Best Thomism Podcasts (2026)

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Why is Thomism so Fixated on Predestination? – Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. 43:29

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22d ago43:29

43:29

Fr. Cajetan Cuddy explains that Thomism is “fixated” on predestination because this doctrine lies at the speculative and practical center of the Thomistic vision of reality, uniting its key philosophical principles and theological convictions about God, creation, grace, and salvation in a single, coherent account. This lecture was given on Septembe…

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Christ Fully Reveals Man to Himself: What Christ's Humanity Says about What It Means to Be Human – Prof. Paul Gondreau 54:00

20h ago54:00

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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 u…

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Creation as Relation: An Existential Consideration – Dr. Robert McNamara 33:21

19h ago33:21

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Dr. Robert McNamara explores how creation is not a distant event but our very act of existing here and now, so that each person’s being is itself a continuous relation of absolute dependence on God that can be freely understood, accepted, and joyfully affirmed. This lecture was given on December 2nd, 2025, at Queen's University at Belfast. For more…

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Do We Make Morality, or Discover It? An Examination of the Basis of Natural Law – Dr. Erik Dempsey 37:45

6d ago37:45

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Dr. Erik Dempsey explores whether we make morality or discover it by unpacking Aquinas’s three natural inclinations and arguing that they ground objective, inescapable moral obligations rather than mere social conventions. This lecture was given on October 11th, 2025, at Michigan State University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us a…

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Seeking Friendship in the Virtual Age – Prof. John Cuddeback 42:27

6d ago42:27

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Prof. John Cuddeback reflects on why many students feel relationally unsatisfied in a hyper-connected world and shows how reclaiming embodied presence, intentional discernment of a few trustworthy friends, and technology-limited, silence-friendly communal spaces can restore the depth, vulnerability, and shared pursuit of the good that real friendsh…

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Let the Best One Win: Reflections of Friendship and Competition – Prof. Michael Krom 45:01

8d ago45:01

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Prof. Michael Krom explores how athletic rivalry, when rooted in justice and love of the good, can deepen genuine friendship, build virtue, and lead toward a contemplative vision of life. This lecture was given on November 13th, 2025, at Indiana University. Through your gift to the Thomistic Institute, you will send the best scholars in the Catholi…

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Friendship and the Digital Age: A Thomistic Reflection on Human Connection – Prof. Joshua Hochschild 45:13

9d ago45:13

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Prof. Joshua Hochschild argues that digital culture reshapes friendship and attention through Curiositas and acedia, offering a path of renewal by cultivating virtue, mindful leisure, and rooted communal belonging. This lecture was given on November 5th, 2025, at John Hopkins University. Thanks to a group of generous donors, every dollar you send u…

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Why Get Married? The Catholic View of the Meaning and Purpose of Marriage – Prof. Michael Dauphinais 51:27

12d ago51:27

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Prof. Michael Dauphinais explains marriage as a lifelong covenant of self-giving love between a man and a woman that images Christ’s union with the Church, ordered to the spouses’ sanctification and the procreation and education of children . This lecture was given on October 15th, 2025, at Iowa State University. Through your gift to the Thomistic …

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Why Did God Become Man? The Absolute Primacy of Christ According to Blessed Duns Scotus – Prof. Thomas Ward 38:26

13d ago38:26

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Prof. Thomas Ward explains Scotus’s bold claim that the Incarnation is not primarily a response to human sin, but the centerpiece of God’s eternal plan for creation, so that Christ would have become incarnate even if Adam had never fallen . This lecture was given on March 4th, 2025, at Universidad Panamericana. Through your gift to the Thomistic In…

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Participation in the Divine Nature: Aquinas and the Catholic Vision of Theosis – Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. 31:51

14d ago31:51

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Fr. Gregory Pine explains that, according to Aquinas, Christians are called to true divinization or theosis: by grace and the sacraments they really come to share in God’s own life without becoming God by nature, growing into intimate communion with the Triune God through Christ in whom this transformation is perfectly realized. This lecture was gi…

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What Difference Did Christianity Make? Why the Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Irish Converted – Fr. Terence Crotty, O.P. 55:48

15d ago55:48

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Fr. Terence Crotty argues that Christianity spread so rapidly because it uniquely answered the human search for truth and happiness while transforming social life through charity, dignity for slaves and women, and a compelling vision of a good and loving God that pagan religion and philosophy could not provide. This lecture was given on September …

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The Disappearing Man: Body, Soul, and the Question of Who We Are – Dr. Paul LaPenna 1:05:28

16d ago1:05:28

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Dr. Paul LaPenna uses the dramatic case of a man in a coma from autoimmune brain disease to show that personal identity endures despite severe loss of abilities, arguing from neurology and Thomistic philosophy that a human person is a unified body–soul substance whose soul grounds changing traits over time. This lecture was given on October 17th, 2…

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Rebutting Necessitarian Universalism: Three Thomistic Arguments – Prof. Mats Wahlberg 43:27

