The Thomistic Institute

Oct 4, 2022 • 50 min

This lecture was given at Florida State University on April 22, 2022. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Corey Barnes is an Associate Professor of Religion at Oberlin College specializing in scholastic thought from the 12th to the 14th centuries. His research areas include Christology, causation, creation, providence, knowledge of God, theological language, and scholastic receptions of classical, patristic, and late antique sources.

Sep 29, 2022 • 1h 15m

This lecture was given on April 27, 2022 at the University of Texas at Austin. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Robert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught for 33 years. M. A. Oxford, Ph.D. UCLA. He is the author or co-author of four books, including: Realism Regained (Oxford University Press, 2000), and The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics, with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). He is the co-editor (with George Bealer) of The Waning of Materialism (Oxford University Press, 2010), and co-editor (with Nicholas Teh and William Simpson) of Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science (Routledge, 2018). He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, on defending and articulating Thomism in contemporary terms, and on arguments for classical theism.

Sep 28, 2022 • 1h 38m

This lecture was given on April 22, 2022 at the University of Georgia. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: About the speaker 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.

Sep 26, 2022 • 1h 5m

This lecture was given on July 25, 2022 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. for the Thomistic Institute's Washington, D.C. young professional's chapter. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: 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.

Sep 23, 2022 • 42 min

This lecture was given on September 20, 2022 at the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Angelicum. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: www.thomisticinstitute.org The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Angelicum Thomistic Institute present the XI International Thomistic Congress. The general scientific objective of the XI International Thomistic Congress is to consider new perspectives in the study of Saint Thomas (interests, methods and results) in order to highlight the resources of the Thomistic tradition in contemporary theological and philosophical debates. The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Angelicum Thomistic Institute invite you to the XI International Thomistic Congress. It will be held at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. A unique opportunity to share work, research and friendships with the best international specialists in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Congress is under the Honorary Presidency of His Eminence Rev. Luis Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The languages of the Congress are Italian, French, Spanish and English. Simultaneous translations will be provided for the plenary sessions for the in-person audience. The plenary sessions will also be live-streamed, but only in their original language. 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).

Sep 22, 2022 • 42 min

How can we read and interpret the Book of Revelation? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with scripture scholar Prof. Nina Heereman about her latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Finding Consolation in the Book of Revelation." Finding Consolation in the Book of Revelation w/ Fr. Gregory Pine and Prof. Nina Heereman (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/finding-consolation-in-the-book-of-revelation-prof-nina-heereman For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the Speaker: Dr. Heereman was born and raised in a devout Catholic family in Germany. Originally trained as a lawyer, Dr. Heereman experienced a deep conversion experience at the 1997 World Youth Day. This conversion led her to discern a vocation as a lay woman “celibate for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” and also led her to theological studies so as to “consecrate [her] life to the study and teaching of the Word of God”. She received an STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University, an SSL from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the very rare SSD from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and the Université de Fribourg. Her doctoral thesis “Behold King Solomon on the Day of His Wedding”: A Symbolic-Diachronic Reading of Song 3:6-11 and 4:12-5:1 has been heralded by scholars as a profound contribution to scholarship on the Song of Songs. Dr. Heereman is presently an Assistant Professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA.

Sep 21, 2022 • 52 min

This lecture was given on June 6, 2022 at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Erik Tonning is Professor of British Literature and Culture in the University of Bergen (from 2015). In 2011-2014 he was Research Director of the ‘Modernism and Christianity’ project funded by the Bergen Research Foundation/Trond Mohn Foundation. He completed an undergraduate degree at Bergen (1999) and an MA at Oslo (2001), before going on to the University of Oxford for his DPhil (2006). He has held a Norwegian Research Council postdoctoral grant (2006-2009) for a project on ‘Samuel Beckett and Christianity’, and has also been affiliated with the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College (2005-2010). In 2010, he held a Tutorial Fellowship at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He has published two monographs, Samuel Beckett’s Abstract Drama: Works for Stage and Screen 1962-1985 (2007), and Modernism and Christianity (2014). He has also published severl co-edited volumes including Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies (Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 22, 2010), Broadcasting in the Modernist Era (2014) and Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse (2015). He is Series Editor (with Prof. Matthew Feldman) of the two book series Historicizing Modernism and Modernist Archives from Bloomsbury Academic.

Sep 19, 2022 • 1h 3m

This lecture was given on July 16, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. for the Fourth Annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium: Complexity, Simplicity and Emergence. Slides for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2p97hkek For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Mark Van Berkum is a professor of biological sciences at Wayne State University, and focuses on developmental neurobiology. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.

