Aquinas on the Final Purpose of Human Existence and Human Prudence

If the human being has a natural desire to see God, Christianity promises a philosophically defensible goal: to build up friendship with God in this life, to see God face to face in the next. While this is a remarkable religious claim, Aquinas also believes it is deeply interconnected with our day to day life and experience. In other words, our ability to identify true freedom and to live happily in friendship and justice with others without compromising our integrity as reasonable human beings is connected to our openness to God and our willingness to avoid "settling" in life for too little. In this online lecture, Father White will help us look at prudence (ethical reasoning) from this particular perspective: as a virtue that is connected with the final end of the human person, and an authentic sense of human freedom.

About our guest speaker

Rev. Thomas Joseph White, O.P.

Director of Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum and Professor

Fr. White is the Director of the Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum. He did his doctoral studies at Oxford University, and has research interests in metaphysics, Christology, Trinitarian theology, and the theology of grace. His books include The Incarnate Lord, A Thomistic Study in Christology (2015) and The Light of Christ: An Introduction to Catholicism (2017). He is co-editor of the academic journal Nova et Vetera and in 2011 was appointed an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 2019 Fr. White was named a McDonald Agape Foundation Distinguished Scholar.

About this year's theme for our programs:

Prudence: a Word, a Virtue, a Theme

This year, following the requests of our students, the Austin Institute has developed its academic programming around a common theme that will unify the activities of the semester.

The focus of our fall programming is on the most underestimated and yet most needed virtue of prudence.

Prudence will also guide our practical choices for our programs. All in-person and/or online programming conform to current health guidelines. We want to keep everyone safe while providing program opportunities during this pandemic.