Season 13

Jan. 21, 2026

Engaging Politics as a Catholic – Fr. Jan Bentz

Fr. Jan Bentz explores what it means to engage politics as a Catholic, calling believers to critical thinking rooted in truth, a both‑and logic that resists polarization, and a discerning love of nation that remains ordered t...

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Jan. 20, 2026

Understanding Anscombe’s Absolutism – Prof. Marshall Bierson

Prof. Marshall Bierson unpacks Elizabeth Anscombe’s moral absolutism, arguing that questions like “Why is it worse to kill one innocent person than to let five die?” rest on a grammatical confusion that obscures the absolute ...

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Jan. 19, 2026

Icons and Idols: An Augustinian Reflection on Race, Racism, and Antir…

Prof. Kevin Kambo reflects on race, racism, and antiracism through Augustine, showing how modern racial categories operate as idolatrous myths born of the lust to dominate and calling listeners to see others instead as icons ...

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Jan. 16, 2026

Augustine and Aquinas Against Skepticism – Prof. Chad Pecknold

Prof. Chad Pecknold explains how Augustine and Aquinas argue against skepticism, defending metaphysical realism and the mind’s capacity to know truth as essential for genuine morality and for leading people to Christ, who is ...

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Jan. 15, 2026

The Issue of Free Will: Are We the Authors of Our Actions? – Prof. St…

Prof. Steven Jensen explores the issue of free will and moral responsibility, arguing that we are genuine authors of our actions only if our choices are self-determined and not merely the inevitable result of heredity, enviro...

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Jan. 14, 2026

Rewiring the Brain – Dr. William Hurlbut

Dr. William Hurlbut examines how natural neuroplasticity, education, lifestyle, and new neurotechnologies are “rewiring the brain,” highlighting both their therapeutic promise and their dangers in an age of addictive digital ...

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Jan. 13, 2026

If ChatGPT Exists, Why Study? – Fr. Chris Gault, O.P.

Fr. Chris Gault explores whether AI like ChatGPT should change how or why we study, showing that while machines can accelerate information processing, only human study forms our minds, virtues, and relationship to truth in a ...

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Jan. 9, 2026

Does God Care About Suffering? – Dr. Christopher Mooney

Dr. Christopher Mooney asks "whether God really cares about our suffering" and uses biblical narratives, the significance of Christ’s tears, and philosophical responses to death in order to answer in the affirmative, ultimate...

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Jan. 8, 2026

Is Suffering Good? – Sr. Elinor Gardner, O.P.

Sr. Elinor Gardner asks whether suffering can be called “good” by engaging Stoic thinkers like Seneca, modern echoes in Nietzsche, and biblical wisdom to show how God can use painful trials to heal and deepen the soul without...

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Jan. 7, 2026

The God of Love and the Reality of Evil and Suffering – Prof. Chris B…

Prof. Chris Baglow explores how the God of love can allow evil and suffering by showing that a world created for freedom and love—not as a deterministic machine—necessarily entails the risk of physical and moral evils, yet op...

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Jan. 6, 2026

Christ Fully Reveals Man to Himself: What Christ's Humanity Says abou…

Prof. Paul Gondreau explores how Christ’s concrete, fully human life uniquely “fully reveals man to himself,” showing that every human person and all of history are teleologically ordered to him as the final Adam and measure ...

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Jan. 5, 2026

Creation as Relation: An Existential Consideration – Dr. Robert McNam…

Dr. Robert McNamara explores how creation is not a distant event but our very act of existing here and now, so that each person’s being is itself a continuous relation of absolute dependence on God that can be freely understo...

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Jan. 1, 2026

Do We Make Morality, or Discover It? An Examination of the Basis of N…

Dr. Erik Dempsey explores whether we make morality or discover it by unpacking Aquinas’s three natural inclinations and arguing that they ground objective, inescapable moral obligations rather than mere social conventions. Th...

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