The Thomistic Institute

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 that the scientific study of the cosmos serves as a profound path to understanding God's wisdom, power, and goodness.

This lecture was given on July 18th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Öberg obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Caltech and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Leiden. She has taught at Harvard since 2013, where she is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences. Her scholarship aims to uncover how chemical processes impact the outcome of planet formation, with special attention to the possible habitability of nascent planets. She has published over 250 refereed articles, including in Nature and Science. Professor Öberg has been awarded the Barry Prize by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (2024), the Harnack Lectureship by the Max Planck Society (2022), a Simons Investigator Award (2019), the American Astronomical Society's Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (2016), a Packard Fellowship (2014), and a Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2014). She is the Vice President of the Angelicum Board, a Board Member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, a member of the American Academy of Catholic Scholars and Artists, and a frequent public speaker on questions of science and faith.

Keywords: Astronomy, Vocation, Cosmology, Philosophy Of Science, Faith and Science

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, envy, wrath, avarice, sloth, lust, and gluttony — as "gateway vices" whose strategic targeting, through their opposite virtues and spiritual training, uproots dozens of further sins in the Christian's journey toward the heavenly homeland.

This lecture was given on March 24th, 2026, at University of Arizona.

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

About the Speaker:

David Elliot is the Grace P. Hobelman Chair in Catholic Moral Theology, with a specialization in fundamental Catholic moral theology, virtue ethics, and the moral theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. He received his Ph.D. in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, and was awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship as Research Associate in Theological Ethics at the University of Cambridge, coming to CUA in 2017. He is the author of one monograph and eighteen journal articles and book chapters invited or already in print.

Keywords: Acedia, Aquinas, Capital Vices, Contraries Cure Contraries, Gregory The Great, Homo Viator, Pride, Remedies, Seven Deadly Sins, Spiritual Training

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 Mass as signs that both signify and make present the saving mysteries of Christ's passion, grounded in the real presence and in the priest's acting in persona Christi.

This lecture was given on May 18th, 2026, at University of Oxford.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. John Saward is a Senior Research Fellow of Blackfriars Hall. He was formerly Professor of the International Theological Institute at Gaming, Austria, and at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Fr. Saward’s publications include Redeemer in the Womb (1993); The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty (1997); Cradle of Redeeming Love (2002); and Sweet and Blessed Country (2005).

Keywords: Aquinas, Concomitance, In Persona Christi, Liturgical Exegesis, Real Presence, Roman Canon, Sacramental Realism, Signs Of The Cross, Summa Theologiae, Transubstantiation

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. John Mark Solitario is from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Springfield, MA and the eldest of four children. After attending Catholic schools through high school, he earned his bachelor of arts from Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Desiring to contribute to Catholic education, he was admitted to the PACT (Providence Alliance of Catholic Teachers) Program at Providence College where he completed a Masters of Education and taught high school in Lowell, MA for two years. He credits his growth in the Catholic Faith and inspiration to live it fully to outstanding teachers and role models, among them not a few Dominicans—priests, sisters, and lay. “From the time I met the Order, I aspired to the Dominican ideal of contemplation followed by a generous sharing of the fruits of that encounter with God. I have found this ideal realized and sustained within the fraternal life of the Province of St. Joseph.”

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, completing the virtues by introducing a divine mode of acting, and shows that they are necessary for salvation and Christian perfection because human reason, even healed by grace, remains susceptible to folly and ignorance.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. John Mark Solitario is from St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Springfield, MA and the eldest of four children. After attending Catholic schools through high school, he earned his bachelor of arts from Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Desiring to contribute to Catholic education, he was admitted to the PACT (Providence Alliance of Catholic Teachers) Program at Providence College where he completed a Masters of Education and taught high school in Lowell, MA for two years. He credits his growth in the Catholic Faith and inspiration to live it fully to outstanding teachers and role models, among them not a few Dominicans—priests, sisters, and lay. “From the time I met the Order, I aspired to the Dominican ideal of contemplation followed by a generous sharing of the fruits of that encounter with God. I have found this ideal realized and sustained within the fraternal life of the Province of St. Joseph.”

Keywords: Aquinas, Charismatic Gifts, Fear Of The Lord, Gifts Of The Holy Spirit, Habitus, Isaiah 11, Piety, Summa Theologiae, Virtues, Wisdom