The Thomistic Institute

The Atomic Force Microscope:Truth, Guesses, Puzzles, and Personal Experiences - Prof. Santiago Solares

Prof. Santiago Solares explores the technical challenges and philosophical implications of Atomic Force Microscopy, arguing that rigorous scientific practice requires bot

Natural and Artificial Instruments for Investigating the Cosmos - Prof. John Brungardt

Prof. John Brungardt explores the Aristotelian-Thomistic necessity of scientific instruments as essential tools for the human mind to investigate the cosmos and overcome

Telescopes and Our Understanding of the Cosmos - Prof. Karin Oberg

Prof. Karin Öberg examines how the vocation of the scientist aligns with the Thomistic view that studying the material order is a necessary component of faith, arguing th

The Seven Deadly Sins - Prof. David Elliot

Prof. David Elliot draws on Aquinas, Gregory the Great, and the desert monastic tradition to present the seven capital vices — pride (their queen and root), vainglory, en

St .Thomas Aquinas’ Spiritual Exegesis of the Mass - Fr. John Saward

Fr. John Saward presents Aquinas's Summa III, q.83 as a "spiritual exegesis" of the Mass, showing how the Angelic Doctor reads the rites, words, and ceremonies of the Mas

The Seven Gifts in Christ and the Saints - Fr. John Mark Solitario

This lecture was given on April 25th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events A

Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Suited to Human Perfection - Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P.

Fr. John Mark Solitario explains the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit as stable infused dispositions that render the soul responsive to the Holy Spirit's promptings, comple

Living Your Best Priesthood: Charity and Religion - Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett argues that "living your best priesthood" consists not in natural self-improvement but in the exercise of two infused virtues: charity, the fri

The Work of our Redemption: Taking Part in the Sacrifice of Christ - Prof. Bruce Marshall

Prof. Bruce Marshall argues that the Mass is a truly propitiatory sacrifice in which Christ's once-for-all offering on the cross is made present (not repeated) and given

'Experimentum' in Aquinas: How all Knowledge of Nature Begins in the Interior Senses - Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.

Fr. Thomas Davenport corrects two misunderstandings of Aristotelian-Thomistic epistemology — the caricature that Aquinas relies on an intuition of essences and the oversi

An Introduction to Thomistic Philosophy of Nature - Prof. Ryan Miller

Prof. Ryan Miller offers an introductory overview of the foundational terminology of Thomistic philosophy of nature — potency and act, the four causes, per se versus per

Art that reveals Nature: A Thomistic Account of Scientific Experiments and Instruments - Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P.

Fr. Thomas Davenport argues against the Thomist intuition that artifice obscures nature, showing from Aquinas's account of art and artifacts that artificial forms are acc

The Mystery of Beauty - Dr. Sarah E. Maple

Dr. Sarah E. Maple asks how we acquire an organic vision of beauty that is not merely material or visual, arguing from Aquinas's formal criteria of beauty (proportion, in

The War on Beauty - Fr. Gabriel Torretta, O.P.

Fr. Gabriel Torretta argues that beauty has become a "forbidden word" for our age due to the effects of German Idealism and Modernism; as a remedy, he proposes a recovery

On the Via Pulchritudinis: Pope Benedict XVI’s Meditations on Art and Prayer - Fr. Alan O'Sullivan, O.P.

Fr. Alan O'Sullivan provides an introduction to Pope Benedict XVI's thought on the "via pulchritudinis" — the way of beauty — arguing that authentic beauty wounds the hea

Purifying the Imagination: Iconoclasm and the Incarnation - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that the Exodus prohibition on graven images was a purification of Israel's imagination from false imaginings of the invisible God, and that t

Iconoclastic and Incarnational Church Architecture - Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy argues that church architecture is "incarnational" when it corresponds to a true cosmological vision of reality ordered through and toward the Logos

Aquinas on Conscience as the Application of Knowledge to Practice - Fr. David Goodill, O.P.

Fr. David Goodill explains that, for Aquinas, conscience is not a power of the soul but an act of the intellect rooted in the natural habit of synderesis and formed by th

Aquinas on Conscience and the Inner Act of the Will - Fr. David Goodill, O.P.

Fr. David Goodill expounds Aquinas's treatment of conscience in Summa theologiae I-II, q.19, arguing that conscience is the inner act of the will and that, even when erri

Conscience First, and to the Pope Afterwards - Prof. Lewis Ayres

Prof. Lewis Ayres presents Newman's account of conscience as, not a private inner voice, but the echo of God's voice within the human being, that although refracted by si