The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Paige Hochschild analyzes John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, contrasting the Catholic vision of bodily integration, purity, and vocation with both contemporary purity culture and philosophical dualism to reveal how grace, self-gift, and resurrection ground true human flourishing.

This lecture was given on October 6th, 2025, at University of South Florida.

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About the speaker:

Dr. Paige Hochschild is a professor of historical and systematic theology at Mount St. Mary's University (MD), specializing in Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and the early Church.  She also teaches philosophy courses at the Seminary at Mount St. Mary's.  She has written a book on the place of memory in Augustine's theological anthropology, and publishes on the Church, education, tradition, and 20th Century theological debates within the Church (scripture, history, marriage).

Keywords: Bodily Integration, Charity, Dualism And Gnosticism, Grace And Transformation, Human Sexuality, John Paul II, Marriage And Celibacy, Phenomenology, Purity Culture, Theology Of The Body

Prof. Jacob Wood contrasts Aquinas’s account of nature, cause, and purpose with modern identity theory, showing that human nature—created and ordered by God—grounds authentic freedom and common purpose in contrast to the fragmentation of expressive individualism.

This lecture was given on September 10th, 2025, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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About the speaker:

Jacob W. Wood was born and raised in the New York City area, where he grew up in the Episcopal Church, learning to contemplate the love of the Lord in the beauty of the liturgy. After an initial period of theological study at the University of Saint Andrews, he followed the path of St. John Henry Newman into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2008. Since earning a doctorate in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America in 2014, he has served as a theologian at Franciscan University of Steubenville, focusing his teaching and research on the theology of creation, sin, and grace. He lives with his family in the Ohio countryside, where he continues to cultivate the love of the Lord through liturgical beauty, and has followed the call that many a young Catholic family has answered to sanctify Creation through the work of homesteading. Visit his website at www.wisdomoftradition.com.

Keywords: Aristotelian Causes, Divine Creation, Expressive Individualism, Freedom For Excellence, Gender Theory, Heidegger, Judith Butler, Nature And Identity, Order Of Creation, Shared Human Nature

Fr. Innocent Smith explores how beauty in art, architecture, and liturgy forms the soul, elevates worship, and points to God, showing that the Church’s cultivation of beauty is essential for evangelization, spiritual maturity, and experiencing the divine.​

This lecture was given on October 6th, 2025, at University of Virginia.

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About the speaker:

Innocent Smith, O.P., is Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. After undergraduate studies in music and philosophy at Notre Dame, he entered the Order of Preachers in 2008 and was ordained priest in 2015. Fr. Innocent served in parish ministry for several years before completing a doctorate in liturgical studies at the University of Regensburg in 2021. After teaching for several years in Baltimore and Washington, DC, he joined the Department of Theology in 2025. His research focuses on the material and musical aspects of medieval liturgical books as well as the relationship between liturgy and theology. His monograph Bible Missals and the Medieval Dominican Liturgy explores medieval manuscripts of the Bible that also contain liturgical texts for the celebration of Mass.

Keywords: Beauty, Evangelization, Eucharistic Worship, Goodness Truth And Beauty, Incarnation, Liturgical Architecture, Liturgical Diversity, Religious Art History, Sacred Music, Virtue Of Religion

Fr. James Brent presents a systematic introduction to Mariology, demonstrating that all Marian titles and attributes find their source and unity in her primary dogmatic role as Mother of God, which shapes her graces, virtues, and mission in salvation history.

This lecture was given on December 8th, 2024, at an Intellectual Retreat at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

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

About the speaker:

Fr. James Dominic Brent is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Chaplain to Commuter Students at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC. He has articles in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Natural Theology, in the Oxford Handbook of Thomas Aquinas on “God’s Knowledge and Will”, and an article forthcoming on “Thomas Aquinas” in the Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology.

Keywords: Assumption, Divine Maternity, Immaculate Conception, Liturgical Tradition, Marian Dogmas, Mariology, Mother Of God, Perpetual Virginity, Queenship Of Mary, Spiritual Motherhood

Dr. Robert McNamara explores the problem of meaninglessness and chaos in contemporary life, showing how wonder, intellectual attention, and the cultivation of virtue empower individuals to find purpose and resilience in the face of suffering and cultural fragmentation.

This lecture was given on September 30th, 2025, at University of Galway.

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About the Speakers:

Dr. Robert McNamara is lecturer in philosophy at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, Ireland, 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 (currently suspended). 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 Carlow with his wife, Caroline, and their four children, Vivian, John, Catherine, and Oran.

Keywords: Absurdism, Attentive Engagement, Cultural Fragmentation, Intelligibility Of Reality, Meaning And Suffering, Nihilism, Practical Habits, Purpose In Life, Viktor Frankl, Wonder And Virtue

Prof. Carl Vennerstrom explores personal and social forms of acedia, tracing its origins from ancient monasticism to contemporary life and illuminating how distraction, restlessness, and identity crisis threaten fulfillment and virtue in the digital age.

