Keep The Faith's Podcast

Wilhelm Richard Wagner is another enormous influence on a century that excelled in musical accomplishments. He also illustrates the Faustian temptation, though often in the language of redemption. But what, exactly does redemption mean for the great composer? Dr. David Allen White comments on Wagner's life and Operas in this context.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the great religious and counterrevolutionary writers of the nineteenth century. He saw Russia and Russian Orthodoxy as being central to the battle for Christianity and Order. Why? Dr. David Allen White, through commentary on his novels, discusses Dostoevsky's Slavic mysticism, dislike of Roman Catholicism, and loathing of modern Leftism and Nihilism. 

Dr. Jeffrey Bond focuses his sharp logic on the truly anti-scientific and anti-philosophical argumentation of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. He shows how much this involves a false act of faith in a drab, reductionist vision of life contributing mightily to the political and social problems of our times.

Dr. Jeffry Bond shows that someone interested in a truly serious philosophical, scientific, and historical study of the problem of man in the modern world must examine the work of Pope Leo XIII. Here, he treats of Leo's discussion, in his many encyclicals, of the role of the Catholic in the modern political and social world. 

The Enlightenment's focus on the need to build life on the basis of observation of nature opened a Pandora's Box. Observation revealed diversity and endless diverse interpretations of nature and morality. How can objective Truth and unity be maintained in the midst of the chaos that this diversity threatens? Father Richard Munkelt explores the powerful answers--and admissions of defeat--that come...

Dr. Jeffrey Bond begins with an assault on the reductionism of Karl Marx. Again, his approach is one that emphasizes not only the anti-Christian character of Marxism, but also its anti-philosophical and anti-historical nature.

The High Middle Ages had taught that Christians were involved in an exalted but highly complex, hierarchically-organized pilgrimage to God. Obstacles to completion of that pilgrimage came from all segments of Christendom. Dr. Rao explains that the Second Council of Lyon in the late 1200s was designed to tackle all of these obstacles, from that of Christian disunity and the failure of the Crusades...

One obstacle to the organized pilgrimage to God was, Dr. John Rao argues, failure to recognize papal guidance of the line of march. Opposition came from the Eastern Churches, led by the restored Byzantine Emperors and the Patriarchs of Constantinople, as well as from Holy Roman Emperors, Kings, and many bishops in the West. Thirteen century popes–and the Council of Lyons with its supporter–tried m...

Another obstacle to the thirteenth century pilgrimage to God was, Dr. John Rao indicates, intellectual disunity, something that the university "think tanks" were supposed to overcome. Supporters and opponents of Aristotle battled one another ferociously. Differing interpretations of Aristotle clashed. Many thinkers--the people whom we call Nominalists--seemed to wish to reject philosophical discus...

Holy Roman Emperors like Frederick II, the Kings of France and England, and even some noblemen saw themselves as having religious responsibilities in the political realm. When this was combined together with an exaggerated love for pagan Roman Law and Aristotle, it could lead to the idea that religion and the Church had to be guided by a spiritually-minded State. Also, the growth in appreciation f...

Philip the Fair of France and his pagan-minded legal advisors were the chief examples of the problem that could develop by the late 1200s. They began to use the prestige of the monarchy of St. Louis to demand a complete and proto-totalitarian control over all aspects of religious and social life. Pope Boniface VIII sought to fend them off. Dr. John Rao shows that the ensuing crises led to the humb...

The Fourteenth Century proved to be disastrous in innumerable spiritual, intellectual, and political/social ways. This is is discussed in detail by Dr. John Rao. The Papacy moved to Avignon and was concerned primarily for French issues. The Aristotelian-Nominalist-Mystic quarrels continued and worsened. Heresies expanded their influence, and apocalyptic thought prospered. The Holy Roman Empire wea...

Before weakening, the Holy Roman Emperors tried one last attempt to dominate the Church. Dr. Rao speaks of the allies which were found in Nominalist, heretical, and rebellious Church circles, and the utilization of the talents of William of Ockham, Marsilius of Padua, and the Spiritual Franciscans. A troubled Avignon Papacy, led by Popes such as John XXII, found it necessary constantly to call upo...

War in France made a return of the Papacy to Italy appealing. Italy, however, was in a disastrous and divided state. A return to Rome led to the Great Western Schism, with two and then three papal courts competing with one another. All of the struggles to resolve the issue evoked more problems. Conciliarism, heresy, and corruption grew apace. Dr. John Rao discusses the complexity and interrelation...

The Council of Constance finally allowed for the return of a unified Papacy located in Rome. But, as Dr. John Rao explains, the restored Papacy was threatened by Conciliarism, political interference from France, Spain, and the Italian city-states, perpetually bankrupt or near bankruptcy, uncertain of the loyalty of the College of Cardinals, and forced to think constantly of its political and finan...

Discussions of what to do to save the Crusades grew stronger after the total loss of the Holy Land in the late 1200's. Dr. John Rao discusses the various crusading theories which emerged. Crusading questions became more pressing still in the 1300's with the establishment of the Ottoman Turks in Europe and there pressure both on Constantinople, Serbia, and Albania. A joint eastern-western resistanc...

Dr. John Rao shows that a surface glance at the condition of the Church in the 1400's can be depressing. There were horrific abuses on every level, which Councils at Constance and Basel could do practically nothing to address. Nevertheless, he explains that certain signs of hope were visible. There were reform "observant" movements in most religious orders which had suffered corruption. Sodalities...

The movement called Humanism reintroduced a love for literature, history, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, Plato, and the Bible into Catholic Christendom. These "human" as opposed to "divine" studies helped to enhance Catholic education enormously. They aided the growth of what is called "positive theology", studies of subjects like Church History. Dr. John Rao argues that a Christian Human...

An exaggerated emphasis upon "human studies" could, however, lead to another form of illegitimate adulation of the ancient world, both pagan and Christian. It could also ensure an overestimate of the importance of rhetoric over philosophy and theology. This, in turn, could, and did lead to new heretical temptations. It also provided further tools which could be manipulated by already existing supp...

Dr. John Rao explains that Nominalist, millenarian, and apocalyptic heresies continued to abound in the 1400's. These were aided by the corruption of the Church and her hierarchy. Bishops and priests often did not teach or even administer the sacraments. Much corruption had become so ingrained that it was actually treated as "traditional", so that efforts to remove it could be chastised as anti-Ca...

The effects of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution were felt in both Spain and Portugal in the Old World and South America in the New. Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro discusses how these effects continued throughout the nineteenth century. 

Nineteenth century struggles in Iberia and South America involved persecution of the Church, expropriations of her property, and thorough-going secularization of political and social life. Masonic movements were very active. Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro shows, however, that stiff resistance, often involving civil war, was also offered.

Dr. John Rao begins by showing that Pluralism is not really a new phenomenon, and that it always suffers from similar problems in whatever age it appears. The ancient "Hellenistic" world, the world that followed Alexander the Great's conquests and whose culture expanded into the Roman Empire was also pluralist - and familiarly trouble - in character.

But what were the problems of this world? Dr. John Rao shows that they involved an effort to build multicultural unity on the basis of submission to a divinized state. They involved worshipping a "success" which was supported by rhetorical "word merchants" and which tried to suppress serious philosophical discussions. They involved trying to tempt individual cultures and different religions into t...

The problem for Catholics from the very beginning of Church History is that they have to work with nature and accept the fact that all aspects of nature have something good about them. How do Catholics sort out the good from the bad? How can they be open to everything valuable coming from the ancient world without glorifying everything negative as well? Dr. John Rao argues that Catholic difficulti...