The Catholic Church in America has largely lost its distinctive flavor and with it, its ability either to retain the faithful or to evangelize the infidel. The problem precedes Vatican II: in the Tridentine 1950s, many Catholics, eager for mainstream respectability, had already adopted a bourgeois spirituality.

In his first book, The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception, Brandon McGinley calls for Catholics to return to the essence of the faith, rather than to a previous era of Catholic "success", and so find creative ways to restore a robust and evangelical Catholic culture in the unknown years to come. 

Contents

[2:03] Fr. Ratzinger’s famous quote about a smaller and more spiritual Church

[8:30] Catholicism an embodied faith

[12:32] Incompatibility between American and Catholic principles?

[19:10] American Catholicism in the 1950s—incipient worldiness

[27:15] The importance of small habits in living out the reality of faith and Christ's passion

[33:04] Spiritual corrosion caused by immoderate anger towards the hierarchy

[39:44] Remembering the Church Triumphant

[43:05] “Third places” and the importance of the parish as a community space

[51:05] The need for community among nuclear families

[55:05] Catholic hospitality and vulnerability

[1:00:04] Why we shouldn’t separate “moral” from “social” teaching

Links

The Prodigal Church https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/the-prodigal-church

Brandon McGinley https://brandonmcginley.com/

Brandon McGinley on Twitter https://twitter.com/brandonmcg

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

From 1981 to 1993, Jane Greer edited Plains Poetry Journal, publishing poets who were reviving the traditional tools of “rhyme, meter, alliteration, assonance, painstaking attention to diction” which had been abandoned in favor of free verse. (These poets included names you will be familiar with from the Catholic scene today, such as Anthony Esolen and Mike Aquilina.) Then, as they say, life happened, and Greer didn’t write a single poem for almost thirty years.

But God’s ways are unpredictable. After three decades of silence, Greer was suddenly struck with a poem while sitting in a New Orleans café. This began a steady stream of output resulting in her new collection, Love Like a Conflagration (which also includes the poems from her only previous book).

Greer’s poetry is musical, fiery and accessible, and has received high praise from many of today’s foremost Catholic poets, including past podcast guests Samuel Hazo, James Matthew Wilson, Anthony Esolen and Mike Aquilina. Hazo writes: “There is not a poem in this remarkable book that will leave you unchanged or be forgotten … Each of these poems is as permanently current as it is consummate. [Greer] puts on the page the passion long absent from American poetry. I’ve never read a book as poetically and beautifully frank as this.”

Contents

[2:57] Style and intended audience of Jane's work

[3:53] The introductory poem to Love Like a Conflagration, “Micha-el”

[9:00] Structure of the collection

[12:22] “Her Green Desire”

[16:19] Jane's 30-year hiatus from poetry and providential return

[23:13] “At the Cafe Pontalba”, Jane’s first poem after 30 years of silence

[25:27] Jane’s beginnings as a self-taught poet and early influences

[30:30] “Because God Wanted It”, a poem about unmerited grace

[34:28] The relationship between Jane's spiritual life and her poetry

[38:12] Dealing with lust in “Song of the Passerby” and “Pastoral”

[45:08] Jane's work founding and editing Plains Poetry Journal

[50:27] “Bourbon, Neat” and pure play with language

[55:34] The immersive musicality and force of Jane’s poetry

[57:50] “Feminist Androgyne”

[1:03:15] “The Haunting”

[1:05:09] “Twice Betrayed”, a poem in Lazarus’ voice

[1:10:49] “In the Pool at the Bourbon Orleans”

Links

Read “Micha-el” https://isi.org/modern-age/micha-el/

Love Like a Conflagration https://lambingpress.com/product/love-like-a-conflagration/

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

Modernity treats the human body pretty much as a machine for the production of pleasure. It is tuned up, fueled, and oiled for peak performance, and then when it is no longer of use, it is burnt and disposed of in a maximally efficient manner.

Paradoxically, the denial of a soul which persists after bodily death has led us to deny the body itself as fundamental to human identity. The allegedly soulless modern has less hope of resurrection than the Saducees ever did. We somehow fear death more yet never engage with the reality of death.

Scott Hahn joins the show to talk about how the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God changed how our civilization viewed the body, death and the afterlife. Unfortunately, even Catholics today treat dead bodies in a way that does not convey this reality. Yet how we approach death & burial has the potential to show the Catholic difference and evangelize our culture.

Contents

[1:24] The present confrontation (or lack thereof) with mortality and death

[4:28] Modern Gnostic attitudes towards the body

[7:21] The ancient pagan sense of reverence for dead bodies vs. that of the Hebrews

[15:08] The duality in Jewish treatment of corpses

[23:48] Shift to early Christian attitudes

[29:12] Rediscovering a healthy, balanced and hopeful view of the human body

[31:41] What does it mean that we will have “spiritual bodies” after the resurrection?

[47:07] Catholic beliefs about the consequences of failing to properly bury the dead

[53:50] Revival of cremation by French revolutionaries, Masons, Communists and neo-pagans as a deliberate attack on the Church

[59:51] The relevance of sacramentals and relics to the question of cremation

[1:05:05] Inordinate fear of death during the present pandemic; reasons for hope

Links

Hope to Die: The Christian Meaning of Death and the Resurrection of the Body https://stpaulcenter.com/product/hope-to-die-the-christian-meaning-of-death-and-the-resurrection-of-the-body/

 “In all things, charity (even pandemics)” https://www.lincolndiocese.org/news/diocesan-news/13928-in-all-things-charity-even-pandemics

Scott Hahn http://www.scotthahn.com/

Emily Stimpson Chapman https://thecatholictable.com/about-emily-stimpson/

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

This is the second half of an interview with G.C. Dilsaver on his book The Three Marks of Manhood: How to be Priest, Prophet and King of Your Family. Dr. Dilsaver discusses how the Christian husband and father must wield three staves: the scepter of authority, the crosier of co-episcopacy, and the cross of redemption.

This last is most important, as the Christian patriarch's mandate is to lead in self-abnegation so that he may decrease and Christ may increase. The measure of his success is not in providing materially for his family but in teaching them by example to love God above all else and to suffer well for His sake.

Contents

The Scepter of Authority

[3:30] Exercising one’s authority delegated by God is a duty in obedience and humility—but that means authority is not based on superiority in intelligence, goodness, etc.

[7:06] Humiliation in the exercise of authority

[10:06] Why modern men run away from their authority

[14:10] Christian patriarchy as the greatest bastion against the overreaching State

The Crosier of Co-Episcopacy

[18:10] A father is his family’s spiritual leader and representative/intercessor before God

[21:08] The need for an intense prayer life to be a truly engaged and militant Catholic man

[23:49] The cloistered home—not to escape the world, but to enter the depth of reality

[26:45] The father too must be devoted to the home

[28:15] The prophetic role; practical ways of being the priest of the domestic church

The Cross of Redemption

[36:07] Rebirth in Christ through the experience of weakness and failure

[37:58] Danger of father seeing himself mainly as material provider, not teaching family to suffer well

[45:15] Critique of “suburban secular Christianity”, the problem with “coping” with reality

[49:12] Familial asceticism: poverty, chastity and obedience in the home

[57:51] Setting an example in obedience to the Church and, at times, defiance of the State

[1:02:38] How the Cross transforms and fulfills romantic love

Links

The Three Marks of Manhood https://www.tanbooks.com/three-marks-of-manhood-how-to-be-priest-prophet-and-king-of-your-family-2.html

Psychomoralitics website http://www.souldeepscience.com/

Psychomoralitics book https://www.amazon.com/Psychomoralitics-Soul-Deep-Alternative-Failed-Professions/dp/099936071X

Celebrating God-Given Gender https://www.amazon.com/Celebrating-God-Given-Gender-Masculinity-Femininity/dp/0999360701

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

There is a great need for Catholics to acknowledge the timeless Biblical and Magisterial teachings about the headship of fathers over their families. Yet St. Paul’s simultaneous call for husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church - that is, to the point of death - is sometimes treated as an addendum when in fact it is the very essence of Christian patriarchy.

In his 2010 book The Three Marks of Manhood: How to Be Priest, Prophet, and King of Your Family, the “father of Christian psychology” G.C. Dilsaver upholds the natural and supernatural basis of male headship while describing how it must be purified of pagan, dominating and selfish elements. The path to true Christian manhood is through the crucible of humiliation. Against the notion of the rigidly masculine and “active” man, Dilsaver also insists that receptivity is the basic condition of the creature regardless of sex—hence the maxim of Catholic mysticism that the soul is feminine in relation to Christ.

This is the first part of a two-part interview.

Contents

[2:48] Christian patriarchy is about devotion to the feminine as something sacred

[4:29] Self-sacrificial love as the essence of headship

[10:25] The need to purify male headship in an exclusively Christian spirit rather than returning to a historical model from past Christian civilization which retained pagan elements

[13:35] Inseparability of the hierarchy and sacramentality of marriage

[17:37] Magnanimity—greatness of soul, greatness of cause, tempered with humility

[21:43] Receptivity, not fatherhood, intrinsic to all creatures; the soul is feminine in relation to Christ; woman as pure distillation of creatureliness

[28:32] Men need to learn from the specifically feminine aspects of Mary’s greatness

[33:02] The problem with stoicism and machismo

[37:37] The scepter of self-discipline and the insufficiency of acquired virtue; necessity of humiliation and love in the present moment

[44:40] Initiation of young men vs. young women

[50:33] Dangers of getting married young just to get married, without self-knowledge

Links

The Three Marks of Manhood https://www.tanbooks.com/three-marks-of-manhood-how-to-be-priest-prophet-and-king-of-your-family-2.html

Psychomoralitics website http://www.souldeepscience.com/

Psychomoralitics book https://www.amazon.com/Psychomoralitics-Soul-Deep-Alternative-Failed-Professions/dp/099936071X

Celebrating God-Given Gender https://www.amazon.com/Celebrating-God-Given-Gender-Masculinity-Femininity/dp/0999360701

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

After much popular demand, Thomas pays tribute to legendary Catholic sci-fi writer Gene Wolfe, who passed away last year. Though not known to the general public, Wolfe is a sci-fi author’s sci-fi author—a number of his contemporaries considered him not only the best in the genre, but in American fiction at the time (Ursula Le Guin said “Wolfe is our Melville”). Among today’s writers, one of his biggest fans is Neil Gaiman.

One critic described Wolfe’s magnum opus, The Book of the New Sun, as “a Star Wars–style space opera penned by G. K. Chesterton in the throes of a religious conversion.”

Wolfe also held the patent on the machine that makes Pringles. That’s his face on the can.

In this episode, Fr. Brendon Laroche comments on Wolfe’s works, while Wolfe’s friend, Catholic historian and sci-fi expert Sandra Miesel, shares personal reminiscences.

Contents

[2:48] Why Fr. Brendon likes Gene Wolfe

[4:14] Cryptic yet entertaining, evocations of memory, comparisons to Bradbury and Chesterton

[13:23] Wolfe’s status in the world of sci-fi and speculative fiction

[16:50] Sci-fi treatments of medieval characters, discussion of “Under Hill”

[22:57] The nature and possibilities of “genre” fiction

[32:03] Sandra Miesel’s involvement in the sci-fi world, friendship with Gene Wolfe

[35:21] Wolfe’s unique and strange mind, wide reading and vocabulary, writing Sandra into his magnum opus

