The Thomistic Institute

Jun 21, 2022 • 1h 4m

This talk was offered at Baylor University on March 29th, 2022. The images for the talk can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/3u42uh7y For 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.

Jun 17, 2022 • 1h

This lecture was given on March 30, 2022 at Saint Louis University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Christopher Kaczor (rhymes with razor) is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. He graduated from the Honors Program of Boston College and earned a Ph.D. four years later from the University of Notre Dame. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Kaczor did post-doctoral work as a Alexander von Humboldt German Chancellor Fellow at the University of Cologne. He was appointed a Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life of Vatican City, a fellow of the Word on Fire Institute, and William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. The winner of a Templeton Grant, he has written more than 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. An award winning author, his sixteen books include Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life, Disputes in Bioethics, Thomas Aquinas on the Cardinal Virtues, Abortion Rights: For and Against, 365 Days to Deeper Faith, The Gospel of Happiness, The Seven Big Myths about Marriage, A Defense of Dignity, The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church, The Ethics of Abortion, O Rare Ralph McInerny: Stories and Reflections on a Legendary Notre Dame Professor, Life Issues-Medical Choices; Thomas Aquinas on Faith, Hope, and Love; The Edge of Life, and Proportionalism and the Natural Law Tradition. Dr. Kaczor’s views have been in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, National Review, NPR, BBC, EWTN, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, MSNBC, TEDx, and The Today Show.

Jun 15, 2022 • 46 min

This lecture was given to the Johns Hopkins University chapter on March 7, 2022. For more information about 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.

Jun 14, 2022 • 45 min

This lecture was given on March 24, 2022 at the University of Florida. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., completed his Bachelor’s Degree (B.S.E.) in Bioengineering, summa cum laude, at the University of Pennsylvania, and then earned his Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. in the laboratory of Professor Leonard Guarente, where he was a fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). He was ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers in May of 2004. He completed his Pontifical License in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) in Moral Theology, summa cum laude, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, in 2005, and a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), magna cum laude, at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, in 2015. Fr. Austriaco currently serves as Professor of Biology and of Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. His NIHfunded laboratory at Providence College is investigating the genetics of programmed cell death using the yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, as model organisms. Papers describing his research have been published in PLoS ONE, FEMS Yeast Research, Microbial Cell, Cell, the Journal of Cell Biology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, among others. In philosophy and theology, his essays have been published in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Theological Studies, Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, Science and Theology, and the Linacre Quarterly. His first book, Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics, was published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2011. It was recognized as a 2012 Choice outstanding academic title by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Jun 13, 2022 • 42 min

This lecture was given on March 23, 2022 at Trinity College Dublin. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. Slides: https://tinyurl.com/bddnstwn Handout: https://tinyurl.com/mr3bupft About the speaker: Fr. Conor McDonough, O.P. teaches theology at the Dominican House of Studies, Dublin. He studied science and theology at Cambridge University, and recently completed postgraduate studies in theology at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).

Jun 10, 2022 • 48 min

This lecture was given on March 24, 2022 at Cornell University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the Speaker: Professor Raymond Hain is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College and Associate Director of the Providence College Humanities Program. He received his BA in Philosophy from Christendom College and his MA and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied under Ralph McInerny and David Solomon. He works primarily in moral philosophy in the Thomistic tradition, as well as topics in applied ethics (especially bioethics and the ethics of architecture) and connections between philosophy and literature. As part of the Humanities Program, he directs the Providence College Humanities Forum and the Providence College Humanities Reading Seminars.

Jun 10, 2022 • 1h 7m

This lecture was given on March 23, 2022 at Purdue University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: William B. Hurlbut, MD, is Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Scholar in Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford University, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with Robert Hamerton-Kelly, the Dean of the Chapel at Stanford, and subsequently with the Rev. Louis Bouyer of the Institut Catholique de Paris. His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology with the philosophy of biology. He is the author of numerous publications on science and ethics. He has worked with NASA on projects in astrobiology and was a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Working group at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. From 2002-2009 Dr. Hurlbut served on the President’s Council on Bioethics. He serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Templeton Religion Trust.

Jun 9, 2022 • 1h 21m

This lecture was given on March 29, 2022 at North Carolina State University. The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ybaa6j3u. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Michael Root is 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, grace, and justification. Root has been a member of the US and international LutheranCatholic dialogues, the US LutheranUnited Methodist dialogue, the AnglicanLutheran International Working Group, and the AnglicanLutheran International Commission. He served on the drafting teams that produced the LutheranRoman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Jun 7, 2022 • 1h 2m

This lecture was given on March 10, 2022 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., teaches systematic and moral theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and the Dominican House of Studies (Washington, D.C.). Fr. Cuddy serves as the general editor of the “Thomist Tradition 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.

Jun 6, 2022 • 58 min

This lecture was given on March 31, 2022 at the University of Oklahoma. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at 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.

Jun 6, 2022 • 1h 21m

This lecture was given on February 25, 2022 at The Florida State University. You can watch the videos Sr. Jane Dominic plays here: Coke Life Argentina https://youtu.be/xPb1t3jU3sI Dear Future Mom https://youtu.be/Ju-q4OnBtNU 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.

Jun 3, 2022 • 1h 3m

This lecture was given on March 21, 2022 at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Michael P. Foley is a Professor of Patristics in the Great Texts Program at Baylor University, a Catholic theologian, a mixologist, and the author or editor of over a dozen books and around 400 articles on topics including sacred liturgy, St. Augustine of Hippo, and contemporary film and culture.

