The Thomistic Institute

This lecture was given on November 17th, 2025, at University of Georgia.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Tomás Bogardus earned his BS in biology at UC San Diego, his MA in philosophy at Biola University, and his PhD in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He works mainly in metaphysics and epistemology, and is most interested in the mind-body problem, the rationality of religious belief, and the nature of gender.

Dr. Christopher Mooney asks "whether God really cares about our suffering" and uses biblical narratives, the significance of Christ’s tears, and philosophical responses to death in order to answer in the affirmative, ultimately showing that God can form a greater good from evil without making the evil into something good.This lecture was given on October 9th, 2025, at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Christopher Mooney is an assistant professor of theology at the Augustine Institute Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he teaches on Catholic theology, scriptural interpretation, and the Church Fathers. His teaching and research specialize in Augustine, the Fathers, and historical theology, and he is the author of Augustine's Theology of Justification by Faith (2026). A native of Connecticut, he studied at Georgetown and Yale Divinity School before receiving his PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He also serves as a theological representative for the USCCB's Catholic-Reformed dialogue. He lives next door to the Augustine Institute's campus with his wife and four children.Keywords: Biblical Meaning of Suffering, Christ’s Tears and the Cross, Divine Providence, Faith and Hope, Forgiveness, Permitted Evil, Problem of Evil, Suffering and Eternal Joy, Tragedy of Death, Wrong Ways to Explain Suffering

Sr. Elinor Gardner asks whether suffering can be called “good” by engaging Stoic thinkers like Seneca, modern echoes in Nietzsche, and biblical wisdom to show how God can use painful trials to heal and deepen the soul without glorifying evil itself.This lecture was given on September 11th, 2025, at University of North Texas.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Sister Elinor Gardner, O.P., is Affiliate Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas. Prior to arriving at UD, she taught at Aquinas College (Nashville, TN) and at The Catholic University of America, and spent one year assisting in formation at her Congregation’s Novitiate. She has a PhD from Boston College with a doctorate titled “St Thomas Aquinas on the Death Penalty.” Besides the ethical and political philosophy of Aquinas, her other research interests include the Christian anthropology of Robert Spaemann and Edith Stein.Keywords: Biblical View of Suffering, Discipline of the Lord, Divine Providence and Pain, Healing through Trials, Nietzsche and the Value of Suffering, Seneca on Adversity, Stoicism and Suffering, Suffering and Virtue, Suicide and Stoic Philosophy, Transformation of the Soul in Suffering

Prof. Chris Baglow explores how the God of love can allow evil and suffering by showing that a world created for freedom and love—not as a deterministic machine—necessarily entails the risk of physical and moral evils, yet opens a deeper path of redemptive goodness.This lecture was given on October 30th, 2025, at Mississippi State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Baglow is Professor of the Practice of Theology and the Director of the Science and Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. His work is the culmination of 20 years of faith and science scholarship and educational program creation, as well as a lengthy career in Catholic theological education spanning high-school, undergraduate,graduate and seminary teaching. In 2018 he was co-recipient of an Expanded Reason Award in Teaching from the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid) and the Vatican Joseph Ratzinger Foundation (Rome) for his work in integrating faith and science in Catholic education, for which he has also received numerous grants from the John Templeton Foundation.Baglow is the author of Faith, Science and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge (2nd edition, Midwest Theological Forum, 2019) and Creation: A Catholic’s Guide to God and the Universe (Ave Maria Press, 2021). He serves as theological advisor to the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists. He authored the transcripts for Wonder: The Harmony of Faith and Science, a Word on Fire film series directed by Manny Marquez and narrated by Jonathan Roumie. His work has appeared in Church Life Journal, Culture and Evangelization, and Joie de Vivre Quarterly Journal.Keywords: David Hume, Evil, Freedom and Moral Evil, God of Love and Suffering, Joseph Ratzinger on Freedom, Problem of Evil and Suffering, Providence and Natural Laws, Redemption and Human Freedom, Risk of Love, Theodicy and Divine Goodness

Prof. Paul Gondreau explores how Christ’s concrete, fully human life uniquely “fully reveals man to himself,” showing that every human person and all of history are teleologically ordered to him as the final Adam and measure of authentic humanity.This lecture was given on November 20th, 2025, at The Ohio State University.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Paul Gondreau is professor of theology at Providence College, where he has taught for 28 years. He received his doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, doing his dissertation on Christ's full humanity (Christ's human passions/emotions) under the renowned Thomist scholar Jean-Pierre Torrell. He specializes in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and has published widely in the areas of Christology (focusing on Christ’s full humanity and his maleness), Christian anthropology, the moral meaning and purpose of human sexuality and sexual difference, the biblical vision of Aquinas' theology, the theology of disability, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and the Catholic vision of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.Keywords: Christ as Final Adam, Christ's Humanity, Christocentric Anthropology, Docetism, Gaudium et Spes 22, Humanity Revealed in Christ, Incarnation and Human Destiny, Recapitulation of Humanity, Teleological Order to Christ, “The Word Became Flesh”