The Thomistic Institute

Latest Episodes:

True Courage: On Facing Death with Fortitude | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Gregory Pine discusses the virtue of courage, exploring its complexities, its relationship to the passions, and its importance in living a complete and virtuous life.

This lecture was given on October 24th, 2024, at Georgetown 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: Courage, Daring, Emotions, Fear, Fortitude, Passions, St. Thomas Aquinas, Sensitive Appetite, Virtue

What is the Separated Human Soul? Incomplete Person, Survivalism or Corruptionism | Prof. Daniel De Haan Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

Professor Daniel De Haan explores the Thomistic debate surrounding the nature of the separated human soul after death, contrasting survivalism, corruptionism, and incompletionism to understand whether the soul retains personhood after death.

This lecture was given on October 10th, 2024, at University of Edinburgh.

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

About the Speaker:

Daniel D. De Haan is the Frederick Copleston Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology in the Catholic Tradition at Campion Hall and Blackfriars at the University of Oxford. Before to coming to Oxford, De Haan was a postdoctoral fellow on the neuroscience strand of the Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and the Sciences project at the University of Cambridge. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven and University of St Thomas in Texas. His research focuses on philosophical anthropology, hylomorphism and the sciences, moral psychology, philosophical theology, and the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

Keywords: Corruptionism, Eschatology, Hylomorphism, Incompletionism, Joseph Ratzinger, Personhood, Separated Soul, Survivalism, Thomas Aquinas

What Happens After Death? | Prof. Jeffrey Brower Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

Professor Jeffrey Brower explores Aquinas's view of human nature, contrasting it with materialism and substance dualism, focusing on the relationship between body and soul and what happens at death.

This lecture was given on November 8th, 2023, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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

About the Speaker:

Jeffrey E. Brower is Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University, where he serves as the faculty advisor for the Thomistic Institute. He specializes in medieval philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophical theology and especially enjoys working at the intersection of all three areas. He is the author of Aquinas’s Ontology of the Material World: Change, Hylomorphism, and Material Objects (Oxford University Press, 2014) and a contributor to The Oxford Handbook on Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2012). His recent articles include “Aquinas on the Individuation of Substances,” Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy (2017) and “Aquinas on the Problem of Universals,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2016).

Keywords: Aquinas, Cartesian Dualism, Death, Human Nature, Materialism, Naturalism, Soul, Substance Dualism, Trialism

Politics and the Modern State: Understanding the Common Good | Prof. Brad Lewis Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

Professor Brad Lewis discusses the concept of the common good in politics, contrasting contemporary Catholic social teaching with Aquinas's view and addressing criticisms of both.

This lecture was given on October 1st, 2024, at Indiana University.

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

About the Speaker:

Bradley Lewis is associate professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He specializes in political and legal philosophy, especially in classical Greek political thought and in the theory of natural law. He holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He has published scholarly articles in Polity, History of Political Thought, the Southern Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Communio, the Josephinum Journal of Theology, the Pepperdine Law Review, the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, and the Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, as well as chapters in a number of books. He is currently working on a book project provisionally titled The Common Good and the Modern State. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology and serves as associate editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence.

Keywords: American Founding, Aristotle, Catholic Social Teaching, Common Good, Gaudium Et Spes, Hillary Clinton, Mater Et Magistra, Political Philosophy, St. Thomas Aquinas

Bored to Tears: Confronting the Taedium Vitae with Thomas Aquinas | Fr. Stewart Clem Jan 17, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Stewart Clem examines the concept of boredom ("taedium vitae") through the lens of Thomistic moral theology, defining it, exploring its subjective and objective dimensions, and distinguishing it from related concepts like sloth (acedia).

This lecture was given on September 7th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Dr. Clem's research interests include the thought of Thomas Aquinas, the Anglican intellectual tradition, virtue ethics, health care ethics, and the intersection of religion and morality. Before joining the faculty at Aquinas Institute, he was Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University. He is a priest in The Episcopal Church.

