The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute promotes Catholic truth by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square, with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas as its touchstone. The podcast features lectures and talks from conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and more. Founded in 2009, it is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.
Episodes
Creation and the Big Bang: What's the Big Deal? - Prof. John O'Callaghan
Prof. John O’Callaghan examines the Big Bang in relation to the Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo and argues that cosmology and belief in God as creator address different kinds of explanation.This lecture was given on February 27th, 2025, at University of South Carolina.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Prof. John O'Callaghan is
Secularism and the Modern World - Prof. Brad Gregory
Prof. Brad Gregory argues that the Protestant Reformation set off a chain of unintended consequences that helped produce the secular, fragmented modern world, ultimately showing why and how that history still shapes how we live, believe, and consume today.This lecture was given on February 27th, 2025, at West Virginia University.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute
Are All Religions Different Paths Up the Same Mountain? – Prof. Christopher Kaczor
Prof. Christopher Kaczor argues that the common claim that all religions are just different paths to the same destination collapses under scrutiny, and that Christianity uniquely holds together truth, toleration, and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.This lecture was given on February 9th, 2026, at University of Florida.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.
How John Paul II Used the Saints Against the Communists – Prof. James Felak
Prof. James Felak argues that John Paul II used Polish saints as powerful symbols of faith, moral courage, and national identity to inspire resistance against communism and affirm the Church’s role in Poland’s history.This lecture was given on October 31st, 2026, at St. Albert's Priory.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:James Felak is a
Flannery on Art and Truth – Prof. Jennifer Frey
Prof. Jennifer Frey explores Flannery O’Connor’s bold claim that art can reveal truth in a way philosophy cannot, and shows how her fiction turns beauty, form, and imagination into a distinctive kind of knowledge.This lecture was given on February 7th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Jennifer A. Fre
The Family, the Polity, and the Church – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott argues that human beings are naturally social and are meant to flourish through the distinct but related societies of family, polity, and Church, with the Church uniquely ordering people to grace and the common good.This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Fr
Flannery O'Connor: Hillbilly Thomist or Hillbilly Nihilist? – Prof. Jennifer Frey
Prof. Jennifer Frey asks whether Flannery O’Connor is really a “hillbilly Thomist” or a “hillbilly nihilist,” and uses her life and fiction to show how grace, reality, and shocking moral drama can expose the deepest truths about human nature.This lecture was given on February 7th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.Abou
Is There a Right to Steal? – Prof. Michael Krom
Prof. Michael Krom uses Aquinas to argue that while stealing is always morally wrong, urgent need can change what counts as rightful use of superabundant goods, revealing how private property is meant to serve the common good.This lecture was given on February 12th, 2026, at Georgia Institute of Technology.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Spea
The Mystical Body of Christ: What Does Jesus Have to Do with Me? – Dr. Edmund Lazzari
Dr. Edmund Lazzari explains how Christ’s divinity and humanity make the sacraments, grace, confession, purgatory, and the communion of saints all part of one living mystical body in which every Christian is united to every other in Jesus.This lecture was given on February 11th, 2026, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute
The Creator of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence: Natural Law, Inalienable Rights, and a Just Political Order – Prof. Christopher Kaczor
Prof. Christopher Kaczor takes Jefferson’s famous declaration apart piece by piece to ask what it really means to say that all people are created equal, why those words still matter, and how natural law and inalienable rights shape a just political order.This lecture was given on April 9th, 2026, at Indiana University.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.Ab
Rights, Liberties, and the Nature of Medicine – Prof. Christopher Tollefsen
Prof. Christopher Tollefsen argues that medicine is fundamentally ordered to health, not preference satisfaction, and he shows why that matters for abortion, euthanasia, physician authority, and conscience.This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at University of Scranton.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Christopher Tollefsen is P
Aquinas' Philosophy of the Angels – Prof. Gregory Doolan
Prof. Gregory Doolan explains how Aquinas uses philosophy to show that angels are real immaterial beings—pure forms with intellect and will—whose place in creation can even be understood in relation to the famous “head of a pin” question.This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at Harvard University.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speake
Private Property and the Universal Destination of Goods: How a Right to Private Possessions Serves the Common Good – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. explores how the Catholic tradition understands ownership as a moral relation that binds persons together rather than isolating them, and why that matters for families, society, and human flourishing.This lecture was given on February 4th, 2026, at Stanford University.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Fr. Brad Ell
Thomistic Sacramental Theology – Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P.
