
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
- A Thomistic Account of Truth
Apr 20, 2022 • 51 min
This lecture was given on March 3, 2022 at the College of William and Mary. The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4dbe7m5r. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Timothy J. Pawl is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and holds a Ph.D. from Saint Louis University in philosophy, with specialization in the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, Thomistic philosophy, analytic theology, and moral psychology. His books include In Defense of Conciliar Christology (Oxford, 2016), In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology (Oxford, 2019), and The Incarnation (Cambridge, 2020). In addition, he has published more than thirty-five academic articles in his areas of expertise, and given almost 100 academic or popular-level talks or interviews about his work, including a series of interviews for the PBS show Closer to Truth. He is the husband of another philosopher, Faith Glavey Pawl, and the proud father of one son and four daughters.
- Predestination and Human Freedom: A Catholic Approach (duplicate)
Apr 18, 2022 • 1h 12m
Access Prof. Grant's handout here: https://tinyurl.com/2utsun3j This lecture was given on March 7, 2022 at Hillsdale College. 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.
- What Is Truth? Why Does It Matter?
Apr 15, 2022 • 57 min
This lecture was given on February 28, 2022 at Indiana University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jennifer Frey is an associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology and she has co-edited three volumes on Self-Transcendence and Virtue, Practical Wisdom, and Practical Truth. Her writing has been featured in Breaking Ground, Evangelization and Culture, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today.
- Are We Just Accidents? Evolution in the Light of Faith | Prof. Tomás Bogardus
Apr 13, 2022 • 1h 26m
View Prof. Bogardus' slides here: https://tinyurl.com/yer9hxmu This lecture was given on February 22, 2022 at the University of Arizona. For more 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.
- Biblical Responses to Objections to the Catholic Faith
Apr 12, 2022 • 1h 18m
This lecture was given on February 18, 2022 at the University of Oklahoma. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Michael Dauphinais, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Theology Department at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. Professor Dauphinais holds a B.S.E. from Duke University, an M.T.S. from Duke Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He has co-authored Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of Thomas Aquinas and Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction to the Bible. He has co-edited multiple volumes as well as numerous articles and chapters in books dedicated to theology and exegesis in Aquinas and other topics relating to Catholic theology. Professor Dauphinais previously served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. His favorite courses are C.S. Lewis, Triune God, and the Colloquium on Ancients and Moderns. He also enjoys riding horses and running.
- Aquinas on the Cardinal & Theological Virtues
Apr 11, 2022 • 1h 48m
This lecture was given on February 17, 2022 at Trinity Western University via Zoom. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and Provost at the University of Dallas. He graduated summa cum laude from Xavier University in Classics and Philosophy in 1997, received his PhD from University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 2001, and received a postdoctoral fellowship from Fordham University in 2001-2002. He has published on particular figures in the history of philosophy, including Aristotle, Anselm, Aquinas, Newman, and Scheler, as well as on topics in both metaphysics and ethics. He is especially interested in drawing from the tradition to solve contemporary problems. Sanford’s most recent book is Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (CUA Press, 2015). The University of Dallas is well known for the undergraduate Catholic liberal education it provides, and as Provost, Sanford oversees all aspects of it. He is currently writing a book on the virtues of liberal education. He and his wife Rebecca live in Irving, Texas, and are blessed with eight children.
- Aristotle and the Quantum Revolution
Apr 8, 2022 • 1h 4m
This lecture was given on February 11, 2022 at the University of Kansas. For more 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.
- Are Unjust Laws Really Laws? Positivism and the Natural Law Tradition
Apr 6, 2022 • 46 min
This lecture was given on February 11, 2022 at Ashland University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Peter Karl Koritansky is a Professor of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at The University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Canada. At UPEI, he teaches courses in ancient and medieval philosophy, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of law and Catholic thought. He has also taught at Malone University (Canton, OH), Walsh University (North Canton, OH), the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum (Rome) and has been a visiting scholar at The University of Notre Dame. Dr. Koritansky received his Ph.D in philosophy from The University of Toronto and is the author of Thomas Aquinas and the Philosophy of Punishment (CUA Press, 2012) and Engaging the Skeptic: Essays Addressing the Modern Secularist’s Most Serious Objections to the Catholic Worldview (Justin Press, 2018). He has also recently published “Thomas Aquinas and the Euthyphro Dilemma” (Heythrop Journal, 2018) and “Retributive Justice and Natural Law” (The Thomist, 2019). For the 2021-22 academic year, Dr. Koritansky is a John and Daria Barry Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He is currently completing a manuscript tentatively entitled "An Introduction to Thomistic Natural Law."
- Personal Relationship with the Persons of the Trinity | Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P.
Apr 5, 2022 • 1h 16m
This lecture was given on February 7, 2022 at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., was born in Manhattan (1965) and grew up in Fairfax, Virginia. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked at AT&T for five years before entering the Dominican Order in 1992. After serving for three years in St. Pius Parish in Providence, R.I., he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg in 2009. He now teaches at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he has also served as book review editor of The Thomist, chaplain to commuter students, and chaplain to the Immaculate Conception Chapter of Third Order Dominicans, and assistant student master. He served as student master and subprior at St. Dominic Priory from 2015-2018, and is currently the subprior.