This lecture was given on April 11th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Dr. Vennerstrom specializes in eastern patristic theology. Of particular interest are monasticism, scriptural interpretation, and the writings of Evagrius of Pontus. He earned his PhD in Early Christian Studies at the Catholic University of America and teaches courses in church history, theology, and Greek at the Augustine Institute Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri.

Keywords: Acedia, Desert Monasticism, Digital Distraction, Ennui, Evagrius Of Pontus, Existentialism, Frenzied Activity, Identity Crisis, Noonday Demon, Restlessness In Modernity

Fr. Gregory Pine explores the Eucharist as the foundation of Catholic identity, showing how sacramental worship unites the past, present, and future of salvation history and invites believers into personal transformation, unity, and divine love.

This lecture was given on November 3rd, 2025, at University of Pennsylvania.

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About the Speakers:

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He holds a doctorate from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the co-author of Credo: An RCIA Program and Marian Consecration with Aquinas as well as the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly. His writing also appears in Aleteia, Magnificat, and Ascension’s Catholic Classics series. He is a regular contributor to the podcasts Pints with Aquinas, Catholic Classics, The Thomistic Institute, and Godsplaining.

Keywords: Charity, Christian Identity, Divine Condescension, Eucharistic Worship, Graces Of Christian Life, Mystical Body, Personal Belonging, Sacramental Signs, Salvation History, Unity Through Communion

Prof. Jennifer Frey’s lecture compares Aquinas and Newman on the pursuit of wisdom and happiness, showing how a true liberal education cultivates philosophical habits and interior freedom by uniting the quest for knowledge, meaning, and the common good.

This lecture was given on September 18th, 2025, at University of Tulsa.

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About the Speakers:

Jennifer A. Frey is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tulsa. She previously served as the inaugural Dean of the Honors College. Before coming to Oklahoma, she was an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where she was also a Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. Prior to her tenure at Carolina, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and a junior fellow of the Society for the Liberal Arts. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and her B.A. in philosophy and medieval studies (with a classics minor) at Indiana University-Bloomington. In 2015, she was awarded a multi-million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, titled “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life.” She has published widely on virtue and moral psychology, and she has edited three academic volumes on virtue and human action: Self Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology; Practical Truth; and Practical Wisdom (OUP, forthcoming 2025). Her writing has been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Image, Law and Liberty, The NewYork Times, The Point, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.  She lives with her husband and six children in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Keywords: Aristotelian Liberal Arts, Cardinal Newman, Habits Of Mind, Interior Freedom, Liberal Education, Max Weber, Philosophical Tradition, Pursuit Of Happiness, Unity Of Knowledge, Wisdom

Dr. Michael Krom uses Catholic social teaching and Thomistic ethics to explain the difference between minimum wage and just wage, emphasizing that justice, moral duty, and human need—not just legal or economic policy—should guide compensation for workers.

This lecture was given on September 25th, 2025, at Louisiana State University.

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

About the Speakers:

Michael Krom started reading Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae shortly after his conversion at the end of college. Upon learning about Flannery O’Connor’s “hillbilly Thomist” habit of reading Aquinas every night, he started studying two articles a day and completed the Summa while in graduate school at Emory University. As a professor at Saint Vincent College, he saw the urgent need for collegians and seminarians to receive a solid foundation in Aquinas’s philosophical theology. In 2020, he published Justice and Charity:  An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought (Baker Academic Press), and teaches a Thomistic philosophy course each fall. In addition to continuing work on the moral, economic, and political topics covered in the book, his current research is on the influence of monastic spirituality on Aquinas; he is working on a monograph tentatively entitled Aquinas Among the Benedictines.

Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching, Commutative Justice, Distributive Justice, Economic Policy, Just Wage, Minimum Wage, Moral Duty, Preference For The Poor, Property Rights, Subsidiarity Principle

Dr. Edmund Lazzari uses Thomistic philosophy and sacramental theology to analyze whether extraterrestrial intelligences could be baptized, exploring questions of nature, the soul, salvation, and God’s freedom to grant grace beyond the human species.​

This lecture was given on September 10th, 2025, at North Dakota State University.

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

About the Speakers:

Edmund Lazzari is Teaching Fellow in the Department of Catholic Studies at Duquesne University. Dr. Lazzari is also a member of the Aquinas and 'the Arabs' International Working Group and affiliated faculty of the Carl G. Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law. A former Basselin Fellow, he earned an ecclesiastical licentiate degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of America, as well as a doctorate in systematic theology and ethics from Marquette University. He has previously taught philosophy and theology at Mount St. Mary's University, Marquette University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other universities not starting with the letter "M." Dr. Lazzari has published on a wide variety of topics in theology, such as theology and science, the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic-Muslim dialogue, liturgical theology, machine learning/AI, Catholic ethics, and extraterrestrial intelligence. He is the author of two books: Why Nature Matters: Unlocking Catholic Doctrine through Commonsense Philosophy (2022) and Miracles in Said Nursi and Thomas Aquinas (Routledge, 2024).

Keywords: Astrobiology, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Grace And Salvation, Hylomorphism, Immortal Soul, Incarnation Theology, Intellectual Nature, Mystical Body, Particularity Scandal, Sacramental Participation