

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

Jul 3, 2023 • 49min
The Service Of The Emotions In The Moral Life | Professor Scott Cleveland
This lecture was given on March 7th, 2023, at Cornell University
For more information on upcoming TI events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events
Speaker Bio:
Prof. W. Scott Cleveland is Director of Catholic Studies and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND). His research interests are in ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of religion. He is especially interested in the study of the virtues and emotions, the relation between the two, and the role of each in the moral and intellectual life. His work has appeared in journals such as American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Res Philosophica, Religious Studies, Oxford Bibliographies Online, and the Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

4 snips
Jun 30, 2023 • 52min
What are Natural Rights and What Rights Do We Have? | Professor V. Bradley Lewis
This lecture was given at Florida State University on January 27, 2023.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
V. Bradley Lewis is associate professor in the School of Philosophy in the Catholic University of America. He specializes in political and legal philosophy, especially that of the classical Greeks and in the Thomistic tradition, and is currently working on a book on the idea of the common good. In addition to these things he has served as a consultant on ethics to the federal government, testified before a congressional subcommittee about immigration, and currently serves as associate editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence.

11 snips
Jun 28, 2023 • 1h 13min
Augustine and the Virtue of Humility | Professor Mary Keys
This lecture was given at Harvard University on February 23, 2023.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Mary M. Keys holds a BA from Boston College and a MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching interests span a broad spectrum of political theory, with a special focus in Christianity, ethics, and political thought. She is the author of Pride, Politics, and Humility in Augustine's City of God (Cambridge) and Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good (Cambridge). Her work includes articles and chapters in the American Journal of Political Science, History of Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, and The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's City of God. She has held various fellowships, including a NEH Fellowship supporting her ongoing research project on Humility, Modernity, and the Science of Politics, and she has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Jun 23, 2023 • 43min
Eating and Drinking to the Glory of God: A Catholic Approach | Professor Michael Foley
This lecture was given at Georgetown University on March 1, 2023.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Michael P. Foley is an associate professor of Patristics in the Great Texts Program at Baylor University. He is the author of over 150 articles and several books on theology, the most recent of which is Drinking With the Saints: The Sinner's Guide to a Holy Happy Hour (Regnery, 2015). Foley is currently serving as the president of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. He lives in central Texas with his wife Alexandra and their six children.

Jun 21, 2023 • 52min
Aquinas, Creation, and Intelligent Design | Professor Francis Beckwith
This lecture was given at New York University on February 10, 2023.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies and Affiliate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy. Among his over one dozen books are Never Doubt Thomas: The Catholic Aquinas as Evangelical and Protestant (Baylor University Press, 2019), Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2015), winner of the American Academy of Religion's prestigious 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Constructive-Reflective Studies. He is a graduate of the Washington University School of Law, St. Louis (MJS) as well as Fordham University (PhD, MA, philosophy).

5 snips
Jun 19, 2023 • 1h 20min
The Glory of Leadership: The Magnanimity and Humility of Jesus as Leader | Captain Joseph McInerney
This lecture was given at North Carolina State University on January 24, 2023.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Joe McInerney is the Director of Leadership and Ethics Education for the Knights of Columbus, a worldwide fraternal association of more than two million members with headquarters in New Haven, CT. Prior to retiring as a Captain from the United States Navy he served as the Chairman of the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law and as Permanent Military Professor of Applied Ethics and Leadership at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After working in a variety of leadership positions in the Navy, Captain McInerney was selected for the Navy’s Permanent Military Professor Program. As a member of that program, he graduated from The Catholic University of America with a doctorate in systematic theology. Captain McInerney also holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the United States Naval Academy and a Masters of Theological Studies from the John Paul II Institute in Washington DC. A writer of both academic and popular essays, Captain McInerney is also author of The Greatness of Humility: St. Augustine on Moral Excellence (Wipf &Stock, 2016) and Passion and Paradox: The Leadership Genius of Jesus Christ (Catholic Information Service, 2018). His most recent book, From Achilles to Superman: A Leader’s Guide to the History of Ethics, has been accepted for publication with The Catholic University of America Press.

Jun 15, 2023 • 1h 6min
Dante, Aquinas, and the Virtues | Father Albert Trudel
This lecture was given at Georgetown University on October 20, 2022.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Fr. Albert Trudel is an Assistant Professor of Latin and Pastoral Studies at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He specializes in the intersection between theology and literature in the Middle Ages, and has lately commented on Dante's Purgatorio and the Middle English Pearl for various Thomistic Institute projects. He is also the Rome Director for the Thomistic Institute's semester abroad program. He completed his Master's degree in English Literature at the University of Toronto, his doctoral work in English Literature at the University of Oxford, and he received a postdoctoral License in Mediaeval Studies at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto.

Jun 14, 2023 • 1h 2min
The Imago Dei in Sidney and Shakespeare | Doctor Michael Mack
This lecture was given at Hillsdale College on April 22, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute conference "Christology in Literature."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Michael Mack is an Associate Professor of English at the Catholic University of America. He specializes in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature, and his research interests include Shakespeare, sixteenth and seventeenth-century English poetry, and Renaissance poetic theory. Dr. Mack has published a study of Sir Philip Sidney’s Apology for Poetry and he is currently working on a book provisionally and pretentiously entitled Shakespeare and the Human Condition. He regularly teaches Shakespeare at the undergraduate and graduate levels and the Renaissance humanities course in the University Honors Program. Dr. Mack has served as Director of the University Honors Program, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies. Michael Mack received his A.B. from Harvard University, where his concentration was Economics, and his Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. He has been at CUA since 1997.

Jun 12, 2023 • 57min
Christology in Literature | Doctor Justin Jackson
This lecture was given at Hillsdale College on April 22, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute conference "Christology in Literature."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
J. A. Jackson is Chair and Professor of English at Hillsdale College and Director of the Writing Center. He received his Ph.D. in English from Purdue University where he specialized in Old and Middle English Literature. In 2011, he received Hillsdale College's Professor of the Year award. He was ranked among the Princeton Review's "Best 300 Professors" in 2012. Dr. Jackson loves to investigate the intersections between literature, theology, and philosophy, and his scholarship and teaching reflect this love.

Jun 9, 2023 • 37min
What Future for the Priesthood? | Cardinal Marc Ouellet
This lecture was given at the Catholic University of America on May 16, 2023 as part of the Thomistic Institute symposium titled "Toward a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood."
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Cardinal Marc Oullet served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America from 2010 to 2023. He was Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada from 2003 to 2010. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He holds licentiates in theology and philosophy, and a doctorate in dogmatic theology.