The Thomistic Institute

Latest Episodes:

How the Sacraments Can Change Your Life w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. & Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P. Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

What role do the sacraments play in human flourishing? Why do we need them? How can they change your life? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P. about the role of sacraments in human experience, how the sacraments can transform our lives, why we should have a deeper sacramental life, and more!

You can watch this interview on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmzv3rBZ64k

About the speaker: Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P. is Dean and Assistant Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, where he teaches courses principally in sacramental theology and liturgiology. He is the secretary/treasurer of the Academy of Catholic Theology. He did his undergraduate degree at Yale University. He entered the Dominican Order in 1998 and was ordained a priest in 2005. He earned his doctorate from the University of Fribourg while working as the assistant to the chair of dogmatic theology for ecclesiology and the sacraments. He is the author of From Passion to Paschal Mystery and was editor of the journal The Thomist from 2018 to 2021.

Keywords: Body Positivity, Dei Veritate, Grace, Incarnation, Liturgical Life, Sacramental Theology, Sacraments, St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Aquinas's Shortest Way to God’s Existence, and How Darwinism Fits Within It | Fr. Stephen Brock Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Stephen Brock explains Aquinas's Fifth Way, focusing on the governance of things and how natural bodies without cognition display goal-oriented activity, ultimately placing the Fifth Way into dialogue with Darwinism.

This lecture was given on September 5th, 2024, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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

About the Speaker:

Stephen L. Brock is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei (ordained 1992). He is Ordinary Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where he began teaching in 1990. Since 2008 he has been an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Since 2017 he has been a visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Chicago. He is the author of Action & Conduct: Thomas Aquinas and the Theory of Action (T&T Clark, 1998); The Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Sketch (Wipf & Stock, 2015); The Light that Binds: a Study in Thomas Aquinas's Metaphysics of Natural Law (Wipf & Stock, 2020); and numerous articles on various aspects of Aquinas’s thought.

Keywords: Aquinas' Fifth Way, Darwinism, Divine Governance, Natural Bodies, Natural Inclinations, Purposeful Activity, Regularity in Nature, St. Thomas Aquinas, Teleology

Is Atheism Rational? | Prof. John O'Callaghan Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

Professor John O'Callaghan argues that atheism is not inherently irrational, exploring its varied historical meanings and proposing that, while not necessarily true, it can be a rational pursuit driven by a desire for truth.

This lecture was given on November 21st, 2024, at Michigan State University.

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

About the Speaker:

Prof. John O'Callaghan is the Director Emeritus of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame as well as a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. He served as the past President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. His areas of scholarly interest include medieval philosophy, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Thomistic metaphysics and ethics.

Keywords: Atheism, Benedict XVI, Descartes, Faith, Irrationality, Nietzsche, Rationalism, Truth

More than Spiritual: Proofs for the Existence of God | Prof. Joshua Hochschild Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

Professor Joshua Hochschild argues that Aquinas' proofs for God's existence, specifically the first way, are simple, accessible, and not merely spiritual exercises, but rather starting points for a deeper understanding of God and the relationship between faith and reason.

This lecture was given on November 4th, 2024, at University of Texas at Austin.

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

About the Speaker:

Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Keywords: Aristotelianism, Causality, David Hume, Empirical Fact, First Cause, Natural Theology, Proof of God's Existence, Reason, Skepticism, Unmoved Mover

Divine Causality and Human Freedom | Prof. W. Matthews Grant Jan 31, 2025

Show notes

Professor W. Matthews Grant examines the traditional Christian doctrine of divine universal causality, exploring how God can be the cause of all things, including human free acts, and how this relates to our understanding of freedom and responsibility.

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

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

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.

Keywords: Alvin Plantinga, Anthropomorphism, Divine Causality, Freedom, God, Responsibility, St. Anselm, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas

God's Response to the Problem of Evil | Dr. Medi Volpe Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Medi Volpe explores God's response to the problem of evil by contrasting modern theodicy against the approach of early Christians, emphasizing the Incarnation and human action as integral to God's response.

This lecture was given on October 24th, 2024, at University of Edinburgh.

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

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: Augustine, Evil, Gustavo Gutierrez, Hume, James Cone, Incarnation, Irenaeus, Problem of Evil, Tolkien, Theodicy, Theology

Creation: Mercy Beyond Justice | Prof. John O'Callaghan Jan 29, 2025

Show notes

Professor John O'Callaghan delves into St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of God's mercy in creation, addressing the apparent paradox of extending mercy to non-existent beings by examining the transition from non-being to being.

This lecture was given on October 19th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

Keywords: Being, Creation, God's Mercy, Justice, Metaphysics, Misericordia, Non-being, Suffering, Thomas Aquinas

About the Speaker:

Dr. John Callaghan is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame University. He is a permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and he was the President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association (2012-2013). He is the author of Thomistic Realism and the Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect Form of Existence and the editor, with Prof. Thomas Hibbs, of Recovering Nature: Essays in Honor of Ralph McInerny.

God's Justice According to St. Thomas' Reading of the Apostle Paul | Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P. Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of God's Justice as revealed in the Gospel and the writings of St. Paul, emphasizing its connection to grace, truth, and the conformity of creation to God's intellect.

This lecture was given on October 19th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., (Ph.D. Notre Dame) is professor of patristics and ancient languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies where he serves as the director of the doctoral program. He authored Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press, 2013) and The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh (Catholic University of America, 2023). He co-authored A Living Sacrifice: Guidance for Men Discerning Religious Life (Vianney Vocations, 2019). Editor-in-chief of the academic journal The Thomist, Hofer is editor or co-editor of several volumes including The Oxford Handbook of Deification, The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons, and Thomas Aquinas and the Greek Fathers. He enjoys speaking with students about their theological and spiritual questions.

Keywords: Aquinas, Dikaussune, God's Justice, Gospel, Grace, Justification, Romans, St. Paul, Truth

God's Mercy According to St. Thomas' Reading of the Apostle Paul | Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P. Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of God's mercy in the writings of St. Paul, paying particular attention to Mercy's relationship to Divine justice and its transformative activity in Christian life.

This lecture was given on October 19th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Catholic Feminism | Erika Bachiochi Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

In this lecture, Erika Bachiochi discusses Catholic feminism, her encounter with St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body and her subsequent intellectual journey, and the historical roots of feminism in Christian thought, particularly focusing on the views of early feminists on abortion and chastity.

This lecture was given on October 29th, 2024, at Benedictine College.

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

About the Speaker:

EPPC Fellow Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of the Mercy Otis Warren Initiative for Women in Civic Life and Thought at the School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at ASU.

Keywords: Abortion, Catholic Feminism, Chastity, Christian Feminism, Elizabeth Blackwell, Evangelium Vitae, First Wave Feminism, John Paul II, Rights Of Women, Theology Of The Body

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