Tolkein's Philosophy | Prof. Robert Koons

This lecture was given on October 19th, 2023, at Georgetown University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee. She has been active in her religious community’s teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and assists with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation, serving as Associate Professor of Theology at Aquinas College. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L’Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, her favorite projects have been serving as editor-in-chief of her Congregation’s book, Praying as a Family, directing a television series of the same title with EWTN, co-directing the documentary Undivided Heart, and serving as the creator and founding Director of the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith & Culture Program.

This lecture was given on February 20th, 2024, at Regent University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speaker: Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He loves his five grandchildren, four children, one wife, one cat, and one God.  He has written over 100 books including: Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Christianity for Modern Pagans, and Fundamentals of the Faith.

This lecture was given on March 20th, 2024, at University of Texas at El Paso.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Robert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, M. A. Oxford, Ph.D. UCLA. He is the author or co-author of five books, including The Atlas of Reality with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017) and Is Thomas’s Aristotelian Philosophy of Nature Obsolete? (St. Augustine Press, 2022). He is the co-editor of four anthologies, including The Waning of Materialism (OUP, 2010) and Classical Theism (Routledge 2023).  He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, on defending and articulating hylomorphism in contemporary terms, and on interpreting and defending Thomas's Five Ways.

This lecture was given on April 4th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Patrick Callahan is director of the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture as well as Assistant Professor of English and Humanities at St. Gregory the Great Seminary. There he directs and teaches in a Great Books Catholic program for students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and other regional colleges. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Dallas and his graduate work at Fordham University in Classics. He lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife and 5 children.

This lecture was given on January 29th, 2024, at Oxford University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Valentina Duca (1980) is a postdoctoral reseacher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, where she is a member of the Research Unit Biblical Studies and LOCEOC (The Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity). Her research mostly focuses on 7-8th century East-Syriac mysticism, explored through the original Syriac sources. Her research interests include Syriac and Eastern Christian monastic literature, Syriac translations of Greek spiritual authors, but also Biblical reception in mystical sources and ascetic reflection in Eastern and Western Christian texts.

This lecture was given on March 2nd, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies) is from Pennsylvania and graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville. He previously served as the Assistant Director of Campus Outreach for the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC, and associate pastor of St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church in Louisville, KY where he also taught at Bellarmine University. He currently serves as an adjunct professor of dogmatic theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He is a contributor on the Pints with Aquinas show and a co-host of the Catholic Classics podcast.Fr. Gregory is the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly (Our Sunday Visitor, 2022) and co-author with Matt Fradd of Marian Consecration With Aquinas: A Nine Day Path for Growing Closer to the Mother of God (TAN Books, 2020).

This lecture was given on January 29th, 2024, at The Ohio State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee. She has been active in her religious community’s teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and assists with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation, serving as Associate Professor of Theology at Aquinas College. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L’Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, her favorite projects have been serving as editor-in-chief of her Congregation’s book, Praying as a Family, directing a television series of the same title with EWTN, co-directing the documentary Undivided Heart, and serving as the creator and founding Director of the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith & Culture Program.

This lecture was given on January 25th, 2024, at Trinity College Dublin.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Prof. Rik Van Nieuwenhove lectures in Medieval Thought at Durham University, UK. He has published scholarly articles on medieval theology and spirituality, theology of the Trinity, and soteriology. His books include: Introduction to Medieval Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Jan van Ruusbroec. Mystical Theologian of the Trinity (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003); Introduction to the Trinity (with D. Marmion) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); and he is editor of The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (with J. Wawrykow)  (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005); and Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries (with R. Faesen & H. Rolfson) (NJ: Paulist Press, 2008). Presently he is researching the topic of contemplation in Thomas Aquinas.

This lecture was given on November 30th, 2023, at North Carolina State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Thomas Hibbs is currently J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Professor of Philosophy at Baylor where he is also Dean Emeritus, having served for 16 years as the inaugural Dean of the Honors College.  At Baylor he was also the inaugural director of Baylor in Washington, D.C. where he currently runs a summer program on Religion and Social Life.   He has served as department chair at Boston College and as president of the University of Dallas. Hibbs has published more than thirty scholarly articles, the most recent of which is “Aquinas and Black Natural Law.” He has published eight books, the most recent of which is Theology of Creation: Ecology, Art, and Laudato Si’ (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).  He has also published two books on film and philosophy and one book on art. He has published more than 100 reviews and discussion articles on film, theater, art, and higher education in a variety of venues including First Things, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, and National Review.  He writes regularly for The Dallas Morning News. Hibbs’ lectures have been protested by nihilists at Boston University and by communists in Palermo, Sicily.

This lecture was given on Jun 12th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-eventsAbout the Speaker: Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., is a priest of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. He serves as the general editor of the Thomist Tradition Series, and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters. He has written for numerous publications on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist Tradition.