

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

Jun 10, 2022 • 48min
What Makes a Person Good? The Cardinal Virtues and Living Life Well | Prof. Raymond Hain
This lecture was given on March 24, 2022 at Cornell University.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the Speaker:
Professor Raymond Hain is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College and Associate Director of the Providence College Humanities Program. He received his BA in Philosophy from Christendom College and his MA and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied under Ralph McInerny and David Solomon. He works primarily in moral philosophy in the Thomistic tradition, as well as topics in applied ethics (especially bioethics and the ethics of architecture) and connections between philosophy and literature. As part of the Humanities Program, he directs the Providence College Humanities Forum and the Providence College Humanities Reading Seminars.

Jun 10, 2022 • 1h 7min
The Challenges and Opportunities of Genome Editing | Prof. William Hurlbut
This lecture was given on March 23, 2022 at Purdue University.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
William B. Hurlbut, MD, is Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Scholar in Neurobiology at the Stanford Medical School. After receiving his undergraduate and medical training at Stanford University, he completed postdoctoral studies in theology and medical ethics, studying with Robert Hamerton-Kelly, the Dean of the Chapel at Stanford, and subsequently with the Rev. Louis Bouyer of the Institut Catholique de Paris. His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology with the philosophy of biology. He is the author of numerous publications on science and ethics. He has worked with NASA on projects in astrobiology and was a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Working group at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. From 2002-2009 Dr. Hurlbut served on the President’s Council on Bioethics. He serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Templeton Religion Trust.

Jun 9, 2022 • 1h 21min
Salvation by Faith or Works | Prof. Michael Root
This lecture was given on March 29, 2022 at North Carolina State University.
The handout for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ybaa6j3u.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Michael Root is Ordinary Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Root is a native of Norfolk, Virginia and studied at Dartmouth College (B.A.) and Yale University (Ph.D. in theology). He was received into the Catholic Church in August, 2010. His particular theological interests are ecumenical relations, eschatology/last things, grace, and justification.
Root has been a member of the US and international LutheranCatholic dialogues, the US LutheranUnited Methodist dialogue, the AnglicanLutheran International Working Group, and the AnglicanLutheran International Commission. He served on the drafting teams that produced the LutheranRoman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Jun 8, 2022 • 46min
When Is War Justified? A Catholic Perspective | Prof. Joseph Capizzi
This lecture was given on March 22, 2022 at the University of Arizona. The slides for this talk can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2t8ptvdk.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Joseph E. Capizzi is Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America. He teaches in the areas of social and political theology, with special interests in issues in peace and war, citizenship, political authority, and Augustinian theology. He has written, lectured, and published widely on just war theory, bioethics, the history of moral theology, and political liberalism.
Dr. Capizzi is the Executive Director of the Institute for Human Ecology at Catholic University. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his Masters in Theological Studies from Emory University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame. He lives in Maryland with his wife and six children.

Jun 7, 2022 • 1h 2min
Thomas Aquinas: A Medieval Psychologist? | Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.
This lecture was given on March 10, 2022 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., teaches systematic and moral theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and the Dominican House of Studies (Washington, D.C.). Fr. Cuddy serves as the general editor of the “Thomist Tradition Series,” and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters (Fortress Press, 2017). He has written for numerous publications on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist tradition.

Jun 6, 2022 • 1h 21min
Suffering and the Narrative of Redemption | Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P. (duplicate)
This lecture was given on February 25, 2022 at The Florida State University.
You can watch the videos Sr. Jane Dominic plays here:
Coke Life Argentina https://youtu.be/xPb1t3jU3sI
Dear Future Mom https://youtu.be/Ju-q4OnBtNU
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee. She received her Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. She has been active in her religious community's teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and has assisted with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L'Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, Sister has served as editor-in-chief of her Congregation's book, Praying as a Family (also available in Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic versions). With EWTN, she directed a television series of the same title. She has also served as the creator and founding Director of the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith & Culture Program.

Jun 6, 2022 • 58min
Creation Ex Nihilo: Thomas Aquinas on Creation and its Consequences | Prof. Corey Barnes
This lecture was given on March 31, 2022 at the University of Oklahoma.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Corey Barnes is an Associate Professor of Religion at Oberlin College specializing in scholastic thought from the 12th to the 14th centuries. His research areas include Christology, causation, creation, providence, knowledge of God, theological language, and scholastic receptions of classical, patristic, and late antique sources.

Jun 3, 2022 • 1h 3min
St. Augustine and the Quest for Self-Knowledge | Prof. Michael Foley
This lecture was given on March 21, 2022 at the University of Texas at Austin.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Dr. Michael P. Foley is a Professor of Patristics in the Great Texts Program at Baylor University, a Catholic theologian, a mixologist, and the author or editor of over a dozen books and around 400 articles on topics including sacred liturgy, St. Augustine of Hippo, and contemporary film and culture.

Jun 1, 2022 • 57min
Finding Christ in the Desert: He Is The Other | Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell, O.P.
This lecture was given on April, 2 2022 at St. Albert the Great Priory as part of the intellectual retreat "To Be Human in the Presence of God: St. Thomas Aquinas and Desert Spirituality."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. O’Donnell grew up in Syracuse, New York. After two years as a student at Providence College he entered the Order of Preachers in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1971 he earned an MA in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame and in 1980 earned an STD degree in the area of Liturgical Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Faculty for Spirituality, the Teresianum, in Rome. He has previously taught at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and the Angelicum in Rome. In addition to teaching he currently serves as a vice-postulator for the cause for sainthood of Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and as vice-postulator for the cause of Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, NY. He previously survived as postulator for the cause of canonization of Father Paul of Graymoor, which has also been submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. With Robin Mass, Ph.D., Fr. O’Donnell is the author of Spiritual Traditions for the Contemporary Church and has contributed to A Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

May 31, 2022 • 58min
Who Am I? Becoming Someone in the Desert | Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell, O.P.
This lecture was given on April, 2 2022 at St. Albert the Great Priory as part of the intellectual retreat "To Be Human in the Presence of God: St. Thomas Aquinas and Desert Spirituality."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. O’Donnell grew up in Syracuse, New York. After two years as a student at Providence College he entered the Order of Preachers in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1970. In 1971 he earned an MA in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame and in 1980 earned an STD degree in the area of Liturgical Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Faculty for Spirituality, the Teresianum, in Rome. He has previously taught at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, PA and the Angelicum in Rome. In addition to teaching he currently serves as a vice-postulator for the cause for sainthood of Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and as vice-postulator for the cause of Rose Hawthorne, founder of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, NY. He previously survived as postulator for the cause of canonization of Father Paul of Graymoor, which has also been submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. With Robin Mass, Ph.D., Fr. O’Donnell is the author of Spiritual Traditions for the Contemporary Church and has contributed to A Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.


