Conferences for Study and Prayer

In this talk, Dr. Warren Carroll discusses the historical proofs of of the Catholic Church's growth and indestructibility.

In this talk, Dr. Warren Carroll discusses the glory of Christendom in the third quarter of the 13th century.

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold discusses the myth and reality of the Middle Ages.

Western civilization is commonly divided by historians into three very broad periods: classical antiquity, the Catholic Middle Ages, and the Modern Period, ushered in by the Reformation and the loss of Catholic unity in Europe. From a Catholic point of view, it is clear that the Middle Ages must represent the high point of these three periods, for it is the period in which God’s Revelation, conserved in the Catholic Church, was the leaven of society and civilization. Classical antiquity served as a certain providential preparation for the Gospel, of which it was inculpably ignorant, whereas the Modern Period is a history of increasing rejection of the Gospel in society.

Of course, the modern world evaluates these three periods in a radically different way. They see the Middle Ages as the worst of these three periods, as a valley set between classical antiquity and modernity. 

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold discusses the great intellectual achievements of Christendom.

One of the most pervasive myths or black legends about the Catholic Middle Ages is that it was a period of intellectual stagnation and superstition, in which free thought was stifled by religious authority and dogma. On the contrary, the Middle Ages witnessed a great flowering of the intellectual life, especially in the highest fields of human wisdom: philosophy and theology.

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold discusses the great artistic achievements of Christendom.

Just as there is a Christian philosophy, so there is a Christian art, inspired by the truths of faith and placed in its service. It has three principal ends: to give glory to God and His saints, to serve Christian liturgy, and to instruct the faithful through representation of Christian doctrine. There is an apostolate of art that was truly admirable in the great Christian centuries, as in the high Gothic cathedrals, and the painting and sculpture of the Renaissance.

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold will discuss the life and conversion of St. Paul.

Israel was elected to be the people in whom all the blessings of God were to dwell, in the person of the Messiah, and were called to bring those messianic blessings to the whole world. St. Paul is a great model of that vocation. His apostolic charity urged him to bring Christ to all peoples and cultures, as was foretold to Abraham in Gen 12:3: “In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold will discuss St. Paul’s vocation as Apostle to the Gentiles.

St. Paul himself had a clear understanding of his extraordinary vocation to take the lead in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. In the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul says that God, who had “set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:15-16). 

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold will discuss how, in the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul develops the theme of Christ as the new Adam, who through His Passion repairs our fallen state resulting from original sin and compounded by our personal sins, and elevates us to share in His divine life through faith, hope, and charity. 

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold will discuss how the outbreak of the Reformation, in large part, centered initially on Martin Luther’s understanding of justification in the Letters of St. Paul.

Justification refers to the process by which a person in a state of original or mortal sin is brought into friendship with God, is made to share in God’s justice and holiness, and is made a child and friend of God and heir of heaven. It should not be surprising that great theological passions were raised around the subject of justification, for no theme could be of greater existential importance to us. Indeed, everything is at stake in justification, for an eternity of heaven or hell depends on its presence or absence.

The question of justification is very closely connected to the relationship between faith, hope, and charity. Are we justified by faith alone, or by faith, hope, and charity together? If the question is posed in this way, it can be seen that St. Paul teaches that justification consists in faith, hope, and love together, infused into our heart by the Holy Spirit through the gift of sanctifying grace.

In this talk, Dr. Lawrence Feingold will discuss one of the great themes of the Letters of St. Paul: that of the Body of Christ. The head of this Body is Christ Himself, and its vivifying and animating spirit is the Holy Spirit. The Messianic promises are fulfilled in this Body, in which all the members are given to drink of the Spirit of God through channels—arteries and veins, joints and ligaments—that connect the members with the life-giving Head. The Church has been provided with living channels of grace different in kind from the religious rites ordained by God in the Old Covenant, in that they efficaciously produce the graces that they signify.