The Thomistic Institute

Merry Christmas from the Thomistic Institute! This week, we are reposting some of our favorite talks related to Christmas and the Incarnation of our Lord. Fr. Hofer's handout can be found here: tinyurl.com/ycc663wz This lecture was given on December 18, 2021, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., during "Of the Father’s Love Begotten: An Intellectual Retreat on the Incarnation" for the Thomistic Institute’s Texas-area campus chapters. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Father Andrew Hofer, O.P., grew up as the youngest of ten children on a Kansas farm. He entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 1995 and professed simple vows the following year. He made his profession of solemn vows in the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, and was ordained a deacon in 2001 and a priest in 2002. His assignments have included serving as a parochial vicar in Rhode Island, a missionary in Kenya, a doctoral student at the Univer

This talk was given on October 13, 2022, at the University of Edinburgh. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomsiticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophica

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Jonathan Lunine about his latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Catholicism and Evolution from an Astronomical Perspective.” Catholicism and Evolution w/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/evolution-and-catholicism-from-an-astronomical-perspective-prof-jonathan-lunine For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission cu

Prof. Lunine's slides can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/4fce6w7w This lecture was given on October 6, 2022, at the University of Rochester. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology:

This lecture was given on October 4th, 2022, at the University of North Carolina. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Fr. Albert Trudel, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies) specializes in the intersection between theology and literature in the Middle Ages, and has lately commented on Dante's Purgatorio and the Middle English Pearl for various Thomistic Institute projects. He completed his Master's degree in English Literature at the University of Toronto, his doctoral work in English Literature at the University of Oxford, and he received a postdoctoral License in Mediaeval Studies at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor of Latin and Pastoral Studies at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He is also the Rome Director for the Thomistic Institute's semester abroad program.

This talk was given on October 19th, 2022, at Saint Rita Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Reginald Lynch, O.P. is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology and Historical Theology at the Dominican House of Studies. Born in New Hampshire, Fr. Lynch entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2007, and was ordained a priest in 2013. After ordination, he served at St. Patrick Parish in Columbus, Ohio and taught at the Pontifical College Josephinum, before going on to complete a PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with a major concentration in medieval theology and minor concentrations in patristics and philosophical theology. He has written on a variety of topics in sacramental, systematic and historical theology in journals like The Thomist and Nova et Vetera. His book, The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Washin

This lecture was given on November 3, 2022, at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Brad S. Gregory is Professor of History and Dorothy G. Griffin Collegiate Chair at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2003, and where he is also the Director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. From 1996-2003 he taught at Stanford University, where he received early tenure in 2001. He specializes in the history of Christianity in Europe during the Reformation era and on the long-term influence of the Reformation era on the modern world. He has given invited lectures at many of the most prestigious universities in North America, as well as in England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Israel, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. Before teaching at Stanford, he earned his Ph.D. in history at Princeton Unive

Prof. Dempsey's handout can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/yk87tf7e This talk was given on October 6, 2022, at the University of Florida. For more information, please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Erik Dempsey (PhD, Boston College) is the Assistant Director of University of Texas at Austin's Thomas Jefferson for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He completed his doctorate at Boston College in June 2007. He is interested in understanding human virtue, and the proper place of politics in a well-lived human life, the different ways in which human virtue is understood in different political situations, and the ways in which human virtue may transcend any political situation. His dissertation looks at Aristotle's treatment of prudence in the Nicomachean Ethics, and Aristotle's suggestion that virtue should be understood as an end in itself. He is adding a discussion of Thomas's discussion on Aristotle in order to prepare the dissertation as a book. He teaches many classes for the Thomas

This lecture was given on October 15, 2022 as part of the Fall Thomistic Circles conference, "Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy, and Theology on the Origin and Persistence of Life on Earth(and Beyond?)." The two-day conference at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. featured a stellar, cross-disciplinary lineup of speakers: scientists Jonathan Lunine (Cornell University) and Maureen Condic (University of Utah), philosopher Christopher Frey (University of South Carolina), and theologian Fr. Mauriusz Tabaczek, O.P. (Angelicum). This conference is part of the Thomistic Institute’s Scientia Project. For more information on upcoming events, visit thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Fr. Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P. is a Polish Dominican and theologian. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and a Church Licentiate from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. After his studies at the GTU and a fellowship at the No

Are there medieval answers to modern questions of Trinitarian theology? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Bruce Marshall about his latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Medieval Answers to Modern Questions: Renewing Trinitarian Theology Today.” Renewing Trinitarian Theology w/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/medieval-answers-to-modern-questions-renewing-trinitarian-theology-today-prof-bruce-marshall For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Bruce D. Marshall is the Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University. He holds a masters from Yale Divinity School and a doctorate from Yale University. His teaching interests include medieval and reformation theology and systematic theology. His research interests include doctrine of t

