The Thomistic Institute

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 Jul...

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...

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 le...

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.thomist...

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...

Prof. Lewis Ayres presents Newman's account of conscience as, not a private inner voice, but the echo of God's voice within the human being, that although refracted by sin and therefore requiring long formation in humility and obedience, is an entry into true fraternity. This lecture was given on July 24th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College. Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: t...

Prof. Lewis Ayres draws on Newman's Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Doctrine to argue that conscience must be educated through a long process of moral and doctrinal formation, and that the young Ratzinger draws the same connections between consceince and the community and worship of the Church. This lecture was given on July 25th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College. Su...

Prof. Medi Volpe argues that conscience is formed through the imagination, which is nurtured and filled by stories, so that discerning right action is less a matter of weighing propositions than of recognizing one's part in a larger story. This lecture was given on July 25th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College. Support the Thomistic Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod...

Prof. Medi Volpe argues that conscience is not an abstract faculty but an everyday moral sense that must be awakened and nurtured, and that grace works through ordinary channels — stories, scripture, friends, and even our failures — to form us, little by little, into people who listen and obey. This lecture was given on July 26th, 2026, at Stonyhurst College. Support the Thomistic Institute Campus...

Fr. Chris Gault, O.P. lays out Aquinas's epistemology of moderate realism, in which all knowledge begins with the senses and the agent intellect abstracts universal forms from phantasms, and defends it against skepticism, ancient and modern, including the claim that artificial intelligence cannot truly know. This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Glencomeragh House. Support the Thomistic In...

Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. argues that the natural human desire to know, though it draws the mind toward the contemplation of God, can only reach its fulfillment when purified and redirected by grace and the theological virtues, so that every discipline of study becomes a path of sanctity. This lecture was given on June 26th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. Support the Thomistic Institute Campu...

Prof. Erik Dempsey explains St. Thomas Aquinas’s account of justification as God’s free gift of grace, which heals sin, moves human freedom, and forms believers in faith working through charity. This lecture was given on March 21st, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Professor Erik Demp...

Sr. Maria Frassati Jakupcak shows how Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure exposes the limits of abstract knowledge and reveals why some truths can only be known through love, experience, and particular relationship. This lecture was given on April 11th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker:...

Fr. Jordan Zajac takes Shakespeare’s most morally charged characters and Aquinas’s deepest insights on love, hatred, and prudence to show why holiness sometimes means not just loving the good, but fiercely refusing what corrupts it. This lecture was given on April 10th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events...

Fr. Jordan Zajac uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Aquinas’s account of prudence to show how a person can know the good, reject it in imagination, and still fall into action through an inner collapse of judgment and will. This lecture was given on April 10th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Spea...

Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., presents St. Leo the Great’s theology of mercy, showing how love for the poor and weak flows from Christ’s Incarnation, affirms the dignity of every human person, and calls Christians to become merciful as God is merciful. This lecture was given on May 3rd, 2026, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitut...

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett, O.P., explains how Christ’s eternal priesthood fulfills the human desire for beatitude by reconciling humanity to God through his self-offering and drawing believers into the life of heaven. This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at St. Albert's Priory. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Fr...

Prof. Catherine Peters unpacks Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy of language and reveals how the words we use do more than describe reality: they shape what we understand, how we judge, and how we act. This lecture was given on April 1st, 2026, at University of California, Los Angeles. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Catherin...

Dr. Wes Siscoe tackles a big question in science and philosophy, arguing that the very fact that nature follows stable, intelligible laws points beyond brute fact and toward God as the deeper explanation. This lecture was given on April 14th, 2026, at University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Wes...

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy brings Aquinas into the urgent modern conversation about vocation, showing why the path to a call is not endless hesitation but a grace-filled, courageous movement toward charity and the life God is asking of us. This lecture was given on April 15th, 2026, at University of South Florida. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-event...

Prof. Steven Jensen asks whether computers can really think, and he argues that while machines can imitate reasoning and behavior associated with thought, they lack the awareness that makes genuine thinking possible. This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at Southern Methodist University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Spe...

Prof. Paige Hochschild explores what truth is and shows, through Tolkien, how truth arises from the mind’s encounter with reality, how myth can reveal historical meaning, and how truthful storytelling can shape moral vision. This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at Williams College. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker:...

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., explains why holiness does not require exceptional intelligence but does call every person to grow in the distinctly human capacities to know truth, choose the good, and love God. This lecture was given on June 27th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Fr. Gregory...

Prof. Michael Pakaluk compares Catholicism and golf in order to show how a game often dismissed as “useless” can become a surprisingly rich school of virtue, shaping humility, patience, prudence, honesty, and love of tradition. This lecture was given on April 17th, 2026, at Ohio State University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the...

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy shows how Thomas Aquinas helps Catholics contemplate the presence of God in nature, grace, and the Incarnation, so that ordinary prayer and daily life become occasions for deeper awareness of divine closeness. This lecture was given on April 17th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About t...