The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on September 28th, 2023, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the speaker: Sr. Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia. Sister received her PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, having written her dissertation on Aristotle’s account of the activity of contemplation. Sister is on faculty in CUA's School of Philosophy.

This lecture was given on October 20th, 2023, at The University of North Florida. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the speaker: Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. He was born and raised in Connecticut and studied philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He joined the Order of Preachers in 2007, making his solemn vows in 2011 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2013. Fr. Little has a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, where he completed a dissertation entitled Aristotelian Change and the Scala Naturae. He primarily works on topics of interest in Aristotelian-Thomism and natural philosophy. He has previously taught at Providence College and is now a member of the faculty of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

This lecture was given on October 13th 2023, at St. Joseph's in Greenwich Village. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the speaker: Michael Root is Ordinary Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. His particular theological interests are ecumenical relations, eschatology/last things, and grace and justification. Root has been a member of various international ecumenical dialogues. He served on the drafting teams that produced the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

This lecture was given on October 27th, 2023, at St. Joseph's in Greenwich Village For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Bronwen McShea is an historian and author who lives in New York City and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the Augustine Institute in Denver. She earned her B.A. in History and Masters in Theological Studies at Harvard University and her Ph.D. in History at Yale University and has held research and teaching positions at Princeton University, the University of Nebraska Omaha, Columbia University, and the Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany. She is the author of three books: the forthcoming "Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know" (Ignatius Press), "La Duchesse: The Life of Marie de Vignerot, Cardinal Richelieu's Forgotten Heiress Who Shaped the Fate of France" (Pegasus Books, 2023), and "Apostles of Empire: The Jesuits and New France" (Nebraska Press, 2019). She has also written f

Stephen Meredith is a professor at the University of Chicago’s Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Neurology. He is also an associate faculty member in the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has published more than 100 journal articles, focusing on the biophysics of protein structure. Much of his work has been the application of solution and solid-state NMR to the study of amyloid proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease. He has also published articles on literature and philosophy in diverse aspects of medical humanities and bioethics. His teaching includes courses to graduate students in biochemistry and biophysics, medical students, and undergraduates and graduate students in the humanities, including courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Dostoevsky (focusing on Brothers Karamazov), Thomas Mann and David Foster Wallace. He is currently working on a book examining disease and the theological problem of evil

Thomas Hibbs is currently J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, where he is also Dean Emeritus, having served for 16 years as Dean of the Honors College and as Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture. Hibbs received a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and has served as tutor at Thomas Aquinas College, Full Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy at Boston College, and President of the University of Dallas. Hibbs works in the areas of medieval philosophy, especially Thomas Aquinas, contemporary virtue ethics, and aesthetics. He has published more than thirty scholarly articles and seven books, as well as 100 reviews and discussion articles on film, theater, art, and higher education in a variety of venues.

Fr. Gregory currently serves as an adjunct professor of dogmatic theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He is a contributor on the Pints with Aquinas show and a co-host of the Catholic Classics podcast. Fr. Gregory is the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly and co-author with Matt Fradd of Marian Consecration With Aquinas: A Nine Day Path for Growing Closer to the Mother of God.

Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P. is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. He was born and raised in Connecticut and studied philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He joined the Order of Preachers in 2007, making his solemn vows in 2011 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2013. Fr. Little has a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Virginia, where he completed a dissertation entitled Aristotelian Change and the Scala Naturae. He primarily works on topics of interest in Aristotelian-Thomism and natural philosophy. He has previously taught at Providence College and is now a member of the faculty of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an Assistant Professor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican.

W. Matthews Grant is Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy at University of St. Thomas (MN), and Associate Editor of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. His articles have focused on Aquinas and the Philosophy of God, particularly issues having to do with the divine nature and God’s relationship to human freedom. His new book Free Will and God’s Universal Causality: The Dual Sources Account, draws resources from Aquinas and the scholastic tradition to explain how libertarian creaturely freedom can be reconciled with robust accounts of God’s providence, grace, and predestination.

Jane Sloan Peters is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY. Her dissertation explored Thomas Aquinas's reception of Greek patristic and Byzantine biblical interpretation for his four-volume commentary on the Gospels, the Catena Aurea. Jane has written for First Things, the University of Notre Dame's Church Life Journal, Plough Quarterly, and America Magazine. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Jane Sloan Peters about her latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Beyond Words: What ChatGPT Can't Say." Beyond Words: What ChatGPT Can't Say w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. & Prof. Jane Sloan Peters (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute About the speaker: Jane Sloan Peters is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY. Her dissertation explored Thomas Aquinas's reception of Greek patristic and Byzantine biblical interpretation for his four-volume commentary on the Gospels, the Catena Aurea. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

This lecture was given on September 21st, 2023, at Saint Vincent College. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the Speaker: Matthew Shea is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He specializes in moral philosophy and bioethics, with additional interests in philosophy of religion and epistemology. Prior to joining Franciscan, he did his undergraduate studies at Boston College, received a PhD in philosophy from Saint Louis University, completed a fellowship in clinical health care ethics at UCLA, and taught at the University of Scranton.

This lecture was given on October 23rd, 2023 at William and Mary. For more information on upcoming events, visit thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events. About the Speaker: Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P., (Ph.D. Notre Dame) is associate professor of patristics and ancient languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies where he serves as the director of the doctoral program. He has authored Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford University Press, 2013) and The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh (Catholic University of America, 2023). His research appears in such journals as Augustinianum, Journal of the History of Ideas, and Vigiliae Christianae. Editor-in-chief of the academic journal The Thomist, Hofer is editor or co-editor of several volumes including The Oxford Handbook of Deification and The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons. He is presently at work on a book titled Peace in the Life and Teaching of Augustine of Hippo.

This lecture was given on November 15th, 2023 at Saint Louis University. For more information on upcoming events, visit thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events. About the Speaker: Daniel De Haan is a Research Fellow in Natural Theology at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford he was a postdoctoral fellow working on the neuroscience strand of the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and the Sciences project at the University of Cambridge. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven and University of St Thomas in Texas. His research focuses on philosophical anthropology and the sciences, natural theology, and the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

Sister Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia. Sister received her PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, having written her dissertation on Aristotle’s account of the activity of contemplation. Sister is on faculty in CUA's School of Philosophy.

Candace Vogler is the David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor of Philosophy and Professor in the College at the University of Chicago, and Principal Investigator on "Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life," a project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. She has authored two books, John Stuart Mill's Deliberative Landscape: An Essay in Moral Psychology (Routledge, 2001) and Reasonably Vicious (Harvard University Press, 2002), and essays in ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy and literature, cinema, psychoanalysis, gender studies, sexuality studies, and other areas. Her research interests are in practical philosophy (particularly the strand of work in moral philosophy indebted to Elizabeth Anscombe), practical reason, Kant's ethics, Marx, and neo-Aristotelian naturalism.

Dr. Paul LaPenna is a neurologist in Greenville, SC and Associate Professor of Neurology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Carolinas Campus. Dr. LaPenna completed his neurology residency at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2018. As a neurohospitalist, Dr. LaPenna’s skill set is focused on treatment of neurological emergencies and performing and interpreting electrophysiological studies of the brain and peripheral nervous system. As an Associate Professor of Neurology, Dr. LaPenna has won numerous teaching awards, including Clinical Medicine Professor of the neuroscience curriculum in 2019, 2020, and 2021. For the 2020-2021 academic year, Dr. LaPenna was awarded the Preceptor of the Year. For his care towards patients, he was elected to the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2016. Dr. LaPenna has an interest in the relationship between science and faith—in particular, the relationship between neuroscience and the soul, the overreaching claims of science, and the dignity of t

The Philosophical And Scientific Images Of Humanity I Professor James Madden by The Thomistic Institute

Matthew Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His dissertation, "A Thomistic Account of the Habituation of the Passions," explored the ways in which people can develop virtuous affective inclinations. Dr. Dugandzic's scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas' anthropology, psychology, and ethics. His work on Christ's passions recently appeared in the European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas and his other writings on the passions and on bioethics have appeared in New Blackfriars and National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. His current research focuses on the sources that Aquinas used in developing his understanding of virtue and on recovering ancient and medieval wisdom regarding economics in order to apply this wisdom to contemporary financial problems (like student loan debt). Dr. Dugandzic has taught courses in fundamental moral th