Intellectual Retreats Episodes

May 28, 2025

Capitalizing Christ in Thirteenth-Century Scholasticism | Prof. Boyd …

Prof. Boyd Taylor Coolman examines the thirteenth-century scholastic doctrine of “capital grace,” showing how Alexander of Hales, Hugh of Saint Victor, and the Summa Halensis developed a pneumatologically-centered account of Christ as the head of the Church, which Aquinas later systematized, emphas…

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May 26, 2025

Contemplating Personhood and the Trinity | Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P.

This lecture was given on November 23rd, 2023, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P. was bor...

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May 15, 2025

Friendship is a Difficult Good | Fr. Cassian Derbes, O.P.

Fr. Cassian Derbes explores why friendship is a difficult but essential good, drawing on Aquinas, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, and Dante to show how hope, fortitude, and magnanimity help us overcome sloth and despair in pursuit of true friendship as a common good.

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May 14, 2025

Aquinas on Friendship and Human Excellence | Prof. Thomas Hibbs

Prof. Thomas Hibbs analyzes Aquinas’ account of friendship and human excellence, drawing on Aristotle and Tocqueville to show how friendship is a necessary, intrinsically valuable common good that addresses contemporary crises of loneliness, civic animosity, and the loss of meaningful community.

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May 2, 2025

Aquinas the Wordsmith: The Hymns and Sequence of Corpus Christi | Pro…

Prof. Patrick Callahan analyzes the poetic genius of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the hymns and sequence of Corpus Christi, highlighting Aquinas’ understanding of beauty, proportion, clarity, and sublimity as essential to both art and spiritual contemplation.

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May 1, 2025

Only the Lover Sings: Poetry, Mimesis, and the Christian Life | Prof.…

Prof. Patrick Callahan reveals how poetry, as the most Christ-like form of speech and a reflection of human mimesis, plays a vital role in the Christian life by fostering conformity to Christ and deepening the contemplative experience.

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April 16, 2025

What Can Demons Do? | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Fr. Gregory Pine explores the extent of demonic influence on human life, distinguishing between physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions to clarify the limits of their power, particularly concerning the direct access to one's sp...

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April 14, 2025

Divine Providence as Fulfilled in Christ | Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P.

Fr. Timothy Bellamah explores divine providence as God's vision and causation of all things fulfilled in Christ, explaining that Christ's incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection serve as God's ultimate response to the problem of evil, particularly the suffering of the innocent.

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April 3, 2025

Making Up What is Lacking: Disability and Suffering in Christ's Body,…

Prof. Paul Gondreau reflects on the profound meaning of suffering, disability, and human frailty in light of Christ’s redemptive suffering, emphasizing shared vulnerability as a source of mercy and unity within the Church.

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April 2, 2025

Ectogenesis: Transhumanism, The Brave New World, and the Attack on Tr…

Prof. Stephen Meredith explores the essence of being human through the lens of Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy, contrasting it with biological and scientific perspectives that often overlook the importance of form and final cause.

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April 1, 2025

Can Machines be People, Too? | Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.

Fr. Anselm Ramelow critically examines whether artificial intelligence can achieve personhood, arguing that machines lack the essential qualities of being, consciousness, and unity inherent to human nature.

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March 28, 2025

Sharing in Divine Goodness by Grace | Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P.

Fr. John Mark Solitario explores the transformative power of grace offered by Christ, emphasizing the perfection of charity and voluntary poverty as a means to participate in divine goodness and a sure path to eternal life.

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March 27, 2025

What Exactly Is the Hypostatic Union? | Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

Fr. Dominic Legge explores the intricacies of the hypostatic union, focusing on Aquinas's understanding of how the divine and human natures are united in the person of Christ, while navigating various Christological heresies.

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March 26, 2025

The Life-Giving Appropriation of the Flesh: St. Cyril of Alexandria o…

Professor Paul Gavrilyuk explores Cyril of Alexandria's Christology as a sustained meditation on majesty and lowliness, driven by the desire to probe the mystery of the hypostatic union in light of the Nestorian controversy.

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March 21, 2025

Peripatetic Therapy: Taking Seriously Aristotle's World and the Role …

Sr. Anna Wray explores Aristotle's philosophy of contemplation, emphasizing its therapeutic value in understanding human fulfillment while contrasting it with Christian perspectives on divine contemplation.

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