NEW DATE

Fr. Dominic Legge

Director, Thomistic Institute

“Faith & Science: The Illusion of Conflict”

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 |6:30 PM

UVA Warner 104

Although historians long ago debunked the idea that the Catholic Church and religious faith are somehow anti-science, many–including most within U.S. universities–still believe there is an inherent conflict between faith and science.  Why does this illusion persist and what is the full history of the Church’s promotion and support of science? Join us and others for a special lecture by Fr. Dominic Legge O.P, Director of the Thomistic Institute, which promises to clarify not only the history but the reality that that truths of science and the truths of faith cannot ever really conflict because Truth necessarily is One!

2025 Mariology Seminars

“As for Mary, she treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

Join us for this new lunch study group as we investigate, ponder and treasure Mary as described in sacred Scripture,  declared Mary Theotokos by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, viewed as Mary the Intercessor in medieval culture and folklore, and revered as Mary the Messenger from the hill of Tepeyac to Fatima and Kibeho, and several places in between. We’ll meet 4 Fridays for lunch and discussion: Feb. 7 and 28, March 21, and April 11.

February 7 (12:00-1:30pm) UVA Clark Library 155: Biblical Mary

Email Dr. Beth Frazier (eas3dm@virginia.edu) or REGISTER HERE.

Spiritual Listening:

The Beauty of Music

Introductory talk: Dr. Elizabeth Lyon Hall (COLLIS/Cornell University), “Spiritual Listening as a form of Prayer and Religious expression” 

Spring 2025 Aquinas Reading Group

All are invited to join this faculty-led, (free) lunch group dedicated to reading and discussing the writings and wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.  This semester, we will meet for monthly lunch discussions of Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologiae. Newcomers and “just listeners” always are welcomed in this group. Registration requested, but not required. Contact Dr. Anna Stelow (ars5x@virginia.edu).

February 20, 2025 (11:30-1:00pm): Summa Contra Gentiles IV, 79-87 (On the Resurrection)

March 27, 2025 (11:30-1:00pm): Summa Contra Gentiles, IV, 88-97 (On the Resurrection)

April 10, 2025 (11:30-1:00pm): (TBD) 

April 24, 2025 (11:30-1:00pm): (TBD) 

Work, Life, Faith Dinner Series: Darden Catholic Business Dinner Discussion 

Doctors of the Church Lunch Seminar: St. Gregory of Narek (c.950–1003/1011) 

Many holy men and women aid the Church in her thinking, but in her Wisdom the Church officially recognizes only 37 with its most esteemed title of “Doctor of the Church.” In 2015, the Catholic Church bestowed this title on St. Gregory/Grigor of Narek (c.950-1003/1011), a mysterious 10th century Armenian poet, mystic, philosopher and theologian. This decision did not surprise Armenian Christians, who long have revered the powerful and poetic insights of a cherised teacher whose writings speak “with God from the depths of the Heart.” Join us for a (free) lunch seminar designed to provide an introduction to the life and writings of St. Gregory of Narek. Prior experience not expected, but help with us with the count by registering here.  

Flannery O’Connor Reading Group

Consolation & Contemplation: Reconsiderations of the Faith & Reason Project in Our Secular Age 

Join us for any or all of our opening 2025 paired Consolation & Contemplation events, generously made possible with the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.

February 1, 2025: Public Lecture & Panel Discussion

Kevin Hart, “Contemplation:

The Movements of the Soul”

UVA Rotunda Multipurpose Room | 1:00pm Lecture | 2:30 Panel Discussion

What is contemplation? Is it more than focused thinking, but something less than ineffable experiences? What, how and why should one contemplate? Is contemplation only for mystical philosophers or those with religious vocations?  Might it be possible for most of us to lead more contemplative lives? Kevin Hart, Jo Rae Wright University Professor in the Divinity School at Duke University, will introduce us to various philosophical and religious ideas about contemplation, including the spiritual exercises of the ancient Greeks, aspects of Christian spirituality, aesthetic contemplation of nature and art, and the additional perspectives of modern philosophers and other religious and nonreligious traditions. 

Cosponsored with the Thomistic Institute @ UVA chapter.

Jan. 24-31, 2025 Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy Reading Group 

It’s time to bring this classic yet almost forgotten text back into the conversations of the modern University. Know anyone who’s lost? confused about who they are? anxious or bitter their pursuits of academic learning, fame, wealth, and power have not or will not make them happy? Then this dialogue between Lady Philosophy and the imprisoned and soon to be executed Boethius will be an eye-opener, more than worthy of a closer look! Lunch and the text provided.

Jan. 24 (1:00-3:00pm): Books I-III (UVA Clark 156)

Jan. 31 (1:00-3:00pm): Books IV-V (with special guest Duke Divinity School Professor Kevin Hart) | UVA Rotunda Multipurpose Room

REGISTER HERE, or email Dr. Beth Frazier (eas3dm@virginia.edu) or Dr. Charles Kromkowski (cak5u@virginia.edu).

Jan. 24, 2025 Welcome Back Social! 

All new and returning UVA Graduate Students, Postdocs, Faculty & Friends of the Institute: Welcome Back Social! Friday, January 24, 6:00-8:00pm, St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish Rose & Blue Rooms. Let’s begin the new year together with fellowship, food and drinks. All are invited, including spouses and friends. Sponsored by the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought and UVA Catholic Graduate Students (GradCats). Questions? Email Mary Clare Young (cdn3nm) or Candace Lei (spw4mt)

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 Lecture

Brandon Vaidyanathan

Professor of Sociology, Catholic University of America

“The Beauty of Understanding: A Global Study on What Scientists Can Teach Us About the Pleasures of Learning”

5:15pm | UVA Minor Hall Auditorium | All are invited

Scientists often are viewed as coldly analytical and rational, unaffected by the beauty and mystery of Nature. Yet like the rest of us, Nobel Laureates and many other scientists openly reveal that they also are deeply moved by unexpected disclosures of beauty in their work as scientists. For a world that too easily forgets to appreciate our immersion in Beauty, Prof. Vaidyanathan will share the findings of a first-ever global survey of 3,500 physicists and biologists in the US, UK, Italy and India on the role of aesthetics in science and the varieties of beauty that scientists encounter in their work.

Cosponsored by the Thomistic Institute @ UVA and the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought, with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, “In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on College Campuses Nationwide,” (Grant #62372).

Graduate Student Fellowship Dinners

Join UVA graduate/professional students, researchers and postdocs for monthly Fellowship & Dinner events. Our primary goal is to create a forum for friendship and support across our disciplinary divisions, where we can find refreshment and encouragement in the commitments of others to their academic works and our shared Faith. Questions? Interested in helping? Email grad student co-facilitators: Mary Clare Young (Classics, cdn3nm) or Candace Lei (Biomedical Engineering, spw4mt).

Sept. 25, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Oct. 30, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Nov. 20, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas Univeristy Parish)

Faith and Reason in the Modern University Minicourse

What is faith? What is reason? And why do many within modern universities believe that authentic faith commitments require their deep separation from one’s intellectual and professional pursuits. This free, noncredit minicourse counters the conventional norm by openly exploring the possibility that “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” (JPII). But how exactly can the wings of faith and reason work together? Join us as we take up and discuss the life and inspiring texts of Boethius (c.480-524), a Christian philosopher and marytr, who demonstrated how faith and reason flew together.

Seminar 1: The Life, Death, and Theological Tractates of Boethius

Seminar 2: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books I-III

Seminar 3: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books IV-V

November TBD, but Registration now open. Questions? Email Dr. Charles Kromkowski

Free Flannery O’Connor Film Night

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024 | UVA MINOR HALL AUDITORIUM

Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites you to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s mind and short stories as she ponders the great questions of her writing:

• Can scandalous art still serve God?
• Does suffering precede all greatness?
• Can illness be a blessing?

In 1950, Flannery visits her mother Regina in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at 24 years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery ultimately to come to peace with her situation and to a healing of her strained relationship with her mother. 

