The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Jordan Wales explores the ethical and spiritual implications of interpersonal relationships with artificial intelligence, emphasizing the dangers of mistaking AI’s simulated personhood for authentic human connection.This lecture was given on June 11th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Jordan Wales is Associate Professor and John and Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College, where he teaches historical theology. His scholarship—appearing in journals such as Augustinian Studies, the Journal of Moral Theology, and AI & Society—focuses on early Christianity as well as theology and Artificial Intelligence. Holding degrees in Engineering (B.S.), Cognitive Scie

Fr. Anselm Ramelow examines the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence, highlighting both its beneficial uses and its risks to human dignity, personal relationships, moral growth, and authenticity.This lecture was given on June 10th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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 question of a Thomist philosophy and theology of language (Beyond Modernism? - George Lindbe

Prof. Jordan Wales explores how artificial intelligence and neural networks engage with meaning and knowledge, contrasting their statistical methods with the depth of human conceptual understanding rooted in philosophical and theological traditions.This lecture was given on June 10th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Jordan Wales is Associate Professor and John and Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College, where he teaches historical theology. His scholarship—appearing in journals such as Augustinian Studies, the Journal of Moral Theology, and AI & Society—focuses on early Christianity as well as theology and Artificial Intelligence. Holding degrees in Engineering (B.S.), Cognitive Science (M.Sc.), and Theology (Dip.Theol., M.T.S., Ph.D.), he is a member of the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture, under the Dicastery of Culture and Education at the Holy See; a

Fr. Anselm Ramelow examines whether machines can possess consciousness or personhood, arguing from philosophical and theological perspectives that artificial intelligence lacks the essential qualities of subjective experience, intentionality, and rational unity found in living beings.This lecture was given on June 9th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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 T

Prof. Jordan Wales critically examines the relationship between artificial intelligence and human personhood through the lens of Christian theology, exploring how AI challenges traditional notions of intelligence, consciousness, and relationality.This lecture was given on June 9th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Jordan Wales is Associate Professor and John and Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College, where he teaches historical theology. His scholarship—appearing in journals such as Augustinian Studies, the Journal of Moral Theology, and AI & Society—focuses on early Christianity as well as theology and Artificial Intelligence. Holding degrees in Engineering (B.S.), Cognitive Science (M.Sc.), and Theology (Dip.Theol., M.T.S., Ph.D.), he is a member of the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture, under the Dicastery of Culture and Education at the Holy See; a fel

Dr. Paul LaPenna delves into the neuroscience of vice and virtue, explaining how neuroplasticity, habit formation, and philosophical insights from figures like Aquinas inform our understanding of humility, magnanimity, pride, and vainglory in the development of moral character.This lecture was given on May 2nd, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in New York City.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Dr. Paul LaPenna is a neurologist based in Greenville, South Carolina, specializing in the care of patients with neurological emergencies. He is also an award-winning professor at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he teaches neuroscience and has been recognized as the Professor of the Neuroscience Block from 2019 to 2025. Dr. LaPenna’s professional and academic work is deeply informed by the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, particularly regarding the integration of faith and reason, science and religion, and the Thomistic underst

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores the origins of the Christian just war tradition through Augustine’s anti-Manichean writings, examining the theological debates around violence, authority, and moral law within early Christianity.This lecture was given on June 11th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About 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 inc

Prof. Michael Krom analyzes the ethics of drone warfare through the lens of Aquinas’s just war tradition and virtue ethics, addressing moral principles of discrimination, proportionality, and the indispensability of human judgment in the use of violent technology.This lecture was given on March 18th, 2025, at Virginia Military Institute.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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, a

Prof. Joseph Capizzi presents the just war account within the Catholic tradition, arguing that the use of force in war can be a moral act of peacemaking grounded in pursuit of the common good, and emphasizing the importance of authority, intention, cause, proportionality, and distinction between guilt and innocence.This lecture was given on April 11th, 2025, at The Ohio State University.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Joseph E. Capizzi is Dean of Theology at the Catholic University of America. He teaches in the areas of social and political theology, with special interests in issues in peace and war, citizenship, political authority, and Augustinian theology. He has written, lectured, and published widely on just

Prof. Michael Krom explores Thomas Aquinas’s view on the relationship between religion and politics, discussing the distinction between obligations to political authority and to God, as reflected in the biblical command to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's."This lecture was given on November 7th, 2024, at University of Florida.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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’

Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel explores the project of literature from the classical to the modern era, highlighting how stories like Anna Karenina shape the moral imagination through themes of virtue, marriage, culture, and the perennial question of what it means to be human.This lecture was given on March 11th, 2025, at Trinity College Dublin.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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 Aq

Prof. Lee Oser explores the intertwined lives, faith journeys, and literary legacies of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Inklings, highlighting their countercultural Christian imagination against modernist trends.This lecture was given on November 22nd, 2024, at College of William and Mary.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Lee Oser's scholarly focus is Religion and Literature. His books include Christian Humanism in Shakespeare: A Study in Religion and Literature and The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien and the Romance of History. Also, he is a noted novelist who specializes in satire.  Keywords: Beowulf, Christian Imagination, The Chronicles of Narnia, Inklings, Medievalism, Modernism in Literature, Owen Barfield, Subcreation, The Lord of the Rings, World War I

