Kresta in the Afternoon

In the Book of Ephesians, St. Paul writes that ministers are given to us “to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” We’ll look more at the passage with Dr. Peter Williamson

When we talk with listeners, one concern rises about the rest: how they can help their kids and grandkids keep the faith into adulthood. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has just concluded the Future Families Project, which analyzes data from Catholic adults to see what was different about the faith environment in which they were raised. Dr Greg Popcak joins us with more.

Jesus has given his followers the words and mission of Eternal Life. We talk about some of those words with Tom Nash.

For years, religious leaders in the U.S. have raised concerns about the rise of the “nones” - people who profess to adhere to no faith tradition. There’s a certain conventional wisdom that young people often fall away from the Church for a time, but return as they become older. But the data suggests otherwise. Brendan Hodge takes a look at the numbers.

In the First Book of Kings, David reminds Solomon what it takes to succeed as king: “Be strong, be courageous, and keep the charge of the Lord your God.” The Hebrew word for courageous is more precisely translated as “be manly.” In other words, David sees masculinity as a necessary component to flourishing in leadership. Only when Solomon forgets David’s advice does his life come to a crooked end. St. Paul gives similar advice to the Corinthians. Society, having forgotten this advice, now has men living in a collective identity crisis, leading many to an unfortunate end. Fr. Etienne Huard joins us with more.

In an increasingly secular world, Christians are often pulled in two directions. Some urge us to retreat and build insular communities. Others call upon us to wage a culture war. But there is another option – and we find it my examining how the very first Christians engaged the Culture. Stephen Presley joins us.

Elon Musk is one of the richest and most celebrated men in the world, yet he also has to be one of the loneliest and saddest, bereft of community, meaning, and love. Auguste Meyrat is our guest.

The Arizona supreme court has ruled that an abortion ban with an exception only for the life of the mother, which was enacted by Arizona’s territorial legislature as part of its 1864 criminal code and never explicitly repealed, remains in force. Michael New has more.

The history of science is filled with faithful Catholics who sought to discover more and more about God’s creation. We get to know a few of them today with Joseph Pearce.

In his years of teaching introductory theology, Dr. Roberto De La Noval has observed that many students don’t understand the basic rationale for studying the subject. Unless the problem of relativism is addressed head on, the mandatory study of theology will be perceived as completely disconnected from the formation in knowledge that students are receiving in their other courses of study. He joins us.