What can we learn from the first evangelization efforts? Dr. Peper discusses the advantages of resourcing the Church’s patristic intellectual traditions for evangelizing in a postmodern world. In particular, his talk focuses on how St. Augustine and his work On the Instruction of Beginners (De catechizandis rudibus) can successfully meet the needs of the contemporary culture and embody the New Evangelization of the Catholic Church.

Dr. Bradley M. Peper is on the faculty at Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, TN, as an instructor of theology, foreign language, and social studies. Dr. Peper also serves as the director of the Center for Scholarly Engagement at Pope John Paul II. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, where he specialized in the History of Christianity with a focus on early Christianity and North African patristic theology. His most recent study “On the Mark: Augustine’s Baptismal Analogy of the Nota Militaris” was published in the academic journal Augustinian Studies. The students of JPII have awarded Dr. Peper the Harvest Award for Teaching Excellence six years in a row. He has presented papers at conferences throughout the United States and has also been a frequent guest on the “We Believe” radio program in Nashville.

Does being Catholic affect the way we see and interpret the world and reality? Sister explored what the imagination is, how it is formed, and what are the effects of a hindered imagination or of the graced imagination.

Sister Thomas More Stepnowski, O.P. is a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation and a graduate of University of Dallas, Belmont University, and Providence College. She is currently a doctoral student at Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, England. Sister has served as Academic Dean and Dean of the School of Education at Aquinas College. She has also taught in elementary and secondary schools in Tennessee, Virginia, Colorado, and Maryland. She has presented on the Catholic imagination and children’s literature in Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland, and Manhattan, New York as well as the University of Notre Dame and Providence College. She has also presented on Catholic identity at Edgewood College and Franciscan University, and has published essays in “The Chesterton Review” and “The Sower.”

The whole Church is turning its attention to the need for a “new evangelization.” But what precisely is this “new evangelization”? Why is it important? And why evangelize at all? Ralph Martin, Ph.D. examines these questions in this engaging talk.

Dr. Ralph Martin is the president of Renewal Ministries (www.renewalministries.net), an organization devoted to Catholic renewal and evangelization. Renewal Ministries is the sponsor of “The Choices We Face” a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world and engages in a wide variety of mission work in more than 30 countries. Dr. Martin is also the Director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization and an Associate Professor of Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In December of 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Ralph as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization for a five year term. He was also appointed as an expert to assist the Bishops during the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization. He is the author of a number of articles and books, including The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints and Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization. He and his wife Anne reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The presuppositions and secular worldview of society can be daunting obstacles to our attempts to spread the Gospel. Evangelization requires knowledge of both Christ and our audience. Father Rosica, a Scripture scholar now working in the media, brings a unique viewpoint to the question of bringing the Gospel to modern man. Father also relates many fascinating and humorous stories about serving as the liaison between the press and the Vatican during the Conclave that elected Pope Francis.

Father Thomas M. Rosica, C.S.B. is a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil. He holds advanced degrees in Theology and Sacred Scripture from Regis College in the Toronto School of Theology, the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem. After years of teaching and working in campus ministry, he was appointed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as the Chief Executive Officer and National Director of the World Youth Day and the Papal Visit of Pope John Paul II that took place in Toronto during July, 2002. Following World Youth Day, Fr. Rosica became the founding Chief Executive Officer of Salt and Light Television, Canada’s first national Catholic television network. Father was appointed by the Vatican as the English-speaking Media Attaché at two Synods of Bishops, in 2008 and 2012. In February 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Fr. Rosica a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Father is President of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario, the author of several hundred articles and columns in numerous languages for various publications, and is a regular contributor to L’Osservatore Romano. In the spring of 2013, Father Rosica was invited by the Vatican to join the staff of the Holy See Press Office and serve as one of the official spokespersons for the transition in the papacy that included the resignation, sede vacante, conclave, and election of the new Pope. Appearing at daily news briefings and giving over 160 interviews in English, French, Italian, Spanish and German to news networks and media outlets from around the world, he assisted the Vatican during a critical period in Church history.

Is science beautiful? How can it help us seek the divine? Dr. Bill Smart will look at the confluence of astrophysics, Genesis, evolution, and faith while helping us discover an appreciation of the created order. Understanding the beauty of scientific methodology leads not to a denial of the transcendent, but to a discovery of it.

William Smart, Ph.D. is professor of Biology and Associate Provost at Aquinas College. A dynamic and engaging professor, he has taught at Aquinas since 1999 and is currently an Associate Professor of biology. He has enjoyed being a part of the growth of Aquinas and remains an active part of strategic planning for the campus, including overseeing the process for reaffirmation of accreditation in 2011. Dr. Smart received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Tennessee. His presentations and publications range in topics from yeast genetics to the relationship of science and Sacred Scripture. He lives in Dickson with his wife and son.

