The Thomistic Institute

Latest Episodes:

The Creator of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence: Natural Law, Inalienable Rights, and a Just Political Order – Prof. Christopher Kaczor Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Christopher Kaczor takes Jefferson’s famous declaration apart piece by piece to ask what it really means to say that all people are created equal, why those words still matter, and how natural law and inalienable rights shape a just political order.

This lecture was given on April 9th, 2026, at Indiana University.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Christopher Kaczor (rhymes with razor) graduated from the Honors Program of Boston College and earned a Ph.D. four years later from the University of Notre Dame. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Kaczor is a former Federal Chancellor Fellow at the University of Cologne and William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University and Honorary Professor in Bishop Barron's Word on Fire Institute. His eighteen books include Is Belief Believable? The Gospel of Happiness, The Seven Big Myths about Marriage, A Defense of Dignity, The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church, The Ethics of Abortion, O Rare Ralph McInerny: Stories and Reflections on a Legendary Notre Dame Professor, Thomas Aquinas on the Cardinal Virtues; Life Issues-Medical Choices; Thomas Aquinas on Faith, Hope, and Love; The Edge of Life, and Proportionalism and the Natural Law Tradition. Dr. Kaczor’s views have been in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, National Review, NPR, BBC, EWTN, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, MSNBC, TEDx, and The Today Show.

Keywords: Declaration Of Independence, Inalienable Rights, Jefferson, Justice, Natural Law, Political Order, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, United States

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Rights, Liberties, and the Nature of Medicine – Prof. Christopher Tollefsen Jun 19, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Christopher Tollefsen argues that medicine is fundamentally ordered to health, not preference satisfaction, and he shows why that matters for abortion, euthanasia, physician authority, and conscience.

This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at University of Scranton.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Christopher Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He has published over 100 articles in journals and edited collections, and a similar number of popular essays in venues such as Public Discourse, First Things, and National Review. He is the author of Lying and Christian Ethics and the forthcoming Killing and Christian Ethics, and is co-author of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (with Dr. Farr Curlin) and Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (with Robert P. George). In 2019-20, he served as a Commissioner on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights. He has twice been a Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, and in 2024-25 was a Visiting Fellow at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

Keywords: Abortion, Conscience, Ethics, Euthanasia, Health, Medicine, Physician Authority, Patient Authority, Rights, Services

Aquinas' Philosophy of the Angels – Prof. Gregory Doolan Jun 18, 2026

Show notes

Prof. Gregory Doolan explains how Aquinas uses philosophy to show that angels are real immaterial beings—pure forms with intellect and will—whose place in creation can even be understood in relation to the famous “head of a pin” question.

This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at Harvard University.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Gregory T. Doolan is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America (CUA). His research interest is in the area of Aquinas’s metaphysics, in particular themes concerning Aquinas’s natural theology as well as those concerning the intersection between his semantic theory and his account of metaphysics.

Prof. Doolan received his B.A. in political theory from Georgetown University in 1993 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from CUA 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 CUA in 2005. A native of Philadelphia, Prof. Doolan currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, three children, two cats, dog, and a bearded dragon.

Keywords: Aquinas, Angels, Hylomorphism, Immateriality, Intellect, Metaphysics, Separate Substances, Spiritual Beings, Universal Hylomorphism, Virtual Presence

Private Property and the Universal Destination of Goods: How a Right to Private Possessions Serves the Common Good – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. explores how the Catholic tradition understands ownership as a moral relation that binds persons together rather than isolating them, and why that matters for families, society, and human flourishing.

This lecture was given on February 4th, 2026, at Stanford University.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Fr. Brad Elliott was raised in Dayton Ohio and studied Jazz percussion at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. After being raised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran he entered the Catholic Church in 2002.

After moving to California, Fr. Brad became an active, performing musician, with a reputation as a highly sought after drummer on the international scene. Working in Los Angeles, CA, he performed and recorded various styles of modern music from Rock to jazz and big band. During his time in Los Angeles he performed and toured extensively with artists such as Annie Stela and Brie Larson.

After ten years as a professional drum set player and feeling a call to commit himself entirely to Jesus Christ, Fr. Brad chose to leave the music industry and become a Dominican friar within Western Dominican Province. After completing theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ on June, 22nd 2018 at St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco, CA.

In 2014 Fr. Brad received an MA in philosophy from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley CA. In 2021 he received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. In 2025 he completed a Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC focusing on the role of human craft and participatory governance in the social doctrine of the Church. He is currently a professor of Moral Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. He authored the book The Shape of the Artistic Mind published by Pontifex University Press in 2023.

Keywords: Common Good, Law, Private Property, Political Friendship, Rule of Law, Rational Dominion, Relative Dominion, Social Trust, Universal Destination of Goods, Virtue

Thomistic Sacramental Theology – Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Thomas Joseph White brings Aquinas and Flannery O’Connor into conversation to ask what sacraments do, how grace reaches us through visible signs, and why O’Connor’s fiction can reveal that same divine work even in the lives of people without sacraments.

