The Catholic Culture Podcast

Joshua Hren returns to discuss his debut novel, Infinite Regress. "In the years since his graduation from St. Marquis University, Blake Yourrick has fled his family and Milwaukee, rotating from job to dead-end job—working the Bakken oilfields in Dakota and even signing on as the night caretaker of a rural abbey graveyard. Deep in student debt and estranged from his misanthropic, alcoholic father, Blake is haunted by the memory of his mother's death—and by his relationship with his college mentor, a defrocked priest named Theo Hape, who is known for his adventurous theological ideas as well as for the uncanny, seductive power he wields over his students. When Hape, learning of his former charge's desperate straits, proposes a perverse exchange of services, Blake finds himself tempted to test the professor's radical theories in real life. What follows is a metaphysical duel reminiscent of the novels of Dostoevsky and Bernanos, pitting a modern-day anti-Christ against a reckless but resilient young man and his well-meaning, dysfunctional kin." (Publisher's description) The book is particularly timely in its philosophical themes, as it touches on the subject of metaphysical deconstruction used as cover for sexual grooming in the world of education. Thomas and Joshua discuss the novel's defrocked Jesuit villain, the protagonists' escape from a philosophy which makes good dependent on evil and so eliminates the boundaries between the two, the book's themes of monetary and metaphysical debt, its comic tone, and Hren's unusual associative prose style. Links Joshua Hren, Infinite Regress https://www.angelicopress.org/infinite-regress-joshua-hren Wiseblood Books https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/ Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas https://www.stthom.edu/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/Index.aqf?Aquifer_Source_URL=%2FMFA&PNF_Check=1 This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate

Historian Árpád von Klimó joins the podcast to give an introduction to József Cardinal Mindszenty (1892-1975), prince primate of Hungary. Mindszenty was not only the face of Hungarian resistance to fascism and communism, but ultimately a symbol Catholic resistance to communism worldwide. From 1948 to 1956 he was in a communist prison, from 1956 to 1971 he was isolated from the world as a refuge in the U.S. Legation in Hungary. He then spent the last 4 years of his life in exile from his country and in increasing tension with the Vatican's more conciliatory approach to diplomacy with Soviet nations. Links Victim of History: Cardinal Mindszenty, a Biography https://www.cuapress.org/9780813234991/victim-of-history/ Árpád von Klimó https://history.catholic.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-profiles/von-klimo-arpad/index.html

D. C. Schindler's book The Politics of the Real: The Church between Liberalism and Integralism is one of the richest entries in the ongoing Catholic debate over liberalism, political authority, the common good, and the relation between Church and State. Schindler offers subtle, convincing arguments as to why liberalism is "the political form of evil", specifically consisting of a rejection of the Christian form - specifically, the Jewish-Greek-Roman synthesis embodied in the Catholic Church. Liberalism creates a situation like that described by comedian Stephen Wright: "Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates." It adopts aspects of the Western tradition but only on radically different grounds, with a fragmented vision of reality. Even when liberalism claims to make room for religious tradition, it does so only by reconceiving religion as a mere object of individual choice - that is, precisely as non-traditional. But Schindler goes beyond criticizing liberalism, offering a profound and beautiful ontology of the social order and a somewhat different model of the relation between Church and State from the one proposed by Catholic integralists. Schindler joins the podcast to discuss the book, including topics such as: Why objecting to non-liberal philosophy as "impractical" is a rejection of man as a rational creature Liberalism's false claim of neutrality (or non-confessionalism) The "Christian form" and its fragmentation Why liberalism is "the political form of evil" The roots of liberalism in medieval nominalism The anti-Catholic meaning of the Declaration of Independence's "laws of nature and of nature's God" How the "neutral public square" subverts every tradition it "makes room for" The problem with distinguishing "civil society" from the state Why property is central to understanding the relation between individuals and society Links The Politics of the Real https://newpolity.com/new-polity-press-titles/the-politics-of-the-real This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In a wide-ranging and erudite interview, poet and translator Ryan Wilson joins the podcast to discuss how the poet makes use of the classical virtue of xenia or hospitality, what poets can learn from the work of translation, the "romantic turn" (inner vision) and the "classical turn" (communication/craft) in poetry, the great Latin poet Horace, and more. Ryan performs, in his dynamic style, classic poems by Horace and others, as well as his own poems. Ryan Wilson is an adjunct professor of English at the Catholic University of America, editor of the journal Literary Matters, and a visiting professor of poetry in the MFA program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He is the author of three books: The Stranger World, a collection of original poems; How to Think Like a Poet; and Proteus Bound: Selected Translations, 2008-2020. Forthcoming are his anthology of contemporary Catholic poetry from Paraclete Press (spring 2023), and another book of original poems, The Ghostlight. Timestamps 0:00 - Proteus Bound 13:09 - Hospitality as fundamental principle of community, thought, and poetry 28:05 - The romantic turn and the classical turn 46:22 - Ryan Wilson, "Xenia" 53:39 - Proteus, Hermes, and Orpheus as figures of the poet 1:03:35 - Translation as training for the poet 1:17:47 - The Latin poetry of Horace 2:07:55 - Charles Baudelaire, "The Voice" 2:20:00 - How Ryan relates as a Catholic to classical literature 2:27:10 - Ryan Wilson, "Philoctetes" Links Proteus Bound: Selected Translations, 2008-2020 https://www.cuapress.org/9781736656129/proteus-bound/ How to Think Like a Poet https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p97/How_to_Think_Like_a_Poet%2C_by_Ryan_Wilson.html The Stranger World http://www.measurepress.com/measure/index.php/catalog/books/stranger-world/ Literary Matters https://www.literarymatters.org/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

