Prior Aquinas Lectures
The purpose of the annual Aquinas Lecture is twofold: a) to bring the thought or Thomas Aquinas himself to bear on contemporary theological questions: in this case, the speaker would be a well-known theological expert who has made a significant scholarly contribution to contemporary scholarship in St. Thomas Aquinas; or b) in the spirit of St. Thomas, and because theology is inherently interdisciplinary and contextual, to bring important cultural, political, intellectual or artistic currents into contact with theology and ministry.
Some of the prior Aquinas Lectures include:
2025: Henry Donneaud, OP, L’Institut Catholique de Toulouse
Revelation: Between Phenomenology and Theology/Jean-Luc Marion in Conversation with Thomas Aquinas
2024: Nicholas Lombardo, OP, The Catholic University of America
“He Spoke to Them in Parables:” Metaphor, Analogy and Speaking a Word about God
2023: James F. Keenan, SJ, Boston College
Revisiting Why Thomas Aquinas is Important for Theological Ethics Today
2022: Denys Turner, Professor Emeritus, Yale University
Why Read Aquinas in a Postmodern World
2020: Dennis McManus
The Reformed Rites of Paul VI as Post-Holocaust Liturgy
2019: John Vidmar, OP
The First Dominicans in the United States
2018: Louis Roy, OP
Thomas Aquinas after Vatican II
2017: Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ
Diakonia, Service, and Authority: A Reassessment
2016: Jan Michael Joncas
Sing to the Lord, Announce His Salvation: Music, Preaching and Worship
2015: Bishop Jaime Soto
Sovereignty, Solidarity, and Times: Reflections on the Work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development with Immigrants
2014: Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD, University of Chicago
Hanging On and Letting Go: Ethical Issues in Care at End of Life
2013: Sandra Keating, PhD, STL. and Ghazala Hayat, MD, Providence College (Rhode Island) and Saint Louis University
Toward the True and Holy Catholic Engagement with Islam Today
2012: Michael Demkovich, OP, Oxford University and Aquinas Institute
The Sound of Barking Dogs: Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas
2011: Most Rev. Daniel Flores, STD, Bishop of Brownsville
Got Freedom? Per Se Potestativum: The Dimensions of Human Freedom in Thomas Aquinas
2010: Dr. Matthew Levering, PhD, University of Dayton (Ohio)
Divine Likeness: Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family
2009: Eleonore Stump, PhD, Saint Louis University
Divine Likeness: Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family
2008: Lecture by Peter Phan, Ph.D. was cancelled
2007: Richard R. Gaillardetz, PhD, The University of Toledo (Ohio)
"With you I am the Bishop, For you I am a Christian" (St. Augustine): The Role of the Episcopate in a Global Church
2006: Amy-Jill Levine, PhD, Vanderbilt University School of Divinity
Judaism and the Gospels: Why it Matters
2005: Susanne DeCrane, PhD, St. Joseph’s Medical Center (Towson, Maryland)
Was Thomas Aquinas a Feminist? Aquinas, Feminism and the Common Good
2004: Richard Gula, SS, PhD, Franciscan School of Theology (Berkeley, California)
Forming the Moral Imagination
2003: Kenneth Goodpastor, PhD, David and Barbara Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Conscience and Its Counterfeits: New Demands on Corporate Leadership
2002: Lisa Cahill, PhD, Boston College
What is Sex For? A Dialogue Between Culture and Tradition
2001: Roger Haight, SJ, Weston Jesuit School of Theology
Ecclesiology from Below: Genesis of the Church2002: Lisa Cahill, PhD, Boston College
What is Sex For? A Dialogue Between Culture and Tradition
2000: Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, CSJ, Fordham University
Friend of God and Prophet: A Critical Reading of the Marian Tradition
1999: Diane Bergant, CSA, Catholic Theological Union (Chicago)
The Greening of the Tradition: Wisdom Literature and Creation as the Basis for Theology (cancelled; due to weather)
1998: Thomas F. O’Meara, OP, William K. Warren Professor, University of Notre Dame
Tarzan, Las Casas and Rahner: Aquinas’ Wider Theology of Grace
1997: Aquinas Lecture cancelled
1996: James and Evelyn Whitehead, The University of Notre Dame
The Marriage of Eros and Grace: Discovering Fruitful Pleasures
1995: Martin Marty, Divinity School, The University of Chicago
The Public Theologian, The Public, and Theology at Century’s End
1994: Jean Porter, The University of Notre Dame
At the Limits of Liberalism: Thomas Aquinas and the Religious Roots of Feminism
1993: Mary Collins, The Catholic University of America
Eucharist and Christology Revisited: The Body of Christ
1992: Michael Himes, University of Notre Dame
Sacramentality and the Common Good: Augustinian and Thomistic Politics
1991: John Renard, Saint Louis University
The Dominican and the Dervish: A Muslim-Christian Dialogue that Might Have Been between Thomas Aquinas and Jalal Ad-din Rumi
1990: David N. Power, Catholic University of America
Neither Male Nor Female? The Presence of Christ in the Community of Faith