The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: 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 June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Russell Hittinger is a leading scholar of Catholic political and social thought. From 1996-2019, Dr. Hittinger was the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he was also a Research Professor in the School of Law. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Fordham University, Princeton University, New York University, Providence College, and Charles University in Prague. In January 2020, Dr. Hittinger gave the Aquinas Lecture at Blackfriars, Oxford. Since 2001, he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004, and appointed to the consilium or governing board from 2006-2018. On 8 September 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Dr. Hittinger as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in which he finished his ten-year term in 2019. He is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America, where he also serves as the inaugural co-Director of the Program in Catholic Political Thought.

This lecture was given on June 12, 2023 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2023 Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship: "Friendship, Happiness, and the Search for God: Aristotle, Augustine, & Aquinas" For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Dr. Jonathan Buttaci about his latest Thomistic Institute, "Why Would a Biologist Believe in the Soul?".Why Would a Biologist Believe in the Soul? w/ Dr. Jonathan Buttaci and Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations)You can listen to the original lecture here: https://on.soundcloud.com/tFDGPFor more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org.About the speaker: Dr. Jonathan Buttaci is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He came to CUA in 2016 after completing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Buttaci’s research focuses on accounts of mind and the soul in ancient Greek thought, in particular Aristotle’s theory of knowledge, learning, and scientific discovery. He is also interested more generally in the interplay between ancient Greek science, philosophy, and literature.This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63017 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Prof. Jonathan Buttaci, examines the idea of the soul from a biological perspective, drawing on Aristotle's comprehensive treatment of the soul as a principle of life for all living things. He challenges the modern scientific view, exemplified by James Watson's statement that life is simply a matter of chemistry, and instead suggests that the soul can be understood as a non-magical, non-mystical concept within biology.This lecture was given on April 10th, 2023, at Indiana University.For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsSpeaker Bio: Dr. Jonathan Buttaci is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He came to CUA in 2016 after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Buttaci’s research focuses on accounts of mind and the soul in ancient Greek thought, in particular Aristotle’s theory of knowledge, learning, and scientific discovery. He is also interested more generally in the interplay between ancient Greek science, philosophy, and literature.

This lecture was given on July 17th, 2023, at St. Peter's Church on Capitol Hill. For more information about upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., grew up as the youngest of ten children on a farm in Kansas and studied history, philosophy, and classics at Benedictine College. He then went to St Andrews, Scotland for a Master of Letters in medieval history. He entered the Order of Preachers as a son of the Province of St. Joseph and was ordained a priest in 2002. After finishing his S.T.L. and serving as an associate pastor for a brief time, he was sent to Kenya as a missionary for two years. He taught at the Tangaza College of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa and other institutions in Nairobi. He returned to the U.S. and completed a Ph.D. in Theology at the University of Notre Dame, with the primary area of history of Christianity, specializing in patristic theology with additional studies in medieval theology and the secondary area of systematic theology. His research appears in such journals as Vigiliae Christianae, Augustinianum, International Journal of Systematic Theology, New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Pro Ecclesia, The Thomist, Communio, and Angelicum and in books published by Catholic University of America Press and Ignatius Press. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), Oxford University Press, 2013, and the editor of Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy, Hillenbrand Books, 2015.

This lecture was given on April 19th, 2023, at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life". He pursues these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He works with the radar and other instruments on Cassini, continues to work on mass spectrometer data from Huygens, and is co-investigator on the Juno mission launched in 2011 to Jupiter. He is on the science team for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine is currently PI for a JPL-led study to send a probe into Saturn's atmosphere and has contributed to mission concept studies for space-based astrometry and microlensing missions. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in or chaired a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA.

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023, at the University of Texas at El Paso. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Erik Dempsey (Ph.D., Boston College) is the Assistant Director of UT's Thomas Jefferson for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He completed his doctorate at Boston College in June 2007. He is interested in understanding human virtue and the proper place of politics in a well-lived human life, the different ways in which human virtue is understood in different political situations, and the ways in which human virtue may transcend any political situation. His dissertation looks at Aristotle's treatment of prudence in the Nicomachean Ethics, and Aristotle's suggestion that virtue should be understood as an end in itself. He is currently at work turning his dissertation into a book by adding chapters that consider Thomas Aquinas' interpretation of Aristotle in terms of natural law and Marsilius of Padua's critique of Thomas.

This lecture was given on May 2nd, 2023, at the University of Washington. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Fr. Jordan Schmidt was born in Fargo, ND, and attended St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN for his undergraduate studies. After entering the Order of Preachers, he came to Washington DC to study theology, graduating from the PFIC in 2009 with an STB/MDiv in theology and from CUA in 2012 with an STL in biblical theology. Upon his ordination to the priesthood, he was appointed associate pastor of St Mary’s parish in New Haven, CT where he served until 2013. Fr. Jordan next returned to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC to pursue doctoral studies at CUA. Since earning his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies in 2018, he has been teaching various courses in Sacred Scripture at the PFIC.

This lecture was given on April 27th, 2023 at Georgetown University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events Speaker Bio: Patrick Callahan is director of the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as well as Assistant Professor of English & Humanities at St. Gregory the Great Seminary. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Dallas and his graduate work at Fordham University in Classical Philology. While his doctoral work focused on ancient Greek commentaries to the lyric poet Pindar, his recent work focuses on early Jesuit Latin texts.