The Thomistic Institute

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On the Via Pulchritudinis: Pope Benedict XVI’s Meditations on Art and Prayer - Fr. Alan O'Sullivan, O.P. Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Alan O'Sullivan provides an introduction to Pope Benedict XVI's thought on the "via pulchritudinis" — the way of beauty — arguing that authentic beauty wounds the heart and draws it toward the transcendent Logos, is inseparable from truth, goodness, and prayer, and is indispensable for the Church's liturgy and evangelization against a false, self-absorbing beauty.

This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Fr. Alan O’Sullivan, O.P. (Trinity College) is currently the chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin. He is a member of the Irish province of the Order of Preachers who studied at Blackfriars, Oxford.

Keywords: Beauty, Benedict XVI, Dostoevsky, Logos, Magnificat, Paul Claudel, Prayer, Saints, Via Pulchritudinis, Wound Of Beauty

Purifying the Imagination: Iconoclasm and the Incarnation - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that the Exodus prohibition on graven images was a purification of Israel's imagination from false imaginings of the invisible God, and that the Incarnation opens a new, positive use of sacred images — the face of Christ and the icons of his saints — by which the imagination is fed and purified for contemplation, a truth vindicated by Saint John Damascene and the Second Council of Nicaea against the iconoclasts.

This lecture was given on July 19th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.

Keywords: Aquinas, Dulia, Iconoclasm, Incarnation, John Damascene, Latria, Purification Of The Imagination, Sacred Images, Second Council Of Nicaea, Veneration Of Images

Iconoclastic and Incarnational Church Architecture - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that church architecture is "incarnational" when it corresponds to a true cosmological vision of reality ordered through and toward the Logos and embodies the principles revealed to Moses on Sinai, and "iconoclastic" when, in its modernist self-referentiality, it rejects that order and fails to communicate the body and head of Christ made present in the liturgy.

This lecture was given on July 19th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Aquinas, Cosmological View, Hermeneutic Of Fracture, Iconoclasm, Incarnational Architecture, Le Corbusier, Logos, Maximus The Confessor, Pantheon, Sacred Architecture

Aquinas on Conscience as the Application of Knowledge to Practice - Fr. David Goodill, O.P. Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

Fr. David Goodill explains that, for Aquinas, conscience is not a power of the soul but an act of the intellect rooted in the natural habit of synderesis and formed by the virtues, above all prudence, so that it reflects the deepest interiority of the person.

This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Fr. David is Dean of Degrees, Lector, Fellow, and Provincial Bursar. He studied Philosophy in Cambridge and Manchester before entering the Dominican Order. He has a doctorate in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and maintains interests in both Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology. He was Prior of Oxford, and has served Blackfriars Hall and Studium as Hall Bursar, Vice-Regent, Senior Tutor and Acting Regent. He is a visiting lecturer in moral theology at St Joseph’s University, Macau.

Publications: ‘Original Sense: Augustine and Wittgenstein on Religion and Origins’ in Augustine and Wittgenstein (2018); ‘Elizabeth Anscombe on Just War’ in The Moral Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe (2016); Nature as Guide: Wittgenstein and the Renewal of Moral Theology (CUA Press, 2022).

Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Free Choice, Intellect, Justice, Prudence, Summa Theologiae, Synderesis, Virtue, Will

Aquinas on Conscience and the Inner Act of the Will - Fr. David Goodill, O.P. Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

Fr. David Goodill expounds Aquinas's treatment of conscience in Summa theologiae I-II, q.19, arguing that conscience is the inner act of the will and that, even when erring, it binds the agent, such that right formation of conscience through virtue, law, and grace is essential.

This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Erring Conscience, Grace, Intention, Moral Species, Object Of The Act, Prudence, Summa Theologiae, Virtue

Conscience First, and to the Pope Afterwards - Prof. Lewis Ayres Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Lewis Ayres presents Newman's account of conscience as, not a private inner voice, but the echo of God's voice within the human being, that although refracted by sin and therefore requiring long formation in humility and obedience, is an entry into true fraternity.

