Evangelization & Culture Podcast

What happens when a man who is a faithful husband, loving father, celebrated lawyer, incisive writer, and devoted son of the Church is asked to either violate his conscience or face being imprisoned, hanged, drawn, quartered, and beheaded? If you are most men, you capitulate. But if you are St. Thomas More, you guard your conscience, deepen your faith, and gird yourself for the trial to come. Join...

Coming out of the Second Vatican Council, there was a faction that saw the Council's outcome as a tragic rupture with enduring tradition, while another faction seemed eager to declare a rupture with what were deemed outdated, if not ossified, ways. In the face of this, Communio theology emerged with figures like Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Romano Guardini, and Joseph Ratzinger (later P...

In America, it is not uncommon to ask what a president achieved in his "First 100 Days." If we asked the same of Adolf Hitler after being appointed Chancellor of Germany, we would learn that he suppressed political parties, suspended civil liberties, purged the civil service, imprisoned political enemies, terrorized the Jews, erected the first concentration camp, and achieved dictatorial power ove...

If philosophy is about the search for truth, what happens when the tool we use in the search — our very mind — is littered with abstractions, deformed by biases, and dismissive of experience? We will hardly arrive at the truth. In exploring our modes of experiences and the ways we think, philosopher Michael Oakeshott uncovered the popular mistakes and ideological misunderstandings that cloud inste...

How did a poor immigrant boy from Brooklyn rise to become Yale's Sterling Professor of Classics and History, achieve fame as the world's greatest scholar on Thucydides, and find himself compared to none other than Herodotus? Even more, how did he cultivate the wisdom of a mentor, the devotion of a father, and the kindness of a friend? Join Hillsdale Professor Paul Rahe and me as we explore the inc...

Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin purportedly quipped, "One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." Why has the twentieth century seen more Christians martyred than all previous centuries combined? And why are we curiously unaware of or numb to it? Join Bishop Robert Barron and me as we discuss his troubling yet important new book, What Do Their Deaths Demand? Christian Persecution Today o...

How and why has a nearly three-thousand-year-old story about a man trying to find his way home electrified the twenty-first-century world? And in revisiting this story, what lessons can we learn about the wonder and vexation of the human condition? Join Dr. Patrick J. Deneen of the University of Notre Dame and me as we explore  American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals about Our Divided Soul...

In his masterful book Orthodoxy , G. K. Chesterton writes of an English yachtsman who set off to find a new island in the South Seas and, through slight miscalculation, landed confused and red-faced in merry old England. Award-winning novelist Christopher Beha can relate to that man. Drawn from his Catholic roots into the heady philosophy of Locke and Hobbes, Kant and Rousseau, Nietzsche and Heide...

Responding to an inquiry about writing the Declaration of Independence, an aging Thomas Jefferson answered, "Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind." When the founders signed the Declaration, what were the historical, philosophical, and religious influences that broug...

Is our system of American education forming young adults who can achieve nearly anything but discern almost nothing? Are we striving to create masters of facts and monsters of efficiency or men and women of wisdom and purpose? What happens when the "How" of education eclipses the "Why"? Join Yale professor William Deresiewicz and me as we discuss his classic book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation...

French Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord quipped, "A diplomat who says 'yes' means 'maybe,' a diplomat who says 'maybe' means 'no,' and a diplomat who says 'no' is no diplomat." President Harry Truman observed, "Tact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes." And Prime Minister Winston Churchill grumbled, "Diplomacy is the art of tellin...

How did a young agnostic wracked with doubt and contemplating suicide become one of the greatest Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century? Join me as I talk with Therese Cory and Christopher Enabnit of the University of Notre Dame's Jacques Maritain Center about the life, impact, and continuing relevance of Jacques Maritain on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast . Stay up-to-date with the l...

Catholic schools are indispensable to the proper formation of our young. Many are blessed with visionary leaders, devoted teachers, balanced budgets, and a heart for Christ. But many Catholic schools struggle with tepid leadership, burned-out teachers, rising debts, and a loss of Catholic identity. What can be done to reclaim Catholic identity and revive the success of Catholic schools? Join Micha...

