"Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world I came to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?"

So wonders Dr. Tom More, a descendant of the great English martyr, in the first sentence of Walker Percy's third novel, Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at Time near the End of the World.

Written in 1971, this prophetic work presents a world startlingly like our own. Today's guest, literary scholar Jessica Hooten Wilson, joins the show to give a general introduction to Percy and discuss aspects of what is for many his most beloved novel, Love in the Ruins, which she describes as a "panoramic satire" indicating that modernity's “lost sense of self makes it impossible to live the good life”.

Topics include:

• How Percy's Southernity informed his fiction
• His keen and ruthless observation of race relations
• His recurring commentary on the modern disjunction between mind and body, what protagonist Tom More calls oscillation between the angelic and the bestial
• His use of apocalyptic themes
• His treatment of love between men and women
• The lasting significance of his work

Links

Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins https://www.amazon.com/Love-Ruins-Walker-Percy/dp/0312243111

Jessica Hooten Wilson https://jessicahootenwilson.com/

JHW, Reading Walker Percy’s Novels https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Walker-Percys-Novels-Jessica/dp/0807168777

JHW, Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Search for Influence https://www.amazon.com/Dostoevsky-Influence-Literature-Religion-Postsecular/dp/0814213499

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Today we discuss one of the greatest Arthurian tales, told by one of the most virtuosic poets in the history of English, an anonymous priest of the 14th century. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells us a lot about courtesy, original sin, and grace, all bound up in an enormously entertaining story about a giant, decapitation-surviving green knight.

Poet and critic Anthony Esolen joins the show to discuss the poem, its Middle English dialect, and the tradition of alliterative verse.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8YKmYkklcuU

Links

Marie Boroff's translation of the complete works of the Gawain-poet https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Poet-Complete-Cleanness-Erkenwald/dp/0393912353

Simon Armitage's facing-page translation including the original Middle English https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Green-Knight-Verse-Translation/dp/0393334155

Dana Gioia essay, "Accentual Verse" https://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and-reading/accentual-verse/

Magdalen College, where Esolen teaches, still has spaces open in its 2021 freshman class! https://magdalen.edu/

Anthony Esolen, The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord https://www.ignatius.com/The-Hundredfold-P3358.aspx

Esolen on his poem The Hundredfold https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-55-hundredfold-anthony-esolen/

Esolen discusses Stagecoach on Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/stagecoach-1939/

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode contains clips of highlights from episodes 38-41 and 44 of the Catholic Culture Podcast.

38 - Garrigou-Lagrange, The Sacred Monster of Thomism - Matthew Minerd https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-38-sacred-monster-matthew-k-minerd/

39 - Composing Liturgical Music That's Noble, Accessible...and Sacred - Paul Jernberg https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-39-composing-liturgical-music-thats-noble-accessible-and-sacred-paul-jernberg/

40 - Tolkien and Aquinas - Jonathan McIntosh https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-40-tolkien-and-aquinas-jonathan-s-mcintosh/

41 - The Neo-Colonial West Is Forcing Abortion on Africa - Obianuju Ekeocha https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-41-neo-colonial-west-is-forcing-abortion-on-africa-obianuju-ekeocha/

44 - Catholics Need Poetry. But Do We Want It? - Dana Gioia https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-44-catholics-need-poetry-but-do-we-want-it-dana-gioia/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In this interview originally from Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast, Thomas Mirus and James Majewski interview Sixtine Leon-Dufour, writer of the new Lourdes documentary, one of the best religious films in recent years. She discusses:

-Her background caring for the sick at Lourdes

-How she convinced the Lourdes authorities to give secular filmmakers unprecedented shooting access to this holy place

-How a documentary about a Marian pilgrimage got the support of a large French secular film studio and became a big success

-Depicting the wide range of people at Lourdes

-How the filmmakers found sick people who would let them film intimate and painful parts of their life

