of the US and international Lutheran-Catholic dialogues, the US Lutheran-United Methodist dialogue, the Anglican-Lutheran International Working Group, and the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission. He served on the drafting teams that produced the Lutheran Roman Catholic “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification”.

Aug 9, 2023 • 1h 6m

This lecture was given on June 15, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Russell Hittinger is a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought. From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger gave the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004 and appointed to the consilium or governing board from 2006-2018. On 8 September 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in which he finished his ten-year term in 2019. He is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America, where he also serves as the inaugural co-Director of the Program in Catholic Political Thought.

Aug 8, 2023 • 1h

This lecture was given on June 14, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Russell Hittinger is a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought. From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger gave the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004 and appointed to the consilium or governing board from 2006-2018. On 8 September 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in which he finished his ten-year term in 2019. He is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America, where he also serves as the inaugural co-Director of the Program in Catholic Political Thought.

Aug 7, 2023 • 1h 4m

This lecture was given on June 14, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

Aug 4, 2023 • 1h 2m

This lecture was given on June 13, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Michael Gorman is professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has doctorates in philosophy and theology. He has authored over thirty academic papers and a book entitled Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His main interests are metaphysics, human nature, and ethics.

Aug 3, 2023 • 58 min

This lecture was given on June 13, 2023, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Russell Hittinger is a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought. From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger gave the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004 and appointed to the consilium or governing board from 2006-2018. On 8 September 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in which he finished his ten-year term in 2019. He is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America, where he also serves as the inaugural co-Director of the Program in Catholic Political Thought.

Aug 2, 2023 • 1h

This lecture was given on June 13, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Michael Gorman is professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has doctorates in philosophy and theology. He has authored over thirty academic papers and a book entitled Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His main interests are metaphysics, human nature, and ethics.

Aug 1, 2023 • 54 min

This lecture was given on June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Michael Gorman is professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has doctorates in philosophy and theology. He has authored over thirty academic papers and a book entitled Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His main interests are metaphysics, human nature, and ethics.

Jul 31, 2023 • 57 min

This lecture was given on June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Russell Hittinger is a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought. From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger gave the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. Since 2001, he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004, and appointed to the consilium or governing board from 2006-2018. On 8 September 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in which he finished his ten-year term in 2019. He is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America, where he also serves as the inaugural co-Director of the Program in Catholic Political Thought.

Jul 28, 2023 • 59 min

This lecture was given on June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

Jul 27, 2023 • 44 min

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Dr. Jonathan Buttaci about his latest Thomistic Institute, "Why Would a Biologist Believe in the Soul?". Why Would a Biologist Believe in the Soul? w/ Dr. Jonathan Buttaci and Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://on.soundcloud.com/tFDGP For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Jonathan Buttaci is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He came to CUA in 2016 after completing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Buttaci’s research focuses on accounts of mind and the soul in ancient Greek thought, in particular Aristotle’s theory of knowledge, learning, and scientific discovery. He is also interested more generally in the interplay between ancient Greek science, philosophy, and literature. This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63017 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Jul 26, 2023 • 1h 2m

Prof. Jonathan Buttaci, examines the idea of the soul from a biological perspective, drawing on Aristotle's comprehensive treatment of the soul as a principle of life for all living things. He challenges the modern scientific view, exemplified by James Watson's statement that life is simply a matter of chemistry, and instead suggests that the soul can be understood as a non-magical, non-mystical concept within biology. This lecture was given on April 10th, 2023, at Indiana University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Dr. Jonathan Buttaci is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He came to CUA in 2016 after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Buttaci’s research focuses on accounts of mind and the soul in ancient Greek thought, in particular Aristotle’s theory of knowledge, learning, and scientific discovery. He is also interested more generally in the interplay between ancient Greek science, philosophy, and literature.

Jul 25, 2023 • 56 min

This lecture was given on July 17th, 2023, at St. Peter's Church on Capitol Hill. For more information about upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., grew up as the youngest of ten children on a farm in Kansas and studied history, philosophy, and classics at Benedictine College. He then went to St Andrews, Scotland for a Master of Letters in medieval history. He entered the Order of Preachers as a son of the Province of St. Joseph and was ordained a priest in 2002. After finishing his S.T.L. and serving as an associate pastor for a brief time, he was sent to Kenya as a missionary for two years. He taught at the Tangaza College of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa and other institutions in Nairobi. He returned to the U.S. and completed a Ph.D. in Theology at the University of Notre Dame, with the primary area of history of Christianity, specializing in patristic theology with additional studies in medieval theology and the secondary area of systematic theology. His research appears in such journals as Vigiliae Christianae, Augustinianum, International Journal of Systematic Theology, New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Pro Ecclesia, The Thomist, Communio, and Angelicum and in books published by Catholic University of America Press and Ignatius Press. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), Oxford University Press, 2013, and the editor of Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy, Hillenbrand Books, 2015.

Jul 24, 2023 • 49 min

This lecture was given on April 19th, 2023, at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life". He pursues these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He works with the radar and other instruments on Cassini, continues to work on mass spectrometer data from Huygens, and is co-investigator on the Juno mission launched in 2011 to Jupiter. He is on the science team for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine is currently PI for a JPL-led study to send a probe into Saturn's atmosphere and has contributed to mission concept studies for space-based astrometry and microlensing missions. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in or chaired a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA.

Jul 21, 2023 • 1h 13m

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023, at the University of Texas at El Paso. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Erik Dempsey (Ph.D., Boston College) is the Assistant Director of UT's Thomas Jefferson for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He completed his doctorate at Boston College in June 2007. He is interested in understanding human virtue and the proper place of politics in a well-lived human life, the different ways in which human virtue is understood in different political situations, and the ways in which human virtue may transcend any political situation. His dissertation looks at Aristotle's treatment of prudence in the Nicomachean Ethics, and Aristotle's suggestion that virtue should be understood as an end in itself. He is currently at work turning his dissertation into a book by adding chapters that consider Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of Aristotle in terms of natural law and Marsilius of Padua's critique of Thomas.