The Catholic Culture Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 48 - Authority and Submission as Gift in Christian Marriage - Mary Stanford Aug 21, 2019

Show notes

"Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands."

These words of St. Paul in Ephesians 5 have been a continual source of discomfort to modern Catholics, and most priests would rather explain this teaching away or avoid discussing it altogether. For the faithful Catholic, however, treating Scripture and Church teaching as something embarrassing is not an option, nor is relativizing and redefining it into oblivion. Ephesians 5 is the crucial source for how marriage, so badly damaged by the Fall, has been redeemed and supernaturalized in the Cross of Christ.

In this episode, Mary Stanford explains how we can understand and even come to love this teaching which so repels our egalitarian age. She brings to the table her study of Pope St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the thought of Edith Stein, as well as decades of experience as a wife and mother.

Links

Mary Stanford's article "The Dynamic of the Gift: Authority and Submission in Christian Marriage" https://www.hprweb.com/2013/01/the-dynamic-of-the-gift-authority-and-submission-in-christian-marriage/

Some of the teaching sources mentioned in this episode:

1 Cor 11:3, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3:18-19, Timothy 2 and 3, Titus 2:5, 1 Peter 3:1-7

Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum divinae sapientiae, 1880 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4858&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=1947264

Pope Pius XI, Casti connubii, 1930 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3370&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=1947266

Pope St. John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3381&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=1947268

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Episode 47 - Our Lady's Habit: Wearing and Loving the Brown Scapular - Fr. Justin Cinnante, O.Carm. Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

Many Catholics have worn the Brown Scapular at some point in their lives. Some of those people stopped wearing it for one reason or another. Others have continued to wear it but perhaps don't appreciate its true depth as a sign of consecration to Mary. Even less known is the fact that the Scapular is a miniature version of the Carmelite habit (which is itself Our Lady's habit); those who wear it are part of the Carmelite family, right back to the Prophet Elijah!

In this show Fr. Justin Cinnante, a Carmelite friar, explains the Marian and Carmelite origins and dimensions of the Scapular as well as the promises associated with it. Whether you wear the Scapular, used to but don't anymore, or have never been enrolled in it, this episode will give you many reasons to love the Garment of Grace.

Links

Buy a Brown Scapular https://www.sistersofcarmel.com/brown-scapulars-brown-scapular-of-our-lady-of-mount-carmel/

Fr. Justin on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fatherjustinocarm/

Episode 46 - Sing With Your Children - Roundabout Aug 04, 2019

Show notes

Emma and Cecilia Black grew up in a large family that sang together constantly. Now these two sisters from Grand Rapids, Michigan, have made an album of folk songs for children. They want people to know that any family can start singing together, without special training or equipment.

Here Emma and Cecilia, who record under the name Roundabout, discuss the ethos of folk music, which is about participation rather than consumption. They amusingly disabuse us of the notion that folk music is always squeaky-clean and wholesome. Finally, they touch on the problems with commercial children's music, in contrast to their album, Singsong Pennywhistle, which is engaging and accessible without being musically and lyrically dumbed-down.

All songs used with permission from Roundabout.

Links

https://www.roundaboutfolk.com

Buy Singsong Pennywhistle https://www.roundaboutfolk.com/music

Folk music resources https://www.roundaboutfolk.com/why-folk

Episode 45 - Libertarianism vs. Natural Law on Private Property Jul 28, 2019

Show notes

Thomas discusses his libertarian past, explains why he abandoned that political philosophy, and summarizes an article on the topic by the Catholic philosopher Edward Feser. Feser, himself an ex-libertarian who has written books on Hayek, Nozick and Locke, argues that the libertarian view of self-ownership and private property rights cannot be reconciled with classical natural law theory, and lays out a proper natural law theory of private property rights and taxation.

