The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Catherine Peters unpacks Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy of language and reveals how the words we use do more than describe reality: they shape what we understand, how we judge, and how we act.

This lecture was given on April 1st, 2026, at University of California, Los Angeles.

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

About the Speaker:

Catherine Peters is an associate professor of medieval philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Her work centers on issues of philosophical anthropology, metaphysics, and natural theology. She is passionate about translating medieval thought into modern terms and applying its insights to perennial questions such as “Who am I?” “What should I do?” and “Is there a God?” A frequent presenter in both the United States and Europe, her scholarship has been published in numerous volumes and journals, including The Thomist, New Blackfriars, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Journal of Islamic Philosophy, European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas, Lex Naturalis, and Jesuit Higher Education. When not in the classroom, she can often be found in local coffee shops, at the dog park, or in a HIIT class.

Keywords: Analogy, Communication, Concepts, Language, Intellect, Reality, Signification, Thomas Aquinas, Truth, Words

Dr. Wes Siscoe tackles a big question in science and philosophy, arguing that the very fact that nature follows stable, intelligible laws points beyond brute fact and toward God as the deeper explanation.

This lecture was given on April 14th, 2026, at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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About the Speaker:

Wes Siscoe is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The Ohio State University. He is also a Thomistic Institute alum, having founded the TI chapter at the University of Arizona. With a passion for making philosophy accessible to college students and the general public, Wes founded the Philosophy Teaching Library at the University of Notre Dame and participated in the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project. When he isn’t doing philosophy, he’s hanging out with his family and two miniature dachshunds.

Keywords: Aristotle, Classical Theism, Fine Tuning, God, Laws Of Nature, Naturalism, Scientific Explanation, Thomas Aquinas, Theology, Truth

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy brings Aquinas into the urgent modern conversation about vocation, showing why the path to a call is not endless hesitation but a grace-filled, courageous movement toward charity and the life God is asking of us.

This lecture was given on April 15th, 2026, at University of South Florida.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP 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: Aquinas, Charity, Discernment, Evangelical Counsels, Grace, Prudence, Religious Life, State Of Perfection, Vocation, Vocational Discernment

Prof. Steven Jensen asks whether computers can really think, and he argues that while machines can imitate reasoning and behavior associated with thought, they lack the awareness that makes genuine thinking possible.

This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at Southern Methodist University.

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About the Speaker:

Steven J Jensen holds the Bishop Nold Chair in Graduate Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, where he teaches in The Center for Thomistic Studies. His fields of research include bioethics, moral psychology, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, human nature, and natural law. He is the author of several books, including the following: Living the Good Life: A Beginner’s Thomistic Ethics, The Human Person: A Beginner’s Thomistic Psychology, The Natural Law: A Beginner’s Thomistic Guide.

Keywords: Awareness, Artificial Intelligence, Chinese Room, Cognition, Computers, Consciousness, Neural Networks, Philosophy Of Mind, Reasoning, Thought

Prof. Paige Hochschild explores what truth is and shows, through Tolkien, how truth arises from the mind’s encounter with reality, how myth can reveal historical meaning, and how truthful storytelling can shape moral vision.

This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at Williams College.

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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: Allegory, Fantasy, History, J. R. R. Tolkien, Moral Imagination, Myth, Narrative, Reality, Storytelling, Truth

Prof. Michael Pakaluk compares Catholicism and golf in order to show how a game often dismissed as “useless” can become a surprisingly rich school of virtue, shaping humility, patience, prudence, honesty, and love of tradition.

This lecture was given on April 17th, 2026, at Ohio State University.

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About the Speaker:

Michael Pakaluk is Professor of Political Economy at The Catholic University of America.  An accomplished Aristotle scholar and expert in St. Thomas Aquinas, in 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas by Pope Benedict XIV.  His most recent books include: The Company We Keep:  True Friendship and Why It Matters (Scepter, 2025); The Shock of Holiness (Ignatius, 2025); Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew’s Gospel (Regnery Gateway, 2025); Natural Law: Five Views (Zondervan, 2025), for which he contributed the essays on classical natural law, and Walk in the Good Path: Essays in Natural Law and Civic Friendship, forthcoming (2026) with CUA Press.  He studied philosophy at Harvard under W.V. Quine, Hilary Putnam, Burton Dreben, and John Rawls, who supervised his dissertation. Pakaluk is a regular contributor to The Catholic Thing, and his essays have appeared in Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, Crux, and other venues. He lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with his wife, Catherine, a professor of economics, and their youngest children.

Keywords: Catholicism, Charity, Golf, Honesty, Humility, Prudence, Study, Tradition, Virtue, Wonder

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., explains why holiness does not require exceptional intelligence but does call every person to grow in the distinctly human capacities to know truth, choose the good, and love God.

This lecture was given on June 27th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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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.

Keywords: Charity, Contemplation, Faith and Reason, Holiness, Image Of God, Intellect and Will, Lectio Divina, Rational Animal, St. Thomas Aquinas, Study

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy shows how Thomas Aquinas helps Catholics contemplate the presence of God in nature, grace, and the Incarnation, so that ordinary prayer and daily life become occasions for deeper awareness of divine closeness.

This lecture was given on April 17th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.

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: Aquinas, Contemplation, Grace, Hypostatic Union, Incarnation, Nature, Panentheism, Pantheism, Presence Of God, Thomas Aquinas

Dr. Joshua Hochschild asks how action, thought, and decision-making fit together, and he shows that prudent choice is the uniquely human act that unites intellect, desire, and moral formation under the guidance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This lecture was given on June 25th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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: Action, Choice, Decision-Making, Gifts Of The Holy Spirit, Moral Virtue, Practical Reason, Prudence, Rational Choice, Thomas Aquinas, Virtue

Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P., examines Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on the Mass as the sacramental representation of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice, drawing on medieval liturgical texts, sacred images, and Eucharistic prayer to show how believers share in the fruits of redemption.

This lecture was given on March 6th, 2026, at University of California, Berkeley.

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

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: Christ’s Passion, Corpus Christi, Eucharistic Sacrifice, Liturgy, Mass, Medieval Manuscripts, Redemption, Sacrifice Of The Mass, St. Thomas Aquinas, Vatican II