Considering Catholicism

Greg and Ed the Protestant begin a series of episodes exploring the classic Catholic list of the Seven Deadly Sins. In this introduction, they discuss what "deadly sins" are, why they are called that, where the list came from, and how they operate in our lives.

Our Easter week reflections continue in an unusual direction: Greg and Cory discuss the classic novel "Frankenstein" and what it has to teach us about life vs. artificial life, God vs. playing God, as well as unexpected consequences and moral responsibility.

One of the monumental works of Catholic poetry is St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of the Creatures" (the "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" poem). Greg and Cory reflect on what this poem really means in light of the Resurrection.

Greg just got back from a pilgrimage to Israel, the Holy Land, and describes what insights into the Gospel can be gained from seeing Jerusalem firsthand. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg just got back from a pilgrimage to Israel, the Holy Land, and describes what insights into the Gospel can be gained from seeing the Sea of Galilee firsthand. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Ed asks Greg about appearances of the Virgin Mary, which seem pretty sketchy to Protestants. Greg explains Catholic doctrine, belief, and practice around "Marian Apparitions." This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg is leaving for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Israel). Ed asks why Catholics go on pilgrimages, while Protestants go on "Bible trips" and "mission trips." This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Ed explore the profoundly Catholic vision of the classic 1963 film "The Sound of Music." This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

In the final installment of their conversation about faith, belief, and doctrine, Greg and Cory tackle the H-Word: heresy. What is it? Is it mean or unfair to call someone a heretic? When do our beliefs cross some line and become heretical? This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Step by step, our cultural influencers keep moving the boundary markers of the faith. They say they aren’t changing Christianity, just enlarging or adapting it to the modern world. But at what point does it simply become a different religion from the historic Christian faith? The second of three episodes in which Greg and Cory ask what role truth plays in modern faith. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Step by step, our cultural influencers keep moving the boundary markers of the faith. They say they aren’t changing Christianity, just enlarging or adapting it to the modern world. But at what point does it simply become a different religion from the historic Christian faith? The second of three episodes in which Greg and Cory ask what role truth plays in modern faith. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Does it even matter what we believe anymore? In 21st century Christianity, isn’t what we do more important than what we believe? Is your “conscience” and spiritual intuition the supreme authority? The first of three episodes in which Greg and Cory ask what role truth plays in modern faith.

Ed the Protestant looks at a lot of Catholic religious paintings and statues and ask, "Why are they kind of weird? The composition, the colors, the subject matter seems so out of step with modern aesthetic tastes." Greg responds. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Ed the Protestant asks, "What is Lent, where does it come from (not in the Bible), and why do Catholics practice it?" This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

What is Hell? Why would God send anyone there? Didn't the Catholic Church just make it up to scare people into obeying? Greg and Ed continue their discussion of the "Last Things." This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

What is Purgatory? If Jesus saves us by grace, why should anyone go there? And if it isn't mentioned in the Bible, did the Medieval Catholic Church just invent it? Greg and Ed continue their conversations about the "Last Things." This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

What is heaven? What would it be like? And why would you want to go there? Also, will your dog or cat get to go with you? Greg and Ed continue exploring the "Last Things" of Catholicism. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory continue their discussion of how the historical Christian, particularly Catholic, understanding of funerals is at odds with current cultural trends. (Part 2 of 2) This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

How are current trends in the format of funerals in America and Europe a significant break with historic Christian understandings of the body, death, and the central claim of the Gospel? (Part 1 of 2) This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Ed review one of the most well-done Catholic films of all time: the 1986 Academy Award-winning masterpiece "The Mission," starring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory talk about the natural moral law that is necessary to hold communities together, even if it is made up of diverse religions. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Ed the Protestant discuss Christianity's belief in the transcendent realm, and why it reject's the atheistic or materialist notion that the physical world is all that is or all that counts. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Ed the Protestant discuss why Catholicism holds the line on historic Christian doctrines of sex and personal moral accountability. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

On the first anniversary episode of this podcast, Greg explains to Ed why he asks listeners to consider Catholicism rather than C.S. Lewis-style "mere" or generic Christianity: because mere Christianity is inadequate for the challenges of the 21st century. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory's discuss how Pope Benedict XVI taught us to read and respect the scriptures. The last of three conversations about Benedict's intellectual legacy and contributions to Catholicism. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory discuss Pope Benedict XVI's warnings against the "Dictatorship of Relativism" that threatens to oppress the 21st century. This is the second of three conversations about the Benedict's intellectual legacy and contributions to Catholicism. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory discuss the legacy of the recently-departed Pope Benedict XVI, focusing on his encouragement to "be not confused" by the false conflict between faith and reason, religion and science, or the various intellectual fads that sweep the Church. This is the first of three conversations about Benedict's intellectual contributions to Catholicism. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

