The Thomistic Institute

Latest Episodes:

Evil and Vice in Entertainment | Dr. John Haldane Mar 07, 2025

Show notes

Dr. John Haldane examines the themes of evil and vice as portrayed in film and entertainment, utilizing philosophical concepts and specific examples like The Exorcist and Apocalypse Now, to analyze the ethical dimensions of these representations.

This lecture was given on November 28th, 2024, at University of Edinburgh.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

John Haldane is the Newton Rayzor Sr Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, Texas, and Professor of Moral Philosophy, and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Ethics and Public Affairs, at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chair of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, London. As well as his many philosophical writings, he has contributed to the Times and the Guardian, and broadcast often with the BBC UK and World, and ABC Australia. In 2016 he was named by Best Schools one of the ‘50 Most Influential Living Philosophers’.

Keywords: Apocalypse Now, Aristotelian Ethics, Courage, Evil, Exorcist, Film, Heart of Darkness, Hollywood, Justice, Prudence, Virtue And Vice

The Christian Tradition on the Virtue of Prudence | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Gregory Pine explores the virtue of prudence as practical wisdom, emphasizing its role in navigating human limitations, ordering practical life, and integrating intellect and appetite to achieve human flourishing.

This lecture was given on March 12th, 2024, at Stanford University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. is an adjunct professor of dogmatic theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He is the author of a few books including Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly. His writing also appears in Ascension’s Catholic Classics, Magnificat, and Aleteia. He is a regular contributor to the podcasts Pints with Aquinas, Catholic Classics, The Thomistic Institute, and Godsplaining.

Keywords: Appetites, Charity, Christian Virtues, Fortitude, Human Flourishing, Moral Virtues, Practical Reason, Prudence, Temperance, Virtue Ethics

Disease and the Problem of Evil | Prof. Stephen C. Meredith Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

Professor Stephen Meredith explores the problem of evil, particularly in the context of disease, examining philosophical and theological perspectives, including those of Aquinas, Leibniz, and Voltaire, while also considering biological factors like genetics and evolution.

This lecture was given on November 7th, 2024, at Indiana University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Stephen Meredith is a professor at the University of Chicago’s Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Neurology. He is also an associate faculty member in the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has published more than 100 journal articles, focusing on the biophysics of protein structure. Much of his work has been the application of solution and solid-state NMR to the study of amyloid proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease. He has also published articles on literature and philosophy in diverse aspects of medical humanities and bioethics. His teaching includes courses to graduate students in biochemistry and biophysics, medical students, and undergraduates and graduate students in the humanities, including courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Dostoevsky (focusing on Brothers Karamazov), Thomas Mann and David Foster Wallace. He is currently working on a book examining disease and the theological problem of evil. Other current writing projects include a study of James Joyce and the problem of evil.

Keywords: Boethius, Disease, Evil, Leibniz, Original Sin, Problem of Evil, Sickle Cell Anemia, Theodicy, Thomas Aquinas, Voltaire

Put Away Falsehood | Prof. Adam Eitel Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

Professor Adam Eitel explores Thomas Aquinas's treatment of truthfulness and falsehood, discussing different types of lies, their motivations, and how they relate to charity and friendship with God, as well as forms of deception beyond speech, like hypocrisy and irony.

This lecture was given on June 22nd, 2023, at Stonyhurst College.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Prof. Adam Eitel (Yale Divinity School) holds appointments in the Divinity School, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Humanities Program. His research and teaching bring topics in the history of Christian theology to bear on questions of fundamental moral concern. A specialist in medieval scholasticism, his particular research interests span doctrinal and moral theology, especially in the works of Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries. His first book, Thomas Aquinas and the Invention of the Preacher, examines the need for gifts of the Holy Spirit in light of the eliminable conditions of human folly; as this volume approaches the final stages of revision, he is also preparing a translation and critical introduction to Aquinas’s Contra impugnantes. His contributions to various journals include published and forthcoming essays in the Journal of Religious Ethics, Nova et Vetera, Studies in Christian Ethics, and The Thomist. Longer term aspirations include projects on the virtue of charity, the nature of sin, grace, eschatology, grief, and infant mortality.

Keywords: Charity, Deception, Holiness, Hypocrisy, Irony, Lies, Mortal Sin, St. Thomas More, Summa Theologica, Truthfulness

God and Suffering: How Could God Allow Evil? | Rev. Thomas Petri O.P. Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Thomas Petri explicates St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of God as ipsum esse subsistens (being itself), the source of all existence and goodness, and that evil is not a thing but an absence or deficiency of good within God's ultimate plan.

This lecture was given on January 17th, 2025, at University of Michigan.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Father Thomas Petri, O.P. is the President of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, where he also serves as an assistant professor of moral theology and pastoral studies. Ordained a priest in 2009, he holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The Catholic University of America.

Keywords: Aristotelianism, Causality, Evil, Free Will, Goodness, Ipsum Esse Subsistens, Pantheism, Summa Theologica, Suffering, Theology, Trinity

The Benedict Option: What Is It and Would Aquinas Advise Us to Embrace It? | Prof. Michael Krom Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

Professor Michael Krom evaluates the modern "Benedict Option" as a proposed Christian response to cultural decline, contrasting it with Saint Benedict’s historical withdrawal from Rome and analyzing its merits through Thomistic ethical frameworks governing obedience to authority and resistance to unjust laws.