Fr. Thomas Joseph White brings Aquinas and Flannery O’Connor into conversation to ask what sacraments do, how grace reaches us through visible signs, and why O’Connor’s fiction can reveal that same divine work even in the lives of people without sacraments.This lecture was given on February 6th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitu
Pope Leo XIII and Communism – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott shows how Leo’s Rerum Novarum responds to Marx and Engels by grounding property rights in the father’s duty to provide, the family’s priority over the state, and the Church’s vision of human flourishing.This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Fr. Brad Elliot
Nagasaki Prays, Hiroshima Rages: God's Providence and Narratives of Suffering – Prof. James Nolan
Prof. James Nolan argues that Nagasaki’s prayerful response to the atomic bomb can only be understood through the city’s long Christian history, especially the witness of the hidden Christians and Takashi Nagai.This lecture was given on January 29th, 2026, at Florida State University.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Professor James L.
What is Catholic Social Teaching? – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott argues that it is really a theological vision of the human person as a social being ordered to God through family, polity, and Church, showing how the common good, friendship, and the distinct missions of these three societies shape both public life and spiritual life.This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.To make a gift this June, visit https:
Mercy and Justice in Political Life: Augustine, Seneca, and Nussbaum – Prof. Sarah Byers
This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at University of Toronto.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Sarah Byers is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. Her interests include St. Augustine, Hellenistic philosophy, and the history of ancient and medieval ethics and metaphysics. She is responsible for many publications
The University and the Search for Wisdom in the Middle Ages – Dr. Brian FitzGerald
Dr. Brian FitzGerald explores how the first universities emerged from cathedral schools and monastic learning, and why they were built not just to transmit information, but to cultivate wisdom, practical judgment, and a love of learning. This lecture was given on January 15th, 2026, at Dartmouth College.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker
The Good Citizen: Lessons from Tocqueville on Democratic Citizenship in the 21st Century – Prof. Raymond Hain
Prof. Raymond Hain argues that Tocqueville’s insights show democratic citizenship depends on stable attachments, shared social life across class lines, and a willingness to let citizens practice freedom through responsibility.This lecture was given on December 4th, 2025, at University of Tulsa.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speakers:Raymond
How John Paul II Used the Saints Against the Communists in Poland – Prof. James Felak
Prof. James Felak shows how John Paul II used the saints in his pilgrimages to communist Poland to challenge atheistic rule, strengthen Catholic identity, and encourage resistance and hope.This lecture was given on October 31st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speakers:James Felak is a Professor of History and cur
Musical Dependence: What's Behind It and How We Can Move Beyond It – Sr. Anna Wray, O.P.
Sr. Anna Wray argues that many people are caught in a “musical dependence” that uses music to make ordinary life merely tolerable, a mere toleration which can transformed into true enjoyment by means of asceticism and an education in genuine enjoyment.This lecture was given on November 12th, 2025, at Catholic University of America.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitu
Silence, Contemplation, and Non-Being – Fr. Ephrem Reese O.P.
Fr. Ephrem Reese argues that silence is not mere absence but a fertile, hidden potency through which contemplation, devotion, and the word of God can come to life.This lecture was given on November 8th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speakers:Fr. Ephrem Reese was born in Harrisburg, PA, and has family in P
Boredom: The Threshold of Great Deeds – Fr. Ephrem Reese O.P.
