The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on February 17, 2022 at Trinity Western University via Zoom. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and Provost at the University of Dallas. He graduated summa cum laude from Xavier University in Classics and Philosophy in 1997, received his PhD from University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 2001, and received a postdoctoral fellowship from Fordham University in 2001-2002. He has published on particular figures in the history of philosophy, including Aristotle, Anselm, Aquinas, Newman, and Scheler, as well as on topics in both metaphysics and ethics. He is especially interested in drawing from the tradition to solve contemporary problems. Sanford’s most recent book is Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (CUA Press, 2015). The University of Dallas is well known for the undergraduate Catholic liberal education it provides, and as Provost, Sanford oversees all aspects of it. He is currently writing a book on the virtues of liberal education. He and his wife Rebecca live in Irving, Texas, and are blessed with eight children.

This lecture was given on February 11, 2022 at the University of Kansas. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Robert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught for 33 years. M. A. Oxford, Ph.D. UCLA. He is the author or co-author of four books, including: Realism Regained (Oxford University Press, 2000), and The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics, with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). He is the co-editor (with George Bealer) of The Waning of Materialism (Oxford University Press, 2010), and co-editor (with Nicholas Teh and William Simpson) of Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science (Routledge, 2018). He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, on defending and articulating Thomism in contemporary terms, and on arguments for classical theism.

This lecture was given on February 16, 2022 at Regent University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Michael Gorman is professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has doctorates in philosophy and theology. He has authored over thirty academic papers and a book entitled Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His main interests are metaphysics, human nature, and ethics.

This lecture was given on February 11, 2022 at Ashland University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Peter Karl Koritansky is a Professor of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at The University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Canada. At UPEI, he teaches courses in ancient and medieval philosophy, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of law and Catholic thought. He has also taught at Malone University (Canton, OH), Walsh University (North Canton, OH), the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum (Rome) and has been a visiting scholar at The University of Notre Dame. Dr. Koritansky received his Ph.D in philosophy from The University of Toronto and is the author of Thomas Aquinas and the Philosophy of Punishment (CUA Press, 2012) and Engaging the Skeptic: Essays Addressing the Modern Secularist’s Most Serious Objections to the Catholic Worldview (Justin Press, 2018). He has also recently published “Thomas Aquinas and the Euthyphro Dilemma” (Heythrop Journal, 2018) and “Retributive Justice and Natural Law” (The Thomist, 2019). For the 2021-22 academic year, Dr. Koritansky is a John and Daria Barry Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He is currently completing a manuscript tentatively entitled "An Introduction to Thomistic Natural Law."

This lecture was given on February 7, 2022 at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., was born in Manhattan (1965) and grew up in Fairfax, Virginia. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked at AT&T for five years before entering the Dominican Order in 1992. After serving for three years in St. Pius Parish in Providence, R.I., he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg in 2009. He now teaches at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he has also served as book review editor of The Thomist, chaplain to commuter students, and chaplain to the Immaculate Conception Chapter of Third Order Dominicans, and assistant student master. He served as student master and subprior at St. Dominic Priory from 2015-2018, and is currently the subprior.

Professor J. Budziszewski discusses the complexities of happiness, including misconceptions about love and fulfillment. He explores the nature of true meaning and the role of virtue in achieving happiness. The podcast also delves into human longing, desires, and the evolutionary reasoning behind our behaviors.

This lecture was given on January 9, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist: An Intellectual Retreat." For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P., Coordinator for Campus Outreach | Fr. Jonah runs the TI’s intellectual retreat program, planning and overseeing retreats in DC and other regions of the country. He also works with the TI’s Campus Chapters program, traveling to meet on-campus and to strategize with student leaders. He also works with the Aquinas 101 video series and assists at the TI’s other events and conferences. Fr. Jonah attended the University of Dallas, where he studied English. Prior to entering the Order of Preachers, he was employed as an oil field worker, a short-order cook and barback, and as a teacher of literature and composition. He was ordained a priest in 2020 and holds an S.T.L. from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the third-best guitarist in the Province’s Americana band, The Hillbilly Thomists.

This talk was given on January 8, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Alexander Pruss has doctorates in philosophy and mathematics, and is currently Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame University Press), and Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum). His research areas include metaphysics, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, philosophy of mathematics and formal epistemology.

This talk was given on January 8, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Alexander Pruss has doctorates in philosophy and mathematics, and is currently Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame University Press), and Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum). His research areas include metaphysics, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, philosophy of mathematics and formal epistemology.

This talk was given on January 7, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of "The Eucharist," an intellectual retreat for the Thomistic Institute’s chapters at Auburn University and North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Born in New Hampshire, Father Reginald Lynch, O.P. entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2007, and was ordained a priest in 2013. After ordination, he served at St. Patrick Parish in Columbus, Ohio and taught at the Pontifical College Josephinum, before going on to complete a PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with a major concentration in medieval theology and minor concentrations in patristics and philosophical theology. He has written on a variety of topics in sacramental, systematic and historical theology in journals like The Thomist and Nova et Vetera. His book, The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017) received the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize in 2018. Currently, he is working on a book on the reception of Aquinas’ Eucharistic theology in the early modern period.