The Thomistic Institute

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Aquinas on Participation and Divine Simplicity | Prof. Gregory Doolan Aug 05, 2024

Show notes

Professor Gregory Doolan discusses how Aquinas reconciles his understanding of participation with divine simplicity. He discusses the meaning of participation, its types, and how God can be present in all things while remaining transcendent.

This lecture was given on May 31, 2024, at Mount Saint Mary College.

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

About the Speaker:

Gregory T. Doolan received his B.A. in political theory from Georgetown University in 1993 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 2003. He taught philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. from 2004–05 and joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in 2005. Dr. Doolan’s research interest is in the area of Aquinas’s metaphysics; in recent years, his focus has been on Aquinas’s semantic theory and his account of the Aristotelian categories of being. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Doolan currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.

Aquinas on the Question: 'Whether God Exists?' | Prof. Gregory Doolan Aug 02, 2024

Show notes

Aquinas contends that although we cannot know God's essence, we can meaningfully ask and answer the question of His existence. Professor Doolan employs Aristotelian scientific methodology to reason from observable effects to a first cause, which he identifies as God.

This lecture was given on April 5th, 2024, at New York University.

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

About the Speaker:

Revisiting Aquinas' Five Ways w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., Prof. Robert Koons, & Prof. Daniel Bonevac Aug 01, 2024

Show notes

Are Aquinas' Five Ways for proving the existence of God still relevant today? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Robert Koona & Prof. Daniel Bonevac about new insights that contemporary scholars glean from these arguments after 750 years.

You can watch this interview on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzPv-zo7R68.

About the speakers:

Robert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, M. A. Oxford, Ph.D. UCLA. He is the author or co-author of five books, including The Atlas of Reality with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017) and Is Thomas’s Aristotelian Philosophy of Nature Obsolete? (St. Augustine Press, 2022). He is the co-editor of four anthologies, including The Waning of Materialism (OUP, 2010) and Classical Theism (Routledge 2023). He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, on defending and articulating hylomorphism in contemporary terms, and on interpreting and defending Thomas's Five Ways.

Prof. Daniel Bonevac is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He works mainly in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, semantics, and philosophical logic. His book Reduction in the Abstract Sciences received the Johnsonian Prize from The Journal of Philosophy. The author of five books and editor or co-editor of four others, Professor Bonevac's articles include “Against Conditional Obligation” (Noûs), "Sellars v. the Given" (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research), "Reflection Without Equilibrium," (Journal of Philosophy), "Free Choice Permission Is Strong Permission" (Synthese, with Nicholas Asher), "The Conditional Fallacy," (Philosophical Review, with Josh Dever and David Sosa), “The Counterexample Fallacy” (Mind, also with Dever and Sosa), and “The Argument from Miracles” and “Two Theories of Analogical Predication” (Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Religion). He was Chairman of the Department of Philosophy from 1991 to 2001.

Is it Rational to Believe in God? | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on March 13th, 2024, at University of Washington.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies) is from Pennsylvania and graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville. He previously served as the Assistant Director of Campus Outreach for the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC, and associate pastor of St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church in Louisville, KY where he also taught at Bellarmine University. He currently serves as an adjunct professor of dogmatic theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He is a contributor on the Pints with Aquinas show and a co-host of the Catholic Classics podcast.

Fr. Gregory is the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly (Our Sunday Visitor, 2022) and co-author with Matt Fradd of Marian Consecration With Aquinas: A Nine Day Path for Growing Closer to the Mother of God (TAN Books, 2020).

Does Truth Change? John Henry Newman’s Theory of Doctrinal Development | Prof. Chad Pecknold Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on March 20th, 2024, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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

About the Speaker:

Dr. Chad C. Pecknold earned his PhD in Systematic Theology at the University of Cambridge in England. He is a Catholic theologian and for the last 16 years he has been a professor of theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC, teaching in the areas of fundamental theology, Christian anthropology and political theology. Since 2022, he has been named by The Catholic Herald as one of the most influential Catholic thought leaders and authors in the United States.

An internationally recognized scholar of Augustine’s theological and political thought, Pecknold has authored or edited five books — including Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History and The T&T Clark Companion to Augustine and Modern Theology —and authored dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles. He edits the Sacra Doctrina series for CUA Press with Fr. Thomas Joseph White O.P. He has served the public by educating thousands of students at the Institute of Catholic Culture, and also through his many columns at First Things, National Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and The Catholic Herald. He has been an invited guest on NPR's "All Things Considered," Fox News, ABC News, and has been a frequent guest on EWTN News Nightly, World Over Live with Raymond Arroyo, and various other EWTN programs, such as the celebrated series on Heresies.