Sep 18, 2022 • 53 min

One of the hallmarks of modern science is the ability to explain the workings of nature by detailed study of its pieces and parts. Organisms are understood as combinations of organ systems, which are made up of tissues, which are made up of cells, which are made of up complex chemicals, then atoms, and more fundamental particles. As successful as this methodological reductionism has been, it is still an open question how complete it can be. Can everything about complex biological systems be reduced to chemistry, and every detail of chemistry explained from fundamental physics? Do the organization and complexity of higher-level systems require additional tools to complete our understanding of the natural world? Do the answers to these scientific questions work for or against an Aristotelian and Thomistic understanding of nature and natural kinds, and how might those classical ideas be of use in contemporary science? The Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium gathers expert scientists and philosophers to discuss the potential compatibility and mutual enrichment of the study of Aquinas' philosophy of nature and various forms of modern scientific knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. The 2022 symposium includes a day of lectures geared towards an introduction to Thomistic philosophy and the history of science, with a focus on complexity, simplicity and emergence. The rest of the symposium will have scientific experts discussing the understanding of complexity and simplicity in their own fields with one another and with philosophers. About the speaker: Professor Jessica Brown is an Associate Professor of biochemistry at Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and was a postdoc fellow at Yale University. Her research focuses on structural, biochemical & cellular roles of RNA triple helices.

Sep 12, 2022 • 1h

This lecture was given on March 22, 2022 to the University of North Texas. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Gloria Frost is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Her areas of research are medieval philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and the history of science. She is an assistant editor for the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly and on the executive councils for the American Catholic Philosophical Association and the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. She is married to Jake Frost, author of "Catholic Dad" and the "Happy Jar," and they have four children.

Sep 9, 2022 • 1h 15m

Prof. Pezzini's handout can be found here: tinyurl.com/nkxw4saa This lecture was given on May 9, 2022 at Oxford University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Giuseppe Pezzini is Associate Professor of Latin Language & Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Prof. Pezzini returned to CCC in 2021, after five beautiful years of teaching in St Andrews (2016–2021), and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford (2013–2015) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2016). He has studied and worked in excellent collegiate institutions, the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (2003–2008) and the University of Oxford (D.Phil. 2012). From 2010 to 2013, he worked as Assistant Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin. He was visiting professor at the University of Turin in 2020, visiting fellow at Leiden University in 2015, and visiting student at CCC itself, back in 2006, where everything began. He is currently supervising research projects on the Comoedia Togata and the Theory of Fiction in late Antique commentaries.

Sep 9, 2022 • 46 min

What does St. Thomas Aquinas say about happiness and ultimate purpose? How (and how not) can we be happy? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. J. Budziszewski about Aquinas' thoughts on happiness. Aquinas on Happiness w/ Fr. Gregory Pine and Prof. J. Budziszewski (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to one of Prof. Budziszewski's lectures on happiness here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/how-and-how-not-to-be-happy For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: J. Budziszewski (Ph.D. Yale, 1981) is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His main area of research is the natural moral law, and he is most well known for his work on moral self-deception, “the revenge of conscience,” what happens when we tell ourselves that we don't know what we really do know. However, he has written about all sorts of things such as moral character, family and sexuality, religion and public life, toleration and liberty, and the unraveling of our common culture. The most recent of his thirteen books are Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law and Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics, both from Cambridge University Press, as well as On the Meaning of Sex, from Intercollegiate Studies Institute. His book for students, How to Stay Christian in College has sold several hundred thousand copies. He also maintains a personal website and blog, The Underground Thomist. Married for more than 45 years, Dr. Budziszewski has several children and a clutch of grandchildren.

Sep 6, 2022 • 1h 25m

This lecture was given on April 28, 2022 at the University of Arizona. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Paul Gondreau earned his doctorate in sacred theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, writing under the renowned Thomist scholar Rev. Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. He is professor of theology at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he teaches/has taught courses on marriage, Christology, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, the Church, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, and the Catholic thought of J.R.R. Tolkien. He has a published manuscript on Christ's human passions in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published numerous essays in the area of Thomistic Christology, Thomistic anthropology, a Thomistic account of human sexuality, and a Thomistic theology of disability. His is associate editor of the theological journal Nova et Vetera, and has served as a consultant to the USCCB's committee on marriage and family.