Fr. Isaac Morales and Prof. Michael Root explore how Thomas Aquinas’ biblical commentaries on Matthew and 1 Corinthians illuminate the beatific vision, resurrection, and the role of Scripture in shaping Christian life through literal and spiritual interpretation.This lecture was given on June 28th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Fr. Isaac Morales, O.P. is associate professor of theology at Providence College. Before joining the Dominican Order, he received an MTS in biblical studies from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in New Testament from Duke University. He is the author of The Bible and Baptism: The Fountain of Salvation (Baker Academic Press) and a forthcoming book

Dr. Rebekah Lamb explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s “detached aesthetics,” revealing how his Christian understanding of spiritual detachment shapes his writing, especially in "The Lord of the Rings," as a means of cultivating hope, wonder, and a rightly ordered love for the world.This lecture was given on January 30th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: Dr. Rebekah Lamb is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in theology and the arts at the University of St Andrews, specializing in religion and literature of late modernity. Her research centres on the ways in which the arts can be distinctive and timely modes of theology in their own right, especially in light of liturgical, spiritual, and existential concerns. Key figures in her work include Joseph Ratzinger, St. John Henry Newman, Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, Christina Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites as well as their inheritors (JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, among othe

Prof. Thomas Ward explores C. S. Lewis’s "The Abolition of Man", analyzing how technology’s conquest of nature risks diminishing humanity unless anchored by objective moral values.This lecture was given on April 8th, 2025, at Indiana University.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: Thomas M. Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin, in the School of Civic Leadership. He specializes in the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages. Ward is the author of After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher (Word on Fire, 2024), Ordered by Love: An Introduction to John Duns Scotus (Angelico, 2022), Divine Ideas (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and has translated, with commenta

Prof. Christopher Malloy defends the Catholic understanding of Mary’s role in salvation history, refuting common objections and demonstrating how her divine maternity, perpetual virginity, and immaculate grace magnify rather than diminish the glory of Christ.This lecture was given on April 6th, 2025, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: Christopher J. Malloy is married to Flory with whom he has seven children. He earned his B.A. in Theology (second major in Philosophy) from the University of Notre Dame in 1992. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology (minor in Philosophy) from The Catholic University of America in 2001. Since then he has taught at The University of Dallas, where he currently serves as Professor and Chair of Theology. He has published three books: Engrafted into Christ: A Critique of the Joint Declaration [on Justification], Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love,

Prof. Christopher Mooney's lecture confronts the philosophical objection that heaven would be unbearably boring due to its infinite duration, arguing instead that Christian eternity is fulfilled in the beatific vision of God, which offers infinite and undiminished joy.This lecture was given on April 23rd, 2025, at Texas A&M University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Dr. Christopher Mooney is an assistant professor of theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he teaches on Catholic theology, scriptural interpretation, and the Church Fathers. His teaching and research specialize in Augustine, the Fathers, and historical theology, and he is the author of Augustine's Theology of Justification by Faith (2026). A native of Connecticut, he studied at Georgetown and Yale Divinity School before receiving his PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He also serves as a theological representative for t

Prof. Bruce Marshall presents a deep Catholic theological exploration of predestination, examining its biblical foundations, historical development, doctrinal boundaries, and the enduring tension between God’s sovereign will, grace, and human freedom.This lecture was given on October 6th, 2024, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University, and in 2023 he held the Aquinas Chair in the Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum in Rome.  He is the author of Trinity and Truth and Christology in Conflict, and at present he is completing a book entitled The Primacy of Christ: Faith, Reason, and the Cross.  Marshall has written extensively on the doctrines of the Trinity, the person and redemptive work of Christ, the Eucharist, the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions, and the relationship between faith and r

Prof. Thomas Pfau offers an in-depth theological and philosophical analysis of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, focusing on Ivan and Alyosha’s contrasting worldviews, the “Rebellion” and “Grand Inquisitor” chapters, and the novel’s profound exploration of freedom, suffering, and divine love.This lecture was given on January 31st, 2025, at University of Texas at Austin.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Thomas Pfau (PhD 1989, SUNY Buffalo) is the Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of English, with a secondary appointment in the Divinity School at Duke University. He has published some fifty essays on literary, philosophical, and theological subjects ranging from the 18th through the early 20th century. In addition to two translations, of Hölderlin and Schelling (SUNY Press, 1987 and 1994), he has also edited seven essay collections and special journal issues and is the author of four monographs: Wordsworth’s Profession (Stanford UP 1997),

Prof. Christopher Kaczor explores the relationship between positive psychology and Catholic theology, uncovering how empirical psychological findings on happiness align with and deepen spiritual practices like gratitude, service, and forgiveness.This lecture was given on February 15th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.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 Catholi