The Maltese Dominican Province is organizing a conference to mark the 700th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
The conference will be addressed by the internationally renowned academic Matthew Levering, who will discuss the theme Mariology and the Tertia Pars of the Summa Theologiae. It will also be addressed by Fr. Thomas Davonport O.P., who specialises in Thomism and Physics. His lecture is entitled Medieval Wisdom for Modern Physics.
Dr. Matthew Levering B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; M.T.S., Duke University; Ph.D., Boston College. Previous appointments include: associate professor of theology at Ave Maria University, Myser Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, and professor of theology at University of Dayton. Author or co-author of over thirty books including such works as Scripture and Metaphysics, Participatory Biblical Exegesis, Biblical Natural Law,Proofs of God, Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance, and Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?, and The Abuse of Conscience.Currently at work on a nine-volume dogmatics, whose first five volumes have appeared (most recently Engaging the Doctrine of Israel). Editor or co-editor of over twenty books including such works as The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology, and The Reception of Vatican II.Translator of Gilles Emery, O.P.’’s The Trinity. Co-editor of Nova et Vetera and of the International Journal of Systematic Theology. Past president (2021-22) of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together since 2004.
Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P. is an American Dominican, physicist, and philosopher. Before joining the Dominican Order, he studied physics at the California Institute of Technology before going on to earn his doctorate in physics from Stanford University studying theoretical particle physics. The focus of his scientific research was writing and testing simulations for high energy particle colliders like the LHC at CERN. After joining the Dominicans in 2010, he studied philosophy and theology in preparation for his ordination to the priesthood in 2017. In addition, he earned a Licentiate in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America, focusing on the philosophy of science and natural philosophy. In 2020 he joined the faculty of philosophy at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he teaches philosophy of nature and epistemology – while working on his second PhD – this time in philosophy. He is a frequent speaker on topics related to the intersection of faith and science and a contributor to a number of projects in this area including, the Thomistic Evolution project, the Aquinas 101 – Faith and Science series, and the annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium hosted by the Thomistic Institute in Washington, DC. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists.
The conference will take place on 28 April 2023 at 7:00pm in the Auditorium Hall of the Dominican Priory in Rabat.
All are welcome.