The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Scott Cleveland explores the Aristotelian and Thomistic vision of friendship, arguing that true flourishing requires overcoming the vices of envy and apathy through the practice of charity and virtuous love.

This lecture was given on February 24th, 2026, at North Carolina State University.

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

About the Speaker:

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 Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Res Philosophica, Religious Studies, Religions, and the Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is the co-editor with Adam Pelser of Faith and Virtue Formation: Essays in Aid of Becoming Good with Oxford University Press.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Keywords: Aristotelian Ethics, Thomistic Philosophy, Virtue Ethics, Human Flourishing, Friendship, Fraternity, Charity, Love

Prof. Erik Dempsey explores Original Sin as a fundamental, lived reality inherently inclining the human person toward wrongdoing, but recognizing our brokenness is essential for understanding our constant need for divine grace and justification.

This lecture was given on March 20th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Erik Dempsey an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religious Studies, and is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin for over ten years, during which time he has offered classes in the history of political philosophy, on the Bible and its interpreters, on American political thought, on classical philosophy and literature, and others. His favorite classes to teach are Jerusalem and Athens, a class comparing the political, moral, and theological ideas of the Hebrew Bible to Aristotle's, and the Question of Relativism, a class on what he considers the central quandary of our time. He writes primarily about Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and he is currently studying John Locke's commentaries on St. Paul's epistles. Last but not least, he is an Eagle Scout.

Keywords: Original Sin, Justification, Conscience, Concupiscence, Grace, Nature, Christian Anthropology, Pelagianism, Benedict XVI

Prof. Adam Eitel argues that modern identity theories ultimately fail because they lack a stable metaphysical grounding, and he proposes an alternative view rooted in Saint Thomas Aquinas’s exposition of Psalm 8.

This lecture was given on February 27th, 2026, at St. Raphael Retreat Center.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Eitel is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Dallas. Before joining the UD faculty in 2023, he taught for eight years at Yale University, holding appointments in the Divinity School, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Humanities Program. A specialist in medieval scholasticism, his research interests include doctrinal and moral theology, with a particular focus on the works of Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries. His teaching and research bring historical Christian theology into dialogue with contemporary moral and political issues.

Keywords: Identity, Salvation, Relativism, Psalms, Metaphysics, Theology, Human Nature, Christian Anthropology

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy examines the contemporary crisis of identity by contrasting modern fluid subjectivism with the Thomistic realist perspective of the human person, arguing our true identity is rooted in our nature as beings created by God and ordered toward Him

This lecture was given on February 28th, 2026, at St. Raphael Retreat Center.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.

Keywords: Realism, Identity, Metaphysics, Philosophical Anthropology, Imago Dei, Virtue Ethics, Natural Theology

Prof. Adam Eitel contrasts the modern, self-constituted notions of identity with the Thomistic understanding of man as a creature capable of seeing God., whereby our human identity is fundamentally reordered from the Adamic image to the image of Christ

This lecture was given on February 28th, 2026, at St. Raphael Retreat Center.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Eitel is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Dallas. Before joining the UD faculty in 2023, he taught for eight years at Yale University, holding appointments in the Divinity School, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Humanities Program. A specialist in medieval scholasticism, his research interests include doctrinal and moral theology, with a particular focus on the works of Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries. His teaching and research bring historical Christian theology into dialogue with contemporary moral and political issues.

Keywords: Christology, Ontology, Grace, Sacramental Theology, Christian Anthropology, Thomism, Creation, Salvation

Prof. Paul Gondreau explores the theological necessity of Christ's full humanity, arguing that by assuming a human nature complete with emotions and the capacity for suffering, Jesus provides the ultimate model for human perfection and moral integrity.

