Outreach
Report on Previous Years’ Activities
Aquinas in China
Prof Eleonore Stump, Patron of the Institute, and Dr William Carroll, a member of the Institute’s Advisory Board, have lectured in China on occasions.
Dr Carroll has developed further opportunities to make Aquinas’ philosophy known there and to bring it into conversation with Chinese traditions of thought. In November 2016 he gave three lectures at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and spoke to 800 students at Shanghai High School. From 25 to 27 Nov. he spoke at a Workshop on Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Philosophy at Wuhan University, as did two other members of the Institute, Prof Michael Sherwin, OP (Fribourg) and Prof Thomas Joseph White, OP (Thomistic Institute, Washington DC). Prof Wu Tianyue of Peking University also spoke. The workshop was sponsored by the Aquinas Institute and by the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University. There were 25 official participants from 12 different Chinese Universities, and the seven public lectures were attended by about 30 other local academics.
Dr Carroll gave an informal talk about “Thomas Aquinas in China” on 8 March 2017 in Oxford.
Dr Carroll’s article “China and Thomas Aquinas” appeared in Oxford Magazine No. 382 (Eighth Week, Hilary Term, 2017) pp. 12-13.
Dr Carroll’s article “Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Science: An Invitation for China, and Not Only for China” was published in Modern Age 58 (Fall 2016).
Schools Outreach
Mr Craig Ross of the Religion and Philosophy Department at Tiffin School brought a group of 6th-form students to Oxford on 24 November 2017 as part of their A Level Philosophy and Theology curriculum. Besides events in other Colleges, they came to the Aquinas Institute and Fr Peter Hunter spoke to them in response to questions they had sent concerning the value of Aquinas’ virtue ethics in a post-modern world, whether there is a sense in which God is a “being”, the status of the statement “God is One”, the validity of the Five Ways, and a possible solution to Zeno’s Paradox. The discussion was greatly enjoyed by all.
“A Vision for Life” Dominican Study Week
The study week aimed at university students and young adults has for several years taken place in late June or in July 2017 at Buckfast Abbey, which kindly hosts and generously supports this venture. It was originally organised by Fr Nicholas Crowe, OP, on behalf of the Dominican Youth Movement. Fr Nicholas has built up a core team consisting of himself, Fr Simon Gaine, OP, Sr Ann Catherine Swailes, OP, and Fr Oliver Keenan, OP, which under the auspices of the Dominican Youth Movement and the Aquinas Institute, offers a systematic overview of Catholic Theology using the Summa Theologiae of St Thomas Aquinas as a guide. There is also time for prayer and reflection, and for walks on the edge of Dartmoor.
From its second year onwards, the study week provides for two “year-groups”. Participants in their first year hear an introduction covering Sacra Doctrina and Beatitude, then study the Holy Trinity, Creation, the Human Person, Law and Grace, the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Church, and the Sacraments. In 2017, for example, the second year explored in detail St Thomas’ teaching on the passiones animae.