Mount Saint Mary College will continue its semester-long celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Thomas Aquinas, an influential philosopher and Dominican priest, with a free, public lecture titled “What is Beauty?” on Wednesday, March 19 at 3:30 p.m.
The event will take place in the Mount’s Kaplan Family Library and Learning Center, room 218. The talk will be given by Sarah Maple, assistant professor of Religious Studies.
Maple’s presentation will delve into several questions through a Thomistic lens: Is beauty a permanent quality, or is it decided by the individual opinions that encounter it? Is beauty necessary for us to enjoy our lives? Does beauty make demands on us?
St. Thomas Aquinas OP, a 13th century Dominican friar, priest, and the patron saint of colleges and scholars, made innumerable contributions to theology and philosophy over the course of his five decades on this Earth. He embraced Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Averroes, fusing their ideas with the principles of Christianity. He created a school of thought that encompasses both theology and philosophy, now known as Thomism.
At the Mount, the title of “Aquinas Scholar” is awarded to junior or senior students who excel in academics. The college’s main academic building, Aquinas Hall, is named after the theologian. Even the college’s motto, Doce Me Veritatem (which translates to “Teach Me Truth”), was inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas.
Maple is a painter and theologian who holds advanced degrees in Ethics and Comparative Religious Studies from Drew University, and a Masters of Theological Studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies at the Catholic University of America. She wrote her Ph.D. in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews with joint supervision from the University of Oxford, Blackfriars Hall.
Since Fall 2019, Maple has taught undergraduates at the Mount. As a visiting professor, she teaches on Theology, Beauty, and Culture to graduate students at University of Notre Dame and New York’s Major Seminary.
The talk, sponsored by the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI), is the second of four to be held this semester in honor of the intellectual tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Subsequent talks in the series will be offered by two other members of the Mount’s Division of Humanities: John Hofbauer, associate professor of Philosophy, and Robert Miller, associate professor of Religious Studies. A previous talk, “Why Aquinas is Still Relevant after 800 Years,” was given in January by Charles Zola, assistant vice president for Mission, associate professor of Philosophy, and CDI director.
CDI promotes the Mount’s heritage of St. Dominic, advances the Dominican charism of study and service, provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues, and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue.