The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on July 16, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. for the Fourth Annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium: Complexity, Simplicity and Emergence. Slides for this lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2p97hkek For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Mark Van Berkum is a professor of biological sciences at Wayne State University, and focuses on developmental neurobiology. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.

One of the hallmarks of modern science is the ability to explain the workings of nature by detailed study of its pieces and parts. Organisms are understood as combinations of organ systems, which are made up of tissues, which are made up of cells, which are made of up complex chemicals, then atoms, and more fundamental particles. As successful as this methodological reductionism has been, it is still an open question how complete it can be. Can everything about complex biological systems be reduced to chemistry, and every detail of chemistry explained from fundamental physics? Do the organization and complexity of higher-level systems require additional tools to complete our understanding of the natural world? Do the answers to these scientific questions work for or against an Aristotelian and Thomistic understanding of nature and natural kinds, and how might those classical ideas be of use in contemporary science? The Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium gathers expert scientists and philosophers to discuss the potential compatibility and mutual enrichment of the study of Aquinas' philosophy of nature and various forms of modern scientific knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. The 2022 symposium includes a day of lectures geared towards an introduction to Thomistic philosophy and the history of science, with a focus on complexity, simplicity and emergence. The rest of the symposium will have scientific experts discussing the understanding of complexity and simplicity in their own fields with one another and with philosophers. About the speaker: Professor Jessica Brown is an Associate Professor of biochemistry at Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and was a postdoc fellow at Yale University. Her research focuses on structural, biochemical & cellular roles of RNA triple helices.

This lecture was given on March 22, 2022 to the University of North Texas. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Gloria Frost is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Her areas of research are medieval philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and the history of science. She is an assistant editor for the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly and on the executive councils for the American Catholic Philosophical Association and the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. She is married to Jake Frost, author of "Catholic Dad" and the "Happy Jar," and they have four children.

Prof. Pezzini's handout can be found here: tinyurl.com/nkxw4saa This lecture was given on May 9, 2022 at Oxford University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Giuseppe Pezzini is Associate Professor of Latin Language & Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Prof. Pezzini returned to CCC in 2021, after five beautiful years of teaching in St Andrews (2016–2021), and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford (2013–2015) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2016). He has studied and worked in excellent collegiate institutions, the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (2003–2008) and the University of Oxford (D.Phil. 2012). From 2010 to 2013, he worked as Assistant Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin. He was visiting professor at the University of Turin in 2020, visiting fellow at Leiden University in 2015, and visiting student at CCC itself, back in 2006, where everything began. He is currently supervising research projects on the Comoedia Togata and the Theory of Fiction in late Antique commentaries.

What does St. Thomas Aquinas say about happiness and ultimate purpose? How (and how not) can we be happy? Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. J. Budziszewski about Aquinas' thoughts on happiness. Aquinas on Happiness w/ Fr. Gregory Pine and Prof. J. Budziszewski (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to one of Prof. Budziszewski's lectures on happiness here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/how-and-how-not-to-be-happy For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org About the speaker: J. Budziszewski (Ph.D. Yale, 1981) is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His main area of research is the natural moral law, and he is most well known for his work on moral self-deception, “the revenge of conscience,” what happens when we tell ourselves that we don't know what we really do know. However, he has written about all sorts of things such as moral character, family and sexuality, religion and public life, toleration and liberty, and the unraveling of our common culture. The most recent of his thirteen books are Commentary on Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law and Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics, both from Cambridge University Press, as well as On the Meaning of Sex, from Intercollegiate Studies Institute. His book for students, How to Stay Christian in College has sold several hundred thousand copies. He also maintains a personal website and blog, The Underground Thomist. Married for more than 45 years, Dr. Budziszewski has several children and a clutch of grandchildren.

This lecture was given on April 28, 2022 at Texas State University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Dominic Langevin is an assistant professor of systematic theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and editor in chief of the journal The Thomist. He specializes in sacramental theology. He did his undergraduate studies at Yale University and his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He was formerly assigned as a parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Charlottesville, Virginia, serving the University of Virginia.

This lecture was given on April 28, 2022 at the University of Arizona. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Paul Gondreau earned his doctorate in sacred theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, writing under the renowned Thomist scholar Rev. Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. He is professor of theology at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he teaches/has taught courses on marriage, Christology, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, the Church, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, and the Catholic thought of J.R.R. Tolkien. He has a published manuscript on Christ's human passions in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published numerous essays in the area of Thomistic Christology, Thomistic anthropology, a Thomistic account of human sexuality, and a Thomistic theology of disability. His is associate editor of the theological journal Nova et Vetera, and has served as a consultant to the USCCB's committee on marriage and family.

This lecture was given on April 26, 2022 at Oxford University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Dr. Rebekah Lamb specializes in religion, literature and visual culture from the long nineteenth century to the present, with an emphasis on the Pre-Raphaelites as well as their affiliate circles and inheritors. She joined the School of Divinity in 2018. Prior to St. Andrews she was an inaugural Étienne Gilson Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto (St Michael's College). Dr Lamb received her PhD in Victorian and Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature as well as her Masters in English Literature from Western University (London, ON, Canada). During her doctoral studies she was a Kuyper Emerging Scholar and an Ontario Graduate Scholar. She holds an Honors BA in Liberal Arts Studies, with special emphasis on English Literature and the Humanities, from the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (New Hampshire, USA and Rome, Italy). Dr. Lamb frequently writes for public-facing journals and magazines, including Church Life Journal, Convivium: Faith in Our Common Life, The Catholic Herald, and The Scottish Catholic Observer. She has featured in public programs for BBC One & BBC Scotland, the Christian Heritage Centre (Stonyhurst) and the McGrath Institute at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA). She is often invited to speak on topics relating to her research and broader, theological and cultural themes—especially as informed by Roman Catholic approaches to aesthetics, cultural studies, and formation. She delivered the 2020 Cardinal Winning Lecture (Glasgow University) on St. Thérèse of Lisieux's status as a Doctor of the Church for our times and in 2018 co-taught the University of Toronto’s first Gilson Seminar in Faith and Ideas in Rome, Italy with Randy Boyagoda. She is the co-founder of the annual St. Margaret of Scotland Lecture Series at the University of St. Andrews, which launched in 2020.

This lecture was given on April 26, 2022 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Old Town Alexandria. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. He was born and raised in Connecticut and studied philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He joined the Order of Preachers in 2007, making his solemn vows in 2011 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2013. Fr. Little has a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, where he completed a dissertation entitled Aristotelian Change and the Scala Naturae. He primarily works on topics of interest in Aristotelian-Thomism and natural philosophy. He has previously taught at Providence College and is now a member of the faculty of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

This lecture was given on April 22, 2022 at Youngstown State University. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Brian T. Carl earned his M.A. in Philosophy from Saint Louis University and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America. He is an assistant professor at the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. His research focuses on Thomistic metaphysics, philosophical theology, cognitive theory, and moral psychology.