This lecture was given on April 9th 2022 at The Dominican House of Studies as part of the intellectual retreat "Faith Seeking Understanding"

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

About the Speaker: 
Dr. Matthew J. Dugandzic joined the theology faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in 2019 after completing a Ph.D. in moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. 
Dr. Dugandzic’s scholarship focuses on medieval thought, especially Thomas Aquinas’s anthropology, psychology, and ethics. His current research focuses on the sources that Aquinas used in developing his understanding of virtue and on recovering ancient and medieval wisdom regarding economics in order to apply this wisdom to contemporary financial problems. Dr. Dugandzic also holds a BSc in biology from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec and an MA in religious studies from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York. 

In addition to his work in the academy, Dr. Dugandzic has also brought his theological expertise to the aid of the Church, having taught theology to RCIA groups, catechists, and candidates for the permanent diaconate.

Man as Knowing Animal |  Prof. Matthew Dugandzic

This lecture was given on October 12, 2021 at Iowa State University.

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

About the speaker:
Fr. Anselm Ramelow is a Catholic priest in the Order of Preachers. He is professor of philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley and currently the chair of the philosophy department. He obtained his doctorate under Robert Spaemann in Munich on Leibniz and the Spanish Jesuits (Gott, Freiheit, Weltenwahl, 1997) and did theological work on George Lindbeck and the question of a Thomist philosophy and theology of language (Beyond Modernism? - George Lindbeck and the Linguistic Turn in Theology, 2005). He contributed articles to the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophy and essays on topics at the intersection of philosophy and theology, as well as a translation and commentary on part of Aquinas’ De veritate. He continues to work on questions of free will, philosophy of religion (miracles, existence and nature of God) and philosophical aesthetics.

Aquinas, Freedom, and the Brain | Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.

This lecture was given on May 28, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul.

The handouts for the lecture can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/42jmxp7u.

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

About the speaker:
Thomas M. Osborne, Jr. (Ph.D., Duke 2001), is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, and a member of the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas (Houston). He has written many articles on medieval and late-scholastic philosophy and other topics, and is the author of Love of Self and Love of God in Thirteenth-Century Ethics (2005), Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham (2014), and Aquinas's Ethics (2020).

Free Will and the Soul | Prof. Thomas Osborne

This lecture was given on May 29, 2022 at the 11th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop on Aquinas on the Soul.

The handout for this lecture can be found here:  https://tinyurl.com/yckbsbs3.

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

About the speaker:
Daniel De Haan is a Research Fellow in Natural Theology at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford he was a postdoctoral fellow working on the neuroscience strand of the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and the Sciences project at the University of Cambridge. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven and University of St. Thomas in Texas. His research focuses on philosophical anthropology and the sciences, natural theology, and the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

Neuroscience and the Soul | Dr. Daniel De Haan

This lecture was given on December 1, 2021 at Georgetown University.

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

About the speaker:
Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Does Nature Make Laws? An Introduction to the Natural Law Tradition | Prof. Joshua Hochschild

High Water by the Downpour

Drenched to the Skin

Sound of Nature

30 Beautiful Nature Sounds, Pt. 29

Welcome to Rabbi Sacks' commentary on the weekly Torah portion. This series of Covenant & Conversation essays examines the ethics we can derive from the Torah, week by week, parsha by parsha.

You can find the full written article on Vayelech available to read, print, and share, by visiting: www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/vayelech/torah-as-song/

For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks.

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. This piece was originally written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks in 2015.

Covenant & Conversation on Ethics is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l.

Torah as Song (Rabbi Sacks on Vayelech, Covenant & Conversation)

Welcome to Rabbi Sacks' commentary on the weekly Torah portion. This series of Covenant & Conversation essays explores the theme of finding spirituality in the Torah, week by week, parsha by parsha.

