Society & Culture Episodes

Aug. 22, 2025

Anna Karenina and the Project of Literature I Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel…

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.

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Aug. 21, 2025

Getting to Know Tolkien and Lewis and Why It's Worth Your Time I Prof…

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.

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Aug. 19, 2025

J.R.R. Tolkien's Detached Aesthetics I Dr. Rebekah Lamb

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.

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Aug. 18, 2025

C.S. Lewis on the Ethics of Technology I Prof. Thomas Ward

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.

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Aug. 12, 2025

Brothers Karamazov: Manicheanism, Christian Existentialism and other …

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.

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Aug. 4, 2025

What Makes Laws Just? An Introduction to the Natural Law Tradition I …

Fr. Dominic Legge delves into the philosophical and moral considerations that determine whether laws are truly just, highlighting the ongoing relevance of these questions in contemporary society.

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July 24, 2025

The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question …

Prof. Christopher Kaczor critically examines the ethics of abortion by exploring whether the unborn are alive and human, whether killing is justified, and whether bodily autonomy overrides other moral considerations.

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July 22, 2025

The Christian Imagination I Prof. Raymond Hain

Prof. Raymond Hain explores the Catholic imagination through the literary works of Flannery O'Connor and J.R.R. Tolkien, revealing how Catholic literature intertwines hope, redemption, and the complexities of faith in the face of suffering and beauty.

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July 16, 2025

Household as Natural Revelation of Masculinity and Femininity | Prof.…

Prof. John Cuddeback explores how the household serves as a natural revelation of masculinity and femininity, emphasizing the complementarity of men and women, the significance of virtue, and the essential roles of fatherhood and motherhood.

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July 15, 2025

The Importance of Friendship in Marriage | Dr. Nathaniel Peters and P…

Dr. Nathaniel Peters and Prof. Jane Peters explore the vocation of marriage as a transformative friendship, highlighting how the goods of marriage—offspring, fidelity, and sacrament—are elevated by grace to foster virtue, mutual delight, and a living witness to Christ’s love.

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July 14, 2025

Is the Biblical View of Sex and Marriage Realistic? | Prof. Michael D…

Prof. Michael Dauphinais explores the realism of the biblical view of sex and marriage, analyzing cultural challenges, scriptural diagnoses, and the transformative power of radical trust in God’s plan for relationships. This ...

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July 11, 2025

The Mission of the University and the Role of the Humanities | Prof. …

Prof. Michael Foley critically examines the authentic role of the humanities in the modern American university, contrasting the consumerist and human models of education while advocating for self-emptying, integrated knowledge, and the cultivation of wonder.

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July 10, 2025

Aesthetics, Mozart, and the Pathways of Beauty | Prof. George Corbett

Prof. George Corbett explores the philosophical and theological foundations of beauty through Mozart’s music, highlighting the "pathway of beauty" as a means of encountering the divine and engaging culture.

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July 8, 2025

Becoming Human: Barbie, Storytelling, and Aquinas on Self-Knowledge |…

Prof. Joshua Hochschild explores the philosophical and theological dimensions of the Barbie movie, analyzing its narrative through the lens of storytelling, existentialism, and the thought of Aquinas, while engaging with diverse critical interpretations.

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July 4, 2025

Created Equal: An Interpretation and Defense of the American Proposit…

Prof. Christopher Kaczor rigorously defends the inclusive interpretation of the Declaration of Independence, arguing that "all men are created equal" refers to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, or status, drawing on historical documents, the founders' intentions, and philosophical influenc…

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June 18, 2025

Aquinas the DJ: Tradition and Invention in the Corpus Christi Liturgy…

This lecture was given on February 11th, 2025, at Cornell University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P. entered the Order...

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June 4, 2025

The Vocation of Parenthood | Dr. Nathaniel Peters and Prof. Jane Sloa…

Dr. Nathaniel Peters and Prof. Jane Sloan Peters explore the vocation of parenthood, highlighting the distinct yet complementary roles of fatherhood and motherhood as a participation in God’s creative and priestly work, groun...

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May 23, 2025

How Is My iPhone Changing Me? | Prof. Joshua Hochschild

Prof. Joshua Hochschild analyzes how smartphones and digital technologies reshape our brains, habits, and sense of self by leveraging neuroscience and AI-driven behavioral design, warning that these tools commodify our attention, erode agency, and pose deep spiritual and ethical challenges that dem…

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May 20, 2025

Ought I Use AI Assisted Writing? | Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P.

Fr. Ambrose Little examines the philosophical and ethical implications of AI-assisted writing by drawing on Plato’s myth of Thoth, Aristotle, and Aquinas, arguing that while new technologies like AI can threaten essential intellectual virtues, they can also be used wisely if we seek a balanced, vir…

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May 16, 2025

Friendship and the Common Good | Prof. Adam Eitel

Prof. Adam Eitel explores the nature of friendship and the common good through the lens of Aquinas and Aristotle, emphasizing that true friendship is a mutual, habitual disposition to will and pursue the good of another through concrete sharing and fellowship.

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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 13, 2025

How To Be A Good Friend: Combatting Envy And Apathy And Exercising Lo…

Prof. W. Scott Cleveland explores how to be a good friend by applying Aristotle’s philosophy of human flourishing, highlighting the importance of combating envy and apathy while cultivating the virtues of love and wisdom for lasting, meaningful friendships.

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May 12, 2025

What is Love? Plato’s Theology of the Body | Prof. Joshua Hochschild

Prof. Joshua Hochschild compares Plato’s philosophical exploration of love in the Symposium with John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, analyzing how both traditions address the unity of eros and agape, the meaning of embodied love, and the enduring questions of sexual ethics in light of Humanae Vita…

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