The Catholic Culture Podcast

Christopher V. Mirus, your host’s older brother, is a philosophy professor at the University of Dallas, and author of the new book Being Is Better Than Not Being: The Metaphysics of Goodness and Beauty in Aristotle. In this episode he discusses being a philosopher in the Aristotelian tradition, compares Aristotle’s intellectual and pedagogical approach with Plato’s, and touches on some themes from his book. How does Aristotle identify goodness with the ability to be contemplated – even in the sphere of ethics? What is the relation between friendship and contemplation? How can we call “beautiful” things as different as a morally virtuous human action, the parts of animals, the orbits of the heavenly spheres, and God Himself? What does Aristotle mean when he says that being is better than not being? Links  There is a 30% discount on Being Is Better than Nonbeing: The Metaphysics of Goodness and Beauty in Aristotle until December 24th, 2022, as part of the American Catholic Philosophical Association’s annual conference. To get the discount, order from the CUA Press website using discount code “ACPA22”. https://www.cuapress.org/9780813235462/being-is-better-than-not-being/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Catholic poet Jane Greer joins the podcast to read from her third collection, The World As We Know It Is Falling Away. She discusses the spiritual challenges that came with the great success of her previous book, Love Like a Conflagration, connecting to a major theme of her new book: fallen man’s thwarted desire to exceed divinely ordained limits to earthly delights, in the face of death and apocalypse – along with the real beauty of the gifts God has given us to enjoy in this life. Links The World As We Know It Is Falling Away https://lambingpress.com/product/the-world-as-we-know-it-is-falling-away-new-poems-by-jane-greer/ Ep. 81 – Love Like a Conflagration https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-81-love-like-conflagration-jane-greer/ 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 33, 56, and 57 of the Catholic Culture Podcast. Links 33: Structure and Freedom in Music and in Christ – Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-33-structure-and-freedom-in-music-and-in-christ-mark-christopher-brandt/ 56: Vindicating Authority – Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P. https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-56-vindicating-authority-aquinas-guilbeau-op/ 57: River of the Immaculate Conception – James Matthew Wilson https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-57-river-immaculate-conception-james-matthew-wilson/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Though prayer, fasting, and public presence, 40 Days for Life has been very successful in reducing abortions, closing down abortion clinics, and even saving the souls of women who intend abortion and abortion industry workers. Co-founder Shawn Carney joins the podcast to discuss their work and the current situation post-Roe. Topics include: A 40 Days for Life success story in Manassas, VA Political propaganda against pregnancy centers Government crackdowns on pro-lifers in the US and UK Why there wasn't rioting in the streets when Roe was overturned Abortion as a crisis of the human heart Why activism not rooted in contemplation fails Links 40 Days for Life https://www.40daysforlife.com Shawn Carney, What to Say When: The Complete New Guide to Discussing Abortion https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/whattosaywhen Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate https://tanbooks.com/products/books/spiritual-warfare/virtue-vice/the-soul-of-the-apostolate This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The Catholic Culture Podcast Network sponsored a poetry reading session at the fourth biennial Catholic Imagination Conference, hosted by the University of Dallas. Thomas Mirus moderated this session on Sept. 30, 2022, introducing poets Paul Mariani, Frederick Turner, and James Matthew Wilson. Paul Mariani, University Professor Emeritus at Boston College, is the author of twenty-two books, including biographies of William Carlos Williams, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Hart Crane, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Wallace Stevens. He has published nine volumes of poetry, most recently All that Will be New, from Slant. He has also written two memoirs, Thirty Days and The Mystery of It All: The Vocation of Poetry in the Twilight of Modernism. His awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA and NEH. He is the recipient of the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry and the Flannery O’Connor Lifetime Achievement Award. His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Image, Poetry, Presence, The Agni Review, First Things, The New England Review, The Hudson Review, Tri-Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, and The New Criterion. Frederick Turner, Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities (emeritus) at the University of Texas at Dallas, was educated at Oxford University. A poet, critic, translator, philosopher, and former editor of The Kenyon Review, he has authored over 40 books, including The Culture of Hope, Genesis: An Epic Poem, Shakespeare's Twenty-First Century Economics, Natural Religion, and most recently Latter Days, with Colosseum Books. He has co-published several volumes of Hungarian and German poetry in translation, including Goethe's Faust, Part One. He has been nominated internationally over 40 times for the Nobel Prize for Literature and translated into over a dozen languages. James Matthew Wilson is Cullen Foundation Chair of English Literature and Founding Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas, in Houston. He serves also as Poet-in-Residence of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, as Editor of Colosseum Books, and Poetry Editor of Modern Age magazine. He is the author of twelve books, including The Strangeness of the Good. His work has won the Hiett Prize, the Parnassus Prize, the Lionel Basney Award (twice), and the Catholic Media Book Award for Poetry.

