The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on October 23rd, 2025, at Indiana University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Paul Gondreau is professor of theology at Providence College, where he has taught for 28 years. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, doing his dissertation on Christ's full humanity (C...

Fr. Thomas Pickett explores what Aquinas means by study and argues that study is not just academic work but a morally formative pursuit that shapes charity, virtue, and the Christian path to happiness. This lecture was given on August 29th, 2025, at University of California Berkeley. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Fr Thomas Aquin...

Prof. Michael Krom presents Aquinas’s account of charity and asks what it really means to love the sinner without affirming the sin, showing how true Christian love can require both mercy and moral clarity. This lecture was given on August 18th, 2025, at Universidad Panamericana. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Michael Krom starte...

Prof. Mathew Thomas introduces the Church Fathers as the first theologians and explains how their witness to Scripture, Christian discipleship, and early worship can still help readers understand the faith and its unity today. This lecture was given on June 9th, 2025, at University of Oregon. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Dr. Ma...

Prof. Thomas Ward examines medieval arguments for God’s existence in Anselm, Aquinas, and Scotus, showing how each thinker approaches the question from a different starting point and why their arguments still matter for faith and reason. This lecture was given on April 21st, 2025, at Saint Vincent College. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the S...

Prof. John O’Callaghan examines the Big Bang in relation to the Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo and argues that cosmology and belief in God as creator address different kinds of explanation. This lecture was given on February 27th, 2025, at University of South Carolina. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Prof. John O'Callagh...

Prof. Brad Gregory argues that the Protestant Reformation set off a chain of unintended consequences that helped produce the secular, fragmented modern world, ultimately showing why and how that history still shapes how we live, believe, and consume today. This lecture was given on February 27th, 2025, at West Virginia University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstit...

Prof. Christopher Kaczor argues that the common claim that all religions are just different paths to the same destination collapses under scrutiny, and that Christianity uniquely holds together truth, toleration, and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This lecture was given on February 9th, 2026, at University of Florida. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitu...

Prof. James Felak argues that John Paul II used Polish saints as powerful symbols of faith, moral courage, and national identity to inspire resistance against communism and affirm the Church’s role in Poland’s history. This lecture was given on October 31st, 2026, at St. Albert's Priory. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: James Felak...

Prof. Jennifer Frey explores Flannery O’Connor’s bold claim that art can reveal truth in a way philosophy cannot, and shows how her fiction turns beauty, form, and imagination into a distinctive kind of knowledge. This lecture was given on February 7th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Jennifer...

Fr. Brad Elliott argues that human beings are naturally social and are meant to flourish through the distinct but related societies of family, polity, and Church, with the Church uniquely ordering people to grace and the common good. This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speak...

Prof. Jennifer Frey asks whether Flannery O’Connor is really a “hillbilly Thomist” or a “hillbilly nihilist,” and uses her life and fiction to show how grace, reality, and shocking moral drama can expose the deepest truths about human nature. This lecture was given on February 7th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod ....

Prof. Michael Krom uses Aquinas to argue that while stealing is always morally wrong, urgent need can change what counts as rightful use of superabundant goods, revealing how private property is meant to serve the common good. This lecture was given on February 12th, 2026, at Georgia Institute of Technology. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the...

Dr. Edmund Lazzari explains how Christ’s divinity and humanity make the sacraments, grace, confession, purgatory, and the communion of saints all part of one living mystical body in which every Christian is united to every other in Jesus. This lecture was given on February 11th, 2026, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstit...

Prof. Christopher Kaczor takes Jefferson’s famous declaration apart piece by piece to ask what it really means to say that all people are created equal, why those words still matter, and how natural law and inalienable rights shape a just political order. This lecture was given on April 9th, 2026, at Indiana University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod...

Prof. Christopher Tollefsen argues that medicine is fundamentally ordered to health, not preference satisfaction, and he shows why that matters for abortion, euthanasia, physician authority, and conscience. This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at University of Scranton. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Christopher Tollefse...

Prof. Gregory Doolan explains how Aquinas uses philosophy to show that angels are real immaterial beings—pure forms with intellect and will—whose place in creation can even be understood in relation to the famous “head of a pin” question. This lecture was given on February 5th, 2026, at Harvard University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the S...

Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P. explores how the Catholic tradition understands ownership as a moral relation that binds persons together rather than isolating them, and why that matters for families, society, and human flourishing. This lecture was given on February 4th, 2026, at Stanford University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Fr. Br...

Fr. Thomas Joseph White brings Aquinas and Flannery O’Connor into conversation to ask what sacraments do, how grace reaches us through visible signs, and why O’Connor’s fiction can reveal that same divine work even in the lives of people without sacraments. This lecture was given on February 6th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinst...

Fr. Brad Elliott shows how Leo’s Rerum Novarum responds to Marx and Engels by grounding property rights in the father’s duty to provide, the family’s priority over the state, and the Church’s vision of human flourishing. This lecture was given on November 1st, 2025, at St. Albert's Priory. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Fr. Brad...

Prof. James Nolan argues that Nagasaki’s prayerful response to the atomic bomb can only be understood through the city’s long Christian history, especially the witness of the hidden Christians and Takashi Nagai. This lecture was given on January 29th, 2026, at Florida State University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Professor Jam...

Fr. Brad Elliott argues that it is really a theological vision of the human person as a social being ordered to God through family, polity, and Church, showing how the common good, friendship, and the distinct missions of these three societies shape both public life and spiritual life. This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at Vanderbilt University. To make a gift this June, visit  htt...

This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at University of Toronto. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Sarah Byers is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. Her interests include St. Augustine, Hellenistic philosophy, and the history of ancient and medieval ethics and metaphysics. She is responsible for many publica...

Dr. Brian FitzGerald explores how the first universities emerged from cathedral schools and monastic learning, and why they were built not just to transmit information, but to cultivate wisdom, practical judgment, and a love of learning. This lecture was given on January 15th, 2026, at Dartmouth College. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Spe...

Prof. Raymond Hain argues that Tocqueville’s insights show democratic citizenship depends on stable attachments, shared social life across class lines, and a willingness to let citizens practice freedom through responsibility. This lecture was given on December 4th, 2025, at University of Tulsa. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speakers: Ra...