The Thomistic Institute What Contemporary Culture Needs to Learn from Thomas Aquinas – Prof. Michael Dauphinais
Jan 28, 2026
Michael A. Dauphinais, Ph.D., a Thomistic theologian and co-director of the Aquinas Center, offers a short lecture on what contemporary culture can learn from Thomas Aquinas. He contrasts secular competition with a metaphysics of communion. Topics include participation, shared goods in family and society, divine non-competitiveness, baptism and suffering, and how communion reshapes human relations.
49:17
Two Competing Worldviews
- Modern secular worldview sees individuals as fundamentally in conflict and seeks order through reason and technology.
- The Christian/Thomistic worldview posits original communion disrupted by sin and restored in Christ, offering a non-competitive metaphysics.
Personal Journey From Atheism To Faith
- Michael Dauphinais recounts leaving faith for secular ideas during school and then returning after encountering personal love and Christian witness.
- His journey from atheist to evangelical to Catholic grounds his ability to speak across worldviews.
Cooperation Drives Survival
- Recent biology suggests cooperation drives survival and human success more than raw competition.
- Human sociability, tribal structures, and intergenerational care illustrate cooperation as evolutionarily central.
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Intro
00:00 • 25sec
Why Ideas Matter and the Talk's Aim
00:25 • 1min
Worldview: Secular vs. Christian Overview
01:51 • 1min
Secular Worldview: Conflict and Competition
03:08 • 3min
Philosophical Roots of Modern Conflict
06:02 • 2min
The Isolated Bee: Problems of Nominalism
07:37 • 3min
Existential Longing Illustrated by Barbie
11:00 • 1min
Personal Journey from Atheism to Faith
12:08 • 3min
Aquinas: Participation and Being from God
14:44 • 3min
Cooperation in Creation: Bees, Hives, Cosmos
17:50 • 3min
Divine Communion and Non-Competitiveness
20:47 • 3min
Natural Law and Participated Goods
23:53 • 2min
Marriage and the Enlarging Good
25:30 • 36sec
Gospel Kerygma and Human Disorder
26:05 • 3min
Pride, Idolatry, and the Root of Conflict
28:46 • 3min
Marriage, Forgiveness, and Human Failing
32:05 • 2min
Catherine of Siena on Creation's Purpose
34:30 • 3min
Christ's Descent and the Restoration of Adam and Eve
37:14 • 2min
Baptism, Participation in Christ's Passion
39:16 • 2min
Accepting Suffering as Healing
41:24 • 2min
Practical Advice: Accepted Sorrow and Presence
43:13 • 57sec
Comparing Worldviews: Final Summary
44:10 • 4min
Outro
48:17 • 60sec
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Prof. Michael Dauphinais explains what contemporary culture needs to learn from Thomas Aquinas, arguing for a metaphysics of communion in which God, family, Church, and society are not locked in competition but share common goods that make each more fully alive.
This lecture was given on September 22nd, 2025, at University of Florida.
For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.
About the Speakers:
Michael A. Dauphinais, Ph.D., serves as the Fr. Matthew Lamb Professor of Catholic Theology and the co-director of the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, Florida. He has co-authored with Matthew Levering Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of Thomas Aquinas; Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction to the Bible; and The Wisdom of the Word: Biblical Answers to Ten Questions about Catholicism. He specializes in C.S. Lewis, the Bible, and St. Thomas Aquinas. He speaks frequently in both academic and popular settings, and particularly enjoys visiting Thomistic Institute student chapters. Dr. Dauphinais hosts The Catholic Theology Show podcast to help a wide audience discover the richness of coming to know and love God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.
Keywords: Common Good, Common Good versus Zero-Sum Competition, God’s Non-Competitive Action, Human Community, Metaphysics of Communion, Natural Law, Original Sin and False Image of God, Participated Goods in Family and Society, Thomistic View of Marriage and Family, Vision of God in Evangelium Vitae