This lecture was given on February 6th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Fr. Thomas Joseph White is the Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. Originally a native of southeastern Georgia in the US, Fr. White studied at Brown University, where he converted to Catholicism. He did his doctoral studies in theology at Oxford University, and is the author of various books and articles including Wisdom in the Face of Modernity, A Thomistic Study in Natural Theology (Sapientia Press, 2016), The Incarnate Lord, A Thomistic Study in Christology (The Catholic University of America Press, 2015), The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God (Catholic University of America Press, 2022), Principles of Catholic Theology Book III: On God, Trinity, Creation, and Christ (Catholic University of America Press, 2024) and Contemplation and the Cross (The Catholic University of America Press, 2025). With Matthew Levering he is the co-editor of the academic journal Nova et Vetera. In 2011 he was appointed an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and in 2019 was named a Distinguished Scholar of the McDonald Agape Foundation. He held the 2018-2019 McInnes Chair for theological inquiry at the Angelicum. In 2022, he was granted an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of America, and in 2023 he was elected President of the Academy of Catholic Theology. In 2023, Fr. White was also awarded the title Master of Sacred Theology, one of the highest academic awards in the Dominican Order.

Keywords: Eucharist, Flannery O’Connor, Grace, Revelation, Sacraments, Sacramental Theology, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism

Pope Leo XIII and Communism – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. Jun 15, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Brad Elliott shows how Leo’s Rerum Novarum responds to Marx and Engels by grounding property rights in the father’s duty to provide, the family’s priority over the state, and the Church’s vision of human flourishing.

This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching, Communism, Family, Marx, Engels, Pope Leo XIII, Private Property, Property Rights, Rerum Novarum, Social Justice

Nagasaki Prays, Hiroshima Rages: God's Providence and Narratives of Suffering – Prof. James Nolan Jun 12, 2026

Show notes

Prof. James Nolan argues that Nagasaki’s prayerful response to the atomic bomb can only be understood through the city’s long Christian history, especially the witness of the hidden Christians and Takashi Nagai.

This lecture was given on January 29th, 2026, at Florida State University.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Professor James L. Nolan, Jr. is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College, where he has been teaching since 1996. Professor Nolan’s teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law and society, culture, technology and social change, and historical comparative sociology. His most recent book, Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, was published with Harvard University Press in 2020. His previous books include What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G.K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb (2016); Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement (2009); Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement (2001); and The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century’s End (1998). He is the recipient of several grants and awards including National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and a Fulbright scholarship. He has held visiting fellowships at Oxford University, Loughborough University, the University of Notre Dame, Catholic University of America, and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University.

Keywords: Atomic Bomb, Christian History, Forgiveness, Hidden Christians, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Providence, Suffering, Takashi Nagai, Urakami Cathedral

What is Catholic Social Teaching? – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

Fr. Brad Elliott argues that it is really a theological vision of the human person as a social being ordered to God through family, polity, and Church, showing how the common good, friendship, and the distinct missions of these three societies shape both public life and spiritual life.

This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching, Common Good, Church, Family, Friendship, Holiness, Polity, Rerum Novarum, Society, Subsidiarity

Mercy and Justice in Political Life: Augustine, Seneca, and Nussbaum – Prof. Sarah Byers Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at University of Toronto.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speaker:

Sarah Byers is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. Her interests include St. Augustine, Hellenistic philosophy, and the history of ancient and medieval ethics and metaphysics. She is responsible for many publications, including Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine: A Stoic-Platonic Synthesis, a book that argues that Augustine assimilated the Stoic theory of perception into his philosophy.

Keywords: Augustine, Compassion, Justice, Mercy, Martha Nussbaum, Neoplatonism, Political Life, Seneca, Stoicism, Virtue Ethics

The University and the Search for Wisdom in the Middle Ages – Dr. Brian FitzGerald Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

Dr. Brian FitzGerald explores how the first universities emerged from cathedral schools and monastic learning, and why they were built not just to transmit information, but to cultivate wisdom, practical judgment, and a love of learning.

This lecture was given on January 15th, 2026, at Dartmouth College.

To make a gift this June, visit https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod.

About the Speakers:

Brian FitzGerald is Lecturer on Medieval Studies and the Study of Religion at Harvard University. A scholar of medieval history, his research focuses on the intellectual and religious culture of Europe from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. His first book, Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages: Prophets and their Critics from Scholasticism to Humanism (Oxford University Press, 2017) examined how medieval intellectuals in France, England, and Italy sought to understand and resolve competing claims of divine inspiration or prophecy. His other interests include medieval historical consciousness, the history of education, and relations between eastern and western Christianity. Before coming to Harvard, he taught in the Humanities program and served as Academic Dean at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts.

Keywords: Cathedral Schools, Collegiate Principle, Disputation, Liberal Arts, Medieval University, Practical Wisdom, Scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas, University Of Paris, Wisdom

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