Ezra Institute Podcast for Cultural Reformation

Latest Episodes:

Apologetics and Aquinas Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

In this episode Joe describes the influence that Thomas Aquinas has had on the field of Christian apologetics, and discusses the areas where the Thomistic approach falls short of vindicating the full Christian doctrine of God.

Joe’s classic apologetics work, A Time to Search, is available at Ezra Press.

Reformed Thomism(??) w/James White Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

Ezra Institute Fellow Dr. James White joins us this week to talk about the Protestant fascination with Aquinas, and the path that leads from Thomism to Roman Catholicism. Dr. White explains some of the reasons why Protestants are induced to follow Thomas, the fundamental issue of authority that is at stake, and what Thomas would have thought of the current Pope.

Get a philosophical assessment of Aquinas and Neo-Thomism from Ezra Press.

A Distinctly Christian View of Healing Nov 23, 2022

Show notes

Joe Boot addresses the realm of medicine and healing, and demonstrates how much of the contemporary thinking surrounding medicine has been reduced to mere biology. In contrast, the Christian should think of health in terms of wholeness – both wholeness of the created reality, and wholeness in the sense of health.

Get tickets to the Mission of God Canada conference.

Read Keeping Faith in Medicine by Dr. Ted Fenske.

Providence, History, and Being Nov 16, 2022

Show notes

In this episode Joe Boot discusses the thought of Thomas Aquinas as it relates to the Christian understanding of history. To speak of history is inescapably to speak about God’s relation to and activity within His creation.

Get a reformational assessment of Thomas Aquinas and the Neo-Thomist Tradition at Ezra Press.

Thomism and Natural Law Nov 09, 2022

Show notes

This week in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, we examine the idea of natural law, and conclude that, as articulated by Aquinas, it is an idea that gives unwarranted scope to human reason, and effectively makes God equal with His law. In contrast, Scripture teaches that God is the source of all definition, and that human law must be positivized in an historical context.

Get the Paideia Press resource, Thomas Aquinas and the Neo-Thomist Tradition: A Christian-Philosophical Assessment.

Get tickets for the Mission of God Canada conference.

Aquinas and the State Nov 02, 2022

Show notes

We could have also titled this episode How the Reformation delivered us from ecclesiocracy. Here we discuss Aquinas’ political philosophy, the problem with his adoption of Aristotle’s teaching that man is a political animal, and the need for an utterly transcendent authority.

Get Joe Boot’s book Ruler of Kings.

Aquinas and the Nature/Grace Divide Oct 26, 2022

Show notes

There is a common assumption in Christianity that at the fall, man lost a supernatural gift of grace, but retained his natural faculties intact and unscathed – including the faculty of reason. In this episode, Joe Boot explains that the biblical distinction is not nature and grace, but wrath and grace: those who belong to Christ and those who war against Him.

Read Joe’s recent Jubilee article on Reformed Scholasticism and Reformational Thinking.

Get tickets for the Mission of God Canada conference, December 10.

The Irony of Aquinas Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

We have new music and a new theme as we get rolling in Season 6. In this episode we begin a short series on the life, thought, and influence of Thomas Aquinas, the medieval scholastic philosopher and theologian, introducing his person and major works, and considering why there seems to be a recent revival of interest amongst Reformed Protestants in this Roman Catholic thinker.

American listeners! We now offer domestic shipping rates from Ezra Press!

Leadership, Covid Mandates, and Religious Wars Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

Aaron Rock joins the podcast this week to discuss the scheduled expiry of Canadian border restrictions and the ArriveCan app. We also discuss Canada’s latest Federal Action Plan to advance LGBTQ rights, and the inescapability of religious commitments.

The Christianity and Culture Colloquium is coming soon! Register here.

Listen to Aaron’s podcast, Leadership Now.

Monarchy and our Christian Heritage Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

In this episode Joe Boot reflects on the funeral ceremonies of Queen Elizabeth II, the historic role of the English monarch as “Defender of the Faith,” and the error of contemporary Two Kingdoms thinking.

Get Joe Boot’s book, Ruler of Kings, at Ezra Press.

Read The Servant Queen