"The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Glenn Gould One of the greatest classical pianists of the 20th century, Glenn Gould, shocked the world at age thirty-one when he announced his permanent retirement from public performance. Denouncing the concert hall as a relative of the Roman Colosseum and audiences as a "force of evil", for the sake of his artistic integrity and personal sanity he committed the rest of his musical life to recording in the studio. Gould's brilliant and sometimes provocative performances of classical masterworks are well known, especially his unequaled recordings of Bach. But he was also a prolific, articulate, and no less provocative critic. In essays like "The Prospects of Recording", he laid out his philosophy of performance, of the relation between technology and music. He described his own experimentation with unconventional recording techniques, and made bold and often accurate predictions about how recording technology would change how the average person would relate to music. And he outright rejected many of the stagnant conventions of contemporary classical performance. In this episode, Thomas discusses Gould's fascinating (and often entertaining) views on music and technology, and plays a number of his recordings. If you've never heard Gould play, you're missing out. If you have, you'll find this episode all the more interesting. Pieces played in this episode (all performed by Glenn Gould): J. S. Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Prelude and Fugue no. 3 in C-sharp major, Fugue no. 20 in A major, Prelude no. 21 in B-flat major Bach, Two- and Three-Part Inventions: Invention no. 12 in A major, Sinfonia no. 5 in E-flat major, Sinfonia no. 9 in F minor Brahms, Intermezzo No. 2 in A major, op. 118 Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, IV. Allegro, piano transcription by Franz Liszt Thomas Mirus's 2011 essay "Glenn Gould in the Studio" https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJhWSaNsTdS30F0veUe1XAsL-In-0S-k/view?usp=sharing 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 51 and 53-55 of the Catholic Culture Podcast. Links (in order of clips) The Hundredfold - Anthony Esolen https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-55-hundredfold-anthony-esolen/ Bringing Melody Back to Pop Music - The Duskwhales https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-51-bringing-melody-back-to-pop-music-duskwhales/ God Made Us for Order and Surprise - John-Mark Miravalle https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-53-god-made-us-for-order-and-surprise-john-mark-miravalle/ Fostering Responsible Elites - Jonah Bennett https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-54-fostering-responsible-elites-jonah-bennett/

