Libsyn Directory

189 - St. Boethius, Stoicism and Neoplatonism - Thomas Ward

Release Date: 01/22/2025

195 - The Most Influential Theology Book Nobody Reads - Philipp Rosemann

The Catholic Culture Podcast

The standard textbook of theology in medieval universities was the Sentences by Peter Lombard (1095-1160), bishop of Paris. This collection systematically arranged the theological judgments of Scripture and the Church Fathers on various topics. For almost four centuries, those seeking higher credentials in theology had to study, teach, and comment on Lombard’s Sentences. It was formative for the likes of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. Over time, the genre of commentaries on the Sentences became its own vehicle for new developments in theology. The Sentences was not replaced by...

194 - The Church’s Hour of Testing – Fr. Donald Haggerty

The Catholic Culture Podcast

A great spiritual master of our time, Fr. Donald Haggerty, joins the podcast to discuss his important new book, The Hour of Testing: Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Time of Ecclesial Uncertainty. He offers profound reflections on the ongoing, and perhaps future, crisis within the Church, with an eye to arousing an appetite for the greater spiritual intensity God desires his faithful to live out in this time. It is essential that we see that our Lord Himself is reliving His Passion in His Mystical Body, when the Church suffers betrayal and humiliation at a high institutional level. It is...

193 - On René Girard -Trevor Cribben Merrill

The Catholic Culture Podcast

Mimetic desire, scapegoating: if you've been hearing these terms thrown around lately, it's because the French Catholic philosopher René Girard (1923-2015) is having a renaissance, with powerful people like J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel citing his influence on their thought. Trevor Cribben Merrill, producer of the new documentary Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard, joins the podcast to discuss Girard's principal ideas, and reflect on aspects of his thought which seem difficult to reconcile with Catholic doctrine. Watch Things Hidden SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's...

192 - Latin learning and classical Christian education w/ Ryan Hammill

The Catholic Culture Podcast

Ryan Hammill of the Ancient Language Institute joins Thomas for a practical discussion about how to learn Latin, as well as the central place of the classical languages (Latin and Greek) in classical Christian education, and the various schools of thought in today’s classical Christian education movement. Links Thomas’s article about learning Latin Ancient Language Institute New Humanists Podcast Jonathan Roberts, “Classical Schools Are Not Really Classical” Micah Meadowcroft, “Classical Education’s Aristocracy of Anyone” DONATE to make this show possible! ...

191 - How the Church Invented Musical Notation - Christopher Page

The Catholic Culture Podcast

The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, by the great English musicologist Christopher Page, covers the development of Christian liturgical music from its origins as an elaboration of the role of the lector to its flourishing in the monastic and cathedral singing schools of France, as Roman chant was spread across Europe. One of the most important developments was the gradual development of a system of notation in the late first millennium, culminating in Guido d'Arezzo's invention of the musical staff which allowed singers to learn melodies they had never heard before....

190 - Fulton Sheen, Convert Maker - Cheryl C.D. Hughes

The Catholic Culture Podcast

A new biography of Ven. Fulton Sheen gives special attention to his high-profile converts, but reveals many other interesting facets of his life as well. Author Cheryl Hughes joins to discuss Sheen’s at times shockingly direct evangelization methods, his outstanding television presence, his lifelong struggle with vanity and ambition, and the mistreatment he suffered from his rival, Cardinal Spellman. Links Cheryl C.D. Hughes, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Convert Maker Thomas’s review of Cheryl’s biography of St. Katharine Drexel DONATE to make this show possible! SIGN UP for...

189 - St. Boethius, Stoicism and Neoplatonism - Thomas Ward

The Catholic Culture Podcast

St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher. Topics discussed include: Boethius's debt to Stoic ethics and how he critiques the Stoic view of happiness The influence of neo-Platonist...

188 - Christians against AI art - Susannah Black Roberts

The Catholic Culture Podcast

There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.” Plus, the danger of demonic influence...

187 - The Roman Rite, ad orientem worship, and liturgical tradition - Fr. Uwe Michael Lang

The Catholic Culture Podcast

Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, a liturgical historian and priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, is the author of the new book A Short History of the Roman Mass, from Ignatius Press. Topics discussed in this episode include: The origins of the Roman Rite and development of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer Problems with liturgical antiquarianism (trying to revive practices allegedly from the early Church in preference to what has been handed down continuously) The value of ad orientem worship Our current predicament of being cut off from the past/tradition Links Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, A...

186 - Is there ever enough of Mary? w/ Fr. Charles Anthony Mary, F.I.

The Catholic Culture Podcast

DONATE to make this show possible! De Maria numquam satis: Of Mary never enough. This saying of St. Bernard is echoed by many other saints. St. Anselm, for instance, says that it is impossible to determine the limits of God’s grace in elevating Mary’s human nature. St. Alphonsus says that if there is anything good we can say about Mary, not contrary to the teaching of the Church and having some legitimate theological basis, then we ought to say it. But some Catholics, to say nothing of Protestants, would object to this kind of Mariology. Are these mere overflows of sentimental piety, or...

More Episodes

St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher.

Topics discussed include:

Boethius's debt to Stoic ethics and how he critiques the Stoic view of happiness
The influence of neo-Platonist philosophy on Boethius
Questions about the account of deification given by Lady Philosophy - is it more Platonist than Christian?
Boethius's brilliant arguments about how God's way of knowing differs from ours

Links

Thomas Ward, After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/after-stoicism?srsltid=AfmBOopBRfuMW6DMx_iUEH9u2gjSswySJAZ__JrdTznAIpZ3Ptj9mDMJ

Way of the Fathers episode on Boethius https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-boethius-church-father-and-medieval-scholar/

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

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