Faith and Science Minicourse (Fall 2024) 

3 Fridays (Sept. 13, 20 & 27) 10:00am-12:00pm, w/ Roots lunch cards for registered UVA students

Location: UVA Clark Library 156

• Why do many–including many Catholics–still think that the Church and the Catholic faith are in conflict with the modern sciences?
• How does St. Pope JPII’s faith-science dialogue model work?
• Is contemporary Astrophysics in conflict with Creation ex Nihilo?
• Is Evolutionary Science a problem for the Doctrine of Original Sin?
• What Is more reasonable: the meaninglessness of matter’s ‘heat death’ or Christian belief in bodily Resurrection?
• Who apologizes for modern science’s long train of mistakes and abuses? What is the replication crisis plaguing modern science? Why does modern science need Christian commitments to truthtelling and the human person?

Challenge yourself–as others have in prior years–by signing up for this in-person, non-credit, faculty-led minicourse. Prior experience is NOT expected. Questions? Email Dr. Beth Frazier or Dr. Charles Kromkowski (cak5u@virginia.edu).

Register Today

Graduate Student Fellowship Dinners

Join UVA graduate/professional students, researchers and postdocs for monthly Fellowship & Dinner events. Our primary goal is to create a forum for friendship and support across our disciplinary divisions, where we can find refreshment and encouragement in the commitments of others to their academic works and our shared Faith. Questions? Interested in helping? Email grad student co-facilitators: Mary Clare Young (Classics, cdn3nm) or Candace Lei (Biomedical Engineering, spw4mt).

Sept. 25, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Oct. 30, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Nov. 20, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas Univeristy Parish)

Fall 2024 Aquinas Reading Group

All are invited to join this faculty-led, (free) lunch group dedicated to reading and discussing the writings and wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.  Starting on Sept. 30, we will meet for a bi-monthly lunch discussion of Book IV of Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles.  Need the text? we can assist on this, too! Newcomers and “just listerners” always are welcomed the group. Registration requested, but not required. Contact Dr. Anna Stelow (ars5x@virginia.edu).

Sept. 30, 2024: Monday, 12:00-1:30pm, SCG IV, 1-14 (On the Divinity of the Son)

Oct. 21, 2024: SCG, IV, 15-26 (On the Holy Spirit and the Trinity)

Nov. 4, 2024: SCG IV, 27-49 (On the Incarnation)

Nov. 25, 2024: SCG IV, 50-60 (On Original Sin, and the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation)

Dec. 9, 2024: SCG IV, 61-78 (On the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Marriage)

Dec. 16, 2024: SCG IV, 79-97 (On the Resurrection)

October TBD, 2024: Flannery O’Connor Reading Group

For Flanney O’Connor lovers and those who have not yet been properly introduced to the shockingly strange stories she felt compelled to tell because we all “breath in nihilism” and “people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.” Time/Location TBD

Oct. TBD: A Discussion of 2 Short Stories

Faith and Reason in the Modern University Minicourse

What is faith? What is reason? And why do many within modern universities believe that authentic faith commitments require their deep separation from one’s intellectual and professional pursuits. This free, noncredit minicourse counters the conventional norm by openly exploring the possibility that “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” (JPII). But how exactly can the wings of faith and reason work together? Join us as we take up and discuss the life and inspiring texts of Boethius (c.480-524), a Christian philosopher and marytr, who demonstrated how faith and reason flew together.

Seminar 1: The Life, Death, and Theological Tractates of Boethius

Seminar 2: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books I-III

Seminar 3: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books IV-V

November TBD, but Registration now open. Questions? Email Dr. Charles Kromkowski

August 29, 2024 Welcome Back Social! 

All new and returning UVA Graduate Students, Postdocs and Faculty: Welcome Back Social! Thursday, August 29, 6:00-9:00pm, St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish Courtyard. Let’s begin the new year together with fellowship, food and drinks. All are invited, including spouses and friends. Sponsored by the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought and UVA Catholic Graduate Students (GradCats). Questions? Email Mary Clare Young (cdn3nm).

August 29, 2024 Welcome Back Social!

All new and returning UVA Graduate Students, Postdocs and Faculty: Welcome Back Social! Thursday, August 29, 6:00-9:00pm, St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish Courtyard. Let’s begin the new year together with fellowship, food and drinks. All are invited, including spouses and friends. Sponsored by the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought and UVA Catholic Graduate Students (GradCats). Questions? Email Mary Clare Young (cdn3nm@virginia.edu).