One of the best contemporary natural law philosophers, J. Budszizewski, joins the show to discuss his new book, How (and How Not) to Be Happy, spiritual warfare in the classroom, and his journey from "macho nihilism" to faith. Topics include: Why virtue alone won't make you happy Why the Greeks said "Call no man happy until he is dead" A critique of the Stoic revival How belief in the afterlife allows us to be honest about suffering in this life Teaching secular students about natural law Breaking through people's self-deception Budszizewski's youthful embrace of nihilism and how God broke down his intellectual pride Links How (and How Not) To Be Happy https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-and-How-Not-to-Be-Happy/J-Budziszewski/9781684511075 Underground Thomist website http://www.undergroundthomist.org Join Online Great Books with 25% off your first three months via this link https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/ Other recommended books by J. Budszizewski: What We Can't Not Know: A Guide https://www.amazon.com/What-We-Cant-Not-Know/dp/1586174819 The Meaning of Sex https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Sex-J-Budziszewski/dp/1610170997 CatholicCulture.org is in the middle of its Easter 2022 fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered us a $60,000 matching challenge grant. If you donate between now and Pentecost Sunday, your donation will be doubled! Please help us keep our apostolate going. If you use this link your donation will be earmarked for podcast production: http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In Holy Week of 1962, Bishop Karol Wojtyla gave a retreat to a group of Polish artists. The text of that retreat has now been published in English, along with commentary, by the Theology of the Body Institute, in a book titled God Is Beauty: A Retreat on the Gospel and Art. Christopher West, president of the TOB Institute, joins Thomas Mirus to discuss the retreat and how it fits together with St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Themes include: God is Beauty The Incarnation is perfect Beauty manifested in the human body The artist is a conduit of beauty coming from God Artists' responsibility for their talent The sexed body as a sign of the relationality and fruitfulness of the Trinity The dangers of "moral minimalism" The Crucifixion, where moral conscience and beauty meet How Wojtyla's work builds on, rather than replaces, traditional theological symbolism Thomas also discusses his experience of attending the ballet and how it is challenging him to see the body in a new way. Links Listeners can purchase God Is Beauty paperback at the TOB Institute store for 20% off the cover price (no limit). Use code: CULTURE https://shop.corproject.com/collections/books/products/god-is-beauty-a-retreat-on-the-gospel-art Upcoming retreat weekend, May 13-15 https://www.revealedexperience.com Episode with ballet dancer Claire Kretzschmar https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/109-catholic-in-nyc-ballet-claire-kretzschmar Dony MacManus https://donymacmanus.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Thomas Mirus reads his article "Fatima Today: In Defense of Private Revelation". The first part of this article is a reminder of the essential importance of Fatima in our time. The second, and longer, part corrects a misunderstanding of private revelation held by many—namely that whatever falls into this category can make no claim on our mind or conscience, and that it is a matter of indifference whether we pay heed to it. Links Thomas V. Mirus, "Fatima Today: In Defense of Private Revelation" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/fatima-today-in-defense-private-revelation/ Deacon Bob Ellis, "Our role in the defeat of the global Communist revolution" https://www.bluearmy.com/our-role-in-the-defeat-of-the-global-communist-revolution/ The First Saturday Devotion https://www.bluearmy.com/first-saturday-devotion/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Katy Carl, author of the excellent new novel As Earth Without Water and editor-in-chief of the Catholic arts journal Dappled Things, joins the show to discuss the novel and the state of the Catholic literary scene. The publisher's description of As Earth Without Water: When Dylan Fielding, celebrated contemporary visual artist, becomes Br. Thomas Augustine, novice at Our Lady of the Pines monastery, he finds delight not only in the shock his choice causes everyone around him but—to his own surprise—in the rhythms of the life itself. Shortly before he solidifies a lifelong commitment to the community, a traumatic encounter with an abusive priest plunges Thomas Augustine into terror and doubt. Reeling and uncertain, he reaches out to his friend, rival, and former lover, Angele Solomon, with hopes that she can help him to speak the difficult truth. As she attempts to advocate for her friend, Angele must ask how the scars left by their common past—as well as newer harms—can ever be healed or transcended. The wider inquiries demanded next will transfigure how both of them picture a range of human and divine things: time and memory; art and agency; trust and responsibility; and what it might mean to know real freedom. Links As Earth Without Water https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p115/katy-carl-as-earth-without-water.html Dappled Things https://www.dappledthings.org/ Catholic Imagination Conference 2022 https://udallas.edu/centers/cowan/cic/index.php This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Today's guest is Chase Faucheux, translator of a recent biography of Pope St. Gregory the Great. Topics include: The very low point in Rome's history in which Gregory came of age His being all things to all men in the city of Rome, as both a spiritual and temporal leader His longing for the monastic life even after he became Pope His remarkable forthrightness about his own shortcomings His diplomatic attempts to keep barbarians from destroying his city Links Sigrid Grabner, In the Eye of the Storm: A Biography of Gregory the Great https://ignatius.com/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-iesp/ 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 significantly truncated version of the original episode. Listen to the full episode here: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/126-how-charlie-parker-changed-my-life/ Thomas Mirus goes solo in this episode to talk about how his relationship to music was completely transformed in his late teens, by exposure to the music of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. Before he had used music to stimulate an emotional response, but soon he found himself listening for the sake of musical beauty itself, regardless of emotions or lack thereof. This quickly opened up a whole world of contemplation (musical and otherwise). After discussing this deeper way of listening to music, Thomas explains how to follow the musical form of a jazz performance, and introduces the music of Charlie Parker and the new form of jazz he pioneered in the 1940s and early 50s, known as bebop. If you want to listen more extensively to the jazz artists heard in this episode, check out these albums (no links because these things are always going in and out of print in different compilations): Charlie Parker, listen to the complete Savoy and Dial master takes in whatever compilation you can find Bud Powell, Jazz Giant Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street Sonny Rollins Plus Four Music heard in this episode: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Rising High Water Blues" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsFNi0ZVzj4 Charlie Parker, "Perhaps" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LOOvq1sJvw Charlie Parker, "Blues for Alice" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7USMqAH8qk Charlie Parker, "Parker's Mood" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wa7El-k3jQ Charlie Parker, "Anthropology" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HkFBT4h190 Bud Powell, "So Sorry Please" from Jazz Giant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IoDXFWr1c&list=PL9C4lRUjCkCt_oXThX81D3LhhRIUXVDqb&index=6 Clifford Brown and Max Roach, "Gertrude's Bounce" from At Basin Street https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ7TdrmmDkc&list=PLUJ7V33M1wR3yDePSuvG8W1LmV3uuPg-S&index=8 Sonny Rollins, "Pent-Up House" from Plus Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeqyCTvm4s&list=OLAK5uy_k6jR4wR5XEIyRL95Ov95VXhkYkAKQZIfw This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Art historian Elizabeth Lev joins the show to discuss her new book, The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art. The book offers not only a history of sixteen centuries of art featuring St. Joseph, but also an account of the development of devotion to St. Joseph over the past two thousand years -from the old man sitting overlooked in the corner of early Nativity scenes to the glorious Patron of the Univeral Church. Links Watch on YouTube to see the artworks discussed: https://youtu.be/LiPgnGAcu-s Elizabeth Lev, The Silent Knight https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/the-silent-knight Episode with Elizabeth on the history of St. Anthony Abbot in art https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/90-temptation-st-anthony-elizabeth-lev/ Episode with Elizabeth on the film Ben-Hur https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ben-hur-1959-w-elizabeth-lev/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

For two decades, Maggie Gallagher was a leading voice writing about the importance of permanent, monogamous marriage to society. At first, that included pointing out the problems with divorce, feminism and single parenthood. Then as same-sex marriage became the predominant issue, Gallagher became the public face of the movement against it. A few years after the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal across the 50 states, Gallagher switched gears when Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco asked her to be Executive Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, which he founded in 2013. She says that to avoid despair, we have to build beautiful things. In this interview Maggie discusses: How becoming a single mother in college led her to focus her career on the defense of marriage Her time in the pro-marriage movement, including co-founding the National Organization for Marriage Why the defenders of marriage were less effective than the pro-life movement Why certain critiques of the pro-life movement's political involvement are unfair American classical liberalism's inability to think about social institutions Meeting Archbishop Cordileone and getting involved in the BXVI Institute The BXVI Institute's patronage of the arts, especially the liturgical arts The Archbishop's campaign of prayer and fasting for the conversion of Nancy Pelosi Links www.BenedictInstitute.org Benedict XVI Institute on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4a0pooErfPoWck0xc7WHGg Maggie Gallagher, Enemies of Eros https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Eros-Revolution-Killing-Marriage/dp/0929387007 Maggie Gallagher and Linda Waite, The Case for Marriage https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184776/the-case-for-marriage-by-linda-j-waite-and-maggie-gallagher/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Carl Hostetter, editor of a new volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's unpublished notes, The Nature of Middle-earth, joins the show. Carl discusses: His collaboration with Christopher Tolkien leading to this new volume What other Tolkien writings we might expect to see published Why it may be good that Tolkien never finished the Silmarillion in his lifetime Tolkien's Thomistic reflections on elvish hylomorphism, and other revelations contained in the new book How Tolkien's obsession with consistency nearly destroyed his legendarium Potential problems with the theology of Middle-earth Anti-Catholic bias in contemporary Tolkien fandom and scholarship Links Carl Hostetter, The Nature of Middle-earth https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-nature-of-middle-earth-jrr-tolkien Interview with Jonathan McIntosh about The Flame Imperishable https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-40-tolkien-and-aquinas-jonathan-s-mcintosh/ Other resources recommended: J.R.R. Tolkien, Morgoth's Ring, vol. 10 of The History of Middle-earth, ed. Christopher Tolkien Jonathan McIntosh, The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology Verlyn Flieger, Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World Corey Olsen's seminars on The Nature of Middle-earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duNayhMrrJ8&list=PLasMbZ4s5vIXZtwVbmyh6sTE56uiI_t0C This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

