Affordable Catholic Higher Education: Dominican Institute

Have you ever wanted to further your Catholic education but realized that even online higher education from a good Catholic institution is pricey? Or maybe you’re not necessarily interested in earning a degree, just taking a class here and there about specific topics in the Faith of interest to you. Dominican Institute is the answer. The goal of Dominican Institute is to provide top-notch instructions from instructors who have at least their M.A. (some have their Ph.D.) in their area of expertise at a fraction of the cost of other Catholic institutions of higher education.

Areas of course instruction include theology, philosophy, apologetics, evangelization, and Dominican studies, among others. There are ten courses offered this first semester, including Foundational Bioethics, Fundamentals of Dogmatic Theology, Natural Theology, Classic Apologetics in the Modern World, Church History: The Great Heresies, and Introduction to Dominican Spirituality. All of these courses are in line with the Magisterium and students are awarded certificates of completion at the end of each course (there are different kinds depending on need and number of courses taken). Coursework can be used for catechetical certification, professional development, personal development and lay formation. Your transcript can be sent to participating programs for proof of completion.

Now for cost. This is always the biggest hurdle I have had in furthering my own personal education and for so many others, as well. But Dominican Institute’s cost is phenomenally affordable. At just $150 per 3 credit hours, it ranks as just 10% of what other major Catholic institutions charge for the same number of credit hours in their programs!

Comparison between DI and other Catholic higher education institutions

As someone who has wanted to further my education and knowledge of the Church and Faith, this is great news! Affordable, quality Catholic higher education- it’s a dream come true! Dominican Institute makes being a life-long learner possible.

Education and being an educator is truly a ministry and Dominican Institute is a beautiful labor of love and service, trying to make the Faith more accessible to all kinds of people and students. DI, founder TJ Burdick, and his team of amazing instructors truly fulfill Christ’s call to “go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28: 19-20). I don’t know much about St. Thomas Aquinas (maybe I’ll take that Intro to Dominican Spirituality course…) but I think he’d approve.

Learn more and register for classes here. Classes start Monday, August 8!

Theresa Williams

Theresa Williams

"I have become all things to all, to save at least some" (1 Cor. 9:22) basically describes her life as writer, homemaker, friend and sister, wife, and mother of 2 spunky children, all for the sake of Gospel joy. She received her BA in Theology, Catechetics/Youth Ministry, and English Writing from Franciscan University of Steubenvile. Currently, she is a homemaker and freelance writer. Her life mottos are Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam and "Without complaint, everything shall I suffer for in the love of God, nothing have I to fear" (St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart). She is Pennsylvanian by birth, Californian by heart, and in Texas for the time being. Yinz can find her on Twitter @TheresaZoe.

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9 thoughts on “Affordable Catholic Higher Education: Dominican Institute”

  1. ” I don’t know much about St. Thomas Aquinas ”

    Let me get you started –

    With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own
    side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is
    the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church
    by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For
    it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith that quickens the soul,
    than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers
    of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the
    secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as
    they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put
    to death. On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy, which
    looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at
    once, but “after the first and second admonition”, as the Apostle
    directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping
    for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating
    him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to
    the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death.
    (Summa, II–II, Q.11, art.3.)

    Now, factor in Jesus’ rebuke to Peter for merely cutting off the high priest
    servant’s ear.

    1. Also factor in Jesus’ comment after he gives the apostles directions on how to settle disputes between members of the Church, “if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Or, in another place, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” And lots of others like it.

      1. After this I’m done –

        “That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas

        So, the elect get to take their eyes off God whenever they please and get off on THIS ?! Of course, he was in charge of the Inquisition so it
        stands to reason heaven wouldn’t be quite right without some former holy entertainment.

      2. Of course, he was in charge of the Inquisition…

        Are you truly this ignorant, or is it hyperbole for effect?

      3. Ah, you’re right. He guided the Inquisition by advocating
        for the death penalty which only a secular tribunal could administer. Sound familiar ?

      4. Ah, you’re right.

        Well, it’s factually verifiable, yet you did’t have the decency to verify it. As Christ says, those who cannot be trusted in small things cannot be trusted in large ones. Speaking of which:

        He guided the Inquisition by advocating for the death penalty which only a secular tribunal could administer. Sound familiar ?