How do mutual vulnerability and dependence lead to intimacy? What is the crowning gift of love? Sister Jane Dominic, O.P. will be exploring love through the “first beatifying meeting” of Adam and Eve, where each discovers their vocation to love in the particular modality of masculinity or femininity. This exploration of love will reveal that each aspect of human love images some facet of the mysterious Divine Love that makes it possible.

Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P., is a Dominican Sister of the Saint Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of the University of Dallas and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, she currently teaches Theology at Aquinas College. In addition to contributing articles to several Catholic journals and magazines, including L’Osservatore Romano, Sister has also appeared on EWTN, served as Spiritual Promoter for the Dominican Laity, and has presented to a variety of audiences on topics related to theology, religious life, marriage, and family.

What is grace? What is it not? In this talk, Professor Keiser will explore the situation of our first parents as God created them, the damages they incurred through sin, and what kind of remedy would be needed to repair those damages. Examining the effects of the Paschal Mystery will help us understand how the gift is greater than the transgression (Romans 5:15-21) and gain an appreciation of the grace we have received in Christ.

KEVIN KEISER teaches theology for Aquinas College and the Permanent Diaconate Formation Program of the Diocese of Nashville and teaches Latin and World History at St. Cecilia Academy. After studying philosophy at St. Michael’s Abbey in southern California, Kevin obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome. He went on to acquire a Master’s in Thomistic Studies and a Licentiate in Moral Theology at the same university, and is now writing his doctoral dissertation on the natural desire to see God and its implications for the relationship between grace and nature.

How do we reconcile our scientific knowledge with our theological knowledge? Father Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. will reflect on how discoveries in physics, chemistry, and biology can be understood in light of salvation history and the ultimate purpose of the universe: the desire of the Holy Trinity to share His inner life with persons who are not God.

REV. NICANOR AUSTRIACO, O.P., currently serves as an Associate Professor of Biology and an Instructor of Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. Prior to entering the Dominicans, Father completed his Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At M.I.T., Fr. Austriaco worked in the laboratory of Professor Leonard Guarente on the genetics of aging in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After completing his doctoral studies, he was a fellow of the International Human Frontier Science Program at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University College London in the United Kingdom.

Father was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 2004. He earned his Bachelor’s in Theology, his Master’s of Divinity, and his Licentiate in Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and is currently pursuing a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Fr. Austriaco is an Investigator of the Rhode Island-INBRE Program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a scientific advisor at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and an ethics consultant for St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island. He has intellectual interests both in molecular and cellular genetics and in moral theology. His essays in bioethics have been published in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Studia Moralia, Ethics and Medics, and the Linacre Quarterly. His first book, Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics, was recently published by the Catholic University of America Press.

Dr. Aaron Urbanczyk’s presentation will explore the problem of sin as represented in imaginative literature. Dante’s Divine Comedy, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and C.S. Lewis’ novel The Screwtape Letters all explore the logic and psychology of sin from the point of view of demons and humans condemned to eternal punishment. These literary works provide a wealth of insight into the mechanisms of justification and self-deception always associated with sinful behavior, and they powerfully illuminate the great struggles involved in living the life of grace.

Aaron Urbanczyk, Ph.D. is the Director of the Write Reason Center and Associate Professor of English at Aquinas College. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Florida State University, and both a Master’s in Philosophy and a Bachelor’s in English from Franciscan University of Steubenville. His numerous essays and reviews have appeared in Religion & the Arts, The Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, The Catholic Thing, and the Ignatius Critical Editions of Frankenstein, The Scarlet Letter, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Before joining the faculty at Aquinas, Dr. Urbanczyk taught at North Georgia College & State University, Southern Catholic College, Ave Maria University, and Baylor University. Dr. Urbanczyk and his wife Rebecca have six children.

The Psalmist says that God made man “little less than a god.” Is man another omniscient and omnipotent being who can create his own universe and design his own existence to suit his desires? Many today would say yes. But the “little less” hearkens back to Genesis when the presumption of our first parents led to another conclusion. As a physician and a Dominican, Sister Mary Diana will explain the nature of man, drawing from Scriptural sources and her experience of caring for patients. Learn why a true Christian anthropology is irreplaceable for those who strive to bring Christ to a suffering world.

SISTER MARY DIANA DREGER, O.P., is a Dominican Sister of the Saint Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee. She practices internal medicine at the Saint Thomas Family Health Center South Clinic, serving a predominantly immigrant and uninsured population. She trained at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and holds a faculty appointment at Vanderbilt as Assistant Clinical Professor in Medicine. She was an educator and administrator at the high school and college levels for over 15 years, and has given numerous presentations across the country to physician groups, students and faculties at the high school and college levels, parish adult education classes, community groups, healthcare professionals, and her religious sisters on topics spanning the areas of medicine, education, and faith.