The Thomistic Institute

Prof. Erik Dempsey explains St. Thomas Aquinas’s account of justification as God’s free gift of grace, which heals sin, moves human freedom, and forms believers in faith working through charity.

This lecture was given on March 21st, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Professor Erik Dempsey an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Departments of Government, Classics, and Religious Studies, and is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin for over ten years, during which time he has offered classes in the history of political philosophy, on the Bible and its interpreters, on American political thought, on classical philosophy and literature, and others. His favorite classes to teach are Jerusalem and Athens, a class comparing the political, moral, and theological ideas of the Hebrew Bible to Aristotle's, and the Question of Relativism, a class on what he considers the central quandary of our time. He writes primarily about Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and he is currently studying John Locke's commentaries on St. Paul's epistles. Last but not least, he is an Eagle Scout.

Keywords: Baptism, Charity, Faith and Works, Grace, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Justification, Merit, Original Sin, St. Thomas Aquinas

Sr. Maria Frassati Jakupcak shows how Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure exposes the limits of abstract knowledge and reveals why some truths can only be known through love, experience, and particular relationship.

This lecture was given on April 11th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Sr. Maria Frassati Jakupcak is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Her dissertation was on player-dramatists present in William Shakespeare's plays, though she has published on Tolkien and Belloc as well. In addition to her academic work, her devotional writing regularly appears in Magnificat.

Keywords: Abstract Knowledge, Aquinas, Connaturality, Love, Measure For Measure, Particulars, Shakespeare, Theater, Truth, Universals

Fr. Jordan Zajac takes Shakespeare’s most morally charged characters and Aquinas’s deepest insights on love, hatred, and prudence to show why holiness sometimes means not just loving the good, but fiercely refusing what corrupts it.

This lecture was given on April 10th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Jordan is from New Bedford, MA and graduated from Providence College in 2004, majoring in English and minoring in Political Science. He went on for an MA at the University of Virginia and a PhD at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst. It was during doctoral studies that he discovered a calling to religious life and the priesthood. Upon completion of his PhD in 2013, he entered the Order of Preachers. After studying Philosophy and Theology at the Dominican House of Studies (Washington, DC), he served as associate chaplain at PC (2019-2020) and was ordained a priest here on campus in May, 2020. He has taught in the English Department since August, 2020.

Keywords: Aquinas, Charity, Cordelia, Hate, Holy Hatred, King Lear, Prince Hal, Prudence, Shakespeare, Virtue

Fr. Jordan Zajac uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Aquinas’s account of prudence to show how a person can know the good, reject it in imagination, and still fall into action through an inner collapse of judgment and will.

This lecture was given on April 10th, 2026, at Dominican House of Studies.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Jordan is from New Bedford, MA and graduated from Providence College in 2004, majoring in English and minoring in Political Science. He went on for an MA at the University of Virginia and a PhD at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst. It was during doctoral studies that he discovered a calling to religious life and the priesthood. Upon completion of his PhD in 2013, he entered the Order of Preachers. After studying Philosophy and Theology at the Dominican House of Studies (Washington, DC), he served as associate chaplain at PC (2019-2020) and was ordained a priest here on campus in May, 2020. He has taught in the English Department since August, 2020.

Keywords: Aquinas, Choice, Command, Imprudence, Macbeth, Passion, Prudence, Shakespeare, Tragedy, Will

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett, O.P., explains how Christ’s eternal priesthood fulfills the human desire for beatitude by reconciling humanity to God through his self-offering and drawing believers into the life of heaven.

This lecture was given on March 28th, 2026, at St. Albert's Priory.

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

About the Speaker:

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett, O.P. is an Assistant Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. His research interests include St. Thomas Aquinas, the priesthood and religious life, and virtue ethics. He delights in leading students through the insights of St. Thomas Aquinas so that they may develop their confidence in and love of sacred doctrine.

Keywords: Beatitude, Christ The High Priest, Grace, Jesus Christ, Melchizedek, Priesthood Of Christ, Sacrifice, Sanctifying Grace, St. Thomas Aquinas, Supernatural Happiness