T.C. Merrill's debut novel, Minor Indignities, is an evocative portrayal of the vanity of undergraduate life at an Ivy League university. Its protagonist, a freshman consumed with what others think of him intellectually, socially and sexually, only makes a fool of himself the more he strains to impress. The novel ultimately becomes a richness of embarrassments whose final catastrophe illustrates the saying of St. Bernard: "Humiliation is the way to humility." Merrill joins the show to talk about his novel, his essay "The Situation of the Catholic Novelist", Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, how a fiction writer should approach depicting sexuality, the relation between art and emotion, and René Girard. Watch interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xH1Fm6C9i7E Links Minor Indignities https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p103/minor-indignities-by-trevor-cribben-merrill.html "The Situation of the Catholic Novelist" https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p116/The-Situation-of-the-Catholic-Novelist.html This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Originally published as episode 59 on December 21, 2019, this popular episode is being rerun in a slightly improved version. This is a love letter to the great English Christmas carols, from "There Is No Rose" to "The Boar's Head". Did you know that not just any Christmas song is a carol? The true carol, in all its earthy splendor, is a distinctive product of the Catholic middle ages. Yet our forefathers didn't limit caroling to Christmas: they wrote carols for every season of the year covering the entire story of our Redemption, not to mention secular topics at times. This episode explores the origin of carols in England, their cultural meaning, and how they were suppressed by the Puritans and were revived in modern times. And of course, you'll hear a lot of great music throughout, ranging from historically informed performance to modern arrangements! Links Erik Routley, The English Carol https://www.amazon.com/English-Carol-Erik-Routley/dp/0837169895 Andrew Gant, The Carols of Christmas https://www.amazon.com/Carols-Christmas-Celebration-Surprising-Favorite/dp/0718031520 All music in this episode used with permission from the recording artist and/or label. Agincourt Carol, Alamire https://www.amazon.com/Deo-Gracias-Anglia-Alamire/dp/B008L1GZUO Nowell sing we both all and some, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2 Gabriel From Heaven's King, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2 A Virgin Most Pure, Stairwell Carolers https://www.stairwellcarollers.com/en/o-magnum-mysterium/ Coventry Carol, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, available on the CORO record label at https://thesixteenshop.com/ Bedfordshire May Carol, Shirley Collins https://mainlynorfolk.info/shirley.collins/records/withinsound.html Remember O Thou Man, The King's Singers https://www.amazon.com/Remember-O-Thou-Man/dp/B073JZN754 Wassail (Gloucestershire Wassail, arr. Vaughan Williams), Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland4 Green Growth the Holly, Early Music New York—Frederick Renz, Director https://www.earlymusicny.org/a-renaissance-christmas My Dancing Day, Robert Shaw Chorale https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Angels-Christmas-Hymns-Carols/dp/B000003D0G Drive the Cold Winter Away, Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/nwrb In the Bleak Midwinter, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2 Lullay My Liking (Holst), HSVPA Madrigal Singers (Houston, TX) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw81DCQ3HhI A Hymn to the Virgin (Britten), VOCES8 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GC4QVT/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp There is no rose, Quire Cleveland https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/quirecleveland2 Thanks to all, but especially to Ross W. Duffin for his generosity with Quire Cleveland's back catalogue! Also recommended: A Waverly Consort Christmas: From East Anglia to Appalachia https://www.amazon.com/Waverly-Consort-Christmas-Anglia-Appalachia/dp/B000002SRK Other non-famous carols mentioned: Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life); This Endris Night; Tempus adest floridum (Good King Wenceslas); Kingsfold (I heard the voice of Jesus say); The Cherry Tree Carol; Masters In This Hall; The Golden Carol; Snow in the Street; New Prince, New Pomp This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Mary Lou Williams: one of the outstanding jazz pianists of all time, composer, Catholic convert, visionary, performer of works of mercy. Because Williams's career lasted and her style adapted through many changes in jazz from the swing era to the early 1970s, and because she mentored two of jazz's most influential figures (Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk), this episode is an opportunity not only to dive into her life and music, but to learn a little about jazz history more generally. Deanna Witkowski, herself a jazz pianist and Catholic convert, has written a new biography of Williams, Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, and performs Williams's compositions on her forthcoming album, Force of Nature. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B31PwFU-FrY Links Buy Deanna's book and album: https://www.deannawitkowski.com/store Musical tracks heard in this episode: Mary Lou Williams: "Waltz Boogie", "Walkin' and Swingin'", "Night Life", "Holy Ghost" (composed by Larry Gales), "Autumn Leaves" (composed by Joseph Kosma), "Aries", "Taurus", "Virgo", "Anima Christi", "St. Martin de Porres". Excerpts from Bud Powell, "Cherokee" (composed by Ray Noble); Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"; Elmo Hope, "Eejah". Deanna Witkowski, "Intermission", composed by Mary Lou Williams and Milton Suggs, used with permission. From Deanna Witkowski's album Force of Nature. 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 45 and 47-49 of the Catholic Culture Podcast. Episode 45—Libertarianism vs. Natural Law on Private Property https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-45-libertarianism-vs-natural-law-on-private-property/ Episode 47—Our Lady's Habit: Wearing and Loving the Brown Scapular—Fr. Justin Cinnante, O.Carm. https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-47-our-ladys-habit-wearing-and-loving-brown-scapular-fr-justin-cinnante-ocarm/ Episode 48—Authority and Submission as Gift in Christian Marriage—Mary Stanford https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-48-authority-and-submission-as-gift-in-christian-marriage-mary-stanford/ Episode 49—A Catholic Composer in Queen Elizabeth's Court, Pt. I—Kerry McCarthy https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-49-catholic-composer-in-queen-elizabeths-court-pt-i-kerry-mccarthy/

