Here are a couple questions for you: Do you believe in God? Why or why not? What evidence do you have to support your belief? What different types of evidence might one even consider? If we believe in an all-good, all-powerful God, why does God allow so much human suffering? And why is there something instead of nothing? Even before the Big Bang… what was there? And do human beings have a soul? Or are we just blood and guts and bones?

These are some of the big questions philosophers have been wrestling with for as long as humans have been thinking about stuff. In particular, scholars interested in the philosophy of religion spend a lot of time with these big metaphysical questions. Our guest today is one of the foremost philosophers in the American Jesuit landscape: Doctor Eleonore Stump, who is the Robert J. Henle, S.J., Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. Professor Stump’s specialties include medieval philosophy, philosophy of religion and metaphysics.

Host Mike Jordan Laskey saw some great video interviews with Dr. Stump on a YouTube series called “Closer to Truth,” so he reached out to see if she’d talk about some of these big questions. They also discussed her perspective on the role of the Jesuit university today, especially in an era when the liberal arts like philosophy often find themselves on budgetary chopping blocks. Why should we study philosophy at all? We think you’ll enjoy encountering Dr. Stump’s towering intellect and her deep faith.

Dr. Eleonore Stump: https://sites.google.com/site/stumpep/

Dr. Stump on "Closer to Truth": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvb_P1ymmM&list=PLFJr3pJl27pI42ZODiz2En-hr9PIjibEu

AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

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