The Thomistic Institute

• Drone Warfare and Just War Theory: Aquinas on the Virtuous Use of Violence I Prof. Michael Krom

  Prof. Michael Krom analyzes the ethics of drone warfare through the lens of Aquinas’s just war tradition and virtue ethics, addressing moral principles of discrimination, proportionality, and the indispensability of human judgment in the use of violent technology.This lecture was given on March 18th, 2025, at Virginia Military Institute.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Michael Krom started reading Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae shortly after his conversion at the end of college. Upon learning about Flannery O’Connor’s “hillbilly Thomist” habit of reading Aquinas every night, he started studying two articles a day and completed the Summa while in graduate school at Emory University. As a professor at Saint Vincent College, he saw the urgent need for collegians and seminarians to receive a solid foundation in Aquinas’s philosophical theology. In 2020, he published Justice and Charity: An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought (Baker Academic Press), and teaches a Thomistic philosophy course each fall. In addition to continuing work on the moral, economic, and political topics covered in the book, his current research is on the influence of monastic spirituality on Aquinas; he is working on a monograph tentatively entitled Aquinas Among the Benedictines.Keywords: Artificial Intelligence in Warfare, Christian Ethics, Double Effect Principle, Drone Warfare, Ethics of Technology, Human Judgment, Incendiary Weapons, Just War Tradition, Proportionality, Virtue Ethics

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• Just War Theory I Prof. Joseph Capizzi

  Prof. Joseph Capizzi presents the just war account within the Catholic tradition, arguing that the use of force in war can be a moral act of peacemaking grounded in pursuit of the common good, and emphasizing the importance of authority, intention, cause, proportionality, and distinction between guilt and innocence.This lecture was given on April 11th, 2025, at The Ohio State University.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Joseph E. Capizzi is Dean of Theology at the Catholic University of America. He teaches in the areas of social and political theology, with special interests in issues in peace and war, citizenship, political authority, and Augustinian theology. He has written, lectured, and published widely on just war theory, bioethics, the history of moral theology, and political liberalism.Keywords: Anabaptism, Aristotelianism, Augustine of Hippo, Christian Pacifism, Common Good, Ethics of War, Francisco de Vitoria, Guilt and Innocence Distinction, Natural Law, Schleitheim Confession

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• Render Unto Caesar: Aquinas On the Relationship Between Religion and Politics I Prof. Michael Krom

  Prof. Michael Krom explores Thomas Aquinas’s view on the relationship between religion and politics, discussing the distinction between obligations to political authority and to God, as reflected in the biblical command to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's."This lecture was given on November 7th, 2024, at University of Florida.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Michael Krom started reading Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae shortly after his conversion at the end of college. Upon learning about Flannery O’Connor’s “hillbilly Thomist” habit of reading Aquinas every night, he started studying two articles a day and completed the Summa while in graduate school at Emory University. As a professor at Saint Vincent College, he saw the urgent need for collegians and seminarians to receive a solid foundation in Aquinas’s philosophical theology. In 2020, he published Justice and Charity: An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought (Baker Academic Press), and teaches a Thomistic philosophy course each fall. In addition to continuing work on the moral, economic, and political topics covered in the book, his current research is on the influence of monastic spirituality on Aquinas; he is working on a monograph tentatively entitled Aquinas Among the Benedictines.Keywords: Abortion, Catholic Social Teaching, Christian Ethics, Divine Law, Early Christianity, Incarnation, Legal Justice, Martyrdom, Obedience, Summa Theologiae

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• Anna Karenina and the Project of Literature I Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P.

  Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel explores the project of literature from the classical to the modern era, highlighting how stories like Anna Karenina shape the moral imagination through themes of virtue, marriage, culture, and the perennial question of what it means to be human.This lecture was given on March 11th, 2025, at Trinity College Dublin.Secular campuses are being transformed, but the students need your help! Your gift before September fifteenth can launch a new TI chapter and change lives. Visit thomisticinstitute.org/bts25podcast to give today!For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers: Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel is a member of the St. Cecilia Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee. She has been active in her religious community’s teaching apostolate for over fifteen years and assists with the theological formation of the newest members of her religious congregation, serving as Associate Professor of Theology at Aquinas College. In addition to contributing articles to a number of journals and magazines, including the Vatican newspaper (L’Osservatore Romano), The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, her favorite projects have been serving as editor-in-chief of her Congregation’s book, Praying as a Family, directing a television series of the same title with EWTN, co-directing the documentary Undivided Heart, and serving as the creator and founding Director of the University of Dallas Studies in Catholic Faith & Culture Program.Keywords: Agapic Love, Aristotle, Anna Karenina, Classical Literature, Hans Christian Andersen, Homer, Moral Imagination, Romeo and Juliet, Tolstoy, Virtue Ethics

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• Getting to Know Tolkien and Lewis and Why It's Worth Your Time I Prof. Lee Oser

  Prof. Lee Oser explores the intertwined lives, faith journeys, and literary legacies of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Inklings, highlighting their countercultural Christian imagination against modernist trends.This lecture was given on November 22nd, 2024, at College of William and Mary.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Lee Oser's scholarly focus is Religion and Literature. His books include Christian Humanism in Shakespeare: A Study in Religion and Literature and The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien and the Romance of History. Also, he is a noted novelist who specializes in satire. Keywords: Beowulf, Christian Imagination, The Chronicles of Narnia, Inklings, Medievalism, Modernism in Literature, Owen Barfield, Subcreation, The Lord of the Rings, World War I

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