

The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Doctor of the Church, is our touchstone.
The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more.
Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.
The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more.
Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 11, 2022 • 1h 9min
Finding Consolation in the Book of Revelation | Prof. Nina Heereman
This lecture was given on March 21, 2022 at the University of California, Berkeley.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Dr. Heereman was born and raised in a devout Catholic family in Germany. Originally trained as a lawyer, Dr. Heereman experienced a deep conversion experience at the 1997 World Youth Day. This conversion led her to discern a vocation as a lay woman “celibate for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” and also led her to theological studies so as to “consecrate [her] life to the study and teaching of the Word of God”.
She received an STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University, an SSL from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the very rare SSD from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and the Université de Fribourg. Her doctoral thesis “Behold King Solomon on the Day of His Wedding”: A Symbolic-Diachronic Reading of Song 3:6-11 and 4:12-5:1 has been heralded by scholars as a profound contribution to scholarship on the Song of Songs.
Dr. Heereman is presently an Assistant Professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA.

May 10, 2022 • 56min
The Search for Happiness: Wisdom from Aquinas and the Classical Tradition | Prof. Jennifer Frey
This lecture was given on March 18, 2022 at Auburn University.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Jennifer Frey is an associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology and she has co-edited three volumes on Self-Transcendence and Virtue, Practical Wisdom, and Practical Truth. Her writing has been featured in Breaking Ground, Evangelization and Culture, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today.

May 9, 2022 • 50min
St. Thomas Aquinas on Suffering and Evil | Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P.
This lecture was given on March 16, 2022 at the University of South Carolina.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Father Thomas Petri, O.P. is the President of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, where he also serves as an assistant professor of moral theology and pastoral studies. Ordained a priest in 2009, he holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The Catholic University of America.

May 6, 2022 • 52min
Does God Exist? | Prof. Brian Carl (duplicate)
This lecture was given on March 10, 2022 at the University of Tulsa.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Brian T. Carl earned his M.A. in Philosophy from Saint Louis University and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America. He is an assistant professor at the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. His research focuses on Thomistic metaphysics, philosophical theology, cognitive theory, and moral psychology.

May 5, 2022 • 44min
Why You Can't Reverse-Engineer Human Beings: The Metaphysics of the Soul | Prof. Joshua Hochschild
Professor Joshua Hochschild discusses the metaphysical implications of reverse engineering human beings through artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience, arguing that despite technological advancements, human intelligence cannot be fully replicated by machines due to its non-physical nature.This lecture was given on March 3, 2022 at Iowa State University.For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.About the speaker:
Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

May 4, 2022 • 52min
Eucharistic Miracles | Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P.
This lecture was given on March 3, 2022 at the University of Florida. Handout: https://tinyurl.com/2p863z2k
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Dominic Langevin is an assistant professor of systematic theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and editor in chief of the journal The Thomist. He specializes in sacramental theology. He did his undergraduate studies at Yale University and his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He was formerly assigned as a parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Charlottesville, Virginia, serving the University of Virginia.

May 3, 2022 • 1h 27min
Why Should We Believe God Exists? | Prof. Gregory Doolan
This lecture was given on March 3, 2022 at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Gregory T. Doolan received his B.A. in political theory from Georgetown University in 1993 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 2003. He taught philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. from 2004–05 and joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in 2005. Dr. Doolan’s research interest is in the area of Aquinas’s metaphysics; in recent years, his focus has been on Aquinas’s account of the Aristotelian categories of being. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Doolan currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.

Apr 28, 2022 • 1h 5min
An Appraisal of Karl Rahner's Theology of Death | Fr. John Corbett, O.P.
This lecture was given on February 27, 2022 at Cedarbrake Renewal Center as part of the Second Annual Texas Student Retreat: "The Meaning of Death and Eternal Life."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Corbett grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and came to know the Dominicans through family members in the Order, through St. Patrick’s Parish, and through attending Providence College, from which he graduated in 1973 with a B.A. in Political Science. Fr. Corbett joined the Dominicans in the summer of 1974 and was ordained a priest on May 12th, 1980. He completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1981 and began to teach moral theology as well as the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College. Three years later he began his doctoral studies under Servais Pinckaers, O.P., at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and was awarded his Ph.D. after completing his dissertation on the theology of virtue in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Corbett was appointed to the Faculty of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, in 1991, and spent the next seven years teaching various courses in moral theology, as well as offering retreats, spiritual direction, and personal formation for seminarians.

Apr 27, 2022 • 55min
Done in the Body: The Eternal Meaning of Our Present Life | Prof. Bruce Marshall
This lecture was given on February 27, 2022 at Cedarbrake Renewal Center as part of the Second Annual Texas Student Retreat: "The Meaning of Death and Eternal Life."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University. His teaching specialties are Medieval and Reformation theology and systematic theology. His research interests include Doctrine of the Trinity, Christology, philosophical issues in theology, sacramental theology, and Judaism and Christian theology. He is the author of Trinity and Truth (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Apr 26, 2022 • 48min
'If we have died with Christ’: Christian Life and the Death of Jesus | Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P.
This lecture was given on February 25, 2022 at Cedarbrake Renewal Center as part of the Second Annual Texas Student Retreat: "The Meaning of Death and Eternal Life."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P., is a friar of the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dallas in 2011, entered the Order of Preachers in 2013, and was ordained a priest in May of 2020. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.