Forthcoming. “What Does ‘Form’ Mean? Aquinas’s Analogies of ‘Cause’ and ‘Form’ From Composite Creatures to God.” In The Aristotelian Four Causes: Form and Formal Cause. Edited by Boaz Schuman. Springer. (~14,400 words)
Forthcoming. “Aquinas’s Changing View on Universals: Two Contrary Interpretations in the Tradition and Their Basis in His Text.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. (~11,000 words)
2025. “The Real Distinction Between Supposit and Nature in Angels in Thomas Aquinas.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 97: 125–41. (~8,900 words)
2025. “Why are Accidents Included under Being Per Se?” Nova et Vetera 23, no. 3: 983–1012. [Winner of the 2023 Leo Elders Junior Scholar Essay Contest.] (~13,400 words)
2024. “The Modern Semantic Principles Behind Gilson’s Existential Interpretation of Aquinas [Part 2],” Studia Gilsoniana 13, no. 4: 721–58. (~12,600 words)
2024. “The Modern Semantic Principles Behind Gilson’s Existential Interpretation of Aquinas [Part 1],” Studia Gilsoniana 13, no. 2: 303–37. (~10,900 words)
2024. “The Semantics of Divine Esse in Boethius.” Nova et Vetera 22, no. 4: 1215–1264. (~24,400 words)
2022. “Secondary Substance and Quod Quid Erat Esse: Aquinas on Reconciling the Divisions of ‘Substance’ in the Categories and Metaphysics.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 96, no. 1: 21–45. (~13,700 words)
2021. “Secunda Operatio Respicit Ipsum Esse Rei: An Evaluation of Jacques Maritain, Étienne Gilson, and Ralph McInerny on the Relation of Esse to the Intellect’s Two Operations.” Nova et Vetera [English Ed.] 19, no. 2: 895–932. (~18,200 words)
2021. “‘In as Many Ways as Something Is Predicated ... in That Many Ways Is Something Signified to Be’: The Logic Behind Thomas Aquinas’s Predication Thesis, Esse Substantiale, and Esse in Rerum Natura.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 93: 263–92. (~17,200 words)
2021. “Thomas Aquinas on Grace as a Mysterious Kind of Creature.” Studia Gilsoniana 10, no. 3: 545–78. (~12,400 words)
2015. “Thomistic Special Relativity: Interpreting Length Contraction and Time Dilation without the Fourth Dimension.” Proceedings: Sixth World Conference on Metaphysics: 1157–1169. (~3,900 words)
Forthcoming. Review of Paul Shrimpton, A Catholic Eton? Newman’s Oratory School (Gracewing, 2005), Pp. 328, ISBN: 978-085244-661-4, for Evangelizare Noviter.
2026. “Reading Reason in the Archeological Record: Archeological and Genetic Discoveries Surrounding the Origin of Rational Hominin Life.” Presented at the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary Colloquium Series, Denver (CO), October 29, 2026.
2025. “A Logical Reconstruction of Boethius’s Demonstration that Every Being is Substantially Good in De hebdomadibus.” Presented at the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary Colloquium Series, Denver (CO), October 2, 2025.
2025. “What ‘Is’ Is: Three Interpretations of Everyone’s Favorite Verb.” Presented at the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary Colloquium Series, Denver (CO), February 13, 2025.
2023. “Avicenna, Averroes, Boethius, and Aquinas: Which Esse is Composed with Creatures?” Presented at the Center for Thomistic Studies Colloquium Series, University of St. Thomas (TX), September 29, 2023.
2024. “Does God only Efficiently Cause through the Medium of a Formal Cause?” Presented at the Sacra Doctrina Project Annual Conference: All Things that Were Made, St. Paul, MN, June 8, 2024.
2024. “What is Esse substantiale? Aquinas with Boethius and Averroes against Avicenna and William of Auvergne.” Presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 11, 2024.
2023. “The Real Distinction between Supposit and Nature in Angels in Thomas Aquinas.” Presented at American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, November 2023.
2023. “The Real Distinction between Supposit and Nature in Angels in Thomas Aquinas.” Presented at International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2023.
2019. “‘In as Many Ways as Something is Predicated … in that Many Ways is Something Signified to Be’: The Logic Behind Thomas Aquinas’s Predication Thesis, Esse substantiale, and Esse in rerum natura.” Presented at American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, November 2019.
2017. “Either the Popular Free Will Defense or Aquinas, Not Both: Why Aquinas’s Ontology Entails Divine Sovereignty over the Created Will.” Presented at American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX, November 2017.
2015. “Thomistic Special Relativity: Interpreting Length Contraction and Time Dilation without the Fourth Dimension.” Presented at Sixth World Conference on Metaphysics, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, November 2015.
2025. “Theology and History II.” Sed Contra: A Podcast of Catholic Theology, hosted by Fr. Ambrose Dobrozsi, with guests, Elliot Polsky and John O’Neill. August 31, 2025.
2025. “What the Meaning of the Word ‘Is’ Is.” Sed Contra: A Podcast of Catholic Theology, hosted by Urban Hannon, with guest, Elliot Polsky. May 5, 2025.
2025. “The Modern Turn to the Subject.” Sed Contra: A Podcast of Catholic Theology, hosted by Fr. Ambrose Dobrozsi, with guests, Pater Edmund Waldstein and Elliot Polsky. March 10, 2025.
Since 2020, when most teaching was moved online, I have maintained a YouTube channel for occasionally posting visually engaging, in-depth philosophy lectures that are available to the general public. For a full listing of these public lectures, click the link above. For a sampling, see below.
08/2023–05/2024 | Speculative Philosophy Research Group (SPRG), Center for Thomistic Studies. Organizer: Thomas Ciavatti.
07/2023 | Uncertainty, Confidence, and Truth in the Sciences: Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium, sponsored by the Thomistic Institute, The Catholic University of America.
08/2022–05/2023 | Aquinas and “the Arabs” International Working Group (AAIWG): Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Classical Islamic Philosophy: A Thematic Introduction, organized by Atefe Esmaili, Seth Kreeger, Nicoletta Nativo, Pooya Heybatollahi, Richard Taylor.
06/2022 | The City of God and Modernity: Culture and Ecclesiology, sponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology and the Thomistic Institute, The Catholic University of America.
Expanding and reworking dissertation on quod est and esse in Aquinas into book. This book reevaluates how to interpret Thomas's quod est-esse distinction and the relation of this doctrine to Boethius and Avicenna.
Ongoing research and writing on the modern science of human origins, its philosophical interpretation from a Thomistic perspective, and its relation to Christian teaching on Adam and Eve, the Fall, and original sin.
Ongoing research and writing on the interconnection between the epistemology and theory of education of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and John Henry Newman with particular emphasis on the role of history, literature, and culture in human knowledge and education.
Hervaeus Natalis. De esse et essentia. In De quattuor materiis sive Determinationes contra magistrum Henricum de Gandavo, vol. 1 of 2, edited by Lambert-Marie de Rijk. Studia Artistarum 35. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
Siger of Brabant. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam. 2 vols. Edited by William Dunphy and Armand Maurer. Philosophes Médiévaux 24-25. Louvain-La-Neuve: Editions de l'institut superieur de philosophie, 1981-83. [Selections]
Siger of Brabant. Quaestio utrum haec sit vera: homo est animal, nullo homine existente. In Ecrits de logique, de morale et de physique, edited by Bernardo Bazán, 53-59. Louvain: Publicationes universitaires, 1974.
Thomas Sutton. Q. 26. In Quaestiones ordinariae, edited by Johannes Schneider. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1977.