St. Thomas Aquinas: His Life, Wisdom, and Relevance Today – Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy presents Aquinas as a medieval theologian whose love of Scripture, clear metaphysics of happiness, integrated view of body and soul, and profound Eucharistic devotion offer urgently needed guidance for Christians facing modern confusion about truth, identity, and God.

This lecture was given on October 30th, 2025, at Southern Methodist University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Fr. Irenaeus Dunlevy, OP is a Coordinator for Campus Outreach at the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as a parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church in Providence, RI, as well as an adjunct professor and assistant chaplain at Providence College. He originates from Columbus, OH, studied architecture in Virginia and Switzerland, and practiced in the DC area before entering the Order of Preachers in 2013. He was ordained a priest in 2020 at the Dominican House of Studies during the quarantine. In his work with the Thomistic Institute, he has given talks on the virtue of penance, loving God with the mind, and the intersection of theology and architecture. He often travels the country visiting Thomistic Institute Campus Chapters, leading seminars that help students grasp Thomistic concepts. Additionally, he coordinates the TI's intellectual retreat programming, which affords students time to pray and integrate into their lives Thomistic theology and philosophy.

Keywords: Analogical Predication, Beatitude And Happiness, Benedictine Spirituality, Corpus Christi Liturgy, Four Senses Of Scripture, Mendicant Controversies, Philosophical Anthropology, Real Presence Of Christ, Summa Theologiae, Unicity Of The Intellect Debate

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tumistic 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 Tumistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:21.6	Thomistic Institute.org.
0:23.6	So the title of this talk is St. Thomas Aquinas, his life, relevance, and wisdom.
0:30.6	Saying that an intellectual who is eight centuries removed from the present is relevant may seem
0:36.6	as persuasive as a four-year-old's argument
0:38.8	that Oreos and Holmelt constitute a substantial dinner. St. Thomas Aquinas is medieval,
0:44.9	a term we associate with gargoyles and nightly cosplay. That is, everything that modern people
0:50.9	file under charming, but useless. For those of us suffering modernity,
0:56.0	turning to history feels like pumping the brakes.
1:00.0	There may be a delight,
1:02.0	but we nevertheless suffer the tinge of dread
1:04.0	comparable to those hateful moments of scrolling through Instagram
1:09.0	when we should be writing our paper.
1:12.4	We're already in motion toward progress, innovation, and timeliness,
1:17.3	and as a result, we try to avoid the past,
1:20.8	even though it grounds where we currently stand.
1:24.4	Arguing for Aquinas' relevance within the Catholic Church
1:27.2	is also an uphill battle.
1:29.3	In the post-concilior period of Vatican II, movements in Catholic theology challenge the privileged place of the common doctor.
1:36.3	Those eager to part from Timistic thought considered the upheavals of the 20th century,
1:41.3	two world wars, scientific progress, globalization, as a cause for a new theological
1:47.0	system.
	...

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