A Deep Dive Into Contemporary Catholic Poetry w/ Ryan Wilson
Evangelization & Culture Podcast
Release Date: 01/07/2025
Evangelization & Culture Podcast
In his iconic Templeton lecture, Soviet dissident and Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn summarized the horrors of the twentieth century’s Communist experiment, saying, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” Join me and Ignat Solzhenitsyn as we explore his father’s heroic words and exquisite diagnosis of man’s plight without God in his book, We Have Ceased to See the Purpose: Essential Speeches of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization &...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
In his autobiographical book, Derek Ruth explains, “During my time in heaven, Jesus gave me a choice, but I had no idea what the choice would entail. I believed I would come back to earth and continue living like I had been for the first twelve years of my life. I had no idea the trials and tribulations I would face in order to regain my life. And it has not been easy, but I would make the sale choice. I would choose this life.” Join me and Derek Ruth, with the help of his father Royce and his mother Jennifer, as we discuss The Eight-Minute Flight on the Evangelization &...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
In his essay, “How the Great Truth Dawned,” Professor Gary Saul Morson muses, “Why is it, Solzhenitsyn asks, that Macbeth, Iago, and other Shakespearean evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses, while Lenin and Stalin did in millions? The answer is that Macbeth and Iago ‘had no ideology.’” Notwithstanding its rabid inhumanity, Professor Daniel Mahoney asserts, ideology always makes a brutal comeback. Join me and Daniel Mahoney as we explore his chilling and informative new book The Persistence of the Ideological Lie: The Totalitarian Impulse Then & Now on the...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
As asserts, “The Catholic faith is full of paradoxes, but its greatest paradox is this: that all of its both/ands unleash this ultimate either/or, and all of its communion compels this unavoidable decision.” Are we with Christ or against him? And how do we balance the dynamic tensions (faith or reason, discipline or passion, spirit or flesh) that risk pulling us too far in one direction or another? Join me and Matthew Becklo as we consider his new book, , on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
What happens when a young man with an entrepreneurial heart and gifted piano-playing hands writes a letter to renowned public intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr. offering to play a concert for him out of gratitude? A lifelong friendship of shared musical appreciation and warm conversation begins. Join me and Lawrence Perelman as we unfold his unique and ennobling relationship with William F. Buckley, Jr. in his book American Impresario on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
How are we to look at the world? Through a brilliant lens of hope, wonder, and gratitude? Or through a shadowy lens of despair, cynicism, and selfishness? The journalist, wit, and Catholic convert G.K. Chesterton is an extraordinary model who mastered the art of a marveling Catholic vision. Join me and Dr. Duncan Reyburn as we explore his excellent book, Seeing Things As They Are: G.K. Chesterton and the Drama of Meaning on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on , on ,...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
When you consider the story of Pinocchio, you are flooded with visions of a Disney-fied wooden boy with big blue eyes, a lengthening nose, and a mischievous heart. But reading the original Pinocchio (and its theological underpinnings perceived by Franco Nembrini), you are shocked by the misanthropic boy, his violent experiences, and his perpetually merciful father. Join me, Marcie Stokman, and Colleen Hutt as we of Pinocchio, , on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Blair Witch Project, and The Exorcist have scared the daylights out of a generation of moviegoers. And even though viewers startle and jump, chill and scream, they keep coming back for more. What is it that makes us crave a good scare? And where is God in the fright of such horror movies? Join me and Fr. Ryan Duns as we seek God in the darkness in his new book, Theology of Horror: The Hidden Depths of Popular Film on the Evangelization & Culture Podcast. Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
Flannery O’Connor once prayed, “I do not know you God because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside.” Is there any meaningful relationship in life that can survive without an element of selflessness, dedicated time, and earnest conversation? Why would a meaningful relationship with God be any different? The prophets prayed, the saints prayed, and most of all, Christ himself prayed. But how do we do it? How do we know there is a God on the other end of our entreaties, and how can we understand God’s answers? Join me and Bishop Robert Barron as we explore the brilliant yet...
info_outlineEvangelization & Culture Podcast
What happens when we live our lives through mediating technologies? We take countless pictures but don’t look at our kids. We film vacations but are never fully present. We search for answers online but rarely puzzle over the questions. And we distract ourselves from difficult emotions, but we never take on the cross-bearing work of the soul. In the early twentieth century, French Catholic novelist Georges Bernanos worried that such a superficial existence would create little more than “stumps of men.” Join me and Christine Rosen as we explore her book The Extinction of...
info_outlineIn the preface to Ryan Wilson and April Limner’s anthology, Contemporary Catholic Poetry, Ryan writes, “One of the things human beings are always forgetting is that the world is greater than any individual’s idea of it. The world is more complex, more manifold, more mysterious than any mortal mind can fully comprehend, as is the human individual.” As Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “I’ve never met a man who was fully awake.” Join me and Ryan Wilson as we discuss contemporary Catholic poetry and poetry’s magnificent wake-up call.
Stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of the Evangelization & Culture Podcast biweekly on WordOnFire.org, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can get more content like this in the quarterly print journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture.