The Thomistic Institute

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 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: Catholic Faith And Medicine, Clinical Conscience, Critique of Gender Affirming Care, Culture Of Life, Hospice And Suffering, Jesus As Healer, Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID), Secularism In Medicine

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. Chemistry and B.A. Liberal Studies), Indiana University (Ph.D. Organic Chemistry) and Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., History of Science).

Keywords: Andrew Dickson White, Draper White, God Of The Gaps Critique, Methodological Naturalism, Scientism And Technocratic Utopianism, Warfare Between Science And Theology

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 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: Aquinas On Providence, Catholic Scientists, Conflict Thesis Critique, Darwin-Mendel Evolution, Jesuit Vatican Observatory, Jonathan Lunine Conversion Story, Religion And Modern Cosmology, Science Faith Compatibility, Society Of Catholic Scientists, Thomistic View Of Randomness

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 early 90s. Afterward he was a professor of the Graduate Studies in Philosophy at the Universidad Simón Bolívar and Chair of the Program. In 2002, threatened by the Chavista regime, he was forced to leave the country. During his first stay in the USA, professor Casanova was a visiting scholar at Boston University and a senior research associate at the Jacques Maritain Center, University of Notre Dame, where he worked with Ralph McInerny. During this time he married Laura Ternan with whom he has 5 children.

In 2005 he went to Chile, to work at the International Academy of Philosophy with professor Josef Seifert. Afterward he taught at Universidad Santo Tomás in Chile, and at the School of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In 2020-2022 he opposed the abortionist movement and the attempts to introduce comprehensive sexual education during the early years of basic school. These efforts led to him receiving in 2022 the National Award bestowed by the “Network for Life and the Family.” Due to the Marxist turn of the country, the Casanova family decided to leave Chile and migrate again, back to the United States in 2022.

Professor Casanova’s work focuses on metaphysics, political and social philosophy, ethics, and classical Greek philosophy. He has endeavored to dismantle the black legend that hides the achievements of Christianity in the Spanish American empire and in the Latin Christendom (so called “Middle Ages”). His scholarly competence also includes philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of mind, medieval philosophy, and contemporary European philosophy. He has published nine books and numerous scholarly papers.

Keywords: Aristotle, Experimental Method, Faith And Reason In Science, Galileo's Scholastic Background, Medieval Universities, Natural Theology And Metaphysics, Posterior Analytics, Science In Latin Christendom, Theology As Queen Of Sciences

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 philosophy at Providence College in Providence, RI. His main area of research is metaphysics and anything adjacent to it, with a special emphasis on the metaphysical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and its subsequent reception and interpretation. His publications, however, range widely, including articles on philosophical anthropology, ethics, and economics. He is also an enthusiast of classical Indian philosophy. Fr Philip-Neri is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, the Aquinas and the Arabs International Working Group, the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Thomism, and is currently serving on the executive committee of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Keywords: Aquinas On Truth And Goodness, Classic Fantasy vs. Grimdark, Correspondence Theory Of Art, George RR Martin And Nihilism, Grimdark Fantasy, JRR Tolkien Moral Imagination, Thomistic Aesthetics, Transcendentals And Art

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, Owen Barfield And Language, War And Friendship

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, Tragedy And Ignorance Of The Soul

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 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: Aquinas And Dante, Cardinal And Theological Virtues, Divine Names And Neoplatonism, Goodness Truth And Beauty, Paradiso And Cosmology, Peace As Divine Name, Thomistic Reading Of Dante, Transcendentals And Being, Virtues In The Beatific Vision

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 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: Dante’s Divine Comedy, Desire And Beatitude, Free Will, Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso, Passionate Intellect, Pilgrims Of Hope, Reason And Grace, Thomistic Readings Of Dante, Virgil And Beatrice, Virtue and Vice

Dr. Robert McNamara presents Edith Stein and Thomistic personalism as a unified vision in which the human face reveals the mystery of the person as both substantial “what” and subjective “who,” integrating Aquinas’s account of rational nature with phenomenological insights into consciousness, interiority, and personal encounter.

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, Vivian, John, Catherine, and Oran.

Keywords: Aquinas On The Person, Carol Wojtyła And Personalism, Consciousness And Self-Awareness, Edith Stein, Imago Dei And Personalism, Interior Castle Of The Soul, Phenomenology, Thomistic Personalism, The Human Face