Thomistic Institute

Magnanimity and Its Counterfeits

Summa Reading Group

Join a Summa Reading Group with Prof. Carl Vennerstrom

Thursdays, October 22nd - November 19th at 8:00 PM ET on Zoom

Open to all students.

Magnanimity is a virtue easy to misunderstand. Since it has to do with great honors, it can be confused with prideful boasting or the lust for power. Consequently, it can seem opposed to humility. In an age when we shy from from honor and great deeds, it is all the more important to reckon with this moral virtue. In this reading group, therefore, we will discover with St. Thomas Aquinas how magnanimity guides us to great things, human and divine, steering clear of the false counterfeits of presumption, ambition, and vainglory.

Reading Assignments

ST II.II.129–132

Join a Summa Reading Group with Prof. Carl Vennerstrom

The Scholar