The Thomistic Institute

Poet and cultural critic Dana Gioia explores the vital role of beauty in the Catholic imagination, arguing that beauty is an objective, transformative experience that connects us to truth and the secrets of existence.

This lecture was given on October 22nd, 2026, at University of California, Los Angeles.

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

About the Speaker:

Dana Gioia is an internationally recognized poet, critic, and former Poet Laureate of California. He is the author of six collections of verse, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which was awarded the Poets’ Prize. His most recent collection is Meet Me at the Lighthouse (2023). His poems have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Gioia’s critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award and The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays (2019) whose title essay started an international debate about the role of faith in contemporary literature. Gioia has also written four opera libretti and edited over twenty anthologies.

For six years Gioia served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. In that office he launched the largest cultural programs in the agency’s history, including The Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, Shakespeare for a New Generation, and Operation Homecoming, the first NEA program created for military personnel. Gioia built a bi-partisan majority in both Houses of Congress and raised the arts budget each year he was in office. Known as “the man who saved the NEA,’ Gioia was awarded the Presidential Civilian Medal for his services.

Gioia has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates. He has also received the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame, Aiken-Taylor Award in Modern Poetry, and John Carroll Medal. For nine years he was the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. He resigned his chair in 2019 to write full-time.

Gioia and his wife Mary split their time between Sonoma County and Los Angeles. He is a parishioner at St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Santa Rosa and Holy Family in South Pasadena.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Keywords: Transcendentals, Dana Gioia, Beauty, Thomistic Philosophy, Jacques Maritain, Transcendence, Aesthetics, Truth, Architecture

Dr. Scott Roniger explores the nature of truth by synthesizing Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics with phenomenology to demonstrate how the human intellect achieves a profound union with reality, allowing us to grasp the essence of being.

This lecture was given on February 25th, 2026, at University of California, Los Angeles.

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

About the Speaker:

Dr. Scott J. Roniger is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he directs the Lonergan Center for Catholic Faith and Culture. He held the Fr. Robert H. Taylor, SJ Chair in Philosophy from 2022-2024. Dr. Roniger earned a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (STB), summa cum laude, and a Masters of Sacred Theology, magna cum laude, from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He then earned a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and a Licentiate in Philosophy (Ph.L.), summa cum laude, from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He earned his doctorate in philosophy, with distinction, from The Catholic University of America under the direction of Robert Sokolowski. He has published scholarly articles on metaphysics, phenomenology, Catholic social teaching, Thomistic natural law theory, ethics and political philosophy, and philosophy of literature. He is the editor of Russell Hittinger's book, On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law (CUA Press, 2024). His research recapitulates themes in Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Husserlian phenomenology.

Keywords: Thomistic Philosophy, Phenomenolog, Truth, Aristotle, Metaphysics, Edmund Husserl, Philosophy Of Language, Ontology, Relativism

Prof. Scott Cleveland explores the Aristotelian and Thomistic vision of friendship, arguing that true flourishing requires overcoming the vices of envy and apathy through the practice of charity and virtuous love.

This lecture was given on February 24th, 2026, at North Carolina State University.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Scott Cleveland received his PhD in philosophy (Baylor University) and is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Catholic Studies at the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND). His research interests are in ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of religion. He is especially interested in the study of virtues and emotions, the relation between the two, and the role of each in the moral and intellectual life. His thought is deeply influenced by Aristotle and Aquinas and his work has appeared in journals such as American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Res Philosophica, Religious Studies, Religions, and the Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is the co-editor with Adam Pelser of Faith and Virtue Formation: Essays in Aid of Becoming Good with Oxford University Press.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Keywords: Aristotelian Ethics, Thomistic Philosophy, Virtue Ethics, Human Flourishing, Friendship, Fraternity, Charity, Love

Prof. Erik Dempsey explores Original Sin as a fundamental, lived reality inherently inclining the human person toward wrongdoing, but recognizing our brokenness is essential for understanding our constant need for divine grace and justification.

This lecture was given on March 20th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Erik Dempsey an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religious Studies, and is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin for over ten years, during which time he has offered classes in the history of political philosophy, on the Bible and its interpreters, on American political thought, on classical philosophy and literature, and others. His favorite classes to teach are Jerusalem and Athens, a class comparing the political, moral, and theological ideas of the Hebrew Bible to Aristotle's, and the Question of Relativism, a class on what he considers the central quandary of our time. He writes primarily about Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and he is currently studying John Locke's commentaries on St. Paul's epistles. Last but not least, he is an Eagle Scout.

Keywords: Original Sin, Justification, Conscience, Concupiscence, Grace, Nature, Christian Anthropology, Pelagianism, Benedict XVI

Prof. Adam Eitel argues that modern identity theories ultimately fail because they lack a stable metaphysical grounding, and he proposes an alternative view rooted in Saint Thomas Aquinas’s exposition of Psalm 8.

This lecture was given on February 27th, 2026, at St. Raphael Retreat Center.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Eitel is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Dallas. Before joining the UD faculty in 2023, he taught for eight years at Yale University, holding appointments in the Divinity School, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Humanities Program. A specialist in medieval scholasticism, his research interests include doctrinal and moral theology, with a particular focus on the works of Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries. His teaching and research bring historical Christian theology into dialogue with contemporary moral and political issues.

Keywords: Identity, Salvation, Relativism, Psalms, Metaphysics, Theology, Human Nature, Christian Anthropology