The Thomistic Institute

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy introduces Aquinas’ Five Ways, showing how arguments from motion, causality, contingency, gradation, and teleology lead from everyday experience to the rational conclusion that God exists as first mover, first cause, necessary being, supreme perfection, and intelligent governor.

This lecture was given on May 8th, 2025, at North Dakota State University.

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

About the Speakers:

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.

Keywords: Act and Potency, Argument from Motion, Contingency and Necessary Being, Degrees of Perfection and Maximum Good, Five Ways to Prove God’s Existence, First Cause and Efficient Causality, Teleology and Intelligent Governor, Thomistic Proofs for God, Unmoved Mover

Prof. Christopher Tollefsen explains John Paul II on euthanasia, showing how the Pope’s vision of human life as a sacred gift, bearing God’s image and destined for eternal friendship with Him, rules out any claim to a right to kill oneself or others.

This lecture was given on September 23rd, 2025, at University of South Carolina.

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

About the Speakers:

Christopher Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He has published over 100 articles in journals and edited collections, and a similar number of popular essays in venues such as Public Discourse, First Things, and National Review. He is the author of Lying and Christian Ethics and the forthcoming Killing and Christian Ethics, and is co-author of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (with Dr. Farr Curlin) and Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (with Robert P. George). In 2019-20, he served as a Commissioner on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights. He has twice been a Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, and in 2024-25 was a Visiting Fellow at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

Keywords: Euthanasia, Evangelium Vitae, Gift of Life, Human Destiny, Human Dignity, Imago Dei, Inviolability of Human Life, John Paul II, Life and Death, Lordship of God over Life, Sacredness of Human Life, Usurping God’s Role in Life and Death

Fr. Anton ten Klooster explores St. Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes, showing how they map an ordered, grace‑filled path of virtues and gifts that lead from imperfect happiness in this life to perfect union with God in the next.

This lecture was given on November 3rd, 2025, at Oxford University.

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

About the Speakers:

Fr. Anton is an assistant professor of theology at Tilburg University. His primary focus is on fundamental moral theology. He is currently working on a book on the development of moral teaching (e.g. How did the church come to oppose slavery, and how can we then hold a continuity in teaching?). He studied theology in Utrecht and Fribourg, and did part of the doctoral research as a visiting scholar at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. In 2018, he was awarded the doctoral degree cum laude for 'Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes'. The dissertation was awarded the international 'Veritas et Amor' award by the Circolo San Tommaso. He has been published in journals such as Nova et Vetera, Angelicum, Journal of Moral Theology and Incontri.

Keywords: Aquinas on Happiness and Man's Final End, Beatitudes, Beatitudes as Path to Union with God, False Views of Happiness, Grace and the Beatitudes, Gifts of the Spirit, Imperfect versus Perfect Happiness, Virtue and the Beatitudes, Vocation of Preaching

Dr. Jan Bentz explores what it means to engage politics as a Catholic, calling believers to critical thinking rooted in truth, a both‑and logic that resists polarization, and a discerning love of nation that remains ordered to the common good and eternal beatitude.

This lecture was given on November 19th, 2025, at Thomistic Institute in London.

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

About the Speakers:

Dr. Jan C. Bentz was born and raised in Germany and graduated high school in St Louis, Missouri, where he attended as a foreign exchange student. Dr Bentz holds a doctorate in Philosophy from the Roman Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, a Masters in Sacred Art, Architecture, and Liturgy and a Masters in Church, Ecumenism, and Religious Studies. His dissertation was published in German on Gustav Siewerth (1903-1963) and his work on Thomas Aquinas and G.W.F. Hegel. His fields of expertise include Metaphysics, History of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Thomism, and Philosophy of Art. Dr Bentz lectures at Blackfriars’ Studium on History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of History. He taught Philosophy of Art (Aesthetics) for The Catholic University of America, Rome Campus, History of Medieval Philosophy at Christendom College, Rome Campus, and Apologetics for IES Study Abroad also in Rome. His journalistic career included the production of weekly TV coverage in German and English for EWTN Global; interviews and commentary for Catholic News Agency, Inside the Vatican; and for The Catholic Herald in English and Jüdische Rundschau in German. His current format is called Reality Check, a series of video interviews also published on YouTube with the European Conservative.

Keywords: Analogy of Being and Politics, Catholic Both-And Logic, Catholic Engagement in Public Life, Christian and Secular Nationalism, Common Good and Beatitude, Critical Thinking as a Catholic, National Identity and Faith, Polarization and Either-Or Thinking, Testing Everything Holding Fast to the Good, Voting as a Catholic Conscience

Prof. Marshall Bierson unpacks Elizabeth Anscombe’s moral absolutism, arguing that questions like “Why is it worse to kill one innocent person than to let five die?” rest on a grammatical confusion that obscures the absolute wrongness of intentionally killing the innocent.

This lecture was given on October 2nd, 2025, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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

About the Speakers:

Marshall Bierson is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America. His research centers on the intersection of ethics and philosophical anthropology. He is particularly focused on the work of Elizabeth Anscombe and in exploring how her Thomisticly inflected philosophical psychology clarifies moral absolutes.

Keywords: Act and Omission Distinction, Anscombe, Consequentialism, Intentional Killing of the Innocent, Logical Grammar of Moral Language, Moral Absolutism, Reasons versus Absolutes, The Trolley Problem, Victim-Focused Account of Murder