The Thomistic Institute

• The Mission of the University and the Role of the Humanities | Prof. Michael Foley

  Prof. Michael Foley critically examines the authentic role of the humanities in the modern American university, contrasting the consumerist and human models of education while advocating for self-emptying, integrated knowledge, and the cultivation of wonder.This lecture was given on February 16th, 2024, at Clemson University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Michael Foley is a Catholic theologian, a Professor of Patristics at Baylor University, and the author of over 400 articles and seventeen books, including the Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity, Drinking with the Saints, and Dining with the Saints. He can speak on a wide variety of topics touching upon Catholicism, culture, and liturgy.Keywords: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Catholicism, Chesterton, Consumerism, Culture, Education, Harry Potter, Humanities, Joseph Ratzinger, Self-Emptying

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• Aesthetics, Mozart, and the Pathways of Beauty | Prof. George Corbett

  Prof. George Corbett explores the philosophical and theological foundations of beauty through Mozart’s music, highlighting the "pathway of beauty" as a means of encountering the divine and engaging culture.This lecture was given on March 13th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: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), Annunciations: Sacred Music for the Twentieth-Century (2019), and Music and Spirituality: Theological Approaches, Empirical Methods, and Christian Worship (2024).Keywords: Aesthetics, Beauty, Catholicism, Culture, Evangelization, Don Giovanni, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Incarnation, Mozart, Pope Benedict XVI

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• Objective Beauty in a Subjective World | Prof. Jan C. Bentz

  Prof. Jan C. Bentz examines the nature of beauty, arguing that beauty is not merely subjective but possesses objective and transcendent qualities rooted in metaphysical, ethical, and theological traditions from Plato and Aristotle to Aquinas.This lecture was given on December 9th, 2024, at Thomistic Institute in Limerick.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Dr. Jan C. Bentz was born and raised in Germany and graduated high school in St Louis, Missouri, where he attended as a foreign exchange student. Dr Bentz holds a doctorate in Philosophy from the Roman Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, a Masters in Sacred Art, Architecture, and Liturgy and a Masters in Church, Ecumenism, and Religious Studies. His dissertation was published in German on Gustav Siewerth (1903-1963) and his work on Thomas Aquinas and G.W.F. Hegel. His fields of expertise include Metaphysics, History of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Thomism, and Philosophy of Art. Dr Bentz lectures at Blackfriars’ Studium on History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of History. He taught Philosophy of Art (Aesthetics) for The Catholic University of America, Rome Campus, History of Medieval Philosophy at Christendom College, Rome Campus, and Apologetics for IES Study Abroad also in Rome. His journalistic career included the production of weekly TV coverage in German and English for EWTN Global; interviews and commentary for Catholic News Agency, Inside the Vatican; and for The Catholic Herald in English and Jüdische Rundschau in German. His current format is called Reality Check, a series of video interviews also published on YouTube with the European Conservative.Keywords: Aesthetics, Aristotle, Divine Order, Ethics, Hans Christian Andersen, Immanuel Kant, Metaphysics, Plato, Proportion, The Emperor’s New Clothes

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• Becoming Human: Barbie, Storytelling, and Aquinas on Self-Knowledge | Prof. Joshua Hochschild

  Prof. Joshua Hochschild explores the philosophical and theological dimensions of the Barbie movie, analyzing its narrative through the lens of storytelling, existentialism, and the thought of Aquinas, while engaging with diverse critical interpretations.This lecture was given on September 20th, 2024, at North Carolina State University.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 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 co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.Keywords: Adultery, Aristotle, Catholic Personalism, Culture, Existentialism, Feminism, Gabriel Marcel, Pinocchio, Plato, Storytelling

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• Recovering the Image of God in Man (and Woman) | Sr. Elinor Gardner, O.P.

  Sr. Elinor Gardner explores the Christian understanding of virtue, emphasizing the theological and cardinal virtues as foundational to human excellence and the restoration of the image of God in man and woman.This lecture was given on February 21st, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker:Sister Elinor Gardner, O.P., is Affiliate Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas. Prior to arriving at UD, she taught at Aquinas College (Nashville, TN) and at The Catholic University of America, and spent one year assisting in formation at her Congregation’s Novitiate. She has a PhD from Boston College with a doctorate titled “St Thomas Aquinas on the Death Penalty.” Besides the ethical and political philosophy of Aquinas, her other research interests include the Christian anthropology of Robert Spaemann and Edith Stein.Keywords: Aristotelianism, Beauty, Cardinal Virtues, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Christian Anthropology, Divine Grace, Gregory of Nyssa, Summa Theologiae, Temperance, Virtue Ethics

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