The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on July 21st, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies. This 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 author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Fr. Jordan Schmidt graduated with a BA in English and Philosophy from St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN in 2002.  He entered the Order of Preachers in 2005 and after completing his theological studies (STL and Mdiv), he was ordained a priest in 2012. Fr. Jordan initially served as associate pastor of St Mary’s parish in New Haven, CT,  and subsequently returned to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC to pursue doctoral studies at CUA, ultimately earning his PhD in biblical studies in 2018.  He is currently an assistant professor of Sacred Script

This lecture was given on July 20th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies. This 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 author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Catherine Peters is a tenured associate professor at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, California). She specializes in medieval philosophy, with a particular focus on the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Avicenna. She earned her doctorate from the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas (Houston, Texas) under the supervision of Jon McGinnis in 2019. Peters' research centers on the intersections of natural philosophy, metaphysics, and natural theology.An overarching theme in her work is the consideration of how medieval thought might inform and advance ou

This lecture was given on June 13th, 2024, at The Catholic University of America.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speakers: 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.

This lecture was given on June 11th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speakers: ​Gregory M. Reichberg is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He is a philosopher specializing in military ethics and is currently engaged in a multi-year project on the use of artificial intelligence in armed conflict. He also writes on linkages between religion, peace, and conflict. For the last eight years he has led the Research School on Peace and Conflict, an academic consortium for doctoral students. From 2009-12 he was director of the PRIO Cyprus Centre in Nicosia, where he coordinated research and dialogue activities on the search for a political settlement to the island's division. Over the last fifteen years he has been engaged in religious dialogue on social/political issues in Iraq and other settings. Reichberg is a consultor to the Dicastery for Integral Human Development (appointed b

This lecture was given on July 10th, 2024, at Stonyhurst College.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker:George Corbett is Professor of Theology, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Prior to joining the School of Divinity in 2015, he held positions as Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy, Trinity College, and Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge, where he taught English literature, Italian literature, and theology. He received his BA (double first), MPhil (distinction), and PhD (AHRC-funded) from the University of Cambridge. He also studied in Pisa (as an Erasmus-Socrates exchange scholar at La Scuola Normale Superiore), Rome (Institutum Pontificium Alterioris Latinitatis), and Montella (Vivarium Novum).Prof. Corbett directs CEPHAS (a Thomistic Centre for Philosophy and Scholastic Theology), TheoArtistry (a project linking up theologians and artists), and co-directs the collaborative MLitt in Sacred Music.

This lecture was given on July 11th, 2024, at Stonyhurst College.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Sister Catherine Joseph Droste, O.P. is a Professor Straordinaria of theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), where she has also served as Vice Dean, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, and Director of Collaboration. Her areas of research include virtues and the moral life, the ecclesiology of religious life, and the theology of St. Catherine of Siena. She is a native of Iowa and a member of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, Nashville, Tennessee. Her studies include an MA (history – Middle Tennessee State University), M.Ed (Administration – Marymount University), STB, STL, STD (Angelicum).

This lecture was given on July 10th, 2024, at Stonyhurst College.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: George Corbett is Professor of Theology, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Prior to joining the School of Divinity in 2015, he held positions as Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy, Trinity College, and Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge, where he taught English literature, Italian literature, and theology. He received his BA (double first), MPhil (distinction), and PhD (AHRC-funded) from the University of Cambridge. He also studied in Pisa (as an Erasmus-Socrates exchange scholar at La Scuola Normale Superiore), Rome (Institutum Pontificium Alterioris Latinitatis), and Montella (Vivarium Novum). Prof. Corbett directs CEPHAS (a Thomistic Centre for Philosophy and Scholastic Theology), TheoArtistry (a project linking up theologians and artists), and co-directs the collaborative MLitt in Sacred Music.

This lecture was given on December 9th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Joshua Benson specializes in Medieval Theology. He has taught at The Catholic University of America since 2008 and served as Chair of the Department of Theology and Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure University from 2018-2020.

Are you becoming a moral zombie? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P. about artificial intelligence, why ChatGPT is damaging personal relationships in the classroom, how AI could be destroying virtue, and the eschatological implications of artificial intelligence.You can watch this interview on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg8a_6nJzVA.About the speaker: Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P., a native of Germany, teaches philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, where he is also currently the chair of the philosophy department. He is also a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and the Academy of Catholic Theology. He obtained his doctorate under Robert Spaemann in Munich on Leibniz and the Spanish Jesuits (Gott, Freiheit, Weltenwahl, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997) and did theological work on George Lindbeck and the que

This lecture was given on July 19th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies. This 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 author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Prof. Vicenzo Tamma is founding Director of the Quantum Science and Technology Hub (QSTH). He Received his Masters degree in physics from University of Bari in 2006. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Bari and in Applied Physics from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2010 under the International Cooperation Program Award awarded by the Italian Ministry of Research. His research was recognized with the “Giampietro Puppi Award” for the best Ph.D. thesis in Physics and Astrophysics in Italy in the academic years 2007-2009. After a one-year postdoctor