Unlikely as it may sound, Catholic fiction has a certain amount of mainstream appeal in Japanese literature. Sono Ayako, one of Japan's most famous novelists, wrote a novel about St. Maximilian Kolbe called Miracles, which has just been translated into English. Miracles is a semiautobiographical account of the author's personal investigation into the miracles approved by the Vatican for Kolbe's canonization. Her ambivalence towards her Catholic faith is challenged as she traces Kolbe's steps from his childhood to his self-sacrifice in Auschwitz, with his time in Japan standing in between as the ascetic crucible which made him a saint. Ayako writes: "Before he died, this priest flung a tough question like a red-hot iron rod at the dried-up soul of modern Man. The question was, 'what does it mean for us to love one another?'" Translator Kevin Doak joins the show to discuss Miracles, Catholic fiction in Japan (which extends far beyond Endo's Silence), and…Endo's Silence. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ne9Yz5lC7qI Links Miracles https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p114/miracles-sono-ayako.html Kevin Doak, "Beyond Endo: The Hidden Renaissance of Japanese Catholic Novelists" https://benedictinstitute.org/2019/07/beyond-endo/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Etienne Gilson's Metamorphoses of the City of God traces the quest of philosophers for a universal human society, as it gradually degraded from the heavenly city of which Augustine wrote to modern-day secular humanist globalism. It began with well-intentioned medieval thinkers who were overconfident in the capability of natural reason to unite the whole world in the Catholic faith - but this led gradually to a turning away from the rationally irreducible Christian mysteries and the person of Jesus Christ. Writing in 1952 as the European Union was beginning to emerge, Gilson also offered a critical assessment of various attempts to define Europe. Peter Redpath, co-founder of the International Etienne Gilson Society, joins the podcast to discuss this newly translated work. Links The Metamorphoses of the City of God https://www.cuapress.org/9780813233253/the-metamorphoses-of-the-city-of-god/ Aquinas School of Leadership https://www.aquinasschoolofleadership.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Mark Christopher Brandt returns to the show to discuss his latest album, Joy, which is based on the structure of the Rosary. It features the family choir of Mark and his three daughters, accompanied by Mark on piano. Mark began composing this music in the mid-1990s, not knowing who would sing it, when only his first daughter had been born. On the eve of the new millenium, he decided to take a hiatus from his career as a jazz pianist in order to focus on his family and his spiritual life. In 2021, by the most marvelous and unexpected Providence, Mark's selfless fidelity to God and family has been rewarded a hundredfold in making an album with his children! In addition to the album itself (pieces of which you will hear in the episode), topics discussed include: Why artists should give credit to God for inspiration How Mark taught his daughters to be discerning about music Using music to reverence the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary A spiritual perspective on "artist's block" Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qjJz41Kdv60 Links Buy CD copy of Joy (with free book of rosary meditations) and learn more about Mark https://markchristopherbrandt.com/ Buy Joy on Qobuz (CD-quality digital purchase) https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/joy-mark-christopher-brandt/l26w0ostksrca Buy Joy on Amazon Music https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09J1Z534K/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp Buy Joy on Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/album/joy/1589547700 Thomas and Mark talk about working together on his album The Butterfly https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-68-what-i-learned-from-making-music-with-mark-christopher-brandt/

This is a crossover episode in which Thomas joins forces with Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt from the Online Great Books Podcast, to discuss the classic essay Art and Scholasticism by Jacques Maritain. This episode covers beauty as a transcendental and its role in the fine arts, and intuition as the way we experience artistic beauty. The beauty of a work does not depend on the emotional effects it produces, nor can it be proven by analysis. We experience beauty intellectually, but by intuition rather than by thought. The hosts also digress into arguments over photography as a fine art, Glenn Gould, and craft beers. Links Pt. 1 of this discussion https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/116-maritains-art-and-scholasticism-pt-1/ Buy Art and Scholasticism https://clunymedia.com/products/art-and-scholasticism Read Art and Scholasticism for free online (inferior translation) https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/art.htm Learn more about Online Great Books https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/ Join Online Great Books with 25% off your first three months via this 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 crossover episode in which Thomas joins forces with Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt from the Online Great Books Podcast, to discuss the classic essay Art and Scholasticism by Jacques Maritain. Maritain argues for an objective view of both art and the artist, bringing an orderly, scholastic, Thomistic approach to understanding aesthetics. Mirus says, "Maritain gets art better than any other philosopher who came before him in the Western Tradition." For Maritain, art is "a virtue of the practical intellect that aims at making." The virtue or habitus of art, Maritain writes, is not simply an "interior growth of spontaneous life", but has an intellectual character and involves cultivation and practice. The trio also talks about how fine arts and practical arts have been cloven off. How can we hold them both in esteem without denigrating the other? Scott says, "If we really know what art is then we will be more connected to honest work— that will be a refuge from this intellectual confusion, this metaphysical disgustingness, around us." Links Buy Art and Scholasticism https://clunymedia.com/products/art-and-scholasticism Read Art and Scholasticism for free online (inferior translation) https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/art.htm Learn more about Online Great Books https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/ Join Online Great Books with 25% off your first three months via this 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

