The Thomistic Institute

Dr. R. J. Snell analyzes our “burnout society” as an achievement-obsessed culture that drives people to anxiety, depression, and exhaustion by demanding endless self-optimization while starving them of leisure, contemplation, and a meaningful narrative for their lives.This lecture was given on December 8th, 2025, at University of Pennsylvania.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:R. J. Snell is Editor-in-Chief of Public Discourse and Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ. He has been a visiting instructor at Princeton University, where he is also executive director of the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life. He's written books and articles on Natural Law, Education, Bernard Lonergan, Boredom, Subjectivity, and Sexual Ethics for a variety of publications.Keywords: Achievement Society, Attention Economy, Burnout and Depression, Byung-Chul Han, Disenchantment and Meaning, Existential Poverty, Leisure an

Dr. Kevin Kambo argues that our culture has moved from a “dictatorship of relativism” to a “tyranny of pathos,” in which appeals to hurt feelings and empathy displace reasoned deliberation about truth, justice, and human nature.This lecture was given on October 23rd, 2025, at Fordham University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Kevin M. Kambo is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas in Irving, TX. Before completing his doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America, he earned a bachelor of science in Chemistry at Stanford University and worked as an intellectual property paralegal in Manhattan, NY. Dr. Kambo specialises in classical Greek philosophy, particularly on Platonic moral psychology and on the dramatic elements of Platonic dialogues. He also works on the reception of Platonic thought through history, from late antique (e.g., in Clement of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo) through contempor

Prof. Steven Jensen argues that right and wrong are not just a matter of opinion by defending moral realism over moral relativism, showing that moral truths are grounded in human nature and goals rather than mere subjective attitudes.This lecture was given on November 13th, 2025, at Fordham University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Steven J Jensen holds the Bishop Nold Chair in Graduate Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, where he teaches in The Center for Thomistic Studies. His fields of research include bioethics, moral psychology, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, human nature, and natural law.Keywords: Argument From Disagreement, Flat Earth Example, Human End and Purpose, Moral Objectivity, Moral Realism, Moral Relativism, Rationalization and Desire, Right and Wrong, Thomistic Moral Theory

Fr. Jacques Benoit-Rauscher explores whether the Catholic Church is truly anti-capitalist by clarifying how Catholic social doctrine distinguishes legitimate market structures from the problematic “spirit of capitalism” and proposing a prudent, Thomistic way of living faithfully within contemporary economic systems.This lecture was given on October 30th, 2025, at University of Galway.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:A Dominican friar since 2010, Fr. Jacques-Benoît Rauscher, O.P. is Regent of Studies of the Province of France. He teaches moral theology at the Catholic University of Lyon. He is the author, among others, of Découvrez la Doctrine sociale de l’Église avant d’aller voter (Discover the Social Doctrine of the Church before Voting) (2022) and Des enseignants d’élite ? Sociologie des professeurs de classes préparatoires (Teaching Elite? Sociology of Teachers in Preparatory Classes at Grandes Écoles), published by Éditions du

Prof. George Corbett examines how Dante’s vision of Christian wisdom, politics, and philosophy stands in deep harmony with Aquinas and Pope Leo XIII’s Leonine Thomistic revival, against Etienne Gilson’s charge that Dante shattered both Thomism and Christendom.This lecture was given on January 20th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:George Corbett is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Andrews, and the Director of Cephas (a Thomistic Centre for Philosophy and Scholastic Theology). He researches and teaches theology and the arts (with specialisms in Dante studies, sacred music, and theological aesthetics) and historical theology (with specialisms in medieval theology, Aquinas’s theology and its influence, and Catholic theology). His books include Dante’s Christian Ethics (2020), Dante and Epicurus (2013), and, as editor or co-editor, Vertical Readings in Dante’s ‘Comedy’ (2015-18), Annunci

Prof. Jonathan I. Lunine presents his life as a planetary scientist and Catholic convert as a lived example of the harmony between faith and science, then highlights two priest‑scientists—Georges Lemaître and Gregor Mendel—whose foundational work on the Big Bang and genetics shows that Catholic belief has stood at the center of modern scientific revolutions.This lecture was given on February 20th, 2026, at Duke University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Jonathan Lunine is the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Beforehand, he was the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophist

