The Thomistic Institute

Dr. Bronwen McShea uncovers the rich but often forgotten history of Catholic women in the arts and sciences, showing how figures from late antiquity through the early modern period—nuns, scholars, patrons, and university professors—have long made serious intellectual and cultural contributions within the Catholic tradition.

This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at The United States Naval Academy.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Bronwen McShea is a historian of Catholicism from medieval to modern times and is the author of three books: Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know (Ignatius Press, 2024); 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). Her reviews, articles, and essays have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, First Things, America Magazine, The Journal of Religious History, and many other popular and academic periodicals. She has held research and teaching positions at Columbia University, Princeton University, Loyola University Chicago, and several other institutions. She holds a Ph.D. in Early Modern History from Yale University and both an M.T.S. in the History of Christianity and B.A. in Intellectual History from Harvard University.

Keywords: Catholic Women And Scholarship, Catholic Women In Science, Early Modern Catholic Women, Hildegard Of Bingen, Laura Bassi And Bologna, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Medieval Nuns And Learning, Renaissance Humanism, Women Of The Church

Prof. Christopher Tollefsen argues from a Thomistic natural law perspective that it is always morally wrong to intend the death of an innocent human being, contending that this absolute norm binds both private individuals and public authorities alike.

This lecture was given on November 15th, 2025, at University of Florida

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Christopher Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He has published over 100 articles in journals and edited collections, and a similar number of popular essays in venues such as Public Discourse, First Things, and National Review. He is the author of Lying and Christian Ethics and the forthcoming Killing and Christian Ethics, and is co-author of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (with Dr. Farr Curlin) and Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (with Robert P. George). In 2019-20, he served as a Commissioner on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights. He has twice been a Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, and in 2024-25 was a Visiting Fellow at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

Keywords: ​Absolute Prohibition Of Killing, Augustine And Aquinas, Double Effect Principle, Ethics Of Self-Defense, Human Dignity And Life, Natural Law Theory, Public Authority And Violence, Thomistic Moral Theology, War And Capital Punishment

This lecture was given on January 23rd, 2026, at Washington & Lee University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Marshall Bierson is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America. His research centers on the intersection of ethics and philosophical anthropology. He is particularly focused on the work of Elizabeth Anscombe and in exploring how her Thomisticly inflected philosophical psychology clarifies moral absolutes.

Prof. Kenneth Kemp reexamines the Scopes “Monkey Trial” to show that it has been mythologized into evidence of a supposed war between science and religion, arguing instead that the real conflicts concerned constitutional law, educational policy, and competing theological and philosophical visions within Christianity.

This lecture was given on October 4th, 2023, at John Hopkins University .

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Kenneth W. Kemp is an emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. After receiving an MA in the History and Philosophy of Science and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, he taught philosophy, first at the US Air Force Academy and last for many years at the University of St. Thomas. His research interests have included ethics as well as historical and philosophical aspects of the relation between science and religion. His published works include The War That Never Was: Evolution & Christian Theology (Cascade, 2020) and The Origins of Catholic Evolutionism, 1831–1950 (Catholic University of America Press, 2025).

Keywords: Anti-Evolution Laws, Catholic Responses To Evolution, Clarence Darrow,Constitutional Law, Myth Of Warfare Thesis, Public School Education, Scopes Monkey Trial, Science And Religion, Tennessee Butler Act, William Jennings Bryan

Prof. Jonathan I. Lunine recounts his life as a planetary scientist, tracing how early inspirations from Carl Sagan and the space race led to his work on major NASA missions exploring the solar system and distant worlds, from Voyager and Cassini to Juno and Europa Clipper.

This lecture was given on January 14th, 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 these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions. He is co-investigator on the Juno mission now in orbit at Jupiter, using data from several instruments on the spacecraft, and on the MISE and gravity science teams for the Europa Clipper mission. He was on the Science Working Group for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine has contributed to concept studies for a wide range of planetary and exoplanetary missions. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in or chaired a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA.

Keywords: Apollo Program, Carl Sagan, Cassini–Huygens Mission, Europa Clipper, Juno Mission, Planetary Science, Titan And Saturn System, Voyager Missions, Worlds With Subsurface Oceans