When the madman from Friedrich Nietzsche's book The Gay Science burst into the marketplace declaring the murder of God, he concluded that he had arrived too soon, for those who had killed God were tragically unaware. What happens when we no longer shape our lives by the assurances and expectations, the wisdom and graces of God? Man and woman become desecrated. Join Dr. Carl Trueman and I as we exp...

Operators. Manipulators. Cynical. Corrupt. Sadly, these are caustic terms forever used to describe politicians. But, in truth, are politicians entirely bad? Submerged in the incorrigible human condition, are they beyond all hope of authenticity, redemption, or goodness? Join Professor Charles Duffy of Providence College and me as we explore the complicated life of Irish machine politician Frank Sk...

"When you read Shakespeare," Justice Antonin Scalia's high school English teacher thundered, "Shakespeare's not on trial, you are." What are we to do about college students purportedly incapable of reading, much less finishing, great novels? We are to double down and put in front of them what Matthew Arnold called, "the best which has been thought and said." Join Professor Jennifer Frey and me on...

Imagine you had ninety minutes to sit with an eminent philosopher who is also a devout Catholic and ask the most vexing questions about our faith. What would you ask? Does science disprove God? Are faith and reason opposed? Why isn't God's existence obvious? Does any evil disprove God's existence? These questions and many more inform Dr. Christopher Kaczor's excellent book, Is Belief Believable? J...

What goes into the making of a saint? How does it feel to listen to testimonies, investigate miracles, and explore the lives of Mother Teresa and Padre Pio, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Fr. Damien of Molokai? What are the inner workings of the Holy See that usher some from servant of God to venerable to blessed to saint? Join Msgr. Robert Sarno, a key player in the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes...

Few phenomena have ushered in a greater sea change in mass communication and human relations than social media. What at once allows us to connect with family, meet new friends, and engage with (not simply observe) the world around us can also create enormous tensions, foster disinformation, and cultivate loneliness. Is social media a blessing or a curse? And how can Catholics tap into its evangeli...

Where does the notion of  "free speech" come from? Why does it matter? How have powers attempted to suppress free speech and how have individuals sought to abuse it? Even more, where does "freedom of speech" fit into the life of the Catholic Church? Join Professor Adam Tomkins and me on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast for a riveting conversation about ideological times and his captivating boo...

What happens when we forget that behind the gorgeous redbud tree, the mesmerizing sunrise, and the exquisite infant child cradled in our arms is an ineffable God who loved them all into existence? We miss the sacramental in our lives and chase after honor, power, pleasure, and wealth, which are false infinites and sorry substitutes for God. Join Dr. Christopher West and me as we explore his book ...

G. K. Chesterton asserted, "We have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are." Is this true? In an age of identity politics and identity confusion, are we defined solely by race or sex, nationality or disability? Or are we something infinitely more? Join Fr. Gregory Pine and me as we explore our truest nature and our greatest selves in his new book, Your Eucharistic Identi...

We are all familiar with Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol , featuring Ebenezer Scrooge and Marley's Ghost, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. And yet, even so, every year, millions eagerly read the story, watch the film, or attend the play. Why does a 182-year-old English ghost story still captivate us today? In what way are we ourselves haunted b...

Why do most believe that religion is the root of most modern violence while secularism is our dispassionate protector? In  Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History , we discover that Combative Secularism and Eliminationist Secularism have made brutal and furious attempts to marginalize, weaken, and destroy religious faith. Join Dr. Tod Worner and Professor Thomas Albert Howard on The E...

If there is one struggle in life, it is with the unknown. In an age of self-assertion and technological wonder, we strive to obliterate the uncertain, eradicate the imperfect, and master the mysterious. And yet, these goals are impossible. Should we fear the unknown or embrace it? Is mystery threatening, or is it wondrous? Join Dr. Tod Worner and Professor-Poet Robert Cording as they explore these...