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, recently issued "A Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology". The document takes a strong unequivocal stance against transgender ideology, down to practical specifics like telling the faithful we must not use transgender names and pronouns. Beyond that, it excels in showing how the Church's whole anthropology and theology are at stake in the transgender issue. Today's guest, Fr. Stephen Schultz, was one of the Bishop's advisers in drafting the document. Fr. Schultz is the director of the EnCourage apostolate in the Diocese of Arlington, and chaplain at St. Paul VI Catholic High School. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sf83zKx3XeI Links "A Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology" https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12554 EnCourage https://couragerc.org/encourage/ David Crawford and Michael Hanby, "The Abolition of Man and Woman" https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-abolition-of-man-and-woman-11593017500 Acedia episode mentioned https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-18-acedia-forgotten-capital-sin-rj-snell/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Writer Matthew Mehan returns to the show to discuss his new children's book co-authored with painter John Folley, The Handsome Little Cygnet. This lovely tale about a family of swans in Central Park is a much simpler book than their previous outing, but introduces children to the idea of accepting one's God-given nature. That is no small matter in a world which tantalizes the young with offers of a more exciting new identity just around the corner. But we need to know what we are in order to properly shape who we will become. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oxAQpGxduCw Links The Handsome Little Cygnet https://tanbooks.com/kids/elementary-school/the-handsome-little-cygnet/ Previous episode with Mehan: Teaching Children Self-Knowledge through the Liberal Arts https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-43-teaching-children-self-knowledge-through-liberal-arts-matthew-mehan/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In this outtake from episode 113, Thomas asks writer and editor Joshua Hren whether the turn to realism in modern fiction, a historical anomaly, is also a problem from a religious and philosophical point of view. Episode 113, Can a Novelist "Create" a Saint? https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/113-can-novelist-create-saint-joshua-hren/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In his new book How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic, fiction writer and editor Joshua Hren lays out an approach to Catholic literature that spans all the way from St. John Henry Newman called "a record of man in rebellion" to the other end of the continuum, which is a representation of the Beatific Vision. Topics discussed include: How important is beauty to fiction? Will beauty save the world? The importance of particularity; Carmelite vs. Ignatian views of imagination Newman and Augustine on the uses, limitations, and dangers of indulging sentiments about fictional characters Can the action of grace be dramatized? Can the life of holiness be fictionalized? The depiction of repentance, conversion and the lasting effects of sin in authors like Balzac and O'Connor Joshua Hren is the founder and editor of Wiseblood Books as well as, with James Matthew Wilson, founder of a new creative writing MFA program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, which is also discussed in the episode. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ump3CRZ6GRY Links How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic https://tanbooks.com/liberal-arts/literature-and-theology/how-to-read-and-write-like-a-catholic/ MFA program https://www.stthom.edu/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/ Wiseblood Books https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/ Listen to Newman's sermon "The Danger of Accomplishments" at Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-john-henry-newman-danger-accomplishments/ Read "The Danger of Accomplishments" https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume2/sermon30.html Previous interview with Joshua Hren, "The Flannery-Haunted World" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-70-reviving-catholic-literary-tradition-joshua-hren-john-emmet-clarke/ 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

Thomas Mirus apologizes for and retracts some things he said in Episode 106 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, a discussion of the morality of COVID vaccines.

