Dominicans open new intellectual headquarters

Father Thomas Joseph White, O.P.
Professor of Theology, Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies

At 38, and already a 14-year veteran of religious life, he is one of the youngest professors at the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., which is the seminary for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph and a center of Thomistic learning for religious, priest and laity across the board.

Fr. White is an expert in Thomistic metaphysics, Christology and Roman Catholic-Reformed ecumenical dialogue. This last specialty offers a window on the Friar's unique past. He grew up in a nominally Christian, basically secular household in Georgia. Growing up in this culture, he was exposed to a strong brand of Baptist belief and the anti-Catholic sentiments of both believers and secular folk. "I was initially indisposed toward Christianity, but I was a seeker," he said.

He discovered Catholicism in the writings of a fellow Southerner, particularly her letters to an anonymous correspondent, Flannery O'Connor. "I was struck by the tenacity and purity of her convictions," he recalled, "her truth convictions she had found something very substantial in Christ and she was unapologetically Catholic." He was "intrigued, and touched by her brilliant portrayal of God's working in ordinary circumstances."

Then there was the remarkable fact that O'Connor spent some hours reading St. Thomas Aquinas every night before bed, including the saint's arguments for the existence of God. Fr. White converted to Catholicism at age 22, while studying at Brown University. His affinity for the Catholic author would eventually lead Fr. White to the Dominicans and make him a student and teacher of Thomism. As such, he is a brilliant fit for the Dominican House of Studies, which, boosted by a new Academic Center and Theological Library, aims to become a world-class center for Thomistic learning. Fr. White was ordained to the priesthood in 2008.

St. Thomas, Fr. White is convinced, is the perfect dialogue partner for contemporary secularism. Thomism, he said, is key to countering the belief that "secularism is somehow natural to the human mind, when in fact the mind is made to know who God is." Contemporary culture, meanwhile, frequently disputes "that we have a spiritual intellect in the first place," he said, "and tends to focus on what is biological and instinctual," as in the booming discipline of bio-psychology.

This can lead to a "merely instrumentalist view of the mind, the conviction that human thought has its sole purpose in the practical arts, whether scientific or in business, for example," he said. Thomas Aquinas, by contrast, argued "that first and foremost the mind is made to understand something about God, and to consider in other human beings what is intrinsic to the goodness and dignity of the human person. The mind is made to facilitate our communion with others, and with God."

That vision, he added, is not always the typical outlook on offer in American universities. Ultimately, that is an impoverishment, said the Friar: "Human beings aspire intellectually to more than banality. And there are not many cultural resources today that give people a chance to transcend basically banal explanations of why they exist." Catholicism, with Thomism at its intellectual core, offers a powerful alternative.

In a new book due out this summer, Wisdom in the Face of Modernity: A Study in Modern Thomistic Natural Theology (Sapientia Press), Fr. White will make a case for Thomism at length, arguing for the legitimacy of a natural theology describing humankind's innate, natural, disposition toward God. "St. Thomas argues that a human being is made for God, and naturally desires to know Him in a profound way," he said, "regardless of whether people are explicitly aware of this dimension of themselves or not; they have a deeper spiritual appetite for happiness and a desire for truth that can flourish ultimately only in relation to God. Philosophical reason," writes Fr. White, can "determine a meaning for human existence and act as a vehicle for cultural renewal and unification."

Another beautiful aspect of Thomism, said the Friar, is that it makes a brilliant case for the "fundamental compatibility between science and faith. Not coincidentally, St. Thomas was a disciple of St. Albert the Great, one of the first natural scientists," he added. "St. Thomas had a sublime sense of unity of the body and soul, on the one hand, he considers our animal nature and our origins from within the physical cosmos, including the notion that human thought depends on sensation, language and images, which fits with contemporary brain science; and on the other hand he takes seriously our spiritual nature and vocation to communion with God, examining how certain dimensions of thought and human freedom are immaterial and spiritual," says Fr. White, adding that "Thomism in this respect makes for full realism."

"The material realism of St. Thomas is profound," said the Friar. "We are both our bodies and our souls; our body is part of our future destiny, which helps in a philosophical way to make sense of the Biblical and theological belief in the Resurrection, while our soul implies a spiritual dimension that allows for free choice and deliberation, which makes for a natural openness to the mystery of grace."

The challenge remains to bring the wisdom of Thomism to a mass audience. There is room for a Catholic best-seller along the lines of some of the Protestant best-sellers. "Protestant writers are sometimes more savvy in that way," said Fr. White, "but Catholicism has a profound heritage in law, morality and philosophy and we need also to be aware of the danger of a superficial presentation of Christianity." That said, the new Dominican House of Studies will "train laity and Friars to speak on a more popular level," said Fr. White, and to "translate the splendors of Thomism to an ever wider audience."

Back to Home

Press Information

The media are invited to interview leading Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph as follows: Saturday, April 18 from 1:00pm-2:00 pm and Sunday, April 19 at 1:00-2:00 pm

Please meet interviewees on the 1st Floor of the Theological Library at the Dominican House of Studies (directions below), or by appointment.

For more information, or to schedule phone interview(s), please contact THOMAS PETERS or JEFF GRABOSKY.

Phone: 202-495-3877 or 202-495-3828
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Address: The Dominican House of Studies, 487 Michigan Ave, NE, Washington DC 20017