The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4jsmdu2j. This lecture was given on October 19, 2022, at Oxford University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Bruce D. Marshall is the Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University. He holds a masters from Yale Divinity School and a doctorate from Yale University. His teaching interests include medieval and reformation theology and systematic theology. His research interests include doctrine of the Trinity, christology, philosophical issues in theology, sacramental theology, and Judaism and Christian theology. 559080

This lecture was given on October 14, 2022, as part of the Thomistic Circles conference entitled, "Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy, and Theology on the Origin and Persistence of Life on Earth(and Beyond?)." The two-day conference at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. featured a stellar, cross-disciplinary lineup of speakers: scientists Jonathan Lunine (Cornell University) and Maureen Condic (University of Utah), philosopher Christopher Frey (University of South Carolina), and theologian Fr. Mauriusz Tabaczek, O.P. (Angelicum). This conference is part of the Thomistic Institute’s Scientia Project. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Christopher Frey is an associate professor in the department of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. Prof. Frey works primarily in Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle’s natural philosophy and metaphysics. He is writing a book entitled The Princip

This lecture was given on October 10, 2022, at Trinity University(San Antonio). For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: www.thomisticinstitute.org About the Speaker: Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, O.P. is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. She is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston where she also teaches at St. Mary's Seminary. Her main area of research is medieval sacramental theology with a focus on Albert the Great and Aquinas. She has published a translation of Albert the Great's work On the Body of the Lord, in the CUA Fathers of the Church Medieval Continuation series as well as a translation of Aquinas's Commentary on the Psalms for the Aquinas Institute. She has published articles in various journals including Logos, Antiphon, Nova et Vetera and Franciscan Studies.

Prof. Lunine's slides may be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/22vs3mdv This lecture was given on October 14, 2022, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the Thomistic Circles conference entitled, "Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy, and Theology on the Origin and Persistence of Life on Earth (and Beyond?)." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geop

The lecture was given on October 12, 2022 at Harvard University. For more information on upcoming events, visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Sr. Mary Madeline Todd is a Dominican Sister of Saint Cecilia Congregation in Nashville. She earned her doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. She teaches, writes, and speaks on spiritual and moral theology and philosophy, especially on the dignity of the human person in Christ.

This talk was given on October 13, 2022 at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jordan Wales is an Associate Professor and the John and Helen Kuczmarski Chair in Theology at Hillsdale College. His scholarship focuses on early Christian understandings of seeing God as well as contemporary theological and philosophical questions relating to Artificial Intelligence. He is published in Augustinian Studies and AI & Society, among other journals; he is an advisor to the Holy See’s new Center for Digital Culture, under the Pontifical Council for Culture; and he is an affiliated scholar with the Centre for Humanity and the Common Good at Regent College, University of British Columbia. He received his M.T.S. and Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame after studying under a British Marshall Scholarship in the U.K., where he received a Diploma in Theology from Oxford and a M.Sc. in Cognitive Science and Natural Language from t

This lecture was given at Harvard University on October 3, 2022. For more information on upcoming events, visit thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Matthew Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His dissertation, "A Thomistic Account of the Habituation of the Passions," explored the ways in which people can develop virtuous affective inclinations. Dr. Dugandzic's scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas' anthropology, psychology, and ethics. His work on Christ's passions recently appeared in the European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas and his other writings on the passions and on bioethics have appeared in New Blackfriars and National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. His current research focuses on the sources that Aquinas used in developing his understanding of virtue and on recovering ancient and medieval wisdom regarding ec

This talk was given on October 4, 2022 at Georgetown University. For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

This talk was given at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the intellectual retreat, "Grace," offered for students and young professionals in the Washington, D.C. area, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2022. For more information on upcoming events, visit us online: thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Father Andrew Hofer, O.P., grew up as the youngest of ten children on a Kansas farm. He entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 1995 and professed simple vows the following year. He made his profession of solemn vows in the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, and was ordained a deacon in 2001 and a priest in 2002. His assignments have included serving as a parochial vicar in Rhode Island, a missionary in Kenya, a doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame, a formator at the Dominican House of Studies, and a member of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. He is finishing a book titled The Word in Our Flesh: A Return to Patristic Preaching, whose research the Calvin Institu

Does God exist? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Matthew Dugandzic about his latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Does God Exist.” Does God Exist? w/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/does-god-exist-prof-matthew-dugandzic For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: Matthew Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His dissertation, "A Thomistic Account of the Habituation of the Passions," explored the ways in which people can develop virtuous affective inclinations. Dr. Dugandzic's scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas' anthropology, psychology, and ethics. His work on Christ's pass