This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Lewis was born in the UK, and studied Classics at St Andrews in Scotland, and Theology at Oxford. He has taught in the UK, in Ireland and in the US. He is currently Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology at Durham University in the UK, and McDonald Agape Chair in Early Christian Theology at the Angelicum University in Rome. He is interested in two main areas of Catholic thought: early Christian thought (on Christ, on the Trinity and on Biblical Interpretation), and modern Catholic thought (especially the idea of development in doctrine, the idea of Tradition, The second Vatican Council, Biblical Interpretation). He and his wife (Medi Ann Volpe) co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology.

Keywords: Conscience, False Conscience, Gladstone, Humility, Letter To The Duke Of Norfolk, Newman, Papal Infallibility, Ratzinger, True Conscience, Voice Of God

Newman Against Hitler: Reflections on Ratzinger - Prof. Lewis Ayres Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Lewis Ayres draws on Newman's Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Doctrine to argue that conscience must be educated through a long process of moral and doctrinal formation, and that the young Ratzinger draws the same connections between consceince and the community and worship of the Church.

This lecture was given on July 25th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Callista, Conscience, Development Of Doctrine, Dogmatic Principle, Eucharist, Formation Of Conscience, Grammar Of Assent, Lectio Divina, Newman, Ratzinger

Imagination and Conscience - Prof. Medi Volpe Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Medi Volpe argues that conscience is formed through the imagination, which is nurtured and filled by stories, so that discerning right action is less a matter of weighing propositions than of recognizing one's part in a larger story.

This lecture was given on July 25th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Medi Ann Volpe is a Catholic moral theologian and mother of four children, including a daughter with Down Syndrome. She is the Director of Research at Wesley House, Cambridge and teaches theology and ethics at Durham University (UK) . Her first book, Rethinking Christian Identity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), brings contemporary theological themes into conversation with voices from the classical Christian tradition. More recently, her work has explored the intersection of ecclesiology and spiritual formation, with a special interest in discipleship and Christian identity of children as well as people with intellectual disabilities. She has published in journals and handbooks, including the International Journal of Systematic Theology, Modern Theology, and the Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology (which she co-edited with Lewis Ayres). She also serves on the board of the Journal of Disability and Religion. For the last several years, Volpe has been writing and speaking about the kind of Church we must be if we are truly to honour the weaker members. Her current book project (Living as the Body of Christ) considers ecclesiology from the perspective of disability.

Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Frodo Baggins, Imagination, Lord Of The Rings, MacIntyre, Magnificat, Newman, Storytelling Animal, The Great Tale

Conscience in Everyday Life - Prof. Medi Volpe Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Medi Volpe argues that conscience is not an abstract faculty but an everyday moral sense that must be awakened and nurtured, and that grace works through ordinary channels — stories, scripture, friends, and even our failures — to form us, little by little, into people who listen and obey.

This lecture was given on July 26th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Grace, Lord Of The Rings, Maximilian Kolbe, Moral Awakening, Newman, Pippin, Saruman, Tolkien

Aquinas' Epistemology with Reflections from a Friar-Medical Doctor - Fr. Chris Gault, O.P. Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Chris Gault, O.P. lays out Aquinas's epistemology of moderate realism, in which all knowledge begins with the senses and the agent intellect abstracts universal forms from phantasms, and defends it against skepticism, ancient and modern, including the claim that artificial intelligence cannot truly know.

This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.

Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod

About the Speaker:

Fr. Chris Vincent Gault, OP, was born and raised in Belfast in the north of Ireland, where he studied medicine at Queen's University Belfast. Qualifying as a doctor in 2013, he began to train as an emergency physician, before leaving medicine after 3 years to enter the Irish Province of the Order of Preachers. Ordained as a Dominican priest in July 2024, and after having completed his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, he was assigned to the convent of St. Mary of the Isles in Cork, where he now resides and ministers, particularly to the youth and young adults of that city.

Keywords: Agent Intellect, Aquinas, Blindsight, Chinese Room Argument, Epistemology, Moderate Realism, Phantasm, Sensory Experience, Universals, Visual Agnosia

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