-The role of the writer of a documentary

-Why people come to Lourdes even if they are not hoping for a miracle

Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Bywww0alMqw

Links

Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast www.catholicculture.org/criteria

Watch our review of Lourdes: https://youtu.be/hEsxNbajQ_s

Check here to find out where Lourdes is playing (including upcoming virtual screenings): https://www.distribfilmsus.com/portfolio/lourdes/

Want to bring LOURDES to your town? Contact Distrib Films (in Brooklyn). The contact is François Scippa- Kohn, who can be reached by email at [email protected]. www.distribfilmsus.com

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tGC8lQOZuw

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Noelle Mering joins the show to discuss her new book Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology.

Topics discussed include:

• The core principles of woke ideology: group over person, will over reason, power over authority

• Proof that ideology is what really matters to the woke, more than membership in a victim group

•  

  How Frankfurt School thinkers, who combined neo-Marxism with neo-Freudianism, influenced the training of American schoolteachers

• The feedback loop between immorality, ensuing misery, and bad ideas

•  

  Why today's progressivism is driven to destroy innocence

•  

  Fundamental differences between woke ideology and Christianity

• Self-knowledge and self-accusation, antidotes to the woke worldview

Links

Buy Awake, Not Woke https://tanbooks.com/contemporary-issues/social-issues/awake-not-woke-a-christian-response-to-the-cult-of-progressive-ideology/

Noelle Mering https://www.noellemering.com/

Theology of Home https://theologyofhome.com/

Claire Kretzschmar, a dancer and soloist with the New York City Ballet, joins the show to discuss her path to becoming a professional dancer, the challenges and joys of being a Catholic in the ballet world, and the spiritual value of dance. She also discusses a beautiful dance film which she choreographed for the NYC Ballet this year, and the Catholic arts community she founded in New York City, of which Thomas is a part.

In the YouTube version of this interview, Claire's full dance film is shown at the 20:46 mark (used with permission of NYC Ballet). https://youtu.be/4jWhhAbS6pM

Links

Claire's dance film, "Rachmaninoff Suite" https://www.nycballet.com/discover/stories/from-the-nyci-marthas-vineyard-fall-2020/

New York Times profile of Claire, "Rehearse, Ice Feet, Repeat: The Life of a New York City Ballet Corps Dancer" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/arts/dance/rehearse-ice-feet-repeat-the-life-of-a-new-york-city-ballet-corps-dancer.html

Follow Claire on Instagram to keep up with her dance performances in NY and NC https://www.instagram.com/ckretz92/

Arthouse 2B - Catholic arts events in NYC https://www.instagram.com/arthouse2b/

Litany - ethical, modest Catholic fashion https://www.litanynyc.com/

This episode was filmed by Chris Amodio. https://www.amodiodop.com/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Thomas is joined by Catholic filmmaker Nathan Douglas to discuss Walker Percy's first novel, The Moviegoer. They examine the malaise-ridden protagonist Binx Bolling's "search" for meaning, which he ultimately finds through responsibility: not the responsibility urged by respectable "values", but that urged by love.

They also look at how Binx searches for a deeper connection with reality through his moviegoing habits. Percy has some interesting descriptions of his characters finding moments of transcendent beauty in film, given that this novel was written just before the notion of "cinephilia" developed by French critics made its way to the United States.

Watch episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yvW59H3tAHw

Links

Nathan Douglas's short films www.nwdouglas.com

Nathan's film writing www.vocationofcinema.substack.com

Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast www.catholicculture.org/criteria

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode features clips from episodes 34-37 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, including some personal stories from Thomas.

