Twenty six years ago today Father Benedict Ashley, O.P., delivered this theological lecture during the St. Catherine of Siena Colloquium on Spirituality held at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Fr. Ashley's reflections remain timely today, for as we journey through Lent, the wisdom he shares helps us to gain a proper view of asceticism and the redemption of the body. To help achieve his goal, Fr. Ashley speaks of the originality of Saint Thomas Aquinas who abandoned Platonism and remolded all of theology on Aristotelian lines. This is an important point, for according to Fr. Ashley, "[Aquinas] saw, as no Christian theologian before him (and not too many afterwards) had done that Plato's dualistic conception of what it is to be human, is ultimately incompatible with the Christian doctrines of Incarnation and Resurrection." Fr. Ashley concludes that the full implications of this rejection of Platonic dualism for theology are not yet fully recognized.

In the audio clip above, Fr. Hugh Burns, O.P., introduces Fr. Ashley, who as a Dominican Friar belongs to the Province of St. Albert the Great (Central Province). He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame, and has doctorates in philosophy and political science, and the post-doctoral degree of Master of Sacred Theology conferred by an international committee of the Order of Preachers. He was formerly President of Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, Professor of Theology at the Institute of Religion and Human Development, Houston, TX, and Professor of Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and Family, Washington, D.C, and Visiting Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Chicago (1999). At present he is Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University. He is a Senior Fellow of the Pope John Center of Medical Ethics, Boston. He is the author of numerous books and articles.