When we die, do we go straight to heaven, or are we judged? And does it really matter, if "Love Wins" in the end? Greg and Ed talk about what historic Christianity and the Catholic Church teach about judgment after death. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

The Christian faith should prepare us for death. In fact, it should prepare us to face death without fear, and to die well. In fact, Catholicism has a long tradition of something called “The Good Death,” or “The Happy Death.” What is that, and how do we obtain it? This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Greg and Cory explore one of the biggest barriers in dialogue between Catholics and Protestants: Tradition vs. Primitivism. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Greg and Ed chat about American pop culture, comparing and contrasting it to the timeless nature of Catholic civilization. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

Fans of Catholic novels always mention the 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller, as one of their favorites. In this episode of Book Club, Greg and Cory discuss this profound work of Catholic science fiction. This podcast is a nonprofit ministry. Please consider supporting its production: DONATE

This is the second of a two-part episode in which Greg, Cory, and Ed the Protestant discuss G.K. Chesterton's famous essay, "Why I Am A Catholic." You can listen to the first have of their conversation in Episode #75. And you can read the essay on the ConsideringCatholicism.com website.

Greg brought Ed the Protestant and Cory Lakatos together on the podcast for the first time to discuss G.K. Chesterton's famous essay, "Why I Am A Catholic." You can read the essay on the ConsideringCatholicism.com website. This is the first of a two-part conversation continued in Episode #75.

Part 2 of Greg, Ed, and Cory discussing why and how Christmas carols are no longer part of America's "Holiday Season."

Greg, Ed, and Cory ask why traditional Christmas carols are disappearing. Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

Greg's message on the Feast of the Nativity. Merry Christmas from One Whirling Adventure and the Considering Catholicism podcast!

After considering Catholicism for a year, Greg's Protestant friend Ed shares where he's at, whether he's ready to enter the Catholic Church, and asks, "How Catholic can I be without actually becoming Catholic?"

In this Church Chat with Ed, Ed asks Greg about whether and why Catholics have a "Sunday Obligation."

Join podcast host Greg Smith for a once-in-a-lifetime Lenten journey: a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and to Turkey, the land of the New Testament churches. Learn more: www.pilgrimages.com/gregsmith/holyland/

When people stop believing in the Church's central doctrines, they don't believe in nothing: they pick and choose, like in a cafeteria line, and make themselves a plate of pleasing doctrines to suit their own personal tastes.

I told Ed the Protestant that I had a surprise and to meet me at the parish this afternoon. When he arrived, I had him walk through an exhibit displaying the Church's history of Eucharist miracles, then I sent him into the chapel for his first taste of Eucharistic Adoration. When he came out, I turned on the recorder and got his impressions.

Along with the decorations, every year the same myths get brought out about how the Catholic Church was corrupted by the ancient pagans, and invented its Christmas celebrations by borrowing pagan festivals. So, it's time for Greg and Cory to swat down this nonsense and tell the truth about why and how the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity on December 25.

Greg and Cory explore the differences between Lutheranism and Calvinism, and how the road to Rome differs depending on whether you begin in Germany or Geneva.

Greg has produced four short videos exploring the connections between the Eucharist and Christmas. You can find them on the ConsideringCatholicism.com website and social media. Ed the Protestant sat down with Greg to explore how the Nativity of Christ echoes down through the ages in Holy Communion.

On the last Sunday before the season of Advent begins, the Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King. Greg and Cory talk about where this celebration came from, what it means, and how we can apply it in our lives.

Greg and Cory discuss the "Five Solas," the framework that supports the Protestant worldview and keeps Catholicism at a distance…and how cracks can form in that worldview.

In this installment of Book Club, Greg and Cory discuss a novel by Michael O'Brien which, while in the science fiction genre, is a profoundly Catholic story: Voyage to Alpha Centauri.

For Protestants and other non-Catholics, relics are one of, if not the, weirdest things about Catholicism. Why do Catholics have and treasure relics -- bits of bodies and clothing -- of the saints?

Greg and Cory discuss "sacramentals" (not sacraments), objects and devotional practice which have been blessed by the Church.