The Intellectual Life and Family Life w/ Kara Johnson, John Mortensen, and Beth Mortensen | Ep. 167

In this special live episode of The Catholic Theology Show,

Host Dr. Michael Dauphinais welcomes guests Kara Johnson, John Mortensen, and Beth Mortensen before a student audience at Ave Maria University to discuss integrating the intellectual life with family life. 

Drawing heavily from A.G. Sertillanges’s classic 1920 work, 

The Intellectual Life, the panel shares personal experiences and practical wisdom. Kara Johnson, a theology professor and mother of a young son, describes how family suffering and joy have deepened her theological work. John and Beth Mortensen, parents of nine who both hold doctorates in theology, recount finishing dissertations amid pregnancies and bed rest, job instability that pushed John back into software development, and discovering that married life is a “preschool for the perfection of charity.” 

The conversation explores how children “bring you back to the real,” why love (of God, truth, spouse, and children) is the true unifying principle of life, and how the intellectual life is not reserved for academics but can be explored in the home. 

By giving their personal testimonies of how they live out the intellectual life in their own homes, they prove that living out the intellectual life is achievable for everyone. 

Resources:

Relevant Websites and resources:  The Aquinas Institute (organization John Mortensen serves as President, focused on publishing St. Thomas Aquinas's works in Latin-English editions): https://www.aquinasinstitute.org/ 

Understanding St. Thomas on Analogy (John Mortensen's doctoral dissertation in philosophy, winner of the 2009 Prize of the Pontifical Academies): https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Thomas-Analogy-John-Mortensen/dp/1449977677  

Prayer in the Family (co-authored with Beth Mortensen, under pen names John and Beth Viatori; a guide to family spirituality): Available via Catholic Truth Society or search on https://www.amazon.com (ISBN: 9780852312435)