Episodes

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 Glencomer...

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 ...

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/pod About the Speaker: Fr. David is Dean of Degrees, Lector, Fellow, and Provinc...

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/pod About the Speaker: Fr. David is Dean of Degrees, Lector, ...

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 About the Speaker: Medi Ann Volpe is a Catholic moral theologian and mother of four children, in...

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 Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod About the Speaker: Medi Ann Volpe is a C...

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 Institute Campus Chapter Program here: truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod About the Speaker: Fr. Chr...

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 Dempsey an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religi...

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: Sr. Maria Frassati Jakupcak is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharis...

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 About the Speaker: Fr. Jordan is from New Bedford, MA and graduated from Providence College in 2...

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 Speaker: Fr. Jordan is from New Bedford, MA and graduated from Providence College in 2004, majoring ...

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. Thomas Aquinas Pickett, O.P. is an Assistant Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of ...

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: Catherine Peters is an associate professor of medieval philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los ...

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 Siscoe is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Ohio State University. He is also a Thomis...

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-events About the Speaker: Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomis...

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 Speaker: Steven J Jensen holds the Bishop Nold Chair in Graduate Philosophy at the University of St...

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: Dr. Paige Hochschild is a professor of historical and systematic theology at Mount St. Mary's U...

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 Speaker: Michael Pakaluk is Professor of Political Economy at The Catholic University of America...

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 the Speaker: Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Ins...

Dr. Joshua Hochschild asks how action, thought, and decision-making fit together, and he shows that prudent choice is the uniquely human act that unites intellect, desire, and moral formation under the guidance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This lecture was given on June 25th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s Un...

Dr. Karin Öberg and Dr. Paul LaPenna take up a deceptively simple question—how can a scientist be holy?—and show how the pursuit of truth in creation can become a path to humility, charity, and wonder before 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: Professor Öberg obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Caltech and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the U...

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett and Sr. Anna Wray ask the question "How did study sanctify St. Thomas Aquinas?" St. Thomas serves as an exemplar of how study becomes holy when it is ordered by charity, tempered by right desire, and lived as a way of being with 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 Thomas Aquinas Pickett is a son of Ellensburg, ...

Prof. Marshall Bierson asks what it really means to be philosophical, and he takes listeners through the subtle ways our love of truth gets derailed—by winning, by approval, by self-justification, and even by mistaking the feeling of insight for insight itself. 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: Marshall Bierson is an assistant professor of phi...

Prof. Joshua Benson asks why we should be theological, and he answers with a vivid case for studying the faith: to think more deeply, speak more clearly to others, and let theology shape both mind and life. 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: Joshua Benson specializes in Medieval Theology. He has taught at The Catholic University of America sinc...