- How and How Not to Be Happy
Apr 4, 2022 • 1h 8m
This lecture was given on February 10, 2022 at the University of South Carolina. 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.
- What Happens When You Eat God? The Effects of the Eucharist | Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P.
Apr 1, 2022 • 48 min
This lecture was given on January 9, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist: An Intellectual Retreat." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P., Coordinator for Campus Outreach | Fr. Jonah runs the TI’s intellectual retreat program, planning and overseeing retreats in DC and other regions of the country. He also works with the TI’s Campus Chapters program, traveling to meet on-campus and to strategize with student leaders. He also works with the Aquinas 101 video series and assists at the TI’s other events and conferences. Fr. Jonah attended the University of Dallas, where he studied English. Prior to entering the Order of Preachers, he was employed as an oil field worker, a short-order cook and barback, and as a teacher of literature and composition. He was ordained a priest in 2020 and holds an S.T.L. from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the third-best guitarist in the Province’s Americana band, The Hillbilly Thomists.
- The Eucharist: How Could Christ be Present in Many Places at Once?
Mar 31, 2022 • 44 min
This talk was given on January 8, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Alexander Pruss has doctorates in philosophy and mathematics, and is currently Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame University Press), and Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum). His research areas include metaphysics, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, philosophy of mathematics and formal epistemology.
- The Eucharist as Symbol and Reality
Mar 30, 2022 • 54 min
This talk was given on January 8, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Alexander Pruss has doctorates in philosophy and mathematics, and is currently Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame University Press), and Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum). His research areas include metaphysics, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, philosophy of mathematics and formal epistemology.
- Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena on Conformity to Christ in the Eucharist | Fr. Reginald Lynch
Mar 29, 2022 • 1h 5m
This talk was given on January 7, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Born in New Hampshire, Father Reginald Lynch, O.P. entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2007, and was ordained a priest in 2013. After ordination, he served at St. Patrick Parish in Columbus, Ohio and taught at the Pontifical College Josephinum, before going on to complete a PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with a major concentration in medieval theology and minor concentrations in patristics and philosophical theology. He has written on a variety of topics in sacramental, systematic and historical theology in journals like The Thomist and Nova et Vetera. His book, The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017) received the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize in 2018. Currently, he is working on a book on the reception of Aquinas’ Eucharistic theology in the early modern period.
- Aquinas, Darwin, and Creation: Is Evolution at Odds with Genesis?
Mar 28, 2022 • 45 min
This lecture was given on February 8, 2022 at the University of Georgia. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Kenneth W. Kemp is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a Fellow of that University’s Center for Catholic Studies. His education includes an M.A. in the History and Philosophy of Science as well as a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. His research work has included ethics (in particular questions of morality and war) and historical and philosophical inquiry into the relations between science and religion (with a particular focus on the theory of evolution).
- Is it Reasonable to Believe in God?
Mar 25, 2022 • 1h 12m
This lecture was given on February 1, 2022 at the University of North Texas. For more 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).
- St. Thomas’s Eucharistic Devotion
Mar 24, 2022 • 1h 5m
This talk was given on October 10, 2021 at St. Joseph's Retreat Center as part of "Prayer in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas: A Weekend Intellectual Retreat." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Joshua Revelle is an adjunct instructor at Mount Saint Mary College, with a PhD in Spirituality from The Catholic University of America. His areas of specialization are dogmatic and spiritual theology, especially in St. Thomas Aquinas. He also enjoys teaching Biblical theology. His research and teaching are geared toward the integration of theory and practice.
- Prayer and the Intellectual Life
Mar 23, 2022 • 1h 14m
This talk was given on October 9, 2021 at St. Joseph's Retreat Center as part of "Prayer in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas: A Weekend Intellectual Retreat." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Joshua Revelle is an adjunct instructor at Mount Saint Mary College, with a PhD in Spirituality from The Catholic University of America. His areas of specialization are dogmatic and spiritual theology, especially in St. Thomas Aquinas. He also enjoys teaching Biblical theology. His research and teaching are geared toward the integration of theory and practice.
- The Mystery Of Prayer
Mar 22, 2022 • 58 min
This talk was given on October 8, 2021 at St. Joseph's Retreat Center as part of "Prayer in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas: A Weekend Intellectual Retreat." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Joshua Revelle is an adjunct instructor at Mount Saint Mary College, with a PhD in Spirituality from The Catholic University of America. His areas of specialization are dogmatic and spiritual theology, especially in St. Thomas Aquinas. He also enjoys teaching Biblical theology. His research and teaching are geared toward the integration of theory and practice.
- Faith and Hope amidst Darkness and Fears: C.S. Lewis and Thomas Aquinas
Mar 21, 2022 • 56 min
This talk was given on February 2, 2022 at Texas A&M University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Michael Dauphinais, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Theology Department at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. Professor Dauphinais holds a B.S.E. from Duke University, an M.T.S. from Duke Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He has co-authored Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of Thomas Aquinas and Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction to the Bible. He has co-edited multiple volumes as well as numerous articles and chapters in books dedicated to theology and exegesis in Aquinas and other topics relating to Catholic theology. Professor Dauphinais previously served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. His favorite courses are C.S. Lewis, Triune God, and the Colloquium on Ancients and Moderns. He also enjoys riding horses and running.