Fr. Ephrem Reese argues that boredom can be read both as a modern opening onto time and wonder and, more importantly, as a spiritual problem that must be disciplined by the virtues.This lecture was given on November 7th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Speaker:Fr. Ephrem Reese was born in Harrisburg, PA, an
Why We Need or Don't Need Utopias – Dr. Jan Bentz
Dr. Jan Bentz argues that utopias are dangerous because they promise a perfected society by denying human fallenness, replacing Christian hope and grace with man-made salvation, and turning politics into a counterfeit religion.This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in Limerick.To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.About the Spea
Catholic Social Teaching – Prof. James Felak
Professor James Felak argues that Catholic social teaching presents a holistic vision of the human person and society, insisting that rights and duties belong together, the market must serve the common good, and neither socialism nor unchecked capitalism can satisfy human dignity.This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.For more information on upcoming events, visit us
Astonished at the World: G. K. Chesterton's Philosophy of Wonder – Joe Grabowski
Joe Grabowski presents Chesterton’s philosophy as a disciplined recovery of wonder, arguing that reality is not exhausted by habit, utility, or material explanation but should be seen with childlike astonishment and gratitude.This lecture was given on March 30th, 2026, at the University of Kansas.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the
Receiving a Share of God's Kingdom: Vocation and Christian Life according to St. Paul – Fr. Jordan Schmidt, O.P.
Fr. Jordan Schmidt says that vocation is a grace-filled cooperation with God’s kingdom, where renewed discernment helps us choose our way of life and embrace suffering with Christ for the salvation of ourselves and others.This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Sp
Principles of Discernment – Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.
Fr. Gregory Pine teaches that discernment is less about forcing certainty and more about entering the way Christ reveals himself: gradually, trustingly, and through prayerful relationship.This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., is
Attainment of Happiness – Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.
This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and the Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He holds a doctorate from the University of Fribourg (
Life to the Full: Are You Surviving or Thriving? – Sr. Mary Madeline Todd, O.P.
Sr. Mary Madeline Todd argues that Christ calls us not merely to survive but to thrive, and that “life to the full” comes through meaning, suffering united to love, disciplined commitment, wonder, prayer, and sacramental life.This lecture was given on March 27th, 2026, at University of South Alabama.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About t
Science, Reason... and Beyond – Prof. Alexander Pruss
Prof. Alexander Pruss argues that science is powerful but limited, because it depends on presuppositions about logic, rationality, uniformity of nature, and value judgments that science itself cannot justify, and because human fulfillment ultimately points beyond reason to faith in an infinite being.This lecture was given on April 14th, 2026, at Florida State University.For more information on upc
Aquinas and Catholic Theology – Prof. Gaven Kerr
Prof. Gaven Kerr argues that Aquinas is central to Catholic theology because Thomas provides the systematic, deductive, and scripturally grounded framework needed to articulate doctrine about God, Trinity, and salvation.This lecture was given on March 26th, 2026, at Maynooth University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Ga
Diagnosing Dignity in the Era of AI – Prof. Paul Scherz
Prof. Paul Scherz argues that AI-driven precision medicine and genetic risk prediction can undermine human dignity by turning health into an endless management of risk, increasing anxiety, weakening prudence, and subordinating both patients and clinicians to institutional control.This lecture was given on March 26th, 2026, at New York University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at
The Idea of a University – Prof. Raymond Hain
Prof. Raymond Hain presents John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University as a powerful defense of liberal education, arguing that a university should include theology because all knowledge forms one interconnected whole, yet also insisting that intellectual excellence is not the same as moral holiness.This lecture was given on March 26th, 2026, at University of Alabama.For more information on upcoming
