Conferences Episodes

Prof. Meraiah Martinez explores the beauty and usefulness of mathematics, emphasizing the delight mathematicians find in elegant proofs, structured abstractions, and the interplay between pure and applied mathematics across v...

Prof. Jonathan Lunine explains how planetary science unifies the search for life beyond Earth by integrating astronomy, geology, chemistry, and atmospheric science to investigate habitable environments on Mars, Europa, Encela...

Prof. Nuno Castel-Branco examines Nicolaus Steno’s innovative use of focused interdisciplinarity during the Scientific Revolution, tracing Steno’s groundbreaking shift from anatomy to geology and theology by integrating mathe...

Fr. Philip-Neri Reese analyzes Aquinas’s method for dividing and relating the sciences, clarifying the distinction between speculative and practical sciences, the role of material and formal causes, and the concept of mixed o...

Prof. Michael Gorman explores Aquinas’s foundational philosophy of the material world, detailing key concepts such as the four causes, hylomorphism, act and potency, matter and form, and the distinction between substantial an...

Sr. Anna Wray, redefines leadership as the practice of initiating genuine collaboration by rational wishing, deliberation, and action, exposing twelve common pitfalls that distort true agency and offering practical guidance f...

Fr. Gregory Pine discusses how involvement with the Thomistic Institute can help college students integrate faith, virtue, and personal vocation by fostering self-possession, authentic freedom, and meaningful relationships wi...

Prof. Michael Gorman demonstrates why becoming more philosophical is essential for intellectual autonomy and deeper understanding, emphasizing the importance of fundamental questioning, sustained attention, and personal intel...

Fr. Anselm Ramelow examines how technology shapes and reflects our relationship with God, cautioning against both idolizing technology and seeking salvation through it, while affirming its proper role as an instrument serving...

Prof. Jordan Wales examines how AI-aided decision making and bias in fields like medicine and criminal justice risk reducing human engagement to idolatrous control, urging that technology must serve authentic love and respons...

Fr. Anselm Ramelow explores the tension between predictive artificial intelligence and human freedom, drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas to argue that while AI and social systems can influence and predict behavior to a certain degree, genuine free will and moral responsibility remain grounded in rationa…

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.

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.

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...

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...

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, consciousne...

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.

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.

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy provides an in-depth exploration of charity as the highest theological virtue in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, laying foundational principles for understanding just war, peace, and the ordered structure of the Christian moral life.

Prof. Jordan Wales offers a theological critique of artificial intelligence, examining the limitations of computational and behaviorist definitions of intelligence and emphasizing the need for intentionality, interior experience, and a Christian understanding rooted in Augustine.

Prof. Gyula Klima uses Aquinas’ philosophy of mind to argue that human intelligence, rooted in immaterial universal concept formation, is metaphysically distinct from artificial general intelligence (AGI), though AGI can still serve as a powerful tool for enhancing human understanding and life.

Prof. Lewis Ayres examines how the Nicene Creed functions as a generative and interpretive “cipher” within Christian tradition, tracing its roots to the adaptation of Second Temple Jewish imaginative worlds and the development of early rules of fai...

Fr. Khaled Anatolios argues that the Nicene Council and its doctrine of creation from nothing entail a comprehensive understanding of Christian existence, particularly as illuminated by Athanasius's "On the Incarnation," which configures human life within the dialectic of being and nothingness.

Professor Jennifer Herdt examines the cognitive dimensions and ethical significance of anger, distinguishing human anger, linked to justice and reason, from animal anger, within an Aristotelian-Thomistic framework.