St. Paul’s admonition for wives to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ (Ephesians 5) is one of the most uncomfortable teachings for modern Catholics. But it’s not just obedience in marriage that moderns find objectionable–and it’s not just liberals who can’t stomach it. Across the political and religious spectrum, even among self-described traditionalists, we find all kinds of excuses to avoid obedience. Deeply embedded in the post-Enlightenment consciousness is the equation of authority with tyranny and obedience with slavery. Come to think of it, Scripture tells us that the issue of authority and obedience is fundamental to mankind’s rupture with God throughout all history, beginning with the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Satan tricked Eve into thinking God’s command was a trick to keep her down rather than a gift of love. Adam went along, choosing to please his wife rather than God, in a perversion of his God-given inclination toward union through gift. Ever since, both men and women have had a suspicious and guarded stance toward God’s authority rather than a submissive and receptive one, while ironically dominating and manipulating others in the very way they feared God was doing to them. The primordial reality of authority as gift and obedience as receptivity, which Christ came to restore in nuptial union with His Church, is central to theologian Mary Stanford’s new book, The Obedience Paradox: Finding True Freedom in Marriage. Drawing on Scripture, the theology of the body, and the whole Magisterial tradition of the Church on marital obedience, Stanford offers not just a defense of the traditional teaching, but a profound illumination of how both wives and husbands can find true freedom in submitting to God’s design for what Pope Pius XI called “the order of love” in marriage, which is both mutual and asymmetrical. Stanford’s presentation will be liberating particularly for those open-hearted Catholics who, while wishing to be faithful to Church teaching, fear that reiterating this particular point of the Scriptural and Magisterial doctrine on marriage will just create an opportunity for domination and abuse. Yet not only wives, and not only married couples, but all Catholics can learn from how obedience is lived in marriage, and see that obedient receptivity is at the core of what it means to be a human person. Links Mary Stanford, The Obedience Paradox: Finding True Freedom in Marriage https://www.osvcatholicbookstore.com/product/the-obedience-paradox-finding-true-freedom-in-marriage Pope Pius XI on marriage: Casti connubii https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

"Architecture is the built form of ideas, and church architecture is the built form of theology." Denis McNamara joins the show to give a crash course in the underlying principles of Catholic church architecture, and make the case for classical architecture as the method that should be used by today's sacred architects. McNamara is an Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College, architectural consultant, and author of multiple books on architecture. Topics include: The Biblical vision of church architecture The church building as part of the liturgical rite The church building as a “sacrament” of the glorified, mystical Body of Christ and vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem The importance of the Temple How liturgical art conveys glorified realities How classical architecture makes visible nature's invisible forces The difference between liturgical and devotional images Links Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Church-Architecture-Spirit-Liturgy/dp/1595250271 How to Read Churches https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Churches-ecclesiastical-architecture/dp/1408128365 The Liturgy Guys https://www.liturgyguys.com Benedictine College's Center for Beauty and Culture https://www.benedictine.edu/academics/centers/beauty-culture/index This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Abigail Favale returns to the show to discuss her new book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory. Topics include: Understanding "lived experience" in light of theology and anthropology Learning from people with gender dysphoria who have transitioned and detransitioned The spike in transgender identity among teenagers "What about intersex people?" How potency and actuality can help us to understand sex difference Manhood and womanhood as symbols of theological realities Abigail Favale, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory https://ignatius.com/the-genesis-of-gender-ggp/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Edward Feser, a renowned Catholic philosopher, dives deep into his book, "All One in Christ," critiquing racism and critical race theory. He shares his personal journey from libertarianism to embracing Catholic social teaching, highlighting ethical dilemmas in worldview changes. The conversation seamlessly transitions into jazz, celebrating Thelonious Monk and its philosophical connections. Feser passionately discusses the Church's historic stance against racism and the importance of viewing social justice through a Catholic lens, advocating for humility and constructive dialogue.

Joshua Hren, author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, editor-in-chief of Wiseblood Books, and co-founder of a new Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, returns to the podcast to discuss his recent essay, Contemplative Realism: A Theological-Aesthetical Manifesto: As ever, but especially in our present age of raging post-truth unreality, we ought to heed Pope Benedict XVI’s summons to “ask rather more carefully what ‘the real’ actually is.” So-called “realism,” when relegated to material tangibilities, can blind us—instead of binding us—to things as they are. “Are we not interested in the cosmos anymore?” Benedict asks. “Are we today really hopelessly huddled in our own little circle? Is it not important, precisely today, to pray with the whole of creation?” If this preeminent mind of our time is not wrong, and “the man who puts to one side the reality of God is a realist only in appearance,” then we ought to ask with unflinching intensity and openness: what is real? Like liturgy, literature asks this question with a range of forms that answer it very differently. At times, both art and worship seem to devolve into the manners and mood of self-referential and inconsequential play, gestures without meaning, or “bank notes” (says Benedict) “without funds to cover them.” These too-closed circles of communication wall off transcendence. In living cruciform liturgy—on the contrary—“the congregation does not offer its own thoughts or poetry but is taken out of itself and given the privilege of sharing in the cosmic song of praise of the cherubim and seraphim.” In living contemplative literature something analogous happens: we suffer and praise with the whole of creation; the prose cultivates a grateful disposition, prompting us to yearn for a vision of the whole. But this manifesto on behalf of a “contemplative realism” makes no claims to create, ex nihilo, a new aesthetical species. Nor does it advance this rough school of literary fish as some preeminent or sole “way forward” for fiction in our time. Rather, it seeks to articulate a literary approach that exists already in diffuse books as well as in the potencies of living artists. It seeks to gather and galvanize those souls. More than anything, it yearns to quicken a contemplative realist disposition among as many comers as possible—literary chops or no. For, in a very bad way (to borrow from Josef Pieper), “man’s ability to see is in decline.” (Publisher's description) Links Read a short version of the manifesto https://benedictinstitute.org/manifesto/ Buy the full version of Contemplative Realism https://www.amazon.com/Contemplative-Realism-Theological-Aesthetical-Joshua-Hren/dp/1951319567 Wiseblood Books https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/ MFA program in creative writing at UST 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/audio