Does Vatican II Permit a Hermeneutic of Rupture? – Prof. Christopher Malloy
Prof. Christopher Malloy argues that Vatican II does not permit a hermeneutic of rupture but demands one of continuity and reform, as Benedict XVI taught, rejecting both progressive over-spiritualization and traditionalist rejection of post-conciliar developments.This lecture was given on March 24th, 2026, at Franciscan University of Steubenville.For more information on upcoming events, visit us a
Like Soul to Body?: The Church's Developing Understanding of Her Relation to the State – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott traces the Church's evolving use of the soul-body metaphor for her relation to the state, purifying it in modern social teaching to affirm the Church as a distinct perfect society ordered to supernatural ends while leavening the temporal order.This lecture was given on March 24th, 2026, at Cornell University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.o
Foreigners’ Views on American Secularism: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, and G.K. Chesterton – Prof. James Nolan
Prof. James Nolan argues that Tocqueville, Weber, and Chesterton offer contrasting foreign views on American secularism, with Tocqueville and Chesterton seeing religion as essential to democracy and predicting its persistence, while Weber views Protestantism as inevitably fueling disenchantment.This lecture was given on March 23rd, 2026, at New York University.For more information on upcoming even
The Catholic Imagination of Oscar Wilde – Prof. Guiseppe Pezzini
Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini argues that Oscar Wilde's aestheticism and life journey reveal a Catholic imagination, where art confronts suffering and beauty leads to embracing the full reality of pain, culminating in his final reconciliation with faith.This lecture was given on March 23rd, 2026, at University of Galway.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-
Catholic Social Teaching: Highlights from the Popes – Prof. James Felak
Prof. James Felak traces Catholic social teaching from Leo XIII to Francis, showing how the popes defend human dignity, a just wage, solidarity with the poor, subsidiarity, and the balance between rights and duties against both unchecked capitalism and collectivist ideologies.This lecture was given on March 5th, 2026, at University of Washington.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at
Mary's Necessary Role in the Spiritual Life – Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P.
Fr. John Mark Solitario argues that Mary's role in the spiritual life is necessary because she uniquely forms disciples into Christ's life through her graces as new Eve, spiritual mother, and intercessor who draws us to her Son.This lecture was given on March 20th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the S
How to Marry Your Best Friend: Thomas Aquinas on Friendship, Marriage, and Children – Dr. Nathaniel Peters
Dr. Nathaniel Peters argues that Thomas Aquinas teaches marriage is the greatest friendship, uniting spouses in a sacramental bond ordered to mutual virtue, children’s generation and formation, and sharing in God’s fatherhood and Christ's priesthood.This lecture was given on March 19th, 2026, at Universidad Panamericana.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/up
'I Cannot Tell a Lie': Thomas Aquinas on the Moral Permissibility of Lying – Prof. Christopher Tomaszewski
Prof. Christopher Tomaszewski argues that Thomas Aquinas teaches lying is intrinsically evil because it uses the faculty of speech against its natural purpose, even in difficult cases often thought to justify deception.This lecture was given on March 19th, 2026, at University of Toronto.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:C
Newman on the Dangers of Liberal Education – Prof. Thomas Hibbs
Prof. Thomas Hibbs argues that Newman exposes the dangers of liberal education when intellectual refinement is detached from moral and spiritual formation, producing not saints but “gentlemen” who can become self-enclosed, proud, and oddly shallow.This lecture was given on January 17th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/
To Live is to Change: Newman on Cognitive, Moral, and Spiritual Development – Prof. Thomas Hibbs
Prof. Thomas Hibbs argues that John Henry Newman sees human development as a lifelong process of integrating the cognitive, moral, and spiritual dimensions of the person, so that faith and intellect, growth and identity, and knowledge and character are not split apart but brought into a unified life under grace.This lecture was given on January 17th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more in
After Death Comes Life...to the Soul in the Grace of Jesus Christ – Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell, O.P.