Pecknold has also led institutions, serving as Chair of the American Academy of Catholic Theology from 2015-2020, expanding and professionalizing a guild of theologians faithful to the Magisterium. He also serves in non-profit board leadership as Board Director for Americans United for Life, Board Member for Pro-Life Partners, Board Member for the Classical Learning Test, Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology, and as Resident Theologian at the Institute for Faith and Public Culture at the Basilica of Saint Mary — the oldest Catholic Church in the Commonwealth of Virginia. While currently finishing a short book on the Catholic understanding of Augustine’s Confessions, Pecknold continues to work on a long term project on Augustine’s City of God and the Christian order of things.

He and his wife Dr Sara Pecknold (who teaches Music History at Christendom College) have five children, including adorably identical twin toddler girls whose names they frequently confuse!

Extraterrestrial Life and Catholic Theology | Prof. Chris Baglow Jul 29, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on February 8th, 2024, at Catholic University of America.

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

About the Speaker:

Dr. Baglow is Professor of the Practice of Theology and the Director of the Science and Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. His work is the culmination of 19 years of faith and science scholarship and educational program creation, as well as a lengthy career in Catholic theological education spanning high-school, undergraduate, graduate and seminary teaching. For this work, he was co-recipient of an Expanded Reason Award in Teaching from the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid) and the Vatican Joseph Ratzinger Foundation (Rome).

Baglow is the author of Faith, Science and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge (2nd edition, Midwest Theological Forum, 2019) and Creation: A Catholic’s Guide to God and the Universe (Ave Maria Press, 2021). He serves as theological advisor to the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists and as a contributor to the JTF-funded science and religion programming of the Word on Fire Institute. Most recently, he authored the transcripts for Wonder: The Harmony of Faith and Science, a Word on Fire film series directed by Manny Marquez and narrated by Jonathan Roumie. His work has appeared in That Man is You, Crux, Church Life Journal, Culture and Evangelization, and Joie de Vivre Quarterly Journal.

The Science and Ethics of CRISPR and CRISPR-Inspired Gene Editing | Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. Jul 26, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on November 12th, 2023, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, received his PhD in Biology from MIT and his S.Th.D. in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He currently serves as Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Sacred Theology at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He returns to the USA several times during the year when he is available to give lectures for the Thomistic Institute (TI). Fr. Austriaco moved his laboratory to the Philippines in 2022 to help his homeland prepare for the next pandemic. In biology, his research team is developing an inexpensive, oral vaccine delivery system using probiotic yeasts and bacteria. In ethics, Fr. Austriaco writes on a diverse range of topics in bioethics. He is also interested in the faith and science dialogue and has written and spoken extensively on the engagement of evolutionary thought with the Catholic faith.

Overcoming the Science and Religion Divide | Prof. Karin Öberg Jul 25, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on November 2nd, 2023, at University of California, Santa Barbara.

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

About the Speaker:

Karin Öberg is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. Her specialty is astrochemistry and her research aims to uncover how chemical processes affect the outcome of planet formation, especially the chemical habitability of nascent planets. She did postdoctoral work at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a NASA Hubble fellow, focusing on millimeter observations of planet-forming disks around young stars.

ChatGPT and the Foolishness of Speech | Prof. Jane Sloan Peters Jul 24, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on May 16th, 2024, at University of Oregon.

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

About the Speaker:

Jane Sloan Peters is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY. Her dissertation explored Thomas Aquinas's reception of Greek patristic and Byzantine biblical interpretation for his four-volume commentary on the Gospels, the Catena Aurea. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Thomistic Perspective | Fr. Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P. Jul 23, 2024

Show notes

This lecture was given on February 2nd, 2024, at Brown University.

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

About the Speaker:

Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P., is a Polish Dominican and theologian. He holds Ph.D. in philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and Church Licentiate from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. After his studies at the GTU and a fellowship at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies he returned to Poland. For three years he worked as a researcher at the Thomistic Institute in Warsaw (Poland), a lecturer at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Krakow, and a director of Studium Dominicanum in Warsaw. He then moved to Rome where he became a professor of theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He is also a researcher at the Thomistic Institute at the same University.

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