Happy Thanksgiving from the Thomistic Institute!

This talk was given at Hillsdale College on October 16, 2021 as part of the Thomistic Institute conference "Christ the Savior: Perspectives from the Early Church Fathers."

For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Donald Fairbairn is the Robert E. Cooley Professor of Early Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His research interests focus on the relation between the doctrines of the Trinity, Christ, salvation and Christian life in the early church, especially in the 4th through 6th centuries. His responsibilities include further developing the Robert C. Cooley Center for the Study of Early Christianity at the Charlotte campus, which explores the historical foundations of the Christian faith.

After graduating from seminary in 1989, Dr. Fairbairn ministered in Soviet Georgia for a year and then taught theology, New Testament and apologetics at Donetsk Christian University in Ukraine from 1992-96. He also served as Assistant Academic Dean there. Since that time, he has continued to teach in Eastern and Western Europe through many short-term trips. Three of his English books have been published in Russian and two in Romanian. He has also written two books published only in Russian.

After finishing his Ph.D. in 1999, Dr. Fairbairn taught church history, Greek, Latin and historical theology at Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, SC. He also served as Associate Dean of Theology and directed the Th.M. program there before coming to Gordon-Conwell in 2010.

Dr. Fairbairn and his wife Jennifer have two children, Trey (born in 2001) and Ella (born in 2003). His hobbies include golf, gardening, and playing with his dog.

Christ and the Sharing of Divine Communion in Cyril of Alexandria | Prof. Donald Fairbairn

This lecture was given on March 25, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies as part of the Thomistic Institute's Annual Spring Thomistic Circles Conference: "Our Father: Prayer and Theology."

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org.

About the speaker:
Dr. Heereman was born and raised in a devout Catholic family in Germany. Originally trained to become a lawyer, she experienced a deep encounter with the Lord which led her to discern a vocation as a lay woman celibate for the sake of the kingdom. She received two years of spiritual formation and attended the ICPE school of Evangelization in India, Banglore, which eventually led her to theological studies so as to consecrate her life to the study and teaching of the Word of God.  She received an STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University, an SSL from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the SSD from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem on and the Université de Fribourg. During and after her doctoral studies she lectured at the Collège des Bernhardins, Paris, and the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome as a visiting professor. Explaining her discernment to join St. Patrick’s faculty, Dr. Heereman writes: “In particular, I desire to open up the treasures of the Scriptures to future priests so that their ministry might be rooted in the Word of God as the living source of their life and preaching.  I am deeply committed to the Church’s desire to make ‘the study of the sacred page the very soul of theology’ (DV 24).”

Thy Kingdom Come | Prof. Nina Heereman

This lecture was given on March 17th, 2023, at "The Passion & the Sacred Wounds: An Intellectual Retreat" at the Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website: thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

Speaker Bio:

Fr. Michael O'Connor, O.P.(Dominican House of Studies) was raised in Illinois and did his undergraduate studies at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota, where he earned a B.A. in music performance and philosophy. He worked as a church musician and as an editor of the St. Michael Hymnal for a few years before entering the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2006. He was ordained a priest in 2012 and completed the S.T.L. at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in 2013. Fr. O’Connor was then assigned to Providence College, where he taught courses in Theology and the Development of Western Civilization for three years. In 2016, he moved to Rome to begin doctoral studies (S.T.D.) in moral theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he completed a dissertation on a Thomistic understanding of the orientation of human sexuality.

Christ and the Sharing of Divine Communion in Cyril of Alexandria | Prof. Donald Fairbairn

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