Jun 1, 2022 • 57 min

This lecture was given on April, 2 2022 at St. Albert the Great Priory as part of the intellectual retreat "To Be Human in the Presence of God: St. Thomas Aquinas and Desert Spirituality." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. O’Donnell grew up in Syracuse, New York. After two years as a student at Providence College he entered the Order of Preachers in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1971 he earned an MA in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame and in 1980 earned an STD degree in the area of Liturgical Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Faculty for Spirituality, the Teresianum, in Rome. He has previously taught at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and the Angelicum in Rome. In addition to teaching he currently serves as a vice-postulator for the cause for sainthood of Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and as vice-postulator for the cause of Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, NY. He previously survived as postulator for the cause of canonization of Father Paul of Graymoor, which has also been submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. With Robin Mass, Ph.D., Fr. O’Donnell is the author of Spiritual Traditions for the Contemporary Church and has contributed to A Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

May 31, 2022 • 58 min

This lecture was given on April, 2 2022 at St. Albert the Great Priory as part of the intellectual retreat "To Be Human in the Presence of God: St. Thomas Aquinas and Desert Spirituality." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. O’Donnell grew up in Syracuse, New York. After two years as a student at Providence College he entered the Order of Preachers in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1971 he earned an MA in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame and in 1980 earned an STD degree in the area of Liturgical Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Faculty for Spirituality, the Teresianum, in Rome. He has previously taught at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and the Angelicum in Rome. In addition to teaching he currently serves as a vice-postulator for the cause for sainthood of Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and as vice-postulator for the cause of Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, NY. He previously survived as postulator for the cause of canonization of Father Paul of Graymoor, which has also been submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. With Robin Mass, Ph.D., Fr. O’Donnell is the author of Spiritual Traditions for the Contemporary Church and has contributed to A Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

May 30, 2022 • 1h 4m

This lecture was given on April 1, 2022 at St. Albert the Great Priory as part of the intellectual retreat "To Be Human in the Presence of God: St. Thomas Aquinas and Desert Spirituality." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Sr. Maria M. Kiely, O.S.B. is a Benedictine of the Congregation of Solesmes. She specializes in Christian thought and Scriptural exegesis in the early Church and in the rise and development of monasticism. She has studied in depth the life and writings of Ambrose of Milan and his use and adaptation of Origen and Plotinus. Her current research focuses on the development of the tradition of hymnody in the early Church through the Middle Ages. She is currently participating in a major commentary on the hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours. In addition to her work at Catholic University, she teaches Greek and Latin at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies. She is also on the Editorial Committee for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

May 29, 2022 • 55 min

This lecture was given on February 27, 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: Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University. His teaching specialties are Medieval and Reformation theology and systematic theology. His research interests include Doctrine of the Trinity, Christology, philosophical issues in theology, sacramental theology, and Judaism and Christian theology. He is the author of Trinity and Truth (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

May 27, 2022 • 1h

This lecture was given on March 16, 2022 at Duke University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P., is a friar of the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dallas in 2011, entered the Order of Preachers in 2013, and was ordained a priest in May of 2020. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

May 26, 2022 • 49 min

This lecture was given on March 14, 2022 at Yale University. The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/u74wk4hb. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Carlos Eire, who received his PhD from Yale in 1979, specializes in the social, intellectual, religious, and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe, with a focus on both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the history of popular piety; and the history of the supernatural, and the history of death. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, he taught at St. John’s University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for two years. He is the author of War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship From Erasmus to Calvin (1986); From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth Century Spain (1995); A Very Brief History of Eternity (2010); Reformations: The Early Modern World (2016); and The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (2019). And he is co-author of Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (1997). He has also ventured into the twentieth century and the Cuban Revolution in the memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana (2003), which won the National Book Award in Nonfiction in the United States and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His second memoir, Learning to Die in Miami (2010), explores the exile experience. A past president of the Society for Reformation Research, he is currently researching attitudes toward miracles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His recent book Reformations won the R.R.Hawkins Prize for Best Book of the Year from the American Publishers Association, as well as the award for Best Book in the Humanities. It was also awarded the Jaroslav Pelikan Prize by Yale University Press. All of his books are banned in Cuba, where he has been proclaimed an enemy of the state – a distinction he regards as the highest of all honors.

May 24, 2022 • 56 min

This lecture was given on April 5, 2022 at Cairn University. The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8psrnj. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Patrick Callahan is director of the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as well as Assistant Professor of English & Humanities at St. Gregory the Great Seminary. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Dallas and his graduate work at Fordham University in Classical Philology. While his doctoral work focused on ancient Greek commentaries to the lyric poet Pindar, his recent work focuses on early Jesuit Latin texts.

May 23, 2022 • 54 min

This lecture was given on April 6, 2022 at Trinity College Dublin. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Alan O’Sullivan OP is an Irish Dominican. Ordained a priest in 2000 he studied at Blackfriars House of Studies, Oxford, where he obtained a Lectorate in Sacred Theology. His area of research focussed on “New Movements and Communities, Vatican II, and the Ecclesiology of Communion.” Having worked as a curate in a parish in Dublin for two years he went to study at the Angelicum, Rome, where he obtained a Licence in Sacred Theology. In 2012 he obtained his doctorate from Fribourg University, Switzerland. He specialises in moral theology, and lectures at the Dominican House of Studies, Dublin. He is currently Chaplain to Trinity College Dublin and Spiritual Director to Pure in Heart, Ireland. His book Self-Giving, Self-Mastery was published by Peter Lang in 2017.