Thomas More for Liberal Arts

20/09/2026

The Consolations of Philosophy: Boethius and the Recovery of the Examined Life. A public evening lecture in Christchurch with Dr Jeffrey Lehman, Thursday 24 September at St Bede's College, Papanui.

In the early sixth century, Boethius sat in a prison cell awaiting ex*****on for a treason he did not commit. He had been consul of Rome, a statesman at the heart of a kingdom and a translator of Aristotle. Now everything fortune had given him was gone. In that cell he wrote the Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages, asking what remains to a person when every external good has been stripped away.

Dr Jeffrey Lehman has spent his career on that question. He is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Augustine Institute, Co-Founder and Dean of Fellows at the Boethius Institute, and Founder of Arts of Liberty. This evening he brings Boethius into conversation with our own age of anxiety, distraction and uncertainty, and shows why the examined life is worth recovering.

Open to all. Bring a friend, a parent, a colleague or a student.

Thursday 24 September, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
St Bede's College Performing Arts Centre, 210 Main North Road, Papanui, Christchurch
$20 per person, includes supper and facilitated small group discussion
Parking at the rear, entering via Momorango Crescent, Gate 3
Register at stmtrust.org.nz

Aged 18 to 35? Come earlier for the young adults session on virtue, vocation and the examined life, starting at 5:00pm in the same venue. Registration for the two events is separate.

20/09/2026

Virtue, Vocation and the Examined Life: a Catholic young adults session in Christchurch for ages 18 to 35, with Dr Jeffrey Lehman and Ali Ghaffari, Thursday 24 September at St Bede's College, Papanui.

You want your life to add up to something. Three questions sit underneath that. Who am I. What am I for. How do I get there. This session takes them seriously through careful thinking, honest dialogue and the wisdom of those who asked them long before us.

Dr Lehman is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Augustine Institute and Dean of Fellows at the Boethius Institute. Ali Ghaffari leads the St John Henry Newman Institute and is a former Naval officer who flew fighter jets from an aircraft carrier. Two very different paths into the same questions. Contemplation and action.

Doors open 5:00pm. The talk runs 5:30pm to 6:30pm, followed by small group discussion with both speakers.

Thursday 24 September
St Bede's College Performing Arts Centre, 210 Main North Road, Papanui, Christchurch
Free, koha welcome. RSVP at stmtrust.org.nz Link in bio

Stay on for Dr Lehman's public keynote on Boethius, 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Keynote registration is separate, also at stmtrust.org.nz

20/08/2026

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. Nobody tells you how to examine it.
An evening for young adults in Christchurch on virtue, vocation, and the questions that sit under the ones you actually ask out loud. Dr Jeffrey Lehman of the Augustine Institute and Ali Ghaffari, ex F-18 Pilot of the St John Henry Newman Institute lead the conversation.
Tuesday 22 September, 7:00PM
Exact Location TBC, in the Holy Family Parish, Sockburn, Christchurch
Koha entry, $10 suggested, entirely optional
Hosted by Holy Family Young Adults with St Thomas More Trust.

17/08/2026

Philosophy lecture in Christchurch: Dr Jeffrey Lehman on Boethius and the recovery of the examined life.

Writing from prison under sentence of death, Boethius held fast to what is solid when everything around him was dark. In the Consolation of Philosophy we recover the original meaning of the liberal arts: not training for a career, but an education in how to think freely, the basis of the free citizen and a preparation for how to live and how to die.

Dr Lehman joins us from the Augustine Institute for an evening on why this sixth-century text still speaks with such force, and on what education looked like when it was understood as the formation of the whole person rather than the training of a worker.

Thursday 24 September, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
St Bede's College Performing Arts Centre

$20 per person, supper and discussion included
Register at stmtrust.org.nz (link in bio)

28/04/2026

Philosophy 101 exists because the biggest questions in public life are not going away, and most of us were never taught how to think through them.

Abortion. Human rights. The nature of personhood. What we owe each other and why. These are not abstract puzzles reserved for university lecture halls. They show up in conversations at dinner tables, in comment sections, in workplaces, and between people who hold genuinely different views. The problem is not that people lack opinions on these questions. The problem is that very few people have ever been taught to reason through them carefully, or to engage someone who disagrees without either capitulating or just getting louder.

Philosophy teaches that skill. Not because it hands you a set of approved conclusions, but because it trains the mind to follow an argument, identify where it breaks down, and respond to the actual reasoning rather than a caricature of it. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the starting point because they were asking these exact questions first, and because the tradition that followed them, across centuries and cultures, kept sharpening the same tools.

The ICC Philosophy 101 cohort is a structured, community-based way to begin that training. Weekly lectures, assigned reading, and in-person discussion sessions designed for people who want more than information. And it’s all structured in a way that any busy parent or full time worker can participate! If you have sensed the gap in your own education and want to do something about it, this is a practical first step.
For more information about the course, comment THINK, or check the link in our bio!

28/04/2026

28/04/2026

What does it actually mean to think well?

That's the question at the heart of Phil 101 — the first subject in our programme, and the one that makes everything else possible.

A lot of people come to philosophy expecting dusty ideas from dead men. What they find instead is a toolkit. A way of slowing down, questioning assumptions, and getting to the root of what's actually being asked — before rushing toward an answer.

That's exactly why we start here.

Theology asks: What is God? Ethics asks: What is right? History asks: What shaped us? But before you can wrestle with any of those questions well, you need to know how to think through a question in the first place. Philosophy gives you that.

Phil 101 isn't about telling you what to believe. It's about training your mind to ask sharper questions, hold ideas carefully, and reason with both rigour and humility.

Whether you're brand new to academic study or returning after years away, this subject meets you where you are — and takes you somewhere deeper.

This is where the journey begins.

📌 Want to learn more about the full programme? Link in bio or comment THINK

28/04/2026

Why We Start With Philosophy | Introduction to PHIL101

Phil 101 isn't about telling you what to believe. It's about training your mind to ask sharper questions, hold ideas carefully, and reason with both rigour and humility. Whether you're brand new to academic study or returning after years away, this subject meets you where you are, and takes you somewhere deeper.

We're introducing our first, accessible, introductory programme partnered with the Institute of Catholic Culture. Please join us!

📌 Want to learn more about the full programme? https://www.stmtrust.org.nz/phil101

24/04/2026

We're launching a philosophy course this May, and we'd love for you to be part of it.
Philosophy 101: The Pursuit of Wisdom is an 18-lesson course studying Plato's dialogues, taught by Dr John Cuddeback of Christendom College. The content is free through the Institute of Catholic Culture — we're simply bringing people together to do it well.
You'd join a small group of 5–6 people, meeting every three weeks (ideally over a meal) to discuss what you've been reading and watching. The Trust provides discussion guides to help the conversation along.
No background in philosophy needed — just a genuine interest in the big questions.
The first cohort begins in May. Swipe to find out more, or get in touch via the link in our bio.

www.stmtrust.org.nz