

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

Apr 1, 2023 • 1h 29min
Aquinas on the Union of Body and Soul | Prof. Gyula Klima
This talk was given on February 1st, 2023 at Fordham University.
For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Born, raised, and educated in Budapest, Hungary, Prof. Klima held postdoc positions in Helsinki, St. Andrews and Copenhagen in the eighties. In 1991, he was hired at Yale University, moved to Notre Dame in 1995, and landed his current position at Fordham in 1999, where he has been a full professor since 2002. He founded and still runs the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, and edits (together with Prof. Alex Hall) its Proceedings. Recently, he started and has been directing the new Research Center for the History of Ideas (R.C.H.I. --"Archie") in Budapest; currently he divides his time between Budapest and NY, directing Archie in the fall and teaching at Fordham in the Spring. For his detailed CV and list of publications, as well as a number of his papers online, you may wish to visit https://faculty.fordham.edu/klima/ and https://fordham.academia.edu/GyulaKlima

Mar 31, 2023 • 37min
St. Edmund Campion and the Jesuit English Mission of 1580 | Prof. Fionnuala O'Neill Tonning
This lecture was given on November 21, 2022, at the University of Edinburgh.
For more information, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Dr. Fionnuala O’Neill Tonning earned her PhD from University of Edinburgh in 2013. Her dissertation was titled "Beyond Tragedy: Genre and the Idea of the Tragic in Shakespearean Tragedy, History and Comedy.”

Mar 29, 2023 • 60min
The Search for Happiness: Wisdom from Aquinas | Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau. O.P.
This talk was given on February 4th, 2023 at the University of Rochester.
For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
A native of Louisiana, Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2005. After several years of pastoral work in New York City, Fr. Guilbeau began doctoral studies in moral theology at the University of Fribourg, where he completed a dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the common good. In addition to his teaching, Fr. Guilbeau serves as senior editor of Aleteia.org (English edition).

Mar 29, 2023 • 1h 12min
Does God Exist? | Prof. Michael Gorman
This talk was given on February 17, 2023 at Vanderbilt University.
For more information please visit 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-five 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. He is working on a textbook in metaphysics and on a short book on human nature and human dignity.

Mar 27, 2023 • 1h 2min
Does God Create Through Evolution? | Fr. Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P.
This talk was given on February 16th, 2023 at Trinity College Dublin.
For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P. is a Polish Dominican and theologian. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and Church Licentiate from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. He is a professor of theology and member of the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He is interested in the science-theology dialogue, especially in the issues concerning science and creation theology, divine action, and evolutionary theory. His research also goes to other subjects related to systematic, fundamental, and natural theology, philosophy of nature, philosophy of science (philosophy of biology, in particular), philosophy of causation, and metaphysics. His works address a whole range of topics, including: the notion of species, metaphysics of evolutionary transitions, concurrence of divine and natural causes in evolutionary transitions, definition and role of chance and teleology in evolution, classical and new hylomorphism, classical and contemporary (analytical) concepts of causation, emergence, science-oriented panentheism and its critique, and various aspects of divine action in the universe. He published a number of articles on metaphysics and the issues concerning the relation between theology and science, and two monographs: Emergence. Towards A New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science (University of Notre Dame Press 2019) and Divine Action and Emergence. An Alternative to Panentheism (University of Notre Dame Press 2020). His upcoming third monograph will concentrate on the contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic view of theistic evolution (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Mar 27, 2023 • 1h 12min
The God of the Bible and the God of the Philosophers | Prof. Eleonore Stump
This talk was given via Zoom to the students at Trinity Western University on February, 9th 2023.
For more information please visit thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. She is also Honorary Professor at Wuhan University and at the Logos Institute, St.Andrews, and she is a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University. She has published extensively in philosophy of religion, contemporary metaphysics, and medieval philosophy. Her books include her major study Aquinas (Routledge, 2003), her extensive treatment of the problem of evil, Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (Oxford, 2010), and her far-reaching examination of human redemption, Atonement (Oxford, 2018). She has given the Gifford Lectures (Aberdeen, 2003), the Wilde lectures (Oxford, 2006), the Stewart lectures (Princeton, 2009) and the Stanton lectures (Cambridge, 2018). She is past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the American Philosophical Association, Central Division; and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mar 24, 2023 • 1h 14min
Aquinas’s ‘First Way’ Argument: In What Way Does it Prove God’s Existence? | Prof. Gregory Doolan
This talk was given at the United State Military Academy at West Point on February 7th, 2023.
For more information please visit 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.

Mar 23, 2023 • 41min
Adam and Eve after the Pill, Revisited w/ Mary Eberstadt (Off-Campus Conversations)
Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Mary Eberstadt about her latest book, "Adam and Eve after the Pill, Revisited"
Adam and Eve after the Pill, Revisited w/ Mary Eberstadt and Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations)
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
To read more about Mary Eberstadt, please visit her website at https://maryeberstadt.com/

Mar 22, 2023 • 58min
God, Creation, and the Act of Existence | Prof. Gaven Kerr
This talk was given on February 6th, 2023 at Oxford University.
For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Gaven Kerr is a third-order Dominican and philosophy professor at St. Patrick's Pontifical University. He is the author of numerous academic papers and two books on Aquinas' metaphysics. He is also a father and MMA fighter.

Mar 20, 2023 • 56min
Can a Catholic Be a Classical Liberal? | Prof. Erik Dempsey
The handout for this lecture may be found here: https://tinyurl.com/5f2ebxm5
This lecture was given on February 2, 2023, at the University of Kansas.
For more information about upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.
About the speaker:
Erik Dempsey (PhD, Boston College) is the Assistant Director of University of Texas at Austin'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 adding a discussion of Thomas's discussion on Aristotle in order to prepare the dissertation as a book. He teaches many classes for the Thomas Jefferson Center, including, Jerusalem and Athens (on the ethical and political teaching of the Bible and Aristotle); Theoretical Foundations of Modern Politics; The Bible and Its Interpreters; The Question of Relativism; Ancient Philosophy and Literature; and American Political Thought.