"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

Catholic Culture's own Phil Lawler has written a new book addressing what he sees as flaws in the response of Catholic leaders and laity to the pandemic and advocating a different approach - Contagious Faith: Why the Church Must Spread Hope, Not Fear, in a Pandemic. Topics covered in this interview include: How the Church's behavior in this pandemic differs from the oft-cited response of St. Charles Borromeo to plague Why a confrontation with civil authorities must be forced to ameliorate the evil precedent set for future actions against the Church How the laity can encourage their priests and bishops to defy illegitimate restrictions on the Mass Is there a moral obligation to take extraordinary measures to protect one's neighbor from even the slightest risk of catching a disease? Catholics must be a witness to hope in the power of prayer and in eternal life Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aFxgWqp1J80 Links Phil Lawler, Contagious Faith https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/contagious-faith This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Michael Pakaluk joins the show to discuss his new translation and commentary on St. John's gospel, making the case that this loftiest of gospels echoes the voice of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the evangelist's adopted mother) in subtle but profound ways. Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G0PDD5Qyfh0 Links Mary's Voice in the Gospel According to John https://www.regnery.com/9781684511198/marys-voice-in-the-gospel-according-to-john/ Episode 34 on Michael Pakaluk's translation of Mark's Gospel https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-34-memoirs-st-peter-michael-pakaluk/ Donate to support the show: www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode features highlight clips from episodes 26-30 of the Catholic Culture Podcast. Links Online Great Books opens a new enrollment period approximately once a month. Get in there using discount code "catholicculture" for 25% off your first three months! Or use this referral link: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/ Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth exhibition book https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Maker-Middle-earth-Catherine-McIlwaine/dp/1851244859/ 29 - Catholic Feminism: Should We? - Abigail Rine Favale https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-29-catholic-feminism-should-we-abigail-rine-favale/ 28 - An Introduction to Maritain's Poetic Philosophy - Samuel Hazo https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo/ 26 - The Arts, Contemplation and Virtue - Basil Cole, OP https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-26-arts-contemplation-and-virtue-basil-cole-op/ 27 - Always Wanted to Study the Great Books? Here's How You'll Actually Follow Through - Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/ 30 - What Tolkien's Visual Art Tells Us About His Creative Mind - John McQuillen, Holly Ordway https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-30-what-tolkiens-visual-art-tells-us-about-his-creative-mind-john-mcquillen-and-holly-ordway/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Did you know there's a hotel in NYC named after Pope Leo XIII? The Leo House was founded in the 1880s as a boarding house for German Catholic immigrants, at the behest of the Holy Father, and is still operating today as a Catholic hotel providing charitable hospitality at a discount. In this episode you'll learn from the Leo House's chairman and president, Michael Coneys, about the hotel's fascinating history. The story involves Pope Leo's special care for the Catholic Church in Germany as it was struggling under Protestant Prussian rule; as well as the St. Raphael Society, which helped political dissidents to escape Nazi Germany. It also involves a very providential visit from Mother Teresa! But this is also a very contemporary story story of one of many Catholic nonprofits struggling to survive the past year's lockdowns. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8888Qu0oonc Links Learn more: https://leohousenyc.com/ Donate to the Leo House: https://leohousenyc.com/donate/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Poet-philosopher James Matthew Wilson returns to the show to read poems from his new collection, The Strangeness of the Good, including his "Quarantine Notebook" series, and to discuss the decay and renewal of Catholic intellectual life. Topics discussed include: The present narrowing of Catholic intellectual life in conservative/traditional circles How do you become cultured, in an authentic and non-pretentious way, when you're not participating in a culture? His ideal approach to reciting poetry The poets we most need to be reading now What needs to be done to build on the work in Catholic aesthetics done by figures like Maritain, Hildebrand, and Gilson What it's like to be an orthodox Catholic teaching at a merely nominally Catholic university Trying to get through to college freshmen who think they already know that there's no value in the Western patrimony, there's no truth, and life is meaningless Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ip02uvHlvck Note: This interview was recorded before James Matthew Wilson announced his appointment as founding director of a new MFA in Creative Writing, at the University of St. Thomas, Houston (in collaboration with multiple past Catholic Culture Podcast guests, particularly Joshua Hren of Wiseblood Books). Learn about the program here: https://www.stthom.edu/public/index.asp?AQ_Action=getPageByURL&AQ_URL=/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/Index.aqf Links The Strangeness of the Good https://www.amazon.com/Strangeness-Good-Including-Quarantine-Notebook/dp/1621386325/ All interviews with James Matthew Wilson https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-tePYzIXOsQ2OgM0Bh-Nq1LUpYF2877q

J.R.R. Tolkien is commonly perceived as a reactionary who totally rejected the modern world, and whose literary influences began and ended with the Middle Ages. Holly Ordway's new book, Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages, debunks that view of Tolkien's life and work. Ordway begins with an invaluable critique of the sources of this misconception, especially the official biography written by Humphrey Carpenter, who admitted his own bias and desire to portray Tolkien as an uptight fuddy-duddy. She then proceeds to examine the works of modern literature we know Tolkien read, gleaning insights about how he may have been influenced either by acceptance or rejection of what he found in those works. In this interview we focus on Tolkien's reading of the father of modern fantasy, William Morris, the adventure writer H. Rider Haggard, the now-unknown religious romance John Inglesant, and even literary modernists like James Joyce and Roy Campbell, and realists like Sinclair Lewis. Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_J46A7QhhQ Links Tolkien's Modern Reading https://store.wordonfire.org/products/tmr Daphne Castell interview with Tolkien https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/tolkien Diana Glyer's books on the Inklings: The Company They Keep https://www.amazon.com/Company-They-Keep-Tolkien-Community/dp/0873389913 Bandersnatch https://www.amazon.com/Bandersnatch-Tolkien-Creative-Collaboration-Inklings/dp/1606352768 Some of the many books enjoyed by Tolkien mentioned in this episode: William Morris, The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains H. Rider Haggard, She Joseph Henry Shorthouse, John Inglesant Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Andrew Lang's fairy tale collections Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books E.A. Wyke-Smith, The Marvellous Land of Snergs John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps and the other Richard Hannay books This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

We celebrate our 100th episode with the return of a favorite Catholic Culture Podcast guest, former Pennsylvania Poet Laureate Samuel Hazo. At 92, Sam is still writing books, most recently a new collection of poems and a novel, published by Wiseblood Books. In this episode Sam reads and discusses poems from his new collection, The Next Time We Saw Paris, a recurring theme of which is how each experience in time passes away, yet in passing away it becomes a singular whole which remains present as such in memory. He discusses his founding of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, which hosted public readings by many of the greatest contemporary poets, including W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, and Czeslaw Milosz. Other topics include the importance of hearing poetry read aloud, the development of Sam's poetic voice into something very like natural speech, and the hidden power of women. Watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mg4Ao-eTIwI Links The Next Time We Saw Paris https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p108/The-Next-Time-We-Saw-Paris.html If Nobody Calls, I'm Not Home https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p98/If_Nobody_Calls%2C_I%27m_Not_Home%3A_The_Open_Letters_of_Bim_Nakely%2C_by_Samuel_Hazo.html Sam Hazo's website https://www.samhazopoet.com Catholic Culture Podcast interview with Hazo on Maritain https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo/ The Daily Poem podcast https://shows.acast.com/the-daily-poem This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

