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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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- 3 weeks ago46 min
Does Vatican II Permit a Hermeneutic of Rupture? – Prof. Christopher Malloy
Prof. Christopher Malloy argues that Vatican II does not permit a hermeneutic of rupture but demands one of continuity and reform, as Benedict XVI taught, rejecting both progressive over-spiritualization and traditionalist rejection of post-conciliar developments.This lecture was given on March 24th, 2026, at Franciscan University of Steubenville.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Christopher J. Malloy is married to Flory with whom he has seven children. He earned his B.A. in Theology (second major in Philosophy) from the University of Notre Dame in 1992. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology (minor in Philosophy) from The Catholic University of America in 2001. Since then he has taught at The University of Dallas, where he currently serves as Professor and Chair of Theology. He has published three books: Engrafted into Christ: A Critique of the Joint Declaration [on Justification], Aquinas on Beatific Charity and the Problem of Love, and False Mercy: Recent Heresies Distorting Catholic Truth. He has published numerous blind peer-reviewed articles for journals such as The Thomist, Nova et Vetera, Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie, Josephinum, Angelicum, etc. He loves academia, especially publishing and teaching systematic theology, but he has always been fired up to give popular presentations highlighting the intelligibility and beauty of the Catholic faith, since that was the reason he got into Theology in the first place. Keywords: Benedict XVI, Continuity, Dei Verbum, Dignitatis Humanae, Hermeneutic of Rupture, Inerrancy, Lumen Gentium, Religious Freedom, Vatican II Reception
- 3 weeks ago1h 3m
Like Soul to Body?: The Church's Developing Understanding of Her Relation to the State – Fr. Brad Elliott, O.P.
Fr. Brad Elliott traces the Church's evolving use of the soul-body metaphor for her relation to the state, purifying it in modern social teaching to affirm the Church as a distinct perfect society ordered to supernatural ends while leavening the temporal order.This lecture was given on March 24th, 2026, at Cornell University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. Brad Elliott was raised in Dayton Ohio and studied Jazz percussion at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. After being raised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran he entered the Catholic Church in 2002.After moving to California, Fr. Brad became an active, performing musician, with a reputation as a highly sought after drummer on the international scene. Working in Los Angeles, CA, he performed and recorded various styles of modern music from Rock to jazz and big band. During his time in Los Angeles he performed and toured extensively with artists such as Annie Stela and Brie Larson.After ten years as a professional drum set player and feeling a call to commit himself entirely to Jesus Christ, Fr. Brad chose to leave the music industry and become a Dominican friar within Western Dominican Province. After completing theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ on June, 22nd 2018 at St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco, CA.In 2014 Fr. Brad received an MA in philosophy from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley CA. In 2021 he received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. In 2025 he completed a Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC focusing on the role of human craft and participatory governance in the social doctrine of the Church. He is currently a professor of Moral Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California. He authored the book The Shape of the Artistic Mind published by Pontifex University Press in 2023.Keywords: Bellarmine, Catholic Social Teaching, Common Good, Giles of Rome, Leo XIII, Perfect Society, Pius XI, Societas Perfecta, Soul-Body Metaphor, Two Swords
- 3 weeks ago45 min
Foreigners’ Views on American Secularism: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, and G.K. Chesterton – Prof. James Nolan
Prof. James Nolan argues that Tocqueville, Weber, and Chesterton offer contrasting foreign views on American secularism, with Tocqueville and Chesterton seeing religion as essential to democracy and predicting its persistence, while Weber views Protestantism as inevitably fueling disenchantment.This lecture was given on March 23rd, 2026, at New York University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Professor James L. Nolan, Jr. is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College, where he has been teaching since 1996. Professor Nolan’s teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law and society, culture, technology and social change, and historical comparative sociology. His most recent book, Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, was published with Harvard University Press in 2020. His previous books include What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G.K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb (2016); Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement (2009); Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement (2001); and The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century’s End (1998). He is the recipient of several grants and awards including National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and a Fulbright scholarship. He has held visiting fellowships at Oxford University, Loughborough University, the University of Notre Dame, Catholic University of America, and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University.Keywords: American Democracy, Chesterton, Disenchantment, Iron Cage, Protestant Ethic, Religion, Secularization, Second Great Awakening, Tocqueville, Weber
- 3 weeks ago56 min
The Catholic Imagination of Oscar Wilde – Prof. Guiseppe Pezzini
Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini argues that Oscar Wilde's aestheticism and life journey reveal a Catholic imagination, where art confronts suffering and beauty leads to embracing the full reality of pain, culminating in his final reconciliation with faith.This lecture was given on March 23rd, 2026, at University of Galway.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Prof. Guiseppe Pezzini is an Associate Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, specializing in Early Latin (3rd–1st c. BC). A linguist and philologist by training, he explores the period's crucial role in shaping Roman-Greek cultural identity, applying expertise in ancient metre, textual criticism, and digital humanities to his research.His career has included teaching at the University of St Andrews and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and earned his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. From 2010 to 2013, he also served as an Assistant Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin.Professor Pezzini's interests extend to the classical ancestry of modern English literature. This is seen in his forthcoming monograph, Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation (Cambridge University Press 2025). Other recent and forthcoming books include volumes on Early Latin (Cambridge 2023), Roman Cultural History (Oxford 2025), and an edition and commentary on Terence's Heauton Timorumenos (forthcoming in the Cambridge ‘Orange Series’).Keywords: Aestheticism, Beauty, Conversion, De Profundis, Dorian Gray, Suffering, Happy Prince, Prison, Prophecy, Wounded Humanity
- 3 weeks ago49 min
Catholic Social Teaching: Highlights from the Popes – Prof. James Felak
Prof. James Felak traces Catholic social teaching from Leo XIII to Francis, showing how the popes defend human dignity, a just wage, solidarity with the poor, subsidiarity, and the balance between rights and duties against both unchecked capitalism and collectivist ideologies.This lecture was given on March 5th, 2026, at University of Washington.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:James Felak is a Professor of History and current holder of the Newman Center Term Professorship in Catholic Christianity at the University of Washington. He specializes in Catholicism in East Central Europe and has authored two books on Catholic politics in Slovakia, and a book on Pope John Paul II and his visits to his native Poland during and after Communist rule there. This latter work is based on hundreds of pages of papal speeches and sermons, and the records of the Communist government and secret police as they monitored the Pope during his visits. Besides courses on modern Europe, Felak teaches “The History of Christianity” and “Catholic Classics in Historical Context.” The latter course covers the major Catholic writers and thinkers from St. Augustine and St. Benedict through G. K. Chesterton and Flannery O’Connor. Felak is from southwestern Pennsylvania, received his doctorate from Indiana University, and has resided in Seattle since 1989.Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching, Common Good, Human Dignity, John Paul II, Just Wage, Leo XIII, Rights And Duties, Solidarity, Subsidiarity, Workers
- 4 weeks ago1h 1m
Mary's Necessary Role in the Spiritual Life – Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P.
This lecture was given on March 20th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. John Mark Solitario is from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Springfield, MA and the eldest of four children. After attending Catholic schools through high school, he earned his bachelor of arts from Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Desiring to contribute to Catholic education, he was admitted to the PACT (Providence Alliance of Catholic Teachers) Program at Providence College where he completed a Masters of Education and taught high school in Lowell, MA for two years. He credits his growth in the Catholic Faith and inspiration to live it fully to outstanding teachers and role models, among them not a few Dominicans—priests, sisters, and lay. “From the time I met the Order, I aspired to the Dominican ideal of contemplation followed by a generous sharing of the fruits of that encounter with God. I have found this ideal realized and sustained within the fraternal life of the Province of St. Joseph.”
- 4 weeks ago45 min
How to Marry Your Best Friend: Thomas Aquinas on Friendship, Marriage, and Children – Dr. Nathaniel Peters
This lecture was given on March 19th, 2026, at Universidad Panamericana.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Nathaniel Peters is the Director of the Morningside Institute. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, his M.T.S. from the University of Notre Dame, and his Ph.D. from Boston College. He has published article on many topics on religion and public life, and his first book, The Trinitarian Dimensions of Cistercian Eucharistic Theology, is forthcoming from Catholic University of America Press.
- May 6, 202651 min
'I Cannot Tell a Lie': Thomas Aquinas on the Moral Permissibility of Lying – Prof. Christopher Tomaszewski
This lecture was given on March 19th, 2026, at University of Toronto.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Christopher Tomaszewski is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Belmont Abbey College, where he teaches philosophy and great books. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Baylor University and a BS in mathematics from Villanova University. His primary research interests include metaphysics, mediæval philosophy, logic, and philosophy of religion (especially Thomistic solutions to contemporary problems in analytic philosophy), and more specifically in philosophical anthropology, classical theism, mereology, and causation. He is the author of several articles in Analysis, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and other journals. He lives near Charlotte, NC, with his wife Haley and their dog Borromeo.
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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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