Dr. Clem is a member of the Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Anglican Theological Review and The Living Church Foundation.

Keywords: Acedia, Boredom, Emotions, Moral Theology, Passions, Sloth, Taedium Vitae, Virtue

The Seven Deadly Sins | Prof. Timothy Pawl Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

Professor Timothy Pawl explores the seven deadly sins according to Thomistic tradition, outlining what they are, what makes them deadly, how they are often misunderstood, their subdivisions, traditional ordering, and how to avoid them.

For a copy of the slide deck, click here.

This lecture was given on September 19th, 2024, at Indiana University.

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

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. He specializes 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), The Incarnation (Cambridge, 2020), and Jesus and the Genome: The Intersection of Christology and biology (Cambridge, 2024), co-authored with a philosopher of science and an evolutionary biologist.

He has published more than forty academic articles in his areas of expertise and given more than 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.

Keywords: Avarice, Dante's Purgatory, Deadly Sins, Eleanor Stump, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Theology, Vice, Wrath

Augustine and the Quest for Self-Knowledge | Prof. Michael Foley Jan 15, 2025

Show notes

Prof. Michael Foley explores Saint Augustine's lifelong pursuit of self-knowledge, dividing it into intellectual, moral, and religious dimensions, each achieved through conversion and hindered by specific obstacles.

This lecture was given on September 19th, 2024, at University of Tulsa.

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

About the Speaker:

Michael Foley is a Catholic theologian, a Professor of Patristics at Baylor University, and the author of over 400 articles and seventeen books, including the Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity, Drinking with the Saints, and Dining with the Saints. He can speak on a wide variety of topics touching upon Catholicism, culture, and liturgy.

Keywords: Augustine, Conversion, Ethics, God, Intellectual Self-Knowledge, Moral Self-Knowledge, Philosophy, Plato, Religious Self-Knowledge, The Confessions

The Spiritual Life | Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy discusses the fragmentation of the modern secular university and proposes that integrating one's spiritual life on campus involves rediscovering the meaningfulness of being, while cautioning against the disintegrating approaches of fideism, scientism, and nihilism.

This lecture was given on October 26th, 2024, at University of South Carolina.

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

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 and the use of metaphor in Scripture. 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: Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Fideism, Fragmentation, John Paul II, Nihilism, Reason, Scientism, Spiritual Life, Truth, University

The Moral Life | Prof. Michael Krom Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

Professor Michael Krom discusses Aquinas's approach to the moral life, emphasizing the pursuit of the good and the integration of faith, hope, and charity, while also addressing moral relativism and the importance of objective moral principles.

This lecture was given on October 26th, 2024, at University of South Carolina.

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

About the Speaker:

Prof. 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: Augustine, Beauty, Good, Moral Life, Moral Relativism, Natural Law, Objectivity, Prudence, Subjectivity, Truth

Christianity as True Philosophy: The Theology of St. Justin Martyr | Prof. Matthew Thomas Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

Professor Matthew Thomas examines the theology of St. Justin Martyr, arguing that Justin viewed Christianity as the culmination of both Greek philosophy and Jewish scripture, with Christ as the fulfillment of both.

This lecture was given on January 24th, 2024, at University of California, Berkeley.

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

About the Speaker:

Matthew J. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA, and an Instructor in Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. He holds a D.Phil in New Testament and Patristics from the University of Oxford, and is the author of Paul's 'Works of the Law' in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception (Mohr Siebeck, 2018; IVP, 2020), which received the Jesus Creed "Book of the Year" award for 2018. Matthew and his wife Leeanne live in the Bay Area with their children Camille, Raphael, Michael and Agnes, who are also aspiring theologians.

Keywords: Apologetics, Dialogue With Trypho, Early Church Fathers, First Apology, Greek Philosophy, Judaism, Logos, Platonism, Saint Justin Martyr, Socrates

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected