Season 12

May 2, 2025

Aquinas the Wordsmith: The Hymns and Sequence of Corpus Christi | Pro…

Prof. Patrick Callahan analyzes the poetic genius of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the hymns and sequence of Corpus Christi, highlighting Aquinas’ understanding of beauty, proportion, clarity, and sublimity as essential to both art and spiritual contempl...

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May 1, 2025

Only the Lover Sings: Poetry, Mimesis, and the Christian Life | Prof.…

Prof. Patrick Callahan reveals how poetry, as the most Christ-like form of speech and a reflection of human mimesis, plays a vital role in the Christian life by fostering conformity to Christ and deepening the contemplative experience.This lecture ...

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April 30, 2025

God, Beauty, and Mathematics | Prof. Alexander Pruss

Prof. Alexander Pruss explores the unique certainty, mystery, and beauty of mathematics, examining philosophical perspectives from Plato to modern logicism, and considers how mathematical beauty points toward deeper realities, including the existen...

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April 29, 2025

The Beautiful and the Sublime: How to Make Art that Leads to God | Pr…

Prof. Patrick Callahan explores how art, through beauty and the sublime, can lead the soul toward God, drawing on insights from Joseph Pieper, Aristotle, and Christian philosophy to reveal the contemplative power of poetry, music, and the fine arts...

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April 28, 2025

Logic and Truth in God, Nature, and the Artificial | Fr. Philip-Neri …

Fr. Philip-Neri Reese explores the relationship between logic and truth as they manifest in God, the natural world, and artificial constructs, emphasizing the distinct ways in which logic operates within divine, natural, and human-made realities.

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April 25, 2025

John Henry Newman's Conception of the Development of Doctrine | Prof.…

Prof. Chad Pecknold analyzes John Henry Newman’s theological legacy, focusing on doctrinal development, conscience as a divine imperative, and his impact on the Second Vatican Council and modern Catholic-Protestant dialogue.

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April 24, 2025

Do We Need Marian Apparitions? | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Fr. Gregory Pine explores the theological necessity of Marian apparitions through the lens of Catholic doctrine, explaining how they relate to the central mystery of the Incarnation and the proper hierarchy of truths in Christian faith.

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April 23, 2025

Nicaea’s ‘Christological surplus, or, How to remember the creed’ | Pr…

Prof. Lewis Ayres examines how the Nicene Creed functions as a generative and interpretive “cipher” within Christian tradition, tracing its roots to the adaptation of Second Temple Jewish imaginative worlds and the development of early rules of fai...

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April 22, 2025

The Beauty of the Catholic Sacramental View | Sr. Albert Marie Surman…

Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, O.P., explores how creation sacramentally reflects God’s glory, particularly investigating how metaphysics, scripture, poetry, and ultimately every aspect of existence—from cosmic order to human relationships—reveals div...

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April 21, 2025

Hope: The Pilgrim's Virtue | Prof. Michael Wahl

Prof. Michael Wahl explores the theological virtue of hope as essential for Christian pilgrimage, distinguishing it from mere passion by examining how hope directs us toward God as our ultimate, difficult yet attainable good.

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April 18, 2025

What Has the Historical Jesus to Do with the Church's Christ? | Fr. I…

Fr. Isaac Morales explores the relationship between the historical Jesus and Church's knowledge of Jesus, cautioning against relying too heavily on ever-changing historical reconstructions while emphasizing recurrent themes to discover the authenti...

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April 17, 2025

On the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist | Fr. Dominic Langevi…

Fr. Dominic Langevin explores the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, explaining transubstantiation, its scriptural basis, historical development, and the significance for Christian life.

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April 16, 2025

What Can Demons Do? | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Fr. Gregory Pine explores the extent of demonic influence on human life, distinguishing between physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions to clarify the limits of their power, particularly concerning the direct access to one's sp...

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April 15, 2025

Why Are There Two Sacraments of Healing, Penance and Anointing of the…

Prof. Roger Nutt explores the theological significance of the sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick as healing encounters that address both sin and its temporal consequences, emphasizing the Christian's journey toward a good death in ligh...

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April 14, 2025

Divine Providence as Fulfilled in Christ | Fr. Timothy Bellamah, O.P.

Fr. Timothy Bellamah explores divine providence as God's vision and causation of all things fulfilled in Christ, explaining that Christ's incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection serve as God's ultimate response to the problem of evil, particularly the suffering of the innocent.

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April 11, 2025

Coming to Know God Through Creation: A Biblical Perspective | Fr. Jor…

Fr. Jordan Schmidt explores biblical creation accounts, emphasizing their theological depth and historical context to reveal how the created world serves as a pathway to knowing God and understanding divine revelation.

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April 10, 2025

Human Nature and the Challenges of Our Advancing Technologies | Dr. W…

Dr. William Hurlbut examines the profound ethical and philosophical challenges posed by advancing biotechnologies, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of human nature, dignity, and purpose in light of developments like genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and transhumanist aspi…

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April 9, 2025

Creation and Big Bang Cosmology | Prof. Karin Öberg

Prof. Karin Öberg explores the interplay between theology and science, focusing on Thomas Aquinas' view of creation as a relational dependency on God and how Big Bang cosmology aligns with theological insights into the universe's origins.

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April 8, 2025

Should Catholics Run (Away) From Secular Politics? | Fr. John Harris,…

Fr. John Harris discusses the Catholic approach to secular politics, emphasizing Thomistic principles, the role of lay Catholics, and the balance between natural and supernatural ends in governance.

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April 7, 2025

A Neurologist's Reflections on Human Dignity and Suffering | Dr. Paul…

Dr. Paul LaPenna reflects on the integration of ancient virtues, Christian ethics, and self-sacrificial love in medical practice, emphasizing human dignity and compassionate care.

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April 4, 2025

Famine, Affluence, and Aquinas | Prof. Marshall Bierson

Prof. Marshall Bierson explores Aquinas's and Anscombe's moral absolutes, particularly concerning theft, arguing that in cases of extreme need, taking another's property may not constitute theft, suggesting a nuanced approach to absolutist moral frameworks.

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April 3, 2025

Making Up What is Lacking: Disability and Suffering in Christ's Body,…

Prof. Paul Gondreau reflects on the profound meaning of suffering, disability, and human frailty in light of Christ’s redemptive suffering, emphasizing shared vulnerability as a source of mercy and unity within the Church.

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April 2, 2025

Ectogenesis: Transhumanism, The Brave New World, and the Attack on Tr…

Prof. Stephen Meredith explores the essence of being human through the lens of Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy, contrasting it with biological and scientific perspectives that often overlook the importance of form and final cause.

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April 1, 2025

Can Machines be People, Too? | Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.

Fr. Anselm Ramelow critically examines whether artificial intelligence can achieve personhood, arguing that machines lack the essential qualities of being, consciousness, and unity inherent to human nature.

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