Fr. Gabriel O’Donnell argues that the Christian life under grace is a journey of being reordered from within—through a formed conscience, rightly governed desires, and a humble acceptance of God’s love—so that the soul can move from vulnerability and disorder toward purity of heart, virtue, and union with Christ.This lecture was given on March 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more inf
Order and Disorder among the Capital Vices – Dr. Carl Vennerstrom
Dr. Carl Vennerstrom argues that the capital vices are best understood as a path of disordered desires that Christ exposes and heals, with pride standing at the root and humility as the chief remedy.This lecture was given on March 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Vennerstrom
Death Comes to the Soul: The Vulnerable Christian in Distress – Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell
Fr. Gabriel O’Donnell argues that the Christian life is not mainly about rule-following or behavior modification, but about becoming a whole, Godward person through self-knowledge, acceptance, and relationship with Christ.This lecture was given on March 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Sp
The Devil's Unveiling in the Temptation of Christ: A 'Perfect' Temptation – Dr. Carl Vennerstrom
Dr. Carl Vennerstrom argues that Christ’s temptation in the desert is a perfect temptation: it reveals every major kind of temptation, shows the devil’s weakness, and becomes a means of salvation rather than merely an obstacle.This lecture was given on March 13th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About t
An Image of an Image (of God): Athens, Jerusalem, and Artificial Intelligence – Dr. Kevin Kambo
Dr. Kevin Kambo argues that AI should be understood less as genuine intelligence and more as a highly sophisticated form of simulated intelligence, like a mirror that reflects patterns without understanding them.This lecture was given on March 10th, 2026, at Southern Methodist University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:
John Henry Newman on Following Your Conscience – Dr. Christopher Mooney
Christopher Mooney argues that John Henry Newman’s teaching on conscience means conscience is not mere personal preference or social conditioning, but the practical application of divine moral law to particular actions.This lecture was given on March 9th, 2026, at Ohio State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr
The Gift of Disability and the Hope for Healing – Prof. Paul Gondreau
Prof. Paul Gondreau argues that disability, though a real physical wound of human nature, can also be a profound gift because it deepens participation in Christ’s suffering and points toward healing in the resurrection.This lecture was given on March 9th, 2026, at University of Oxford.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Pau
Thomas Aquinas and the Philosophy of Punishment – Dr. Peter Koritansky
Dr. Peter Koritansky argues that Thomas Aquinas grounds punishment in natural law and retributive justice, where punishment is justified not merely to deter or rehabilitate, but to express the moral order and the common good.This lecture was given on March 5th, 2026, at Cornell University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers
The Roots of the Church in the Old and New Testament – Prof. Nina Sophie Heereman
Prof. Nina Sophie Heereman argues that the Church is not a human invention but a divinely founded reality rooted deeply in Scripture, where Israel’s story, the Eucharist, and Pentecost all reveal Christ’s intention to gather a new people of God.This lecture was given on March 5th, 2026, at Louisiana State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcomi
Becoming a Good Conversationalist: How Not to Bore, Boast, or Otherwise Blather . . . and More! – Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.
Fr. Gregory Pine argues that good conversation is a real moral and spiritual practice: it matters, takes time, and should be used to draw near to others through listening well, welcoming contributions, and sharing life rather than trying to win or dominate.This lecture was given on March 4th, 2026, at Iowa State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org
St. John Henry Newman’s Idea of the Saint – Dr. Rebekah Lamb
Dr. Rebekah Lamb argues that St. John Henry Newman’s idea of the saint is deeply relational: saints are friends knit together in the communion of saints, and holiness is lived through prayer, hidden service, and ordinary fidelity.This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at Queen's University, Belfast.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.
I Want to Live a Good Life, Where Do I Start? – Dr. Wes Siscoe
Dr. Wes Siscoe argues that true happiness and the good life are not found in pleasure, wealth, fame, or even bodily health, but in a fully ordered human flourishing that culminates in union with God.This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at Indiana University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Wes Siscoe is an Assi
Is Abortion Morally Acceptable to Save the Life of the Mother? – Prof. Steven Jensen
Prof. Steven Jensen presents several arguments in favor of the conclusion that the life of a fetus has intrinsic human dignity on account of what a human being is and not merely as an effect of psychological or cognitive capacity, ultimately concluding that the intentional killing of a fetus as a means to save a mother's life is morally impermissible.This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026,
The Savonarola Option: Why We Should Elect Christ as King – Dr. John-Paul Heil
Dr. John-Paul Heil argues that Christians should “elect Christ as king” by judging political institutions according to whether they actually lead people toward holiness, the common good, and heaven.This lecture was given on February 17th, 2026, at Virginia Tech.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:John-Paul Heil is a Core Fe
The Lost Art of Dying – Dr. Lydia Dugdale
Dr. Lydia Dugdale argues that the “lost art of dying” can be recovered by reviving older practices of mortality awareness, community, reconciliation, and hope rather than accepting medicalized dying as normal.This lecture was given on February 16th, 2026, at University of Galway.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Lydia
Anscombe vs. Miscamble on Truman: Catholic Disagreement over Honoring a President – Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.
Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau presents the Catholic disagreement over honoring Truman as a serious moral dispute rooted in differing judgments about just war, innocent life, and the necessity of the atomic bomb.This lecture was given on February 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:A native o
Applying Just War Principles in Contemporary Warfare – Prof. Michael Krom
Prof. Michael Krom argues that just war principles still govern contemporary warfare, especially drone warfare and autonomous weapons, and that moral judgment cannot be replaced by technology or legal convenience.This lecture was given on February 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers
Making War Moral: The Enduring Relevance of Just War Theory – Prof. Michael Krom
Prof. Michael Krom argues that just war theory remains morally necessary today because war must be judged by justice, right intention, and the common good rather than by realpolitik, legal minimalism, or national self-interest.This lecture was given on February 14th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.Abou
Stoicism and Christianity, with a Focus on Boethius - Prof. Thomas Ward
Prof. Thomas Ward argues that Stoicism offers valuable detachment and moral discipline, but Boethius and Christianity deepen it by reordering the human person toward friendship, hope, and beatitude in God.This lecture was given on February 12th, 2026, at Franciscan University of Steubenville.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speak
Making Sense of Physician Assisted Suicide – Dr. Lydia Dugdale
Dr. Lydia Dugdale argues that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are morally and medically dangerous because they normalize suicide, undermine the physician-patient covenant, and place vulnerable people at risk.This lecture was given on February 12th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers
The Cross is a Marriage Feast – Prof. Nina Sophie Heereman
Prof. Nina Sophie Heereman shows how the Cross is a marriage feast by reading the Paschal Mystery through Old Testament nuptial imagery and the Gospel of John’s depiction of Christ as the divine Bridegroom uniting Himself to His people.This lecture was given on March 5th, 2026, at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcom
Thomas Aquinas and the Theological Virtue of Hope in Times of Quiet Despair – Prof. Rik Van Nieuwenhove
Prof. Rik Van Nieuwenhove argues that Thomas Aquinas’s theology of hope offers a needed response to quiet despair by reorienting human life toward God, eternal beatitude, and the Paschal Mystery.This lecture was given on March 12th, 2026, at University of Edinburgh.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Rik Van Nieuwenhove is
The Promises and Pitfalls of Stoicism – Prof. Christopher Frey
Prof. Christopher Frey argues that Stoicism offers real insights about freedom and detachment from externals, but its ideal of self-sufficient serenity risks flattening human emotion, moral life, and the need for grace.This lecture was given on November 7th, 2024, at United States Military Academy.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the
Why So Sad? The Sorrows that Kill and the Sorrows that Save – Sr. Anna Wray, O.P.
Sr. Anna Wray argues that sorrow can either deform the soul as acedia or save it when rightly faced, and she offers a Thomistic account of how sorrow, friendship with God, and spiritual remedies shape the Christian life.This lecture was given on November 6th, 2025, at Iowa State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker
Wisdom from the Old Testament on Prayer and the Spiritual Life – Fr. Stephen Ryan, O.P.
