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by 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.
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- 2 days ago46 min
Art that reveals Nature: A Thomistic Account of Scientific Experiments and Instruments - Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.
Fr. Thomas Davenport argues against the Thomist intuition that artifice obscures nature, showing from Aquinas's account of art and artifacts that artificial forms are accidental forms rooted in the natural active and passive powers of substances, so that scientific instruments and experiments reveal rather than distort the natures they investigate.This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P., is professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he teaches philosophy of nature and epistemology. He has written and spoken on the relationship of faith and science in a variety of venues, including being a main contributor to the Thomistic Evolution project. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2017 and is working on his second PhD in philosophy. Keywords: Active and Passive Powers, Anjan Chakravarthy, Aquinas, Artificial Form, Assisting Cause, Causal Properties, Nancy Cartwright, Nomological Machine, Scientific Instruments, Semi-Realism
- 3 days ago47 min
The Mystery of Beauty - Dr. Sarah E. Maple
Dr. Sarah E. Maple asks how we acquire an organic vision of beauty that is not merely material or visual, arguing from Aquinas's formal criteria of beauty (proportion, integrity, clarity) and Hans Urs von Balthasar's theological aesthetics (form and splendor, beholding and enrapture) that beauty belongs first to the human person, and that the artist's vocation is grounded in wonder, self-gift, and the sincerity of the body, culminating in a spirituality of artistic service.This lecture was given on April 21st, 2026, at University of Georgia.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Dr. Sarah E. Maple is a Visiting Research Scholar at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, within the University’s Centre for Theology and the Arts. She is a painter, theologian, and professor whose work emphasizes the intersection of creative bodily expression, the sacred imagination, and the interior life of the artist. Sarah wrote her doctoral dissertation at the University of St. Andrews’ Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (2017), and read for her MTS at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute. She lectures graduate students in theology and art at both the University of Notre Dame and St Joseph’s Seminary. She is also a Visiting Research Scholar at The William G. Congdon Foundation.Keywords: Aquinas, Balthasar, Clarity, Formal Criteria Of Beauty, Integrity, John Paul II, Proportion, Self Gift, Theology Of The Body, Wonder
- 4 days ago1h 5m
The War on Beauty - Fr. Gabriel Torretta, O.P.
Fr. Gabriel Torretta argues that beauty has become a "forbidden word" for our age due to the effects of German Idealism and Modernism; as a remedy, he proposes a recovery grounded in the Christian metaphysical tradition (Eriugena, Aquinas, Augustine), in which beauty is the attractive power by which God draws all things to himself and which requires an asceticism of the gaze.This lecture was given on April 28th, 2026, at University of Washington.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Gabriel Torretta, O.P., is assistant professor of Theology at Providence College. He is a church historian whose work focuses on the history of Christian ideas of beauty and art, with a particular focus on the eighth and ninth centuries. He recently completed his PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School, with a dissertation entitled “‘Beautiful as the Moon’: Discourses of Beauty in the Carolingian Era.” His current projects explore the cultural and theological legacy of ninth-century thinkers like Theodulf of Orléans, Hrabanus Maurus, and John Scottus Eriugena.Keywords: Adorno, Aquinas, Asceticism Of The Gaze, Augustine, Bouguereau, Divine Beauty, Eriugena, Lucian Freud, Roger Scruton, Worship Of Beauty
- 5 days ago42 min
On the Via Pulchritudinis: Pope Benedict XVI’s Meditations on Art and Prayer - Fr. Alan O'Sullivan, O.P.
Fr. Alan O'Sullivan provides an introduction to Pope Benedict XVI's thought on the "via pulchritudinis" — the way of beauty — arguing that authentic beauty wounds the heart and draws it toward the transcendent Logos, is inseparable from truth, goodness, and prayer, and is indispensable for the Church's liturgy and evangelization against a false, self-absorbing beauty.This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Fr. Alan O’Sullivan, O.P. (Trinity College) is currently the chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin. He is a member of the Irish province of the Order of Preachers who studied at Blackfriars, Oxford.Keywords: Beauty, Benedict XVI, Dostoevsky, Logos, Magnificat, Paul Claudel, Prayer, Saints, Via Pulchritudinis, Wound Of Beauty
- 6 days ago51 min
Purifying the Imagination: Iconoclasm and the Incarnation - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.
Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that the Exodus prohibition on graven images was a purification of Israel's imagination from false imaginings of the invisible God, and that the Incarnation opens a new, positive use of sacred images — the face of Christ and the icons of his saints — by which the imagination is fed and purified for contemplation, a truth vindicated by Saint John Damascene and the Second Council of Nicaea against the iconoclasts.This lecture was given on July 19th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.Keywords: Aquinas, Dulia, Iconoclasm, Incarnation, John Damascene, Latria, Purification Of The Imagination, Sacred Images, Second Council Of Nicaea, Veneration Of Images
- 1 weeks ago1h 5m
Iconoclastic and Incarnational Church Architecture - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.
Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that church architecture is "incarnational" when it corresponds to a true cosmological vision of reality ordered through and toward the Logos and embodies the principles revealed to Moses on Sinai, and "iconoclastic" when, in its modernist self-referentiality, it rejects that order and fails to communicate the body and head of Christ made present in the liturgy.This lecture was given on July 19th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.Keywords: Aquinas, Cosmological View, Hermeneutic Of Fracture, Iconoclasm, Incarnational Architecture, Le Corbusier, Logos, Maximus The Confessor, Pantheon, Sacred Architecture
- 1 weeks ago42 min
Aquinas on Conscience as the Application of Knowledge to Practice - Fr. David Goodill, O.P.
Fr. David Goodill explains that, for Aquinas, conscience is not a power of the soul but an act of the intellect rooted in the natural habit of synderesis and formed by the virtues, above all prudence, so that it reflects the deepest interiority of the person.This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Fr. David is Dean of Degrees, Lector, Fellow, and Provincial Bursar. He studied Philosophy in Cambridge and Manchester before entering the Dominican Order. He has a doctorate in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and maintains interests in both Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology. He was Prior of Oxford, and has served Blackfriars Hall and Studium as Hall Bursar, Vice-Regent, Senior Tutor and Acting Regent. He is a visiting lecturer in moral theology at St Joseph’s University, Macau.Publications: ‘Original Sense: Augustine and Wittgenstein on Religion and Origins’ in Augustine and Wittgenstein (2018); ‘Elizabeth Anscombe on Just War’ in The Moral Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe (2016); Nature as Guide: Wittgenstein and the Renewal of Moral Theology (CUA Press, 2022).Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Free Choice, Intellect, Justice, Prudence, Summa Theologiae, Synderesis, Virtue, Will
- 1 weeks ago47 min
Aquinas on Conscience and the Inner Act of the Will - Fr. David Goodill, O.P.
Fr. David Goodill expounds Aquinas's treatment of conscience in Summa theologiae I-II, q.19, arguing that conscience is the inner act of the will and that, even when erring, it binds the agent, such that right formation of conscience through virtue, law, and grace is essential.This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College.Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/podAbout the Speaker:Fr. David is Dean of Degrees, Lector, Fellow, and Provincial Bursar. He studied Philosophy in Cambridge and Manchester before entering the Dominican Order. He has a doctorate in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and maintains interests in both Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology. He was Prior of Oxford, and has served Blackfriars Hall and Studium as Hall Bursar, Vice-Regent, Senior Tutor and Acting Regent. He is a visiting lecturer in moral theology at St Joseph’s University, Macau.Publications: ‘Original Sense: Augustine and Wittgenstein on Religion and Origins’ in Augustine and Wittgenstein (2018); ‘Elizabeth Anscombe on Just War’ in The Moral Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe (2016); Nature as Guide: Wittgenstein and the Renewal of Moral Theology (CUA Press, 2022).Keywords: Aquinas, Conscience, Erring Conscience, Grace, Intention, Moral Species, Object Of The Act, Prudence, Summa Theologiae, Virtue
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About 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.
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