This lecture was given on June 28th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee. She has been active in her religious community’s teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and assists with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation, serving as Associate Professor of Theology at Aquinas College. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L’Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, her favorite projects have been serving as editor-in-chief of her Congregation’s book, Praying as a Family, directing a television series of the same title with EWTN, co-directing the documentary Undivided Heart, and ser

This lecture was given on June 29th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speakers: Fr. Ambrose Little is the assistant director of the Thomistic Institute.  He is originally from Connecticut and entered the Dominican Order in 2007 and was ordained a priest in 2013. Before entering the Dominican Order, he graduated from The Catholic University of America with a BA in philosophy. After ordination, he completed a Licentiate in Philosophy at The Catholic University of America and then taught for two years at Providence College. After completing his Ph.D. in philosophy in the summer of 2021, he started teaching at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. He specializes in the philosophies of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, with an emphasis on their study of nature and the soul. He also studies topics at the intersection between philosophy and science.Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Pro

This lecture was given on February 15th, 2024, at The University of Tulsa.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Jennifer Frey is the inaugural Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tulsa. Prior to joining Tulsa, Frey previously was an associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. She also has been a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology and she has co-edited three volumes on Self-Transcendence and Virtue, Practical Wisdom, and Practical Truth. Her writing has been featured in Breaking Ground, Evangelization and Culture, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today.

This lecture was given on February 3rd, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Michael Root is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Earlier in life, he was a Lutheran, teaching at various Lutheran seminaries and serving ten years as a Research Professor at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France. He was received into the Catholic Church in 2010. His particular theological interests lie in grace and justification, eschatology (death, heaven, hell, etc.), and Protestant-Catholic relations.

This lecture was given on February 29h, 2024, at University of North TexasFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Dr. R. Jared Staudt servers as Director of Content for Exodus 90 and an instructor for St. John Vianney Seminary. He earned his BA and MA in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and his PhD in systematic theology from Ave Maria University, writing his dissertation on the virtue of religion in St. Thomas Aquinas's thought. He has taught at the Augustine Institute and the University of Mary and has authored and edited many books including How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization and The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture Yesterday & Today. Dr. Staudt has worked in various capacities in Catholic education, as a catechist, professor, administrator, associate superintendent, and founder of schools. As a Benedictine oblate, he works to foster the renewal of Catholic culture by helping Catholics to live out their fa

This lecture was given on April 12th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Fr. John Mark Solitario is a coordinator for campus outreach at the Thomistic Institute. He met the nuns and friars of the Order of Preachers at the Dominican Monastery of the Mother of God in his hometown of West Springfield, MA. Their lives of Christian totality, marked by sacrifice, prayer, and preaching but above all, a supernatural goodness and joy, made a huge impact on him. After studying the liberal arts and philosophy at Christendom College and teaching high school theology as a member of Providence College’s PACT program, Father entered the Dominican novitiate in Cincinnati, OH, and went on for theological studies at the Dominican House of Studies. Following the solemn profession of religious vows, he was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ in 2019. Focusing on the Universal Call to Holiness in the theology of the Sp

This lecture was given on April 13th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout 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.

This lecture was given on April 8th, 2024, at University of Rochester.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Candace Vogler is the David B. and Clare E. Stern Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her primary area of research is moral philosophy, with special emphasis on virtue and practical reason. She draws extensively from work by G. E. M. ('Elizabeth') Anscombe, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant, and sometimes she teaches work by John Stuart Mill.  She also works on psychoanalysis (primarily Freudian work and the work of Jacques Lacan), and at the intersections of philosophy and literature and philosophy and film.  Vogler is interested in questions about the highest good, about sin, and about moral self-improvement.  

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Brad Gregory about intellectual genealogy, what virtues are needed for historians, the unintended consequences of the Reformation, and the theological implications of history.You can watch this interview on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/NWOCOBsDw_UAbout the speaker:Brad S. Gregory is Henkels Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2003. From 1996-2003 he taught and received early tenure at Stanford University; prior to that he was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton as well as two degrees in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. His first book, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Harvard, 1999) received six book awards, and he has won teaching awards at both Stanford and Notre Dame. In 2005, he was named the inaugural winner of the

This lecture was given on June 29th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Sister Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia of Nashville, TN.  Sister received her phD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, having written her dissertation on Aristotle’s account of the activity of contemplation.  Sister is an assistant professor on the faculty of CUA's School of Philosophy in Washington, DC, where she regularly teaches courses in the history of philosophy, logic, rhetoric, ethics, philosophy of religion, and philosophical psychology.  She is also an adjunct professor for Aquinas College, where she teaches metaphysics and epistemology to her sisters in formation.  When time permits, sister enjoys the occasional trip that allows her to speak to (and with) others who share her loves.