Kresta in the Afternoon

We all have areas in which we are ignorant. And ignorance can be overcome by learning.  But is there a point when ignorance becomes arrogance? Al discusses.

Detective J. Warner Wallace listened to a pastor talk about Jesus and wondered why anyone would think Jesus was a person of interest. He was skeptical of the Bible, but he’d investigated several no-body homicide cases in which there was no crime scene, no physical evidence, and no victim's body. Could the historical life and actions of Jesus be investigated in the same way? He decided to find out. He joins us.

This week we begin the O Antiphons, the short chants used during Vespers to help prepare us for the final days of Advent. They are deeply set in scripture, history and tradition and we’ll look at how they serve as a catechesis on salvation history with Gregory di Pippo.

In December 2015, Petr Jasek traveled to Sudan to evaluate how his ministry could help persecuted Christians there. He planned to be back home within a few days. But as he prepared to board his return flight, he was summoned for questioning by Sudanese security agents. He would spend the next 445 days in prison and would share a cell with ISIS fighters. He shares his story.

What lessons can we learn about the modern church from a short story written before the Civil War? Al looks at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark to explain.

When we consider Catholic spirituality, there are two words with deep meanings that tend to get tossed around: “Liturgy” and “Mysticism.” We tend to think of Liturgy as formalities such as the sacraments, practiced in public, and mysticism as the uncontrollable, private experiences. In other words, they are separate categories. So how could there be a “Liturgical Mysticism?” David Fagerberg joins us.

The result of the Dobbs v Jackson case will be monumental for the pro-life movement, but it's important for another reason. It will tell us whether the conservative legal movement of the last 40 years has been a success. Gerry Bradley joins us with more.

For Dr. Brent Robbins, who was raised Catholic and became an atheist, the problem of evil and suffering was a big reason why he stopped believing in God. And while he never found a simple answer to why a good God would allow suffering, he did come to understand that there were more layers to that question than he’d initially realized. He shares his story.

In 1998, Michael Bay and Bruce Willis teamed up in the action film Armageddon, in which a team of oil drillers train as astronauts to destroy an asteroid bound for earth, saving all of humanity. Well, according to a recent thought piece by Oxford professor Richard Crisp, they may have made the wrong decision. Crisp wants us to consider, given the suffering caused by humans, if a mass extinction event would really be all that bad. Wesley Smith responds.

Many people today, especially younger generations, have stopped going to Mass because they don't "get anything out of it." But we don't go to Mass to get a good feeling - we got to worship God. And when we understand this, our approach to the Mass changes. We talk with David Seitz