The Open Door

This coming week on The Open Door we discuss Catholic journalism and publishing. We’re keen to explore, as well, the media landscape in a time of cultural confusion. Our welcome guest is Greg Erlandson. In 2016 he became Editor in Chief of Catholic News Service. CNS serves Catholic publications and dioceses throughout the United States and around the world. For 15 years Erlandson was President and...

This week on The Open Door James E. Hartley, Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College, will be our special guest. Last week we pointed him in the direction of the woodshed. This week he aims to show us the errors of our anti-capitalist ways. For more on our game and gracious guest, please visit his informative web site, https://jamesehartley.com As always, we welcome comments and questions!

This week on The Open Door, Catholic philosophers Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss James E. Hartley’s provocative “Revisiting Chesterton and The Mystery of Capital.” This provocation, and we take it to be such, recently appeared in Public Discourse. Our special guest is the author and distributist Tom Storck. He’ll lead us in examining Hartley’s claims that “Allowing...

This week The Open Door explores our current cultural convulsions. Dr. Curtis Hancock, long of Rockhurst University, is our welcome returning guest. He has close ties to Poland’s Lublin School of Thomism and is currently the Coordinator of the History of Philosophy Concentration at Holy Apostles College & Seminary. And, yes, he’s been known to write mystery fiction! Among the questions we’ll discu...

In this episode of The Open Door, Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes and Christopher Zehnder discuss the New Evangelization. Our special guest is Douglas Bushman, S.T.L., Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute (Denver). He serves there as the Pope John Paul II Chair of Theology for the New Evangelization. He is the author of The Theology of Renewal for His Church: The Logic of Vatican II’s Re...

This week on The Open Door we will discuss the vocation of the Christian artist. We will consider, as well, the place of the beautiful in art and life. Our special guest, joining us once again, is the renowned sculptor Timothy Schmalz. He is currently at work on a series of pieces inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Among the questions we will ask are the following. As always, please feel free...

This week on The Open Door we’ll talk about “just how bad things are.” We’ll also discuss what to do if “they are really, really bad.” Our special guest is our friend Joe Shriner, a political activist par excellence. Joe has joined us before, and he merits our close attention. Among the questions we’ll ask are the following. Please don’t hesitate to send us more! 1. Could you recount for us the bi...

This week on The Open Door we will discuss core ethical considerations. Our special guest, in absentia, is the late and decidedly great Mortimer Adler, who is represented by Elaine Weissman of the Center of the Great Ideas. Adler's short, and perhaps surprising, sermon on The Golden Rule is the context of our discussion. Adler delivered it in 1991 at Christ Church in Aspen, Colorado. We plan on ad...

This week on The Open Door we’ll talk about the busy and sometimes polemical intersection of the pastoral and the political. Our special guest, who will help us “stay real,” is Pastor Ken Walters of Summit Christian Fellowship in Big Bear, California. He’s an alumnus of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He also serves as a member of the California State Committee of the American...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder focus on the trials and triumphs of contemporary education. Our special guest will help us “stay real.” Larry Carstens has taught English at the high school and college levels for thirty years. His observations have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, First Things, and the New...

In this episode of The Open Door, Catholic philosophers Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes and Christopher Zehnder interview Dr. Randall Smith of the University of St. Thomas (Houston) on the vexed topics of nationalism, statism, and sovereignty--in light of the common good. Among the questions we'll discuss, and you are free to add to the list, are the following. 1. Is nationalism a virtue or a vice?...

In this episode of The Open Door, co-hosts Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes interview Lawrence Feingold concerning the Association of Hebrew Catholics. 1. Can you please help us understand the significance of Vatican Council II’s Nostra Aetate? 2. What is the Scriptural context for speaking of the irrevocable calling of the people of Israel? 3. What is the Association of Hebrew Catholics? 4. Is th...

In this episode of The Open Door, Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos y Reyes interview Fr. Patrick Bergin, a missionary priest from the United States on his way to his first assignment in the Archdiocese of Tabora in Western Tanzania. 1) What was your Peace Corps experience in Tanzania like? Among the many questions we might consider are the following: 2) How should Christians evaluate the various and som...

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss Vatican Council II and its legacy. Their special guest is Douglas Bushman, S.T.L., Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute (Denver). He serves there as the Pope John Paul II Chair of Theology for the New Evangelization. He is the author of The Theology of Renewal for His Church: The...

This week on The Open Door we will discuss a pair of studies that compare participants in the Novus Ordo Mass with participants in the Traditional Latin Mass. Rev. Donald Kloster, the author of these studies, will be our special guest. He is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Our questions will include the following. Please feel free to suggest others! Fr. Kloster, could you pleas...

Welcome to The Open Door! This week we’ll discuss matters theological. Our special guest is Prof. Lawrence Feingold. He teaches at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. A prolific author, his most recent book is The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion. Prof. Feingold is also an active member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics. Among the questions we’ll ask him are the fol...

In this episode of The Open Door, Catholic philosophers Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder interview educator Lee Shulman concerning his work and philosophy of life. (June 26, 2020)

In this episode of The Open Door, Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder focus on the Armenian Genocide and its on-going consequences. Our guest is Siobhan Nash-Marshall, Professor of Philosophy at Manhattanville College and prolific author. The *Sins of the Fathers* is her first book-length treatment of genocide and genocide negationism. After the breakout of the war in Syria, Nas...

In this episode of The Open Door, Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, Christopher Zehnder and Skylar Covich interview Annabelle Moseley on her new book Sacred Braille: The Rosary as Masterpiece through Art, Poetry, and Reflections. https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/sacredbraille/ (June 5, 2020)

In this episode of The Open Door, Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Christopher Zehnder discuss with Dr. Randall B. Smith of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, the limits of distance education. It has been a necessity, at all levels, during the pandemic lock down. We will also contrast it with what many see as the ideal educational setting. We pose the following questions to him. 1....

Welcome to The Open Door. This week we will be speaking about service and scholarship. We will discuss persistence and prayer. Ray Dennehy is Professor of Philosophy (Emeritus) at the University of San Francisco. He is also a raconteur extraordinaire, and he will be our welcome and special guest. Our questions will include the following. As always, feel free to add you own! 1. Ray, what went wrong...

This week on The Open Door we will discuss home schooling. More families are discovering it in these difficult days. For others, of course, it is both the old and the new normal. Pat Carmack, President of the Angelicum Academy, is our special guest. Here is a list of questions that we will ask him. Please feel free to add your own! 1. Could you please tell us about Angelicum Academy? 2. What is yo...

Welcome to The Open Door! This week our special guest will be Prof. Rebecca Ginsburg, of the University of Illinois. She is director of the Education Justice Project, a college-in-prison program that also offers outreach services to families. Prof. Ginsburg has joined us before, and we’re delighted that she will be with us again. The questions we’ll want to ask her include the following. Please fe...

Our special guest on tomorrow's podcast is Chris Arnade, the author of *Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America.* Please let us know what questions you'd like to add to the following list that we've proposed to Mr. Arnade. 1. Would it be right to say that your book, *Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America*, is about accompanying those that have been left behind and listening to them? 2....

This week, on April 22, The Open Door discusses the family. St. John Paul II, in Familiaris Consortio, teaches that “families should grow in awareness of being ‘protagonists’ of what is known as ‘family politics’ and assume responsibility for transforming society; otherwise families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference.” Strong words! Peter...