This lecture was given on November 8th, 2024, at Florida State University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Michael Krom started reading Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae shortly after his conversion at the end of college. Upon learning about Flannery O’Connor’s “hillbilly Thomist” habit of reading Aquinas every night, he started studying two articles a day and completed the Summa while in graduate school at Emory University. As a professor at Saint Vincent College, he saw the urgent need for collegians and seminarians to receive a solid foundation in Aquinas’s philosophical theology. In 2020, he published Justice and Charity: An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought (Baker Academic Press), and teaches a Thomistic philosophy course each fall. In addition to continuing work on the moral, economic, and political topics covered in the book, his current research is on the influence of monastic spirituality on Aquinas; he is working on a monograph tentatively entitled Aquinas Among the Benedictines.

Keywords: Aristotelianism, Benedict Option, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Life of Saint Benedict, Patrick Deneen, Post-Liberal Age, Saint Benedict, Scott Hahn, Thomistic Theology, Virtue Ethics

The Right Answers of Ethics | Fr. Bonaventure Chapman, O.P. Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Bonaventure Chapman presents a philosophical exploration of ethics, drawing on Anscombe, Aristotle, and Aquinas to argue for moral absolutes grounded in human action itself, rather than solely relying on divine law.

This lecture was given on October 5th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Father Bonaventure Chapman, O.P. (Catholic University of America) was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. Father Bonaventure entered the Order of Preachers (Province of St. Joseph), in 2011 and was ordained a priest in 2017, having completed theology degrees at the Dominican House of Studies, as well as a Ph.L from The Catholic University of America. After teaching philosophy at Providence College, RI, he completed a Ph.D in philosophy at Catholic University in 2023 and joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy in Fall 2023. Father Bonaventure’s dissertation, “The Crusian Core of Kant’s Critical Project,” investigates the influence of philosophical Pietism, especially that of Christian August Crusius, on Immanuel Kant’s critical metaphysics and ethics. His primary research interest is eighteenth-century German philosophical Pietism as developed by Crusius and his beloved teacher Adolph Friedrich Hoffmann, and more broadly on early modern German metaphysics and ethics. For relaxation, Father Bonaventure serves as Assistant Student Master at the Dominican House of Studies, enjoys viewing great American art, sailing, and finding American toads whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Keywords: Action Theory, Anscombe, Aristotelian Ethics, Consequentialism, Divine Command Theory, Ethics, Moral Absolutes, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Action, Virtue

Going for Glory: Seeking Honor Rightly | Fr. Dominic Verner, O.P. Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Dominic Verner explores Aquinas' definition of honor as reverence exhibited in testimony to someone's excellence, explaining its importance for personal virtue, self-knowledge, friendship, and fostering a community that values true goodness.

This lecture was given on March 9th, 2024, at Our Lady of Corpus Christi Retreat Center.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Fr. Dominic Verner, O.P. (Providence College) after earning a B.S. in electrical engineering from Purdue University and an M.A. in philosophical studies from Mount St. Mary's University, Fr. Dominic Verner, O.P. entered the Order of Preachers and was ordained to the priesthood in 2016. He has an S.T.L. from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and a Ph.D. in moral theology/Christian ethics from the University of Notre Dame, where he wrote his dissertation "Saving Honor: A Thomistic Ethics of Honor." He joined the Theology Faculty at Providence College as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2022. His research and teaching interests especially concern Thomistic moral theory and the role that honor, friendship, and glory play in practical reason and the quest for beatitude.

Keywords: Excellence, Fear of the Lord, Friendship, Honor, Imitation, Reverence, Self-Love, Testimony, Virtue

The Wrong Questions of Modern Action Theory | Fr. Bonaventure Chapman, O.P. Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Bonaventure Chapman analyzes the flaws in modern action theory, using Wittgenstein and Anscombe to argue against seeking intention in either physical or psychological states, and advocating instead for examining the description of intentional actions.

This lecture was given on October 5th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Action Theory, Anscombe, Ethics, Intention, Modern Moral Philosophy, Robert Chisholm, Wittgenstein, Wrong Questions

Go and Do Likewise:The Saints as Models for Growth in Virtue | Prof. Michael Wahl Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

Professor Michael Wahl discusses the Catholic Church's position on abortion, emphasizing the importance of both scientific and philosophical arguments in defending the pro-life stance.

This lecture was given on May 5th, 2024, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speaker:

Michael Wahl is Assistant Professor of Theology at Providence College. His research focuses on Catholic moral theology, Thomistic ethics, virtue theory, and moral development. His articles have been published in The Thomist, Nova et Vetera, and Philosophy, Theology, & the Sciences. He lives in Providence, RI with his wife and four young children.

Keywords: Abortion Ethics, Catholic Church, Embryology, Fetal Development, Human Dignity, Natural Law, Personhood, Philosophy of Life, Pro-Life Arguments, Scientific Evidence

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