19d ago43:27

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Prof. Mats Wahlberg argues that “necessitarian universalism”—the claim that hell is metaphysically impossible and that God must save all rational creatures—is incompatible with core Christian metaphysical commitments, and he develops three Thomistic arguments to show that the possibility of eternal damnation follows from God’s wisdom, respect for c…

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Reprobation and Permission of Sin – Prof. Thomas Osborne 46:08

20d ago46:08

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Prof. Thomas Osborne explains reprobation and the permission of sin in Thomas Aquinas as the asymmetrical counterpart to predestination, where God positively causes the grace and merits leading the elect to glory but only permits the sins of the reprobate without ever willing or causing moral evil, thus safeguarding both divine justice and human re…

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Aquinas's Interpretation of Predestination in Scripture – Fr. Piotr Roszak 47:25

21d ago47:25

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Fr. Piotr Roszak shows how Thomas Aquinas interprets predestination through a deeply biblical lens, reading predestination as God’s merciful, Christ-centered plan to lead creation freely to a supernatural end and insisting that scriptural context is essential for avoiding deterministic distortions of the doctrine. This lecture was given on Septembe…

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What is predestination? – Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. 48:10

23d ago48:10

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Fr. Dominic Legge explains predestination as a profoundly hopeful Catholic doctrine rooted in God’s eternal, loving plan to give grace and lead rational creatures freely to the supernatural end of the beatific vision, drawing especially on Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine. This lecture was given on September 5th, 2025, at Dominican House of…

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Does Nature Make Laws? – Prof. Raymond Hain 41:46

26d ago41:46

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Prof. Raymond Hain examines whether nature “makes” laws by exploring classical and contemporary accounts of natural law, arguing that human moral norms arise from our rational participation in the ordered structure of life and the universe as understood in both philosophy and Catholic thought. This lecture was given on September 8th, 2025, at Unite…

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'The greatest of all God's works': Justification in Catholic Theology – Prof. Matthew Thomas 55:39

27d ago55:39

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Prof. Matthew Thomas explains why justification—God’s transformative act of making sinners righteous in Christ by grace through faith and incorporation into the Church—is, for Aquinas, greater even than creation, and explores how Catholic teaching on faith, works, and grace can address Reformation-era controversies and open paths toward Protestant–…

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Can Divine Providence Be Known Through Natural Reason? The Classics' Response – Prof. Carlos A. Casanova 47:16

28d ago47:16

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Prof. Carlos A. Casanova argues that a properly understood Aristotelian–Platonic metaphysics of form, final causality, and nature allows human reason, without biblical revelation, to infer a governing divine intellect that orders the cosmos and human history in a providential way. This lecture was given on October 22nd, 2025, at Clemson University…

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Living Mary's Mediation through De Montfort’s 'Total Consecration' – Fr. John Langlois, O.P. 40:40

29d ago40:40

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Fr. John Langlois presents Saint Louis de Montfort’s Marian spirituality of “total consecration” as the surest, easiest, and most secure way to live Mary’s maternal mediation and grow in intimate union with Jesus by entrusting one’s whole life to her. This lecture was given on December 14th, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies. For more information…

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The History of Devotion to Mary: She Who Leads Us to Jesus – Fr. John Langlois, O.P. 48:54

30d ago48:54

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Fr. John Langlois traces how Marian doctrine and devotion—from Scripture and the early Fathers through medieval councils, liturgy, and architecture—culminate in the rosary as a Christ-centered, biblically rooted prayer that brings believers to Jesus through Mary’s maternal intercession. This lecture was given on December 14th, 2024, at Dominican Ho…

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Is Free Will an Illusion? – Prof. Joshua Hochschild 51:08

1M ago51:08

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Prof. Joshua Hochschild argues that free will is not an illusion but a real, rational power by which human beings participate in God’s causality, and that the supposed “problem of free will” arises from a reductive modern picture of causation and human nature rather than from the classical Aristotelian–Thomistic framework. This lecture was given on…

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Happiness and Virtue: Can it be Good for You to Be Bad? – Prof. Thomas Osborne 40:35

1M ago40:35

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Prof. Thomas Osborne argues that, on an Aristotelian–Thomistic account of human nature, it is never truly good for you to be bad, because vice damages your very being as a rational, social creature ordered to common goods and ultimately to God. This lecture was given on October 29th, 2025, at University of Pittsburgh. For more information on upcomi…

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Virtue and the Meaningful Life – Dr. David McPherson 46:37

1M ago46:37

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Dr. David McPherson argues that human beings are “meaning-seeking animals” and that an adequate neo-Aristotelian ethics must see the virtues as constitutive of a meaningful life ordered to strong goods such as the noble, the sacred, and love of God and neighbor. This lecture was given on October 16th, 2025, at University of Florida. For more infor…

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St. Thomas Aquinas: His Life, Wisdom, and Relevance Today – Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P. 50:37

1M ago50:37

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Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy presents Aquinas as a medieval theologian whose love of Scripture, clear metaphysics of happiness, integrated view of body and soul, and profound Eucharistic devotion offer urgently needed guidance for Christians facing modern confusion about truth, identity, and God. This lecture was given on October 30th, 2025, at Southern Me…