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New Books in Christian Studies

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Jan 20, 2023 • 55min

Bless Me, Father, for I have Sinned: Understanding the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Father Joseph Horn explains the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where it comes from, how it works, and what many of us don’t know about it. At its inception, the Sacrament of Confession was offered only once in a lifetime! And even today it seems that some Catholics avoid the sacrament because of confusion about guilt; yet it is through Reconciliation that their guilt is entirely washed away. Fr Joe also explains mortal and venial sins, and how the Sacrament of the Eucharist removes the latter every week. St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California Father Joe’s talk about Reconciliation for Theology on Tap Confession scene from The Godfather Part III (1990) Comic scene from The Mask of Zorro (1998) Bishop Barron’s remarks on etymology of ‘Reconciliation’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 19, 2023 • 58min

Better Call Paul: How Did the Early Jewish Christians Understand “Works of the Law”?

In his new book, theologian Matthew Thomas takes on the big question of what the Apostle Paul means when he talks about "Works of the Law" -- as opposed to Grace -- in terms of Justification, addressing a long-standing debate between biblical scholars and using second-century sources to adjudicate the question. The stakes of the faithful, and what it means to be a Christian for the first-century Jews who founded the religion, could not be higher, especially when St. Peter slid back into the observation of Mosaic custom.This is Matthew Thomas’s third appearance on AGC: you can also hear him in episodes 02 and 03. The episode that we refer to with Fr. Greg Boyle is episode 17. Matthew Thomas’s faculty website at DSPT. Matthew Thomas’s book, Paul’s “Works of the Law” in the Perspective of Second-Century Reception. Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 02: Who Wrote the Bible? Sorting out the History of the Bible We Have. Matthew Thomas on Almost Good Catholics, episode 03: The Gospels in the Early Church: Evidence for the Chronology and Transmission of the Christian Scriptures. Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, on Almost Good Catholics, episode 17: Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 18, 2023 • 59min

We Shall Overcome: Sister Thea Bowman and the Black Catholic Experience

Though we are all one—“there is neither Jew nor Greek,” St. Paul wrote to the Galatians—each of us brings a particular heritage to the mosaic of God’s universal pilgrim church on Earth. Father Maurice Nutt helps us understand and celebrate the special contribution of African Americans in the Catholic Church. Father Maurice is a redemptorist priest and former director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, an apostolate that celebrates and connects Black Catholicism in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. And, as fewer Americans are embracing the vocation of the priesthood, more pastors are coming to us from other countries, which brings both cultural opportunities and challenges. In addition, Fr. Maurice tells us about his friend and mentor, Sister Thea Bowman, and the case he and others are making for her sainthood. Father Maurice’s spiritual direction ministry The case for Sr Thea Bowman’s canonization Sr Thea Bowman addressing the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 17, 2023 • 47min

Words and the Word: How Scripture Brings Us into God’s Eternal Moment

Jeremy Holmes, Theology Professor at Wyoming Catholic College, describes his study of scripture through the lenses of narrative criticism and theological exegesis, following the model of St. Matthew. he needed a master to show him how the Word used words, so he went to St. Matthew. Professor Holmes argues that we, modern people, tend to think of time as linear and two dimensional. But ancient Jews, including St. Matthew, saw time as both spread out and also gathered together, allowing us to participate in God’s eternity. St. Matthew saw scripture working simultaneously in the past and present: for Jesus as he came from out of Egypt was another Israel, and so are we when we, in our lives, come out of personal enslavements and cross deserts into the Promised Land prepared for us! Professor Holmes’s faculty webpage at Wyoming Catholic College. Professor Holmes’s book, Cur Deus Verba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 16, 2023 • 43min

