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Program in Catholic Thought

The Aquinas Institute’s Program in Catholic Thought (PICT) brings the intellectual wisdom of religious traditions, especially the Catholic tradition, into the contemporary research university and into direct interaction with the most challenging and important questions in the academy and around the country.  With this work, PICT seeks to renew and reenergize the university by expanding the range of its questions and sources, while also helping religious traditions improve their visibility and ability to speak to the university. The modern university is often too narrowly focused and intellectually sclerotic as a result of artificially limiting its questions, methods, and sources. At the same time, religious thinkers often speak only to each other, thereby losing the opportunity to address their secular peers and extend their cultural influence. PICT aspires to help break down this mutually detrimental wall of separation by showing how religion can challenge, improve, and add to our common search for the truth about the most vital questions. For more info, contact Marcus Gibson (cmgibson@princetoncatholic.org) or Brandon Van Dyck (bvandyck@princetoncatholic.org).

Beyond the Impasse Project

Across the US, the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become widespread and institutionalized on university campuses and across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. The rise of DEI as a set of ideals and institutional practices both reveals and has contributed to significant division and polarization in the country. Many Americans energetically support DEI efforts; others vehemently oppose them. Despite the apparent impasse, many commitments are held in common. In 2023, PICT launched the Beyond the Impasse project, an effort to articulate these common commitments and broaden them by drawing upon theological tools and resources, especially from the Christian tradition. As the project’s first major contribution, PICT hosted a two-day conference, Beyond the Impasse: Theological Perspectives on DEI, at Princeton on October 25-26, 2024. 

PICT has published the conference proceedings on the Aquinas Institute’s YouTube channel and will produce an academic volume based on the conference. In addition, the conference has generated numerous magazine articles and blog posts, including:

A major societal shift is underway, as the multibillion dollar DEI industry faces mounting legal and reputational challenges, and institutions of all kinds are rethinking their organizational cultures. As part of the Beyond the Impasse project, PICT also seeks to make a contribution outside academia and is working with select partners in business schools and the private sector to this end. 

PICT Theology Reading Group

Throughout the academic year, PICT organizes a theology reading group (dinner provided) for graduate students and advanced undergraduates interested in deepening their study of Catholic thought. Meetings typically take place on Wednesdays throughout the academic term, 5:30-7pm, at the Aquinas Institute.  Past readings have included Augustine’s City of God, selected works on love and the will in Maximus the Confessor, Christological writings of Joseph Ratzinger, papal encyclicals, and contemporary studies in Christian virtue ethics and the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. For more info, contact Marcus Gibson (cmgibson@princetoncatholic.org).