Episodes

June 17, 2025

Is the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in "Accordance with the Scr…

This lecture was given on February 7th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Professor Gary Anderson is the Hesb...

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June 16, 2025

My Lord and My God: Understanding the Incarnation | Prof. Bruce Marsh…

This lecture was given on April 7th, 2025, at University of Tulsa. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Chri...

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June 13, 2025

The Convertibility of Being and Goodness | Prof. Thomas Ward

This lecture was given on February 22nd, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Thomas M. Ward is Associate Profes...

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June 12, 2025

The Emergence of Evil as a Theological Problem | Fr. Timothy Bellamah…

This lecture was given on February 21st, 2025, 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. (Commis...

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June 11, 2025

A Method for Metaethics | Prof. Candace Vogler

This lecture was given on November 15th, 2024, at University of Illinois. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Candace Vogler is the David B. and Cla...

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June 10, 2025

How Could a Good God Allow Horrible Diseases? | Prof. Stephen Meredith

This lecture was given on March 12th, 2025, at University of Georgia. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Stephen Meredith is a professor at the Uni...

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June 9, 2025

Evil as Privation | Prof. Thomas Ward

This lecture was given on February 22nd, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Thomas M. Ward is Associate Profes...

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June 6, 2025

Thomas Aquinas on the Nicene Creed | Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P.

This lecture was given on February 8th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., (Ph.D. Notr...

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June 5, 2025

Wonderment, Contemplation, and Friendship with God | Fr. Cassian Derb…

This lecture was given on January 18th, 2025, at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Cassian Derbes, O.P. is...

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June 4, 2025

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

This lecture was given on Jan 24th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Nathaniel Peters is the Director of the...

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June 3, 2025

Psalms and the Grace of Conversion | Fr. Stephen Ryan, O.P.

This lecture was given on March 10th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Stephen Ryan was born and raised ...

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June 2, 2025

Key Principles for a Happy Life | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

This lecture was given on February 14th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events . About the Speaker: Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. is an adjun...

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May 30, 2025

What Happens After Death | Prof. Jeffrey Brower

Prof. Jeffrey Brower defends Aquinas’s hylomorphic account of human nature, arguing that the soul, as the body’s substantial form, ensures metaphysical unity while allowing for postmortem survival, offering a coherent alterna...

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May 29, 2025

The Earliest Christological Debates and Why They Matter Today | Fr. A…

Fr. Andrew Hofer explores the earliest Christological debates of the first centuries, showing how heresies like Arianism, Nestorianism, and Pelagianism threatened the Church’s understanding of Jesus’ true identity, and why de...

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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 27, 2025

How Does Christ Save Us? Making Sense of the Atonement | Prof. Ross M…

Prof. Ross McCullough systematically explores the major models of the atonement-including Christus Victor, ransom theory, and divinization-showing how each interprets Christ’s saving work and how Aquinas’s distinctions can help organize these diverse approaches into a coherent theological architect…

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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 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 22, 2025

Transhumanism: The New Eugenics | Prof. Steven Jensen

Prof. Steven Jensen critically examines transhumanism as a new form of eugenics, arguing that the pursuit of human enhancement through technologies like genetic engineering and brain-computer interfaces repeats the ethical pitfalls of historical eugenics by neglecting the importance of human nature…

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May 21, 2025

What Can We Learn from Aquinas About AI? | Prof. Gyula Klima

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.

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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 18, 2025

The Use of Tools in a Technocratic Age: the Death of Wisdom? | Sr. An…

Sr. Anna Wray explains that technocratic tools, while designed for efficiency and ease, undermine wisdom by weakening essential cognitive activities and social bonds, but we can preserve wisdom by using technology more reflectively and fostering communal engagement.

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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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