Thomas Aquinas on Intellectual Memory – Fr. Philip-Neri Reese, O.P.

Fr. Philip-Neri Reese examines Thomas Aquinas’s theory of intellectual memory, tracing how Aquinas navigates conflicting authorities and ultimately defends the preservation of intelligible species in the possible intellect.This lecture was given on June 17th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Fr. Philip-Neri Reese, O.P. is a Dominican Friar of the Province of St. Joseph and a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum), where he also serves as the assistant director of the Angelicum Thomistic Institute. Though his scholarly research mainly focuses on metaphysics (especially the scholastic metaphysics of St. Thomas and his later interpreters), he has also published on ethics, economics, Christology, and philosophical anthropology.Keywords: Aristotelian Anthropology, Avicennian Epistemology, Habitual Knowledge, Imago Dei, Intellectual Memory, Intelligible Species, Memory, Possible Intellect, Verbal Dispute, Voluntary Cognition

Fr. Reginald Lynch’s lecture explores Augustine’s account of the Trinitarian image and its reception by Aquinas, illuminating how the development of grace, human anthropology, and sacramental life shape the Christian journey toward likeness with God.This lecture was given on June 17th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.Will you hand on the Faith to those who need it the most? Give by October 31st to film the next season of Aquinas 101! https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/oct25podcastFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Fr. Reginald Lynch is a Dominican priest of the Province of St. Joseph and a faculty member at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC (USA). His research focuses on a range of issues in the History of Christianity area, especially medieval and early modern theology. His most recent work has focused on Aquinas’ reception history in the early-modern West. He has recently completed the book, Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period (Oxford University Press, 2023), which focuses on Dominican and Jesuit receptions of Aquinas in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He is also the author of The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2017).Keywords: Aristotelian Categories, De Trinitate, Divine Likeness, Essence And Powers, Habitual Grace, Human Anthropology, Liturgical Virtue, Sacramental Character, Sanctification, Threefold Image

Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis analyzes the Augustinian and Thomistic accounts of the rational mind, will, and the hierarchy of the soul, exploring how sin emerges from the complex interplay of reason, freedom, and non-rational agency.This lecture was given on June 15th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis is the twelfth Prince of Thurn und Taxis and the current head of the Princely House. Born in Regensburg in 1983, his academic career reflects a diverse range of studies across economics, theology, and philosophy.Prince Albert completed his early education in Regensburg and at the German School in Rome. He went on to study economics and theology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Master of Arts in 2008. He further honed his financial expertise by training as a chartered financial analyst in Zurich from 2008 to 2010. He later returned to Rome to pursue philosophy, earning a doctorate in 2022 from the Pontificia Universitas Studiorum a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas). His research interests touch on morality and agency, evident in his publication, "John Stuart Mill and the Criterion of Morality: The Good, the Self and the Other" (2011), and his Licentiate Thesis, "Triumph of the Will? Rationality and Freedom in Aquinas' Theory of Agency" (2014).He is also a member of several other noble and religious orders, including the Royal Order of Saint George for the Defence of the Immaculate Conception (2005) and an honorary knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta (2010).Keywords: Augustinian Voluntas, Freedom And Agency, Hierarchy Of The Soul, Imago Dei, Intellectual Appetite, Liberum Arbitrium, Moral Evil, Non-Rational Agency, Ordo Amoris, Voluntarism Debate

Fr. Dominic Legge’s lecture traces the theological development of the concept of the Word through Augustine, Aristotle, and Aquinas, illuminating the evolution of Trinitarian analogy and the nature of human understanding in medieval philosophy.This lecture was given on June 16th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.Will you hand on the Faith to those who need it the most? Give by October 31st to film the next season of Aquinas 101! https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/oct25podcastFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Fr. Dominic Legge is the President of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and Associate Professor in Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.  He is an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001, after having practiced constitutional law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also taught at The Catholic University of America Law School and at Providence College. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2017).Keywords: Albert The Great, Aristotelian Abstraction, Bonaventure, Illumination, Intellectual Procession, Inner Word, Marius Victorinus, Medieval Trinitarian Debates, Philosophical Cognition, Plotinus

Prof. Katja Krause analyzes Albert the Great’s synthesis of Augustine in his physics, showing how philosophical method, anthropological formation, and the hierarchy of sciences inform the integration of world time and soul time in medieval thought.​This lecture was given on June 16th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Prof. Katja Krause is a historian of science and a philosopher specializing in medieval thought and beyond. She received her PhD in 2014 from King’s College London for her dissertation entitled “Aquinas’ Philosophy of the Beatific Vision: A Textual Analysis of his Commentary on the Sentences in Light of Its Greek, Arabic, and Latin Sources.” After her doctorate, Krause was awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, where she worked on a series of articles examining the empirical turn of the thirteenth century that emerged from the appropriation of Averroes’ commentaries on the corpus Aristotelicum. In 2016/17 she served as Assistant Professor in Medieval Thought at Durham University, UK, and in 2017/18 was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity School, supported by the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften. Katja Krause is currently Leader of the Max Planck Research Group “Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body, ca. 800–1650,” jointly with a professorship at the Technische Universität Berlin.Prof. Katja Krause has recently completed the edited volumes Premodern Experience of the Natural World in Translation (edited with Maria Auxent and Dror Weil, Routledge 2022), Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions (edited with Luis Xavier López-Farjeat and Nicholas Oschman, Routledge 2023), and Albert the Great and His Arabic Sources: Medieval Science between Inheritance and Emergence (edited with Richard C. Taylor, Brepols 2024). Her translation of Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences IV.49.2, with introductions and notes, appeared in autumn 2020 with Marquette University Press.Keywords: Anthropological Formation, Augustinian Integration, Hierarchy Of Sciences, Human Cognition, Logic And Metaphysics, Medieval Curriculum, Philosophical Method, Scientific Ascent, Soul Time, World Time

Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis explores the 13th-century reception of Augustine’s account of memory, intellect, and will, analyzing how medieval philosophers navigated the tension between Augustinian and Aristotelian models of the rational soul.This lecture was given on June 15th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.Will you hand on the Faith to those who need it the most? Give by October 31st to film the next season of Aquinas 101! https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/oct25podcastFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis is the twelfth Prince of Thurn und Taxis and the current head of the Princely House. Born in Regensburg in 1983, his academic career reflects a diverse range of studies across economics, theology, and philosophy.Prince Albert completed his early education in Regensburg and at the German School in Rome. He went on to study economics and theology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Master of Arts in 2008. He further honed his financial expertise by training as a chartered financial analyst in Zurich from 2008 to 2010. He later returned to Rome to pursue philosophy, earning a doctorate in 2022 from the Pontificia Universitas Studiorum a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas). His research interests touch on morality and agency, evident in his publication, "John Stuart Mill and the Criterion of Morality: The Good, the Self and the Other" (2011), and his Licentiate Thesis, "Triumph of the Will? Rationality and Freedom in Aquinas' Theory of Agency" (2014).He is also a member of several other noble and religious orders, including the Royal Order of Saint George for the Defence of the Immaculate Conception (2005) and an honorary knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta (2010).Keywords: Albert The Great, Aristotelian Anthropology, Augustinian Triad, Faculty Psychology, Human Rationality, Imago Dei, Medieval Controversies, Memory Intellect And Will, Philosophical Anthropology, Trinitarian Psychology

Prof. Patrick Callahan explores the living tradition of Catholic culture, using Tolkien’s life and imagination to demonstrate how the Mass, community, and cultivation of virtue form a unified Christian identity resilient amidst modern challenges.This lecture was given on January 18th, 2024, at University of Washington.Will you hand on the Faith to those who need it the most? Give by October 31st to film the next season of Aquinas 101! https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/oct25podcastFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Prof. 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.Keywords: Catholic Culture, Community Tradition, Cultural Standardization, Evelyn Waugh, Incarnational Liturgy, Intellectual Virtue, Justice And Temperance, Letters Of Tolkien, Mustard Seed Metaphor, Sacramental Imagination

Dr. Jerome Foss uses Flannery O’Connor’s stories to warn against the pitfalls of governing by abstract tenderness, advocating for a vision rooted in faith, realism, and the transformative power of suffering.This lecture was given on February 12th, 2025, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Jerome C. Foss is Professor of Politics, Endowed Director of the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture, and Director of the SVC Core Curriculum at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Foss earned his BA from the University of Dallas and his MA and PhD from Baylor University. His research focuses on Catholic political thought, American political thought, and literature and political philosophy. His most recent book, Flannery O'Connor and the Perils of Governing by Tenderness, brings these interests together. He has also published on the history of political philosophy, the U.S. Constitution, Constitutional Law, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln. He is currently working on a scholarly book on the first ten amendments to the Constitution (commonly known as the Bill of Rights) and a book for a more general Catholic audience on the Declaration of Independence. Foss enjoys teaching a variety of courses, including courses on the Constitutional Convention and Shakespeare as a political thinker. As Director of the CCTC, Foss helps administer the college's Benedictine Leadership Studies Program, has developed and led the colleges summer program in Rome, founded and edits an academic journal entitled Conversatio, and organizes conferences, seminars, and other events.Keywords: Abstract Tenderness, Alexis De Tocqueville, Christian Vision, Evil And Suffering, Flannery O’Connor, Moral Clarity, Nihilism, Real Presence, Storytelling Vocation, Theological Realism

Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini explores the biographical and spiritual connections between Newman and Tolkien, revealing how their shared organic vision of historical development and renewal challenges modern tensions between nostalgia, progress, and Christian identity.This lecture was given on March 27th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.Will you hand on the Faith to those who need it the most? Give by October 31st to film the next season of Aquinas 101! https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/oct25podcastFor more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Giuseppe Pezzini is Associate Professor in Latin at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he joined in 2021, after five beautiful years of teaching in St Andrews (2016–2021), and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford (2013–2015) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2016). He worked as an assistant editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin, and has published especially on Latin language and literature, philosophy of language, and the theory of fiction, ancient and modern. He is the Tolkien Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies, one the founders of the Oxford Tolkien Network, and the author of many publications on Tolkien, including a forthcoming monograph on Tolkien’s literary theory (Cambridge University Press). He is also a member of the Young Academy of Europe, an Associate Member at the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews, and has published and curated exhibitions on John Henry Newman (2011, 2014) and Oscar Wilde (2015).Keywords: Birmingham Oratory, Decline And Renewal, Historical Change, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Henry Newman, Organic Vision Of History, Sacred Memory, Seed And Tree Symbolism, Spiritual Influence, Vatican II

Fr. Innocent Smith’s lecture illuminates how Gregorian Chant, rooted in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, enriches Catholic liturgy by shaping Christian spirituality and expressing the deep joy of the Gospel through sung prayer.This lecture was given on April 10th, 2025, at Clemson University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: 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: Biblical Canticles, Christian Liturgy, Ecclesiastical Music, Eucharistic Thanksgiving, Gregorian Chant, Liturgical Solemnity, Psalms Of David, Sacramental Joy, St. Augustine, Sung Prayer