To celebrate the approach of Episode 100 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, here is the interview that started it all. Originally published on August 4, 2017, this interview turned out so well that we decided to launch a whole series of interviews on Catholic arts and culture. The podcast launched several months later, on May 1, 2018. Catholic composer and pianist Mark Christopher Brandt joined Thomas Mirus to discuss his classical album and suite The Nightingale, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Emperor and the Nightingale". The discussion was a double delight as it covered not only the album itself, but also an extended exploration of the spiritual themes of Andersen's classic fairy tale, especially what it conveys about the true meaning of freedom. Mark has been a guest on the Catholic Culture Podcast twice since this first interview. (Since then, too, Thomas has played on Mark's classical album The Butterfly, along with Katherine Colburn, the cellist whose skills are so highly praised in the Nightingale interview.) All music used with permission from Mark Christopher Brandt and Lionheart Music East. Links Read: Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale "The Nightingale" http://hca.gilead.org.il/nighting.html Mark Christopher Brandt's The Nightingale: Physical CD https://markchristopherbrandt.com/the-nightingale-album.html iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-nightingale/id1253776983 Amazon MP3 https://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-Katherine-Colburn-Christopher-Brandt/dp/B073LJ96LV/ Score: The Nightingale sheet music https://markchristopherbrandt.com/the-nightingale-scores-and-parts-store.html The artists: Pianist and composer Mark Christopher Brandt http://markchristopherbrandt.com/ Flutist Yana Nikol http://yananikol.com/ Cellist Katherine Colburn at Prince William String Academy https://pwstringacademy.com/ Engineer Bill McElroy at Slipped Disc Audio https://www.slippeddiscaudio.com/billbio.htm More: Round Trip: The Making of an Artist documentary https://markchristopherbrandt.com/round-trip-the-making-of-an-artist-dvd---store.html Mark's appearances on the Catholic Culture Podcast: 33 - Structure and Freedom in Music and in Christ https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-33-structure-and-freedom-in-music-and-in-christ-mark-christopher-brandt/ 68 - What I Learned From Making Music with Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-68-what-i-learned-from-making-music-with-mark-christopher-brandt/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This Ash Wednesday, following a note from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, many American parishes did not distribute ashes in the customary way of smudging a cross on the forehead and saying one of two possible formulas to each recipient. Instead, as an ostensible anti-COVID precaution, they sprinkled ashes on the top of the head and said the formula once to the whole congregation. Today's guest, Gail Finke, wrote a thought-provoking article, not so much on the appropriateness of changing the usual practice this year because of the pandemic, but on an attitude so often taken in discussing Ash Wednesday every year. There is a certain spiritual elitism which regards concern for the external rite, including the rare opportunity to explicitly witness to the faith in a public way, as the province of those of little or superficial faith, or even of the vain. If someone objects to a seemingly unnecessary change, he is said to be overly concerned with the inessential. Yet the experience of the past several decades has shown us definitively that the elimination of "inessential" devotions has had catastrophic effects on the faith of Catholics. External expressions of devotion are important. The little things which set Catholics apart are important. Constant change and disorientation are not good for the people of God. The assumption that those who object to it must have little faith is arrogant. The indifference to the reality that the large number who do have weak faith will easily fall away when denied the rites of the Church—"you don't need to go to Mass, just make a spiritual communion"—is callous and legalistic. Links Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LYkXheSxHXs Gail Finke, "Are We Going to Throw Out Ash Wednesday Too?" https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/are-we-going-to-throw-out-ash-wednesday-too Thomas Humphries, "The Case of the Great Pandemic Liturgical Flip-Flop" https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-case-of-the-great-pandemic-liturgical-flip-flop/ Driving Home the Faith radio show produced by Gail www.sacredheartradio.com Ep. 84, Disobey Lockdown Now w/ Douglas Farrow and Andrew Busch https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/84-disobey-lockdown-now-douglas-farrow-andrew-busch/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Famous for his chanted performances of Beowulf in the original Old English, Benjamin Bagby is the closest thing you'll find today to an Anglo-Saxon bard. Bagby joins the show to describe how he reconstructed Beowulf as a sung tale, giving a demonstration of his Anglo-Saxon harp which is modeled on harps found in burial sites from over a millennium ago. He also discusses the recordings of the complete works of St. Hildegard of Bingen made by his ensemble, Sequentia. All music and video by Bagby and Sequentia used with permission. Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uZLEM75RO_w LINKS Bagby's Beowulf site and DVD https://www.bagbybeowulf.com Video of Bagby's full performance at 92Y https://youtu.be/2WcIK_8f7oQ Sequentia https://www.sequentia.org Featured piece by St. Hildegard, O Vis Aeternitatis, recorded by Sequentia from their album Canticles of Ecstasy https://youtu.be/_Vcv2HdApcs This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BatWN05pP1I Catholic geneticist Daniel Toma is the author of Vestige of Eden, Image of Eternity: Common Experience, the Hierarchy of Being, and Modern Science. He joins the podcast to discuss what natural science, including the fossil record, can teach us about the hierarchy of being and the liturgical structure of all creation, with deified man as rational head of the physical cosmos bringing all material creation into union with God. Links Daniel Toma, Vestige of Eden, Image of Eternity https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/vestige-of-eden-image-of-eternity-toma/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio