College Announces 2023 Thomistic Summer Conference — and Call for Papers!

Encouraged by turnout last July, Thomas Aquinas College, California, will host the second Thomistic Summer Conference from June 15-18, 2023, on the theme, “The Soul in the Philosophy & Theology of St. Thomas.” Scholars who wish to speak at the conference are invited to submit their paper proposals.

Although Christian parlance often includes reference to “the soul,” St. Thomas’s understanding encompasses more than just the human soul. It refers, rather, to the vital principle of any living thing whatsoever — thus St. Thomas speaks of vegetative and animal, as well as rational, souls. A Thomistic discussion of the soul, therefore, necessarily ventures into regions typically reserved to the “hard sciences,” such as biology and psychology, and invites their insight on properly theological matters.

Revisiting St. Thomas’s teaching on the soul, therefore, provides a chance for sacred and secular science to shed much-needed light on each other. Conference-goers will address such questions as: What are we to make of the concept of the soul in an age of neuroscience? Can we know that the human soul is immortal? And perhaps most intriguing of all, in what way is the soul an image of the Trinity?

Featured speakers will include Dr. Steven Jensen of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Dr. Marie George of St. John’s University in New York, and Thomas Aquinas College’s own Dr. Michael Augros and Dr. John Goyette, tutors on the New England and California campuses, respectively.

Registration remains open until May 15, but paper proposals must be submitted by January 31. Authors will be notified of acceptance by February 28.