Links

The Memoirs of St. Peter w/ Michael Pakaluk https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-34-memoirs-st-peter-michael-pakaluk/

Moral Blindness and Abortion w/ Abby Johnson https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-35-moral-blindness-and-abortion-abby-johnson/

Bridges to Hell or Heaven: “Toxic Femininity” and the Spirit of Anti-Mary w/ Carrie Gress https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-36-bridges-to-hell-or-heaven-toxic-femininity-and-spirit-anti-mary-carrie-gress/

Sculpting Two Benedicts w/ Jago https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-37-sculpting-two-benedicts-jago/

Join Online Great Books via this referral link https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This is a discussion of an interesting little book from 1967 that has re-entered the discourse, Prayer as a Political Problem by Jean Danielou, SJ, recently reprinted by Cluny Media. In this book which seems confoundingly ahead of its time, before its time, and (irksomely) of its time, Danielou insists that prayer forms a constitutive part of the temporal common good. Governments, therefore, have a responsibility to create conditions making it easy for the common people to conduct a spiritual life. Danielou’s claim that religion and prayer are necessary even for the temporal good of civilizations is timely, and his reflections on the dangers of technological civilization are prescient. The book is not without its troublesome aspects, though, most notably Danielou’s peculiar sociological definition of religion. Brandon McGinley, who has dealt with this subject matter in his own books, joins the show to discuss Danielou's work.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/95hjrIHO-aY

Links

Jean Danielou, Prayer as a Political Problem https://clunymedia.com/products/prayer-as-a-political-problem

Previous episode with Brandon McGinley on his book The Prodigal Church https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-82-habitual-counterculture-brandon-mcginley/

Brandon McGinley and Scott Hahn, It Is Right and Just https://stpaulcenter.com/product/it-is-right-and-just-why-the-future-of-civilization-depends-on-true-religion/

Other things mentioned:

Jacques Maritain, The Primacy of the Spiritual https://clunymedia.com/products/the-primacy-of-the-spiritual?_pos=7&_sid=66d0aa627&_ss=r

The Lord of Spirits podcast episode on the Nephilim, "A Land of Giants" https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordofspirits/land_of_giants

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Michael Pakaluk and Jay Richards join host Thomas V. Mirus for a discussion of the moral issues involved with the production and testing of vaccines using illicitly-obtained fetal cell lines, and the reasons for freedom of conscience for those who do not wish to take them.

Links

Read a full transcript of this discussion: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12522

Thomas Mirus's apology and retractions  https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/apology-and-retractions-about-vaccine-episode/

Church documents discussed:

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Personae (relevant paragraphs are 34-35) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20081208_dignitas-personae_en.html

CDF, Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 Vaccines (2020) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20201221_nota-vaccini-anticovid_en.html

The Pontifical Academy for Life’s 2005 statement on vaccines, emphasizing freedom of conscience https://www.immunize.org/talking-about-vaccines/vaticandocument.htm

Commentary discussed:

“To Awaken Conscience” https://mailchi.mp/7742dd12483f/statement-of-conscience-to-awaken-conscience

Michael Pakaluk, “Why I Signed ‘To Awaken Conscience’”  https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/why-i-signed-to-awaken-conscience

Jose Trasancos, “The Cell Lines Used for COVID-19 Vaccines Came from Carefully Planned Abortions, Not Miscarriages” https://stream.org/the-cell-lines-used-for-covid-19-vaccines-came-from-carefully-planned-abortions-not-miscarriages/

Bishops Schneider, Strickland, et al, “COVID Vaccines: ‘The Ends Cannot Justify the Means’” https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/covid-vaccines-the-ends-cannot-justify-the-means

Ethics & Public Policy Center, “Statement from Pro-Life Catholic Scholars on the Moral Acceptability of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines” https://eppc.org/news/statement-from-pro-life-catholic-scholars-on-the-moral-acceptability-of-receiving-covid-19-vaccines/

Roberto de Mattei, On the Moral Liceity of the Vaccination https://libri.edizionifiducia.it/on-the-moral-liceity-of-the-vaccination/

Richards, Briggs, and Axe; The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe https://www.regnery.com/9781684511419/the-price-of-panic/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio