The Thomistic Institute is an academic institute of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the

Dominican House of Studies The Dominican House of Studies is a Catholic institution in Washington, DC, housing both the Priory of the Immaculate Conception, a community of the Province of St. Joseph of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and the Pontifical Faculty of the I ...

, a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

pontifical faculty A pontifical university or athenaeum is an ecclesiastical university established or approved directly by the Holy See, composed of three main ecclesiastical faculties (Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law) and at least one other faculty. These acade ...

run by the

Order of Preachers The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

(Dominicans) located in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Founded in 2009, its name derives from the order's heritage of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

, as the institute is influenced by the

Thomistic Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Thomas's disputed questions ...

tradition. The institute was founded as an academic research institute of the Pontifical Faculty, and, starting in 2016, began to support a network of campus chapters at universities throughout the United States, England, and Ireland that sponsors lectures on theology, philosophy, ethics, and science. , the institute had chapters at over 100 universities. Counted among its past speakers are Scottish philosophers

Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (12 January 1929 – 21 May 2025) was a Scottish-American philosopher who contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of ...

and John Haldane, French philosopher Remi Brague, American philosopher

Robert Sokolowski Monsignor Robert Sokolowski (born 3 May 1934) is an American philosopher and Catholic priest who serves as the Elizabeth Breckenridge Caldwell Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. Sokolowski's philosophical research is foc ...

, English philosopher Sir

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...

, Australian philosopher Mark Johnston, and the Theologian of the Pontifical Household

Wojciech Giertych Wojciech Giertych (; born 27 September 1951) is a Polish Roman Catholic priest in the Dominican Order. He has served in the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household as Theologian of the Pontifical Household since 2005 during the pontificates of ...

. In addition to individual lectures, the Institute has co-sponsored academic conferences with Harvard Law School, Yale University, New York University, Georgetown University, and Notre Dame University, among others. It also organizes an annual conference on Thomistic philosophy and an annual ''Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science'' conference for faculty and graduate students in the experimental sciences and in philosophy, held in Washington, D.C.

Directors

List of directors of the institute in chronological order: * Rev.

Thomas Joseph White Thomas Joseph White (born 1971) is an American Catholic priest and theologian who has served as rector of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome since 2021. He is also a founding member of the bluegrass band The Hillbilly ...

, O.P. (2009–2018) * Rev. Dominic Legge, O.P. (2018–2025) * Rev. Ambrose Little, O.P. (2025- )

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://thomisticinstitute.org/ Catholic organizations established in the 21st century Catholic educational institutions 2009 establishments in Washington, D.C. Christian organizations established in 2009