Celebrating our Recent Graduates
On May 18 we celebrated 14 students graduating from various DSPT programs. We had a beautiful Commencement Ceremony, with encouraging speeches from DSPT alumna Margaret M. Turek, STD and DSPT graduate, Br. Nikolas Barth, OFM Cap. We also heard a reading of 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13 from DSPT graduate Megan Watson.
Among the graduates were Fr. Andrew Thomas Kang, OP and Fr. Columban Mary Hall, OP who were ordained to the order of the priesthood on May 25, along with Fr. Matthew Wanner, OP, who graduated from DSPT in 2023.
View the full list of graduates, as well as their thesis topics and abstracts (if applicable) below!
Certificate of Philosophical Studies:
Dominicus Maria Armbruster, OP
Certificate of Theological Studies:
Katherine Arnaud-Seybold
艁ukasz Pasich, OP
Bart艂omiej Rogula, OP
Master of Divinity:
Nikolas Barth, OFM Cap
Chris Renz, OP (Advisor)
Master of Divinity and Master of Art (黑料传送门), Thesis Option
Andrew Thomas Kang, OP
鈥淚nstinctus Spiritus Sancti, Instinctus Rationis: The Relation Between Divine Instinct and Human Reason in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit According to St. Thomas Aquinas鈥�
Marianne Farina, CSC (Coordinator) Michael Dodds, OP Dennis Klein, OP
While there has been a renewed interest in St. Thomas Aquinas鈥檚 doctrine of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, recent literature on the topic has been disparate. Given St. Thomas Aquinas鈥檚 later exposition on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, it seems that the gifts cannot be properly understood without a careful
analysis of the Spirit鈥檚 prompting, or instinctus. In this thesis, I argue that, in St. Thomas鈥檚 doctrine of the gifts, the operation of the gifts precludes discursive deliberation without removing the freedom proper to human action. This is one aspect of the way that the Spirit鈥檚 motion enables the sanctified agent to act in a higher, divine mode without doing violence to its nature or agency. The study includes an analysis of the major interpretations of St. Thomas in the last century, a study of the analogy between the Holy Spirit鈥檚 motion in the gifts and the reason鈥檚 motion in the moral virtues, and a defense of the position that the Spirit鈥檚 instinctus is a special kind of operating actual grace.
Master of Arts (黑料传送门), Thesis Option
Scott Norgaard, OP
鈥淪acrifice Your Son: A Thomistic Comparison of the Akedah and Calvary as the Basis of Worship鈥�
Matthew Thomas, DPhil (Coordinator) Bryan Kromholtz, OP Luke Buckles, OP Christian theologians have long developed the Akedah/Passion typology鈥攙iewing Abraham鈥檚 near-sacrifice of Isaac as a type of Christ鈥檚 sacrifice at Calvary. But relatively little attention has been given to comparing the Akedah鈥檚 function in Jewish theology (as a foundational sacrificial event memorialized in subsequent liturgy) to the Passion鈥檚 function in Christian theology (as a foundational sacrificial event memorialized in the Mass). Recently, scholars have explored the role that the Akedah serves in Jewish conceptions of sacrifice (e.g., Levenson) and in Christian understanding of the Euchari