This lecture was given on November 21st, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Paul Gondreau is professor of theology at Providence College, where he has taught for 28 years. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, doing his dissertation on Christ's full humanity (Christ's human passions/emotions) under the renowned Thomist scholar Jean-Pierre Torrell. He specializes in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published widely in the areas of Christology (focusing on Christ’s full humanity and his maleness), Christian anthropology, the moral meaning and purpose of human sexuality and sexual difference, the biblical vision of Aquinas' theology, the theology of disability, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and the Catholic vision of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Keywords: Christology, Incarnation, Early Church, Christian Anthropology, Soteriology

Prof. Tim Flanigan, in the face of a "conspiracy of silence" in clinical settings that discourages the expression of faith, urges medical professionals to embrace the discomfort of witnessing to their beliefs to better support their patients.

This lecture was given on January 22nd, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

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 Infectious Diseases in 1999 until stepping down in 2012. He spearheaded the HIV Care Program at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections to develop improved treatments for HIV infection and has received NIH and CDC funding for over 30 years. He received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leadership Award in 2000. He also co-directed the Lifespan Lyme Disease Clinic. He is co-founder of RISE (Rhode Islanders Sponsoring Education). As a byproduct of his work in corrections, he is the founder and president of the Newport/Fall River Star Kids Scholarship Program to help break the cycle and support the children of parents with a history of incarceration and/or substance abuse to succeed in school, go on to post-secondary education and to meet their full potential as self-sufficient, active participants in their communities. He has been recognized by the HIV Medicine Association for his community-based work with HIV-infected men and Women.

In 2013, he was ordained a permanent Deacon in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, RI and serves at Saint Theresa’s and St. Christopher’s churches in Tiverton, RI. In 2014, he spent two months in Monrovia, Liberia helping the Catholic Medical Clinics and hospitals respond to the Ebola epidemic.

Earlier this year he received the Milton Hamolsky Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Physicians, Rhode Island Chapter and is married to Luba Dumenco, MD and the proud father of five children and a grandson.

Keywords: Medicine, Personhood, Ethics, Faith, Incarnation, Dignity, Clinical Practice

Sr. Anna Wray, O.P. explores whether our reliance on efficiency-driven technology is hastening the death of wisdom by taking the place of human deliberation and agency.

This lecture was given on February 20th, 2025, at Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh.

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

About the Speaker:

Sister Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia of Nashville, TN.  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 an assistant professor on the faculty of CUA's School of Philosophy in Washington, DC, where she regularly teaches courses in rhetoric, philosophy of religion, and philosophical psychology.  She is also an adjunct professor for Aquinas College, where she teaches metaphysics and epistemology to her sisters in formation.  Her research and conversational interests include imagination and attention in human agency and speech, the effects of technology on human agency, and form as function and unifying activity.

Keywords: Technocratic, Wisdom, Prudence, Philosophy of Technology, Aristotelian Ethics, Digital Minimalism, Prayer

Prof. Bruce Marshall explains that through the indelible mark of baptismal character, the faithful are uniquely deputized to participate in Christ's once-for-all sacrifice through the celebration of the Eucharist.

This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at St. Albert's Priory.

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

About the Speaker:

Bruce D. Marshall is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University, and in 2023 he held the Aquinas Chair in the Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum in Rome.  He is the author of Trinity and Truth and Christology in Conflict, and at present he is completing a book entitled The Primacy of Christ: Faith, Reason, and the Cross. Marshall has written extensively on the doctrines of the Trinity, the person and redemptive work of Christ, the Eucharist, the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions, and the relationship between faith and reason. He received his B.A. from Northwestern University and his Ph.D. from Yale University, and is a past President of the Academy of Catholic Theology.

Keywords: Baptism, Priesthood, Christology, Sacraments, Eucharist, Liturgy, Worship

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. examines the Catholic teaching on truthfulness as an exercise of justice, defining lying as a sin that perverts the faculty of speech and undermines the common good.

This lecture was given on September 10th, 2026, at The Catholic University of America.

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

About the Speaker:

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 regularly contributes to the podcasts Godsplaining and Pints with Aquinas, and Catholic Classics.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Keywords: Truth, Morals, Virtue, Common Good, Speech