Thomistic Institute – St Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes - Fr Anton ten Klooster
2025-11-03 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Blackfriars Hall, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LY, United Kingdom
On Monday 3rd November, the Oxford Thomistic Institute will be hosting Fr Anton ten Klooster, of Tilburg University, to speak on St Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes.
The lecture will begin at 7.30pm in the Aula at Blackfriars, and will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome.

Abstract
Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes: Reading, Disputing, and Preaching.
“When the foundation of lectio is laid down, and the walls of disputatio have been erected, the capstone is placed upon it, which is praedicatio.” (Peter the Chanter)
Lectio – “The whole perfection of our life is contained in this sermon of the Lord” (St Augustine)
Disputatio – “These beatitudes are most suitably enumerated” (St Thomas Aquinas)
Praedicatio – “To comment on Scripture naturally culminates in preaching” (Louis-Jacques Bataillon)
About the speaker
Fr Anton is an assistant professor of theology at Tilburg University. His primary focus is on fundamental moral theology. He is currently working on a book on the development of moral teaching (e.g. How did the Church come to oppose slavery, and how can we then hold a continuity in teaching?). He studied theology in Utrecht and Fribourg, and did part of the doctoral research as a visiting scholar at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. In 2018, he was awarded the doctoral degree cum laude for “Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes”. The dissertation was awarded the international “Veritas et Amor” award by the Circolo San Tommaso. He has been published in journals such as Nova et Vetera, Angelicum, Journal of Moral Theology, and Incontri.

TI Seminar – St Thomas Aquinas on the New Law – Fr Anton ten Klooster
2025-11-04 17:00 - 18:30
On Tuesday 4th November, the Oxford Thomistic Institute will be hosting Fr Anton ten Klooster, of Tilburg University, who will be delivering a seminar on St Thomas Aquinas on the New Law.
Spaces are limited for this seminar. For more information or to reserve a place, contact Br Reginald Herbert OP.
Abstract
In this seminar, we will explore the notion of the ‘new law’ in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. As Servais Pinckaers observed, the term has made a come-back in moral theology. A prominent example is the discussion of the new law in John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor (nrs. 23-24). In this seminar we explore what is at stake in the discussion of the new law, and what the key features of Aquinas’s teaching on this law are: what makes it new, what makes it a law, and what does this law command? We will draw from his commentary on the gospel of Matthew, and the discussion of the new law in the Summa Theologiae. Together, we will read the article in which Aquinas makes the claim that “before all else the New Law is the very grace of the Holy Spirit, given to those who believe in Christ”.
Literature
Servais Pinckaers, ‘The Return of the New Law to Moral Theology’
Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. Ia IIae, q, 106 a. 1: ‘is the new law a written law, or an inward one?’
Structure of the workshop

General introduction
The ‘new law’ in the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor
What is ‘new’ about it, and what makes it ‘law’?

Discussion of Pinckaers
What is at stake in the discussion of the new law?

Aquinas on the new law
Discussion of old and new law in the commentary on Matthew
Place of the new law in treatise on law
Core features of Aquinas’ teaching on the new law

Text reading
Aquinas: ‘is the new law a written law or an inward one?’

About the speaker
Fr Anton is an assistant professor of theology at Tilburg University. His primary focus is on fundamental moral theology. He is currently working on a book on the development of moral teaching (e.g. How did the Church come to oppose slavery, and how can we then hold a continuity in teaching?). He studied theology in Utrecht and Fribourg, and did part of the doctoral research as a visiting scholar at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. In 2018, he was awarded the doctoral degree cum laude for “Thomas Aquinas on the Beatitudes”. The dissertation was awarded the international “Veritas et Amor” award by the Circolo San Tommaso. He has been published in journals such as Nova et Vetera, Angelicum, Journal of Moral Theology, and Incontri.

Thomistic Institute – Virtue and Self-Knowledge in St Catherine of Sienna - Sr Catherine Joseph Droste OP
2025-11-17 19:30 - 21:30
On Monday 17th November, the Oxford Thomistic Institute will be hosting Sr Catherine Joseph Droste OP, of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), to speak on Virtue and Self-Knowledge in St Catherine of Sienna.
The lecture will begin at 7.30pm in the Aula at Blackfriars, and will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome.

About the speaker
Sister Catherine Joseph Droste OP is a member of the Congregation of St Cecilia, Nashville, Tennessee. She currently serves as Professor of theology at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), where she also held roles as Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Theology, and Director of Collaboration. Her areas of research include virtues and the moral life, the ecclesiology of religious life, and the theology of St Catherine of Sienna. Her recent publications include: “The Conformity between Ius as the Object of Justice and the Virtue of Charity according to Aquinas” in The Concept of Ius and the Nature of Law in Thomas Aquinas (CUA, 2024); “Forming Conscience in a Contemporary World: Aquinas’s Teaching on the Gifts of Wisdom and Counsel,” Philippiniana Sacra (2024).

Thomistic Institute – Eucharist and Growth in Holiness – Fr Reginald Lynch OP
2025-11-24 19:30 - 21:30
On Monday 24th November, the Oxford Thomistic Institute will be hosting Fr Reginald Lynch OP, of the Dominican House of Studies (DHS) in Washington DC, to speak on Eucharist and Growth in Holiness.
The lecture will begin at 7.30pm in the Aula at Blackfriars, and will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome.

About the Speaker
Born in New Hampshire, Father Reginald Lynch OP, entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2007, and was ordained a priest in 2013. After ordination, he served at St. Patrick Parish in Columbus, Ohio, and taught at the Pontifical College Josephinum, before going on to complete a PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with a major concentration in medieval theology and minor concentrations in patristics and philosophical theology. He has written on a variety of topics in sacramental, dogmatic and historical theology in journals like The Thomist, Theological Studies, and Harvard Theological Review. His first book, The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017) received the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize in 2018. He has also written Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and Eucharistic Sacrifice in the Early Modern Period (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), which focuses on the reception of Aquinas’ Eucharistic theology in the early modern period.