        That’s pretty wrong-headed, too. As a university professor, Aquinas guided the Inquisition at best indirectly.

        But there’s a bigger issue which you seem to be missing. You have taken a few words of Aquinas out of context and used that to trivialize his thought. I can do the same with Christ — quite a few people have done that, incidentally; it’s fairly easy to do if one isolates the words from the context of his time or the particular conversation, but that wouldn’t be especially representative of him. Aquinas’ contribution to Western thought was so important that he continues to be studied at universities all over the world, but the Five Ways of knowing God, the importance of faith and reason, the move from Platonic idealism to Aristotelean observation mean less to you than whether Aquinas agreed with the death penalty (note: “agreed with,” not “advocated” — there is a difference). Honestly, I can come up with an even more bone-headed response of Aquinas’ than the two you’ve come up with, but I wouldn’t be petty enough to say that that’s where someone should “get started.”

        Speaking of these two quotes:

        (1) Aquinas did not “guide” the Inquisition; it predated him, as did the death penalty for rather petty crimes which today would shock us. As actual scholars will tell you, it actually restrained the mob justice that had sprung up in various places (just one of many references: “Inquisition,” by Edward Peters, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania). What Aquinas actually wrote was that, in a world where people were put to death for things like forgery, it was certainly reasonable that they should be put to death for serious crimes — and heresy was a serious crime of the time, whether you like it or not. You might as well say that someone who wants to learn about Paul should start with his apparent endorsement of slavery in the letter to Philemon.

        (2) The happiness of the just lies not in “getting off” on others’ suffering, but in rejoicing at God’s mercy on them, and his justice towards the wicked — to wit, here is what Aquinas actually wrote, as opposed to a twisting of it that internet trolls can “get off” on passing around:

        A thing may be a matter of rejoicing in two ways. First directly, when one rejoices in a thing as such: and thus the saints will not rejoice in the punishment of the wicked. Secondly, indirectly, by reason namely of something annexed to it: and in this way the saints will rejoice in the punishment of the wicked, by considering therein the order of Divine justice and their own deliverance, which will fill them with joy. And thus the Divine justice and their own deliverance will be the direct cause of the joy of the blessed: while the punishment of the damned will cause it indirectly.

        Now, if you want to oppose these words to Christ’s, you’re going to have to ignore places in the New Testament where the saints do in fact rejoice in the punishment of the just.

      5. ” As a university professor, Aquinas guided the Inquisition at best indirectly.”

        So, I guess we could say that Stalin was guided “by Lenin at best indirectly” As I said in my opening remarks, for such a BRILLIANT man to THINK for one second that Jesus would have approved of any kind of threat, mutilation or execution over His words, no matter what age they lived in and especially being a religious, shows how much TA did not understand in any way the kind of love Jesus preached which makes him a very inappropriate professor at best. He was almost middle age when the Dominican’s were being tapped to root out heretics and the Summa was started in 1265 – and the Inquisition would go on for another 200 years. And don’t give me your apologetic crap on rejoicing over justice because in the end it’s rejoicing over eternal pain. Yes, get started at the Inquisition and his words – it shouldn’t make any difference.

      6. So, I guess we could say that Stalin was guided by Lenin

        Inasmuch as Lenin took a very hands-on approach to mass murder himself, yes. Inasmuch as Lenin approved and even encouraged the transformation of the Tsarist secret police into an even more malevolent organization, yes. But to compare this to what Aquinas was doing, no.

        As I said in my opening remarks, for such a BRILLIANT man to THINK for one second that Jesus would have approved of any kind of threat, mutilation or execution over His words, no matter what age they lived in and especially being a religious, shows how much TA did not understand in any way the kind of love Jesus preached

        You do realize you’re talking about the same Jesus who himself breathed threats against the unrepentant, don’t you? Or have you not studied the parts of the gospel that offend the modern preconception of Jesus? Or do you just ignore them because they’re inconvenient to your argument?

        And don’t give me your apologetic crap…

        I’m noticing that your sense of superiority feels threatened by facts.

  2. Come and join us! The Dominican Institute is new and growing, and it’s a great time to get involved, right from the start.

    I’d especially recommend the natural theology course (with additional ones coming), but, then, I’m a bit biased.

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