The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Christopher Frey argues that Stoicism offers real insights about freedom and detachment from externals, but its ideal of self-sufficient serenity risks flattening human emotion, moral life, and the need for grace.

This lecture was given on November 7th, 2024, at United States Military Academy.

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

About the Speakers:

Christopher Frey is currently the McFarlin Professor of Philosophy at The University of Tulsa. Prof. Frey works primarily in Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle’s natural philosophy and metaphysics. He also works in contemporary philosophy of perception and mind and has written extensively on the relationship between the intentionality and phenomenality of perceptual experience.

Keywords: Ancient Philosophy, Aquinas, Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, External Goods, Grace, Sorrow, Stoicism, Volition

Sr. Anna Wray argues that sorrow can either deform the soul as acedia or save it when rightly faced, and she offers a Thomistic account of how sorrow, friendship with God, and spiritual remedies shape the Christian life.

This lecture was given on November 6th, 2025, at Iowa State University.

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

About the Speakers:

Sister Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia of Nashville, TN. Sister received her PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, having written her dissertation on Aristotle’s account of the activity of contemplation. Sister is an assistant professor on the faculty of CUA's School of Philosophy in Washington, DC, where she regularly teaches courses in rhetoric, philosophy of religion, and philosophical psychology. She is also an adjunct professor for Aquinas College, where she teaches metaphysics and epistemology to her sisters in formation. Her research and conversational interests include imagination and attention in human agency and speech, the effects of technology on human agency, and form as function and unifying activity.

Keywords: Acedia, Contemplation, Friendship With God, Gratitude, Sorrow, Sabbath, Thomistic Psychology, Spiritual Remedies

Fr. Stephen Ryan argues that the Old Testament remains a vital guide to prayer and the spiritual life because Scripture reveals God’s friendship, sanctifies time, and forms the practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.

This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at University of Tulsa.

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

About the Speakers:

Fr. Stephen Ryan was born and raised in Boston and entered the Order of Preachers in 1987. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and, on completion of doctoral studies in Scripture, was assigned to the Dominican House of Studies in 2000. He teaches Scripture and the biblical languages.

Keywords: Almsgiving, Ascetical Life, Bible And Prayer, Friendship With God, Liturgical Year, Old Testament, Prayer, Sabbath, Spiritual Life

Prof. Michael Dauphinais contends that modern Christians, formed by empiricism, individualism, and a this‑worldly hope that easily turns to despair, especially need the Eucharist because it is the concrete, sacramental way Christ draws us into the Trinitarian communion for which we were created, making his paschal mystery present and reproducing his own filial relation to the Father in us.

This lecture was given on November 14th, 2025, at University of Oklahoma.

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

About the Speakers:

Michael A. Dauphinais, Ph.D., serves as the Fr. Matthew Lamb Professor of Catholic Theology and the co-director of the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, Florida. He has co-authored with Matthew Levering Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of Thomas Aquinas; Holy People, Holy Land: A Theological Introduction to the Bible; and The Wisdom of the Word: Biblical Answers to Ten Questions about Catholicism. He specializes in C.S. Lewis, the Bible, and St. Thomas Aquinas. He speaks frequently in both academic and popular settings, and particularly enjoys visiting Thomistic Institute student chapters. Dr. Dauphinais hosts The Catholic Theology Show podcast to help a wide audience discover the richness of coming to know and love God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Keywords: Aquinas on the Eucharist, Creed and Sacraments, Gospel of John, Modernity and Empiricism, Paschal Mystery, Real Presence, Sacramental Communion, Trinitarian Self‑Gift, 1 Corinthians

Prof. Gavin D’Costa explains how, since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has rethought its relationship to Judaism by affirming the enduring validity of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, recovering the Church’s identity as a fundamentally Jewish–Gentile reality, and opening unresolved but fertile questions about mission, ecclesiology, and antisemitism.

This lecture was given on October 9th, 2025, at University of Edinburgh.

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

About the Speakers:

Gavin D’Costa is Professor of Catholic-Jewish Relations at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome; and Emeritus Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Bristol. He is author of seven books, most recently: Christianity and the World Religions. Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions, (2009); Vatican II and the World Religions, (OUP, 2014) and Catholic Doctrines on the Jewish People after Vatican II, (OUP, 2019) He is an advisor to the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Bishops in England and Wales, and to the Church of England, Board of Mission on matters related to other religions. He is a published poet and worked on musical poetry with composer John Pickard and has two discs.

Keywords: Antisemitism, Covenant, Hebrew Catholics, Interfaith Dialogue, Lumen Gentium 16, Nostra Aetate 4, Post‑Conciliar Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Supersessionism, Vatican II and the Jews