Dr. Timothy P. Flanigan, M.D., presents Catholic faith and medicine as profoundly harmonious, showing how Christ’s person‑to‑person healing, the Church’s hospital tradition, and a “culture of life” can and must be lived inside today’s secular, therapeutically focused healthcare system—precisely where pressures over abortion, assisted suicide (MAID), and gender interventions create the sharpest conflicts of conscience.This lecture was given on April 6th, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in New York.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Timothy P. Flanigan, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division of The Miriam and Rhode Island Hospitals and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He received a BA from Dartmouth College and an MD from Cornell University Medical School. In 1991, he came to The Miriam Hospital to join Dr. Charles Carpenter to lead the HIV and AIDS program and was subsequently appointed Chief of Inf

Prof. Lawrence M. Principe argues that the supposed “war” between science and faith is largely a modern myth, constructed in the late 19th century by figures like John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White for personal, political, and ideological reasons, then amplified by secularizers, technocratic utopians, and bad theology (especially “God‑of‑the‑gaps” arguments and naive literalism) on the religious side.This lecture was given on January 28th, 2026, at New York University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Prof. Principe’s research focuses on the Medieval and early modern periods, with emphasis on the history of science (especially alchemy and chemistry), and the science-religion dynamic down to the present day. He is the Drew Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of History of Science and Technology and the Department of Chemistry. He holds degrees from the University of Delaware (B.S. Chemis

Prof. Jonathan Lunine offers a personal and intellectual witness that one can be both a serious planetary scientist and a committed Catholic, describing his journey from Jewish upbringing and “cradle astronomer” to baptism and then to public advocacy against the supposed science–faith conflict.This lecture was given on January 15th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Jonathan Lunine is the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Beforehand, he was the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Lunine is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability, and what kinds of exotic environments (methane lakes, etc.) might host a kind of chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life".  He pursues the

Prof. Carlos A. Casanova argues that religion—understood as a theological worldview affirming God as the rational creator—is not an enemy but an historical and structural ally of science, since the very rise, methods, and institutional homes of the sciences (from Plato and Aristotle through medieval universities to Galileo) developed within religious cultures that prized truth for its own sake.This lecture was given on December 3rd, 2025, at Purdue University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:A native of Venezuela, Carlos Casanova holds a law degree from the Catholic University Andrés Bello and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Navarre, Spain. He is now a lecturer at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center.He is a native of Venezuela. There he served as an attorney for the Office of the Attorney General of Venezuela and for the Venezuelan Congress, and as an assistant to a Justice of the Venezuelan Supreme Court in the

Fr. Philip-Neri Reese argues that while grimdark fantasy (exemplified by George R. R. Martin) can be just as true artistically as Tolkien-style classic fantasy, it is necessarily less good in the fullest Thomistic sense because it structurally valorizes nihilism and hopelessness rather than ordering the imagination toward God and real moral hope.This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. Philip-Neri Reese is a Dominican friar of the Province of St Joseph and a Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical University of St.Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. He is also the principal investigator for the Angelicum Thomistic Institute’s new Project on Philosophy and the Thomistic Tradition. He received his Licentiate in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in 2015 and his Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 2022. From 2015-2017 he taught philo

Prof. Lee Oser portrays the Inklings—and especially J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis—as a countercultural circle of Christian writers and scholars whose friendship, medieval learning, and shared experience of war grounded a robust Christian imagination that resisted modern secularism by telling better, theologically rich stories.This lecture was given on October 28th, 2025, at United States Military Academy.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Lee Oser's scholarly focus is Religion and Literature. His books include Christian Humanism in Shakespeare: A Study in Religion and Literature and The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien and the Romance of History. Also, he is a noted novelist who specializes in satire. He currently teaches at College of the Holy Cross.Keywords: Boethius, Christian Imagination, CS Lewis And Conversion, Inklings Literary Club, JRR Tolkien, Medieval Conception Of The Cosmos, Myth vs. True Myth, Owe

Prof. Lee Oser argues that Christian humanism—the “radical middle” between secularism and sectarianism—offers the best key to Shakespeare’s plays, showing how Julius Caesar and Hamlet dramatize our tragic ignorance about the fate of the soul and the limits of pagan and early modern attempts to know ourselves without fully knowing God.This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Lee Oser's scholarly focus is Religion and Literature. His books include Christian Humanism in Shakespeare: A Study in Religion and Literature and The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien and the Romance of History. Also, he is a noted novelist who specializes in satire.Keywords: Augustine and Shakespeare, Christian Humanism, Conscience And Self Knowledge, Hamlet And Providence, Julius Caesar And Stoicism, Pagan Rome And City Of God, Shakespeare And Religion, Theater, Trag