Fr. Stephen Ryan argues that the Old Testament remains a vital guide to prayer and the spiritual life because Scripture reveals God’s friendship, sanctifies time, and forms the practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at University of Tulsa.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speake
Why Modern Christians Need the Eucharist – Prof. Michael Dauphinais
Prof. Michael Dauphinais contends that modern Christians, formed by empiricism, individualism, and a this‑worldly hope that easily turns to despair, especially need the Eucharist because it is the concrete, sacramental way Christ draws us into the Trinitarian communion for which we were created, making his paschal mystery present and reproducing his own filial relation to the Father in us.This lec
Catholic Doctrine and Judaism – Prof. Gavin D'Costa
Prof. Gavin D’Costa explains how, since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has rethought its relationship to Judaism by affirming the enduring validity of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, recovering the Church’s identity as a fundamentally Jewish–Gentile reality, and opening unresolved but fertile questions about mission, ecclesiology, and antisemitism.This lecture was given on October 9th, 202
Justified by Grace, Works, or Faith? – Prof. Michael Root
Prof. Michael Root argues that, in Catholic theology, we are saved wholly by the unmerited grace of Christ, and that this grace brings us into a Spirit‑given life of faith, hope, love, and morally significant works, so that eternal life is at once pure gift and, in a secondary sense, a “merited destiny.”This lecture was given on September 9th, 2025, at North Carolina State University.For more info
Why the Catholic Church Has Priests – Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P.
Fr. Dominic Langevin defends the Catholic priesthood as a divinely willed, sacramental system of mediation in which ordained men, configured to Christ the High Priest, bestow God’s gifts on the faithful and offer their prayers and sins to God, thereby promoting both God’s glory and the sanctification and dignity of the Church.This lecture was given on November 10th, 2025, at West Virginia Universi
Aquinas on Predestination: The Main Issues – Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P.
Fr. John Baptist Ku unpacks St. Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of predestination, showing how God’s universal salvific will, efficacious grace, and real human freedom coexist without collapsing into Calvinist double predestination or Pelagian self-salvation.This lecture was given on November 22nd, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitut
Immortality and Immateriality – Prof. Thomas Osborne
Prof. Thomas Osborne clarifies how, for Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, the distinctive immateriality of human intellectual knowledge grounds a philosophical case for the soul’s immortality, going beyond today’s narrower “problem of consciousness.”This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at University of Connecticut.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org
Beyond Work and Play: Aristotle on Friendship, Contemplation, and The Value of Human Activity – Prof. Marshall Bierson
Prof. Marshall Bierson uses Aristotle’s distinction between work, play, and deeper “energetic” activities to argue that friendship and contemplation uniquely allow us to “rest” in what is truly good and meaningful, and then shows how Aquinas radicalizes this by making both contemplation and friendship with God the heart of human fulfillment.This lecture was given on November 20th, 2025, at Cornell
St. Thomas Aquinas on Pleasure and the Good Life – Dr. Erik Dempsey
Dr. Erik Dempsey explains how St. Thomas Aquinas sees pleasure as a natural and God-given part of the good life, one that both signals our true human ends and yet must be disciplined by temperance in a fallen world.This lecture was given on December 4th, 2025, at Southern Methodist University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Spea
Suffering and the Communion of Saints – Prof. Timothy O'Connor
Prof. Timothy O’Connor examines why an all-loving, omnipotent God permits horrendous suffering and explores how, within a Christian framework, such evils can be “defeated” and taken up into the communion of saints as part of our eternal union with God.This lecture was given on December 3rd, 2025, at University of Scranton.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/
Friendship: The Art of Striving and Thriving Together – Sr. Mary Madeline Todd, O.P.
Sr. Mary Madeline Todd draws upon Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and friendship with Christ in order to show that sharing a common journey and life, together with mutual self-gift, turns everyday relationships into true, virtuous friendships that enable us not merely to survive but to thrive in happiness with God and one another.This lecture was given on November 27th, 2025, at Thomistic Institute
Recommended
The Young and Called Podcast .
Snoop Dogg - Flash Biográfico
Deadline: White House
Thrilling Threads - Conspiracy Theories, Strange Phenomena, True Crime, Unsolved Mysteries, etc!
The Daily Conspiracy Podcast
2819 Church
Markus Schulz presents Global DJ Broadcast
Bad Friends
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Joe Rogan Experience
Dubs Talk: A Golden State Warriors Podcast
Fashion Business Mindset