Pray like a Mystic: Mystical Traditions and What to Do with Them

I asked Bishop Don Hying of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, about mysticism and evangelization. He describes Christianity as unique among the world’s religions because “the universal, mysterious, all-powerful, invisible God humbled himself to become one of his creatures,” a baby, in fact, shivering in the night; and so, paradoxically, the Christian experience of God as both transcendent and imminent. A mystic must go on the journey from our limited ideas about God to stand before Him in prayer. Bishop Hying draws on the experiences and teachings of mystics from long ago and also from the present day as he explains this idea. He also talks about his own life and vocation. Bishop Hying’s recent letter on violence Bishop Hying’s article on St. Junípero Serra and vandalism of public monuments Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr., “Junípero Serra: Saint or Sinner” from 1989 Chris Odyniec’s article (p. 10) on St. Junípero Serra's canonization by Pope Francis in 2015 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 15, 2023 • 54min

Holy Paradox and St. Teresa of Ávila: Mysticism in Sixteenth Century Spain

Carlos Eire, author of The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila: A Biography (2019) and professor of medieval and early modern European history and religion at Yale University, discusses the life of St. Teresa and mysticism in sixteenth-century Spain. He also talks a bit about his immigration to the United States as a child refugee from Cuba in the 1960s; his commentary and scholarship has earned him the title of “enemy of the state” in today’s communist Cuba.·      Here is Professor Eire’s faculty webpage at Yale University.·      Here are books by Carlos Eire available from Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 15, 2023 • 29min

Apocalyptic Politics: What Do Evangelical Voters Want?

Evangelical voters made up a significant portion of Donald Trump’s base in the 2016 presidential election. Their political agenda may not be peace or prosperity, but instead bringing us closer to the end of time.Guests Matthew Sutton, Graduate Studies Director, Washington State University History Department Katharine Hayhoe, Director, Climate Science Center, Texas Tech University Liya Rechtman, Harvard Divinity School student Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 14, 2023 • 49min

Eternity Now: Talking about Mysticism with the Apostle to the Gangs of LA

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in East LA, the world’s largest and most successful gang intervention and rehabilitation program. He talks about this ministry and his “therapeutic mysticism” which has trained him to see God and God’s people. Father Greg (“Father G”) has no interest in categories and the games of exclusion that we humans often play; he says, “gang violence is about a lethal absence of hope.” His mission to the homies, therefore, is filled with faith, hope, and love and brings “the God who is tender, the God who is too busy loving us to be disappointed, the God who can’t take His eyes off of us.” That’s why it has been so effective.·      Here is the website of Homeboy Industries.·      Books by Fr. Greg (including New York Times bestseller, Tattoos on the Heart) are available from Amazon.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 13, 2023 • 54min

Marxists and Mystics: A Vatican Journalist Discusses her Biography of Madeleine Delbrêl and the New Papal Constitution

Vatican journalist Colleen Dulle discusses her biography of the French Mystic Madeleine Delbrêl, author of The Marxist City as Mission Territory (1957), and Catholic evangelist among the urban poor of Ivry. Colleen calls Madeleine the “Dorothy Day of France.” Colleen and I also talk about her career reporting on the Vatican as part of America Media, Pope Francis’s new Apostolic Constitution, and her pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Fr. James Martin. Inside the Vatican podcast The Pope’s Voice podcast Colleen Dulle’s 2018 article, “Who is Madeleine Delbrêl—the “French Dorothy Day” Pope Francis made venerable this weekend?” “Go Rebuild My House” blog Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies
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Jan 12, 2023 • 1h 4min

Queen of Heaven: How the Holy Spirit Works in the Catholic Tradition

Keith Berube, professor of Mariology, theology, and literature, explains how the Holy Spirit is at work in the scripture, tradition, and magisterium in the Catholic Church; he also tells the story of his own faith journey and conversion and we talk about miraculous encounters—in our daily lives, in the lives of our friends, and in history (for example, at Lourdes). In addition, Keith discusses the historical context of Pope Francis’s consecration of Russia and Ukraine; along the way, he and I have a lively disagreement about Putin as we try to untangle the spiritual and political problems of the day. Books by Mr. Berube available on Amazon Mr. Berube on EWTN’s At Home with Jim and Joy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

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