
Minister
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Doctor of the Church, is our touchstone. The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more. Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. Website: https://podcast.thomisticinstitute.org/
1753 sermons
All sermons
- Faith And Asceticism | Fr. John Corbett, O.P.
Jul 26, 2022 • 1h 12m
This lecture was given on July 7, 2022 at the 4th Annual Student Leadership Conference on Faith, Reason, and the Mind’s Ascent to God. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Corbett grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and came to know the Dominicans through family members in the Order, through St. Patrick’s Parish, and through attending Providence College, from which he graduated in 1973 with a B.A. in Political Science. Fr. Corbett joined the Dominicans in the summer of 1974 and was ordained a priest on May 12th, 1980. He completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1981 and began to teach moral theology as well as the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College. Three years later he began his doctoral studies under Servais Pinckaers, O.P., at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and was awarded his Ph.D. after completing his dissertation on the theology of virtue in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Corbett was appointed to the Faculty of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, in 1991, and spent the next seven years teaching various courses in moral theology, as well as offering retreats, spiritual direction, and personal formation for seminarians. Joining the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in the Fall of 1998, Fr. Corbett teaches in the area of fundamental moral theology and the theology of the virtues, covering material from the Prima Secundae and the Secunda Secundae in four sequential courses. He also offers seminars in Thomistic Action Theory, Contemporary Interpretations of Natural Law, as well as a seminar in the thought of Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre. He is interested in developing courses on the Ethics of Homicide, as well as on the Development of Casuistry in the Catholic Church.
- Neuroscience and the Soul
Jul 22, 2022 • 1h 22m
This lecture was given on May 29, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul. The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/yckbsbs3. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Daniel De Haan is a Research Fellow in Natural Theology at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford he was a postdoctoral fellow working on the neuroscience strand of the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and the Sciences project at the University of Cambridge. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven and University of St. Thomas in Texas. His research focuses on philosophical anthropology and the sciences, natural theology, and the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
- Free Will and the Soul
Jul 21, 2022 • 54 min
This lecture was given on May 28, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul. The handouts for the lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/42jmxp7u. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Thomas M. Osborne, Jr. (Ph.D., Duke 2001), is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, and a member of the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas (Houston). He has written many articles on medieval and late-scholastic philosophy and other topics, and is the author of Love of Self and Love of God in Thirteenth-Century Ethics (2005), Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham (2014), and Aquinas's Ethics (2020).
- The Passions Of The Soul
Jul 20, 2022 • 1h 8m
This lecture was given on May 28, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul. The handout for the talk can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4bmexjhm For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Michael Gorman is a graduate of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto (B.A., Christianity and Culture, 1987), The Catholic University of America (Ph.L., Philosophy, 1989), the State University of New York at Buffalo (Ph.D., Philosophy, 1993), and Boston College (Ph.D., Theology, 1997). After serving as assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia from 1997 to 1999, he joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, where he has taught ever since. A fellow of The Catholic University's Institute for Human Ecology, he has also been an Alexander von Humboldt fellow (Leipzig 2004), a Fulbright fellow (Cologne 2008), and a scholar in the Templeton Foundation's Working Group "Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life" (2015-2017). He works primarily on metaphysics, especially the metaphysics of essence, substance, and normativity, and on applications of metaphysics in areas such as theory of mind, Christology, action theory, and ethics. He is the author of Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge, 2017) and over thirty scholarly articles. He is particularly interested in how analytic philosophy and medieval philosophy can be brought together in a way that is historically accurate and philosophically fruitful.
- Does The Person Survive After Death?
Jul 19, 2022 • 1h 9m
This lecture was given on May 28, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Prof. John O'Callaghan is the Director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame as well as a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. He served as the past President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. His areas of scholarly interest include Medieval Philosophy, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Thomistic Metaphysics and Ethics. Prof. O'Callaghan earned his BS in Physics from St. Norbert College in 1984, an MS in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame in 1986, and his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 1996.
- Do You Believe in Miracles? (And Can Such Belief Be Reasonable?)
Jul 14, 2022 • 1h 6m
This lecture was given on April 13, 2022 at Mississippi State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: W. Matthews Grant is Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy at University of St. Thomas (MN), and Associate Editor of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. His articles have focused on Aquinas and the Philosophy of God, particularly issues having to do with the divine nature and God’s relationship to human freedom. His new book Free Will and God’s Universal Causality: The Dual Sources Account, draws resources from Aquinas and the scholastic tradition to explain how libertarian creaturely freedom can be reconciled with robust accounts of God’s providence, grace, and predestination.
- Aquinas, Freedom, and the Brain | Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.
Jul 13, 2022 • 55 min
This lecture was given on October 12, 2021 at Iowa State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Anselm Ramelow is a Catholic priest in the Order of Preachers. He is professor of philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley and currently the chair of the philosophy department. He obtained his doctorate under Robert Spaemann in Munich on Leibniz and the Spanish Jesuits (Gott, Freiheit, Weltenwahl, 1997) and did theological work on George Lindbeck and the question of a Thomist philosophy and theology of language (Beyond Modernism? - George Lindbeck and the Linguistic Turn in Theology, 2005). He contributed articles to the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophy and essays on topics at the intersection of philosophy and theology, as well as a translation and commentary on part of Aquinas’ De veritate. He continues to work on questions of free will, philosophy of religion (miracles, existence and nature of God) and philosophical aesthetics.
- Neurological Disease: Dignity, Free Will, and a Reason For Hope | Paul LaPenna, DO
Jul 12, 2022 • 1h 20m
This lecture was given on May 6, 2022 at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. LaPenna's PowerPoint may be found here: tinyurl.com/mr38h43y For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Paul LaPenna is a neurologist in Greenville, SC and Associate Professor of Neurology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Carolinas Campus. Dr. LaPenna completed his neurology residency at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2018. As a neurohospitalist, Dr. LaPenna’s skill set is focused on treatment of neurological emergencies and performing and interpreting electrophysiological studies of the brain and peripheral nervous system. As an Associate Professor of Neurology, Dr. LaPenna has won numerous teaching awards, including Clinical Medicine Professor of the neuroscience curriculum in 2019, 2020, and 2021. For the 2020-2021 academic year, Dr. LaPenna was awarded the Preceptor of the Year. For his care towards patients, he was elected to the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2016. Dr. LaPenna has an interest in the relationship between science and faith—in particular, the relationship between neuroscience and the soul, the overreaching claims of science, and the dignity of the human person, to name a few. Saint Thomas Aquinas has been a major influence in Dr. LaPenna’s intellectual and faith journey. Dr. LaPenna was previously a collegiate runner and now enjoys running recreationally, hiking, and spending time outdoors. Most of all, he loves his wife Nicole and their two daughters, Catherine and Susanna.
- The Challenge Of Atheism For Scientific Explanation | Prof. Tomás Bogardus
Jul 8, 2022 • 1h 17m
This talk was given on April 28, 2022 at Mississippi State University. The slides accompanying this lecture can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/bogardusmississippi For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Tomás Bogardus is associate professor of philosophy at Pepperdine University. He was born in Long Beach, California, and earned his BS in biology at UC San Diego, his MA in philosophy at Biola University, and his PhD in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He works mainly in metaphysics and epistemology, and is most interested in the mind-body problem and the rationality of religious belief.
- Faith, Reason, And Reasonable Belief
Jul 7, 2022 • 1h 2m
This lecture was given on February 22, 2022 at the US Military Academy at West Point. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. 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.
- Man as Believing Animal
Jul 6, 2022 • 30 min
This lecture was given on April 9th 2022 at The Dominican House of Studies as part of the intellectual retreat "Faith Seeking Understanding" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Dr. Matthew J. Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Dr. Dugandzic’s scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas’s anthropology, psychology, and ethics. 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. Dr. Dugandzic also 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. In addition to his work in the academy, Dr. Dugandzic has also brought his theological expertise to the aid of the Church, having taught theology to RCIA groups, catechists, and candidates for the permanent diaconate.
- Man as Knowing Animal
Jul 4, 2022 • 34 min
This lecture was given on April 9th 2022 at The Dominican House of Studies as part of the intellectual retreat "Faith Seeking Understanding" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Dr. Matthew J. Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Dr. Dugandzic’s scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas’s anthropology, psychology, and ethics. 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. Dr. Dugandzic also 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. In addition to his work in the academy, Dr. Dugandzic has also brought his theological expertise to the aid of the Church, having taught theology to RCIA groups, catechists, and candidates for the permanent diaconate.
- The Raising of Lazarus and the Immortality of the Soul | Fr. John Corbett, O.P.
Jul 2, 2022 • 1h 1m
This lecture was given on February 28, 2022 at Cedarbrake Renewal Center as part of the Second Annual Texas Student Retreat: "The Meaning of Death and Eternal Life." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Corbett grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and came to know the Dominicans through family members in the Order, through St. Patrick’s Parish, and through attending Providence College, from which he graduated in 1973 with a B.A. in Political Science. Fr. Corbett joined the Dominicans in the summer of 1974 and was ordained a priest on May 12th, 1980. He completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1981 and began to teach moral theology as well as the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College. Three years later he began his doctoral studies under Servais Pinckaers, O.P., at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and was awarded his Ph.D. after completing his dissertation on the theology of virtue in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Corbett was appointed to the Faculty of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, in 1991, and spent the next seven years teaching various courses in moral theology, as well as offering retreats, spiritual direction, and personal formation for seminarians.
- Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.
Jul 1, 2022 • 34 min
This lecture was given on April, 8 2022 at The Dominican House of Studies as part of the intellectual retreat "Faith Seeking Understanding" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., is a priest of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. He serves as the general editor of the “Thomist Tradition Series” book series, and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters (Fortress Press, 2017). He has written for numerous publications on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist Tradition.
- Augustine's Confessions and the Religious Nature of the Person | Chad Pecknold
Jun 30, 2022 • 1h 4m
This talk was offered at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on April 5, 2022. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. Speaker Bio: Dr. Chad Pecknold received his PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) and since 2008 he has been a Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology in the School of Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He teaches in the areas of fundamental theology, Christian anthropology, and political theology. Pecknold is the author of a number of scholarly articles and books including most recently, Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History (Cascade, 2010) and The T&T Clark Companion to Augustine and Modern Theology (Bloomsbury, 2014). Dr. Pecknold is also a frequent contributor to debates in the public square, writing regular columns for First Things and National Review on a range of topics related to the importance and impact of Church teaching on social and political questions. Dr. Pecknold is frequently sought after for his opinion on current events, and has been quoted in hundreds of news outlets around the world such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. A self-described "Augustinian-Thomist," Pecknold is an Associate Editor for the English Edition of the international Thomistic journal of theology, Nova et Vetera, and co-edits with Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., the new Sacra Doctrina series at Catholic University of America Press. Dr Pecknold is currently writing a book on Augustine’s City of God. Dr. Pecknold resides in Alexandria, VA with his wife, Dr. Sara Pecknold (who teaches Music history at CUA) and their five children.
- Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P.
Jun 28, 2022 • 1h 20m
This lecture was given on April 19th, 2022 at North Carolina State University. 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. 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.
- The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ according to St. Augustine | Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P.
Jun 27, 2022 • 1h
This talk was given on April 11, 2022 at the University of Florida. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., is Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. His research appears in Augustinianum, The Journal of the History of Ideas, Nova et Vetera, Pro Ecclesia, Studia Patristica, The Thomist, Vigiliae Christianae, and other journals and volume collections. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press); the editor of Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy (Hillenbrand Books); co-author of A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life (Vianney Publications), and co-editor of Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers (Sapientia Press) and Thomas Aquinas and the Crisis of Christology (Sapientia Press). He is presently co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Deification and The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons, and he is finishing his book funded by a Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Teacher-Scholar grant, The Word in Our Flesh: The Power of Patristic Preaching.
- Are Quality of Life Judgements Ethical?
Jun 24, 2022 • 53 min
This talk was offered at John Hopkins University on April 11, 2022. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Gina Maria Noia is an Assistant Professor of Theology and Resident Bioethicist at Belmont Abbey College. She received her Ph.D. in Theology and Health Care Ethics from Saint Louis University. She has served as a clinical ethicist for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, IL and St. Alexius Hospital in St. Louis, MO, and she is published in Christian Bioethics and the Journal of Moral Theology.
- John Henry Newman and the Development of Christian Doctrine
Jun 23, 2022 • 48 min
This lecture was offered at Hillsdale College on April 6th, 2022. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Michael Pakaluk studied philosophy at Harvard College and the University of Edinburgh on a Marshall Scholarship before getting his Ph.D. at Harvard writing a dissertation under John Rawls. He is a recognized authority on classical philosophy, especially Aristotle’s ethics. Pakaluk has held academic appointments at Clark University, Brown University, Ave Maria University, and The Catholic University of America, among others.
- Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P.
Jun 22, 2022 • 1h 4m
This talk was given on April 8, 2022 at Virginia Tech. The handout for the talk can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4snsdp6f For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: 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.