You can find the full written article on Bereishit available to read, print, and share, by visiting: https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/bereishit/the-art-of-listening/

The new FAMILY EDITION is now also available: https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-family-edition/bereishit/the-art-of-listening/

For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks.

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. This piece was originally written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks in 2015.

With thanks to the Schimmel Family for their generous sponsorship of Covenant & Conversation, dedicated in loving memory of Harry (Chaim) Schimmel.

The Art of Listening (Rabbi Sacks on Bereishit, Covenant & Conversation)

A long soundscape across Dawn in the Queets River Valley rainforest of the Olympic National Park. Starting in Astronomical Twilight, a small herd of Roosevelt Elk walks in from a distance, though a small forest glade, an away towards the Queets River bed.

Early Autumn rainfall and dropping Maple Leaves are the dominant sounds to begin, their pak-pak-spaks are a reminder that time passes, even in the still quiet of a moss-covered forest.

Highway 101 in less than 12 miles away, and distant traffic is funneled up the Valley, showing the difficulty of escaping human-generated sound. This has been mitigated somewhat with light processing, but close listening and inspection will make remnants evident. There are no other edits or processes committed.

I love the crisp cold air of the rainforests in the fall. Sounds, natural and human generated, carry into the distant. Tucked into my sleeping bag, I lay back in my small tent, listening to the forest awaken. Where once there was just the soft distant wash of the river, the elk are joined by the local birds. Steller's Jays shriek their song with grating-yet-amusing "CHA-CHA-CHA-CHAs". A Northern Saw-whet toots in the forest canopy. Young Varied Thrush practice their songs, not quite reaching the beautiful and haunting signature fluting of their predecessors, instead emitting a silly buzzer-bell-like noise. Pacific Wren singing at the end of their season and the occasional Kingfisher make an appearance as well. Noe of these complete with the sheer vibrance of the elk.

Roosevelt Elk or Roosevelt's Wapiti or Rainforest Elk are the largest remaining elk species in North America and thrive in shadowy silences of the Pacific Northwest's temperate rainforests. Bull's bugles and roars echo through the trees, becoming one of the signature sounds of the Olympic Mountains. The cows mew and squeal in return, listening for one another to not wander far astray.

The small herd is a tight-nit family group, a with one, maybe two, dominant bulls, five or six cows in their harem, and a handful of young. The dominant bull leads the group on a daily hike, down from the upper valley to the river and back again. Their bugles urge the group, both signaling the direction to go and scolding those that dawdle. As they pass through the glade, their heavy footfall on the vegetative floor thump-thump-thumps their presence as much as the vocalizations and the continued crushing of vegetation as they push by.

I can't get enough of their energy. They pull back frequently. No matter how many times I encounter them, Elk never cease to awe me.

Click through the comments below for some highlights!

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets River Valley Rainforest Dawn with Roosevelt Elk

This song was written and produced in one day.

Speak up, turn the radio down
Now we're just talking
We're just talking

I can't hear little voices now
No, it's just yours and mine alone
And it feels like home

Now I've been crying in public
When I hear that song
And I don't even know it
But it sounds like all my feelings for you
And something I never knew

Feels like I could be enough

Get lost in the middle of thoughts
'Cause it feels so heavy
To be this steady 

Stay up til the moon fucks off
And when it's over
We'll be closer

Now I've been crying in public
When I hear that song
And I don't even know it
But it sounds like all my feelings for you
And something I never knew

Feels like I could be enough
(Feels like I could be in love)

Naked in the moonlight
Dancing with the red wine
It was almost heaven
Looking into your eyes
Knowing for the first time
I was not alone

Crying In Public (Demo)

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We’re excited to share that you can also visit our podcast webpage at https://podcast.thomisticinstitute.org, where you can search for speakers, topics, and find episodes that interest you. Thank you for your support, and we can't wait for you to tune in to our latest content!

Man as Knowing Animal | Prof. Matthew Dugandzic

The Thomistic Institute - WE HAVE MOVED, SEE BIO