Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P.
Photo: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Affirming Perennial Truth in a Disoriented Age
The Thomistic Institute at the PFIC promotes study in the philosophical and theological traditions of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Director, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., explains the value of its work.
What is the Thomistic Institute?
The Thomistic Institute seeks to bring the work of the PFIC into the larger public life of the Church and society by promoting Catholic thought and engaging with contemporary issues. The Thomistic Institute works through a variety of formats, including academic and spiritual conferences each year in a variety of locations.
What drew you to study St. Thomas Aquinas?
Aquinas is both a realist and a contemplative. He takes the great philosophical insights of Aristotle regarding the structure of ordinary reality and he unites these convincingly with the soaring, beautiful understanding of the life of grace one finds in St. Paul and St. Augustine. Aquinas also gives us insight into the mystery of the life of Christ and the life of grace.
What does Thomism have to offer society today?
We live in an intellectually disoriented age where there is a great lack of consensus about the meaning of human existence. Thomism allows us to see how the affirmation of absolute truths is not a limitation on our understanding, but the path to receiving all truth within a larger framework: the truth that is Christ. Making knowledge of the perennial truths of Catholicism available in our culture can have a profound and transformative effect on people.
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