[38:01] Wolfe’s conversion to Catholicism and devotion to his wife, Catholics in the sci-fi world

[40:04] Wolfe’s magnum opus as Augustinian confession; the spiritual function of fantasy

[46:00] Premise and themes of The Book of the New Sun

[52:26] Sacramentality and treatment of symbols [spoilers here]

[1:02:38] Sandra’s work as a master costumer, its influence on Wolfe’s invention of Severian

[1:06:11] Sandra on Catholicism in Wolfe’s writings, his esotericism

[1:10:05] Wolfe’s subtle allusions and puzzles

[1:20:44] Wolfe’s treatment of sexuality; torture and illicit pleasure as two sides of the same coin

[1:27:58] Opening paragraph of “The Fifth Head of Cerberus”

[1:30:52] Colorful anecdotes about Wolfe and other sci-fi legends; reflections on how the scene has changed

Links

Recommended starting point: The Best of Gene Wolfe https://www.amazon.com/Best-Gene-Wolfe-Definitive-Retrospective/dp/076532136X

The Book of the New Sun in two volumes:

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/0312890176/

https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Citadel-Second-Half-Book/dp/0312890184/

Read the short story “Under Hill” http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories/shorts/under_hill.html

Wolfe’s essay on Tolkien, “The Best Introduction to the Mountains” http://www.scifiwright.com/2011/05/gene-wolfe-on-jrr-tolkien-the-best-introduction-to-the-mountains/

Tolkien’s letter to Gene Wolfe http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_to_Gene_Wolfe#:~:text=On%207%20November%201966%2C%20J.R.R.,the%20footnote%20is%20in%20script.

Interview with Wolfe dealing with his Catholicism https://www.gwern.net/docs/fiction/1992-jordan.pdf

Sandra Miesel’s “A Conversation with Catholic SF Writers” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2009/08/10/a-conversation-with-catholic-sf-writers/

Two different (non-Catholic) podcasts which are quite helpful in exploring Wolfe's many and varied works: The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast (https://www.claytemplemedia.com/the-gene-wolfe-literary-podcast) and Alzabo Soup (https://alzabosoup.libsyn.com/).

Follow-up comments from Sandra Miesel: “A recent book to learn how the field operated in the Good Old Days is ASTOUNDING by Alec Nevla Lee.

My novel was DREAMRIDER, later expanded as SHAMAN published by Baen Books in paperback (1989). I co-edited with Paul Kerry an academic book, LIGHT BEYOND ALL SHADOW on religion in JRR Tolkien's works. I co-edited with David Drake two anthologies about sf writers influenced by Kipling, HEADS TO THE STORM and A SEPARATE STAR. I edited or packaged books by Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, and Andre Norton.

And how did I forget to mention my most successful publication, THE DA VINCI HOAX coauthored with Carl Olson?”

Some other novels mentioned:

By Gene Wolfe: Latro (series), The Urth of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun (series)

Poul Anderson, The High Crusade

James Blish, A Case of Conscience

Frank Herbert, Dune

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

Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus in The Chosen, the first multi-season TV series about the life of our Lord. He joins the podcast to discuss his approach to playing the God-Man, the spiritual impact of the series, its groundbreaking approach to funding and distribution—and his devotion to the Divine Mercy.

Contents

[1:10] The unique production, financing and distribution of The Chosen

[10:01] Filming locations and research for the first season of the show

[13:48] How Jonathan was cast, his preparation process

[23:00] Story behind Jonathan's connection to the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy

[32:23] Portraying the mundane physical actions of Jesus

[38:27] Humor in The Chosen and depicting Jesus' sense of fun

[41:40] Portraying Jesus’ relationship with His Father

[49:20] The show’s use of flashbacks and Scriptural typology

[56:52] The cast’s religious diversity; the spiritual impact on the show on its makers and viewers

[1:00:40] The forthcoming second season and growth of VidAngel Studios

[1:03:55] Jonathan's work as an illustrator and his ideas for future pursuits

Links

The Chosen app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-chosen/id1473663873

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vidangel.thechosen&hl=en_US

Follow Jonathan Roumie here:

https://www.facebook.com/JonathanRoumieOfficial/

https://www.instagram.com/jonathanroumieofficial/

https://www.jonathanroumie.com/

VidAngel Studios https://studios.vidangel.com/

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

It has become fashionable in traditionalist circles to blame all problems in modern theology on the so-called nouvelle théologie, including a range of thinkers such as Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Hans Küng and Josef Ratzinger. But this is based on a number of misconceptions: about the nature of the nouvelle théologie itself, and about the views held by some of these theologians.

Nouvelle théologie is not a unified movement in which everyone held the same views. Some of the “new theologians” were radicals and modernists who wanted the Church to bow to the modern world. Some were orthodox men who wanted to revitalize theology by a return to the sources: the Fathers, Scripture, and St. Thomas (in his own words, not as filtered through the commentators). Others were harder to pin down.

A broad-brush approach to the nouvelle théologie has resulted in injustices, perhaps as much to theology itself as to some good Churchmen whose reputations have been tarnished. Even Ratzinger has been dubbed a modernist by a certain trigger-happy trad celebrity. It’s time for an intervention, and theologian Richard DeClue is here to bring some sobriety.

Links

DeClue’s Views https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq3P-y0YV1V6owHdCRw4I3A

Richard DeClue’s blog, Sapientia Nulliformis https://declubac.wixsite.com/sapientianulliformis

Episode 38: The Sacred Monster, on Garrigou-Lagrange https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-38-sacred-monster-matthew-k-minerd/

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

https://www.catholicculture.org/Criteria

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CatholicPods/

Modern education treats the child as a blank slate, a malleable object to be formed according to the will of whoever has power over educational policy. Classical Christian education treats the child as a person made in the image of God, a mystery to be held in awe, and tends to the flowering of his already-given nature by leading him to wisdom and virtue.

Andrew Kern, founder of the CiRCE Institute (Center for Independent Research on Classical Education), is one of the best guests Thomas has ever interviewed. In this episode he leads us through the profound basics of classical Christian education—offering a radically different view of the human person and of reality itself from that which predominates today.

Contents

[5:31] What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?

[10:31] What is a classical education? It is simply a list of great books one must study?

[15:58] Teaching “subjects” vs. the seven liberal arts

[21:18] Using music to illustrate a number of ideas about classical education

[28:20] The need for the art of rhetoric in a sophisticated political system like ours

[31:04] The generative power of form

[37:35] Respecting the “Holy of Holies” within the child—an image of God and a mystery

[42:38] Each of the seven liberal arts has a form and skill, tending to wisdom and virtue

[55:14] How mastering the liberal arts glorifies God

[59:35] Classical education has no ‘method’

[1:09:39] The seven stages of a lesson

[1:15:13] Services offered by the CiRCE Institute

[1:23:09] How would a classical school teach “practical” skills like finance?

[1:30:19] Practical concerns of parents hoping to educate their children classically

Links

Ask Andrew your own questions, live—Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 ET in May https://www.circeinstitute.org/ask-andrew-live

Older Ask Andrew podcast feed https://www.circeinstitute.org/podcasts/ask-andrew

CiRCE Institute https://www.circeinstitute.org/

Books recommended by Andrew:

The best book on classical Christian education: Norms and Nobility by David Hicks https://classicalconversationsbooks.com/products/3s032

CiRCE’s upcoming book edited by David Kern, including essays by past Catholic Culture Podcast guests James Matthew Wilson and Anthony Esolen (and a poem by past guest Dana Gioia): 30 Poems to Memorize (Before It’s Too Late) https://www.circeinstitute.org/30poems

C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image https://www.amazon.com/Discarded-Image-Introduction-Renaissance-Literature/dp/1107604702

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