Prof. Joshua Hochschild shows how Dante’s Paradiso offers a philosophically rich, Thomistic, and Neoplatonic vision of the cosmos in which goodness, truth, beauty, and peace name both God’s own life and the ordered, participatory structure of creation that our rational desire seeks to know and love.This lecture was given on November 13th, 2025, at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and

Prof. George Corbett presents Dante’s Divine Comedy as a transformative “journey of desire” in which the passionate intellect—shaped by Virgil (reason) and Beatrice (grace)—leads the sinner from the dark wood of sin and ignorance through Hell and Purgatory to the ordered love and beatific hope of Paradise.This lecture was given on November 20th, 2025, at Trinity College Dublin.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:George Corbett is Professor of Theology at the University of St Andrews, and the Director of Cephas (a Thomistic Centre for Philosophy and Scholastic Theology). He researches and teaches theology and the arts (with specialisms in Dante studies, sacred music, and theological aesthetics) and historical theology (with specialisms in medieval theology, Aquinas’s theology and its influence, and Catholic theology). His books include Dante’s Christian Ethics (2020), Dante and Epicurus (2013), and, as editor or co-editor, Vertical Read

This lecture was given on March 6th, 2025, at Farm Street Church.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Robert McNamara is an associate professor of philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville, associate series editor of Edith Stein Studies, associate scholar of the Hildebrand Project, associate member of faculty at the International Theological Institute and the Maryvale Institute, and a founding member of the Aquinas Institute of Ireland. Robert researches anthropological and metaphysical questions in medieval and phenomenological thinkers, especially as both bear reference to philosophical personalism. He has studied physics and computing, philosophy and theology, and received his Ph.D. for research in the thought of Edith Stein and Thomas Aquinas. Robert is originally from Galway, Ireland and now lives in Steubenville, Ohio (though currently residing in Gaming, Austria) with his wife, Caroline, and their four children, Viv

Prof. W. Scott Cleveland explains how food and alcohol can either undermine or promote true happiness, arguing that gluttony is a disordered desire for the pleasures of eating and drinking that disrupts health, friendship, and virtuous living rather than their proper role in a flourishing, festal life.This lecture was given on November 13th, 2025, at University of Alabama.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Professor Scott Cleveland received his PhD in philosophy (Baylor University) and is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Catholic Studies at the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND). His research interests are in ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of religion. He is especially interested in the study of virtues and emotions, the relation between the two, and the role of each in the moral and intellectual life. His thought is deeply influenced by Aristotle and Aquinas and his work has appeared in journals such as American Catholi

Dr. R.J. Snell argues that the real epidemic behind student anxiety, boredom, and frenzied achievement is not laziness but sloth—a refusal of responsibility and a sadness at the divine good—that resists joy, commitment, and genuine happiness.This lecture was given on December 1st, 2025, at New York University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:R. J. Snell is Editor-in-Chief of Public Discourse and Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ. He has been a visiting instructor at Princeton University, where he is also executive director of the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life. He's written books and articles on Natural Law, Education, Bernard Lonergan, Boredom, Subjectivity, and Sexual Ethics for a variety of publications.Keywords: Acedia And Sloth, Aquinas On Joy, Boredom And Busyness, Contemporary Student Anxiety, Contemplation And Leisure, Judge Holden in Blood Meridian, Sloth As Sadness At The Good

Fr. Gregory Pine shows how money, pleasure, and influence all fail as ultimate goals and argues that true happiness comes from living in accord with our nature as creatures made for communion with God through the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.This lecture was given on November 19th, 2025, at University of South Florida.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and the Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He holds a doctorate from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly and Your Eucharistic Identity: A Sacramental Guide to the Fullness of Life, and is co-author of Credo: An RCIA Program and Marian Consecration with Aquinas.His writing also appears in Aleteia, Magnificat, and Ascension’s Catholic Classics series. In addition to the TI podcast, he

Prof. Jerome Foss argues that what Americans call the “Bill of Rights” is not a true bill of rights but a set of constitutional amendments best understood within a Federalist—and broadly Thomistic—vision of law, liberty, and the common good that resists reducing politics to individual rights talk.This lecture was given on November 4th, 2025, at Washington & Lee University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Jerome C. Foss is Professor of Politics, Endowed Director of the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture, and Director of the SVC Core Curriculum at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Foss earned his BA from the University of Dallas and his MA and PhD from Baylor University. His research focuses on Catholic political thought, American political thought, and literature and political philosophy. His most recent book, Flannery O'Connor and the Perils of Governing by Tenderness, brings these interests together. He has a