September 6, 2024 Lunch Discussion: St. Faustina Kowalska! 

UVA Students & Friends: Join us for a free onGrounds lunch introduction to the inspiring life and writings of the much beloved St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938). Friday, Sept. 6 (12:00-1:30pm), UVA Clark Library 156. Reserve a seat by registering or emailing Dr. Beth Frazier (eas3dm@virginia.edu).

Faith and Science Minicourse (Fall 2024)

• Why do many–including many Catholics–think that the Catholic faith and modern science are in conflict?
• Is contemporary Astrophysics in conflict with Creation ex Nihilo?
• Does Evolutionary Science create problems for the Doctrine of Original Sin?
• In what ways is Christian belief in bodily Resurrection confirmed and contradicted by the physical sciences of life and death?
• How can a real dialogue between the distinct truths and ways of knowing offered by faith and by science help us see the differences, validity and real limits of things known by science and things known by faith?

Challenge yourself–as others have in prior years–by signing up for this free, non-credit, faculty-led minicourse. Prior experience is NOT expected; only an openness to inquiring about some harder questions in a cross-disciplinary way. This 6-hour commitment may very well change the way you think about God, yourself, others and the great sciences of the universe! Interested? then register today! Questions? Email Dr. Charles Kromkowski (cak5u@virginia.edu).

Faith and Reason in the Modern University Minicourse

What is faith? What is reason? And why do many within modern universities believe that authentic faith commitments require their deep separation from one’s intellectual and professional pursuits. This free, noncredit minicourse counters the conventional norm by openly exploring the possibility that “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” (JPII). But how exactly can the wings of faith and reason work together? Join us as we take up and discuss the life and inspiring texts of Boethius (c.480-524), a Christian philosopher and marytr, who demonstrated how faith and reason flew together.

Seminar 1: The Life, Death, and Theological Tractates of Boethius

Seminar 2: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books I-III

Seminar 3: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Books IV-V

Registration now open. Questions? Email Dr. Charles Kromkowski

Fall 2024 Dante, Paradiso Reading Group 

Join Professor Bill Wilson and other lovers of the Divine Comedy in a friendly discussion of Dante’s Paradiso in 4 Wednesday evening seminars (6:30pm-8:00pm at Thomas Aquinas University Parish). Registration requested. UVA students: we will buy you the book! Questions? Please email Dr. William Wilson (wmw2v@virginia.edu).

Sept. 18 (Wed. 6:30-8:00pm) 

October 2 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm)

October 16 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm)

Nov. 6 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm)

Fall 2024 Aquinas Reading Group

All are invited to join this faculty-led, (free) lunch group dedicated to reading and discussing the writings and wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.  Starting on Sept. 30, we will meet for a bi-monthly lunch discussion of Book IV of Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles.  Need the text? we can assist on this, too! Newcomers and “just listerners” always are welcomed the group. Registration requested, but not required. Contact Dr. Anna Stelow (ars5x@virginia.edu).

Sept. 30 (Monday, 12:00-1:30pm), SCG IV, 1-14

Graduate Student Fellowship Dinners

Join UVA graduate/professional students, researchers and postdocs for monthly Fellowship & Dinner events. Our primary goal is to create a forum for friendship and support across our disciplinary divisions, where we can find refreshment and encouragement in the commitments of others to their academic works and our shared Faith. Questions? Interested in helping? Email grad student co-facilitators: Mary Clare Young (Classics, cdn3nm) or Candace Lei (Biomedical Engineering, spw4mt).

Sept. 25, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Oct. 30, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish)

Nov. 20, 2024 (Wed., 6:30-8:00pm, @ St. Thomas Aquinas Univeristy Parish)

Spring 2025 Events Registration Forms

• Darden Catholic Students Dinner
• Mariology Seminars
• Flannery O'Connor Seminars
• St. Grigor of Narek Seminar
• Aquinas Reading Group 
• Boethius Seminars
• Graduate Student Fellowship Events

Episcopal Moderator

Faculty Steering Committee

Contact the Institute:

 info@stanselminstitute.org