Sep 5, 2022 • 59 min

This lecture was given on April 26, 2022 at Oxford University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Rebekah Lamb specializes in religion, literature and visual culture from the long nineteenth century to the present, with an emphasis on the Pre-Raphaelites as well as their affiliate circles and inheritors. She joined the School of Divinity in 2018. Prior to St. Andrews she was an inaugural Étienne Gilson Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto (St Michael's College). Dr Lamb received her PhD in Victorian and Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature as well as her Masters in English Literature from Western University (London, ON, Canada). During her doctoral studies she was a Kuyper Emerging Scholar and an Ontario Graduate Scholar. She holds an Honors BA in Liberal Arts Studies, with special emphasis on English Literature and the Humanities, from the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (New Hampshire, USA and Rome, Italy). Dr. Lamb frequently writes for public-facing journals and magazines, including Church Life Journal, Convivium: Faith in Our Common Life, The Catholic Herald, and The Scottish Catholic Observer. She has featured in public programs for BBC One & BBC Scotland, the Christian Heritage Centre (Stonyhurst) and the McGrath Institute at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA). She is often invited to speak on topics relating to her research and broader, theological and cultural themes—especially as informed by Roman Catholic approaches to aesthetics, cultural studies, and formation. She delivered the 2020 Cardinal Winning Lecture (Glasgow University) on St. Thérèse of Lisieux's status as a Doctor of the Church for our times and in 2018 co-taught the University of Toronto’s first Gilson Seminar in Faith and Ideas in Rome, Italy with Randy Boyagoda. She is the co-founder of the annual St. Margaret of Scotland Lecture Series at the University of St. Andrews, which launched in 2020.

Aug 31, 2022 • 39 min

Prof. Beckwith's slides can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2p982fwr This lecture was given on April 22, 2022 at Ashland University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy. Among his over one dozen books are Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Politics For Christians: Statecraft As Soulcraft (IVP, 2010), and Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2015), winner of the American Academy of Religion's prestigious 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Constructive-Reflective Studies. He is a graduate of the Washington University School of Law, St. Louis (MJS) as well as Fordham University (PhD, MA, philosophy).

Aug 30, 2022 • 1h 23m

This lecture was given on April 8, 2022 at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Matthew J. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA, and an Instructor in Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. He holds a D.Phil in New Testament and Patristics from the University of Oxford, and is the author of Paul's 'Works of the Law' in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception (Mohr Siebeck, 2018; IVP, 2020), which received the Jesus Creed "Book of the Year" award for 2018. Matthew and his wife Leeanne live in the Bay Area with their children Camille, Raphael, Michael and Agnes, who are also aspiring theologians.

Aug 29, 2022 • 50 min

This lecture was given on June 16, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of The Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "The City of God in Modernity: Culture and Ecclesiology." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Thomas Clemmons, a native of South Florida, is assistant professor of theology in Church History at the Catholic University of America. Dr. Clemmons joined the STRS faculty in 2016 after completing his Ph.D. in the History of Christianity from Notre Dame, where he focused on Latin Patristics, early medieval theology, and Augustine. He also holds an M.A. in Early Christianity from Notre Dame and an M.T.S. from Vanderbilt. Dr. Clemmons’s teaching and research interest focus on Latin Patristics, Augustine, particularly his thought through the Confessions and his anti-Manichaean works, Late Antiquity, especially in North Africa, and the medieval reception of Augustine.

Aug 26, 2022 • 1h 1m

Fr. Thompson's slides can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/8smyu7xm This lecture was given on June 16, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of The Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "The City of God in Modernity: Culture and Ecclesiology." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. is a Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers and currently serves as Praeses (Director) of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada and Professor of History at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkleley, CA. He holds a Ph.D in medieval history from the University of California. Until 2009, he was Professor of Religious Studies and History at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. His books and publications focus on medieval Italy and medieval religious history.

Aug 25, 2022 • 48 min

Why does God allow us to suffer? How can we address the problem of pain? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P. about her latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Suffering and the Narrative of Redemption: Why God Allows Us to Suffer." Why Does God Allow Us to Suffer? w/ Fr. Gregory Pine and Sr. Jane Dominic (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/suffering-and-the-narrative-of-redemption-sr-jane-dominic-laurel-op-1 For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee and currently serves as Associate Professor of Theology at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. She received her Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. She has been active in her religious community's teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and has assisted with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L'Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, Sister has served as editor-in-chief of her Congregation's book, Praying as a Family (also available in Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic versions). With EWTN, she directed a television series of the same title. She has also served as the creator and founding Director of the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith & Culture Program.

Aug 23, 2022 • 52 min

This lecture was given on June 15, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of The Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "The City of God in Modernity: Culture and Ecclesiology." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Thomas Clemmons, a native of South Florida, is assistant professor of theology in Church History at the Catholic University of America. Dr. Clemmons joined the STRS faculty in 2016 after completing his Ph.D. in the History of Christianity from Notre Dame, where he focused on Latin Patristics, early medieval theology, and Augustine. He also holds an M.A. in Early Christianity from Notre Dame and an M.T.S. from Vanderbilt. Dr. Clemmons’s teaching and research interest focus on Latin Patristics, Augustine, particularly his thought through the Confessions and his anti-Manichaean works, Late Antiquity, especially in North Africa, and the medieval reception of Augustine.