Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.

Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.

The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.

To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.

Calling all university students,

immerse yourself in the ancient and medieval Roman intellectual tradition

while living in the eternal city.

Apply now for our spring 2025 study abroad program. The deadline is August 15th,

and space is limited. Don't miss out. Apply today at Thomisticinstitute.org slash Rome. The title of my talk

is, is friendship with a simple God possible? In half-hearted imitation

of the scholastic practice, I'll begin by offering three objections to my giving this talk,

especially at a workshop dedicated to Aquinas' account of divine simplicity. Objection one.

Thomas doesn't ask whether friendship with a simple God is possible.

So the process of answering this question is definitely speculative and probably messy.

In reply, I grant the premise and the inference.

I deny, however, that messy speculative endeavors should be avoided, especially at workshops. Why? It seems to me that one of the greatest

challenges of reading and teaching St. Thomas is that his questions are already impeccably

well formed. One of the fundamental activities of doing philosophy, Thomas is that his questions are already impeccably well-formed.

One of the fundamental activities of doing philosophy is getting the question right.

But being given a well-formed question hardly guarantees that you've gotten the question.

The ordinary way that we come to get a well-formed question is by doing the dirty work of asking and trying to answer messy questions.

In my experience, doing just such dirty work is one of the most fruitful ways to get to know the mind of St. Thomas.

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