Links

The article https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-philosophy-and-policy/article/classical-natural-law-theory-property-rights-and-taxation/E5AF0E3F9E3B29FDFF940E4CAA728721

Feser's collected writings on why he stopped being a libertarian http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-road-from-libertarianism.html

Feser on Hayek https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/hayeks-tragic-capitalism/

Episode 7: Inflation Is a Sin—Guido Hülsmann https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=7

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Episode 44 - Catholics Need Poetry. But Do We Want It? - Dana Gioia Jul 20, 2019

Show notes

Dana Gioia is one of the greatest Catholic poets working today. In this interview he discusses how Catholic attitudes toward the arts have changed in recent generations, and the revival of interest in poetry in the culture as a whole. Dana reads a few of his poems, discusses how Catholicism has made his poetry "simpler, more emotionally direct, and more unabashedly musical," and even gives poets some tips on collaboration with musicians and composers. Dana and Thomas wrap up by discussing the role of the critic and highlighting a modern Catholic poet Dana thinks should be better known.

Links

The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/c4/Wiseblood_Essays_.html

99 Poems, New and Selected https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/99-poems

Dana Gioia's website www.danagioia.com

Dana reads his poems on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6dDuuRPo6HXxn69LMLrwyw

Jazz pianist Helen Sung and Dana Gioia discuss their album Sung With Words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWhKguBJGg

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Episode 43 - Teaching Children Self-Knowledge Through the Liberal Arts - Matthew Mehan Jul 06, 2019

Show notes

Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals (M5) is a book of poems intended as an introduction to the liberal arts for children, helping them to grow in self-knowledge, virtue, and the art of charitable rhetoric. It is written in the ancient form of the beast fable, with each of Matthew Mehan's twenty-six alphabetical poems accompanied by a beautiful oil painting by John Folley. In this interview Matthew discusses the book, the role of poetry in aesthetic, moral and spiritual education, and related topics such as the lost social art of memorizing and reciting poems.

Links

Sample and buy M5 https://www.mythicalmammals.com/

Online Great Books referral link (25% off first three months – use code catholicculture) https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

Episode 27 with OGB founder Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=27

Learn more about OGB https://onlinegreatbooks.com/

Episode 42 - The Missionary of Wall Street - Stephen Auth Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

Stephen Auth is a highly successful investment manager on Wall Street. In his spare time, he hails down strangers on the streets of Manhattan and convinces them to go to confession.

Links

Steve Auth, The Missionary of Wall Street: From Managing Money to Saving Souls on the Streets of New York https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/missionary-of-wall-street

Episode 41 - The Neo-Colonial West Is Forcing Abortion on Africa - Obianuju Ekeocha Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

Western governments and NGOs are pushing the Sexual Revolution on Africa, using strings-attached development aid. Of all the funds from Western nations going to "development" in Africa, the majority are for population control. Obianuju Ekeocha is raising awareness about this form of neo-colonialism in which rich Westerners force their anti-culture on African peoples, because for them a better Africa is one with fewer Africans. One organization, Marie Stopes International, is even performing abortions in countries where they are illegal.

Links

Watch Strings Attached https://www.amazon.com/Strings-Attached-Obianuju-Ekeocha/dp/B07N5DSSN7

Target Africa: Ideological Neo-Colonialism in the Twenty-First Century https://www.ignatius.com/Target-Africa-P2384.aspx

Culture of Life Africa http://cultureoflifeafrica.com/

Connect the Dots With Obianuju https://www.youtube.com/user/COLAfrica

https://twitter.com/obianuju

Episode 40 - Tolkien and Aquinas - Jonathan S. McIntosh Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

Tolkien is well known to have been concerned with the internal consistency of his fictional world, from geography to history to language. But he was also concerned with another sort of consistency: metaphysical consistency, not only within the work but between his work and reality (because he did not see the storyteller's task as providing an alternative to reality but an extension of it). Scholars have debated the nature of Tolkien's metaphysics; Jonathan S. McIntosh contends that the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas provides the most fruitful metaphysical lens with which to examine Middle-Earth.

Links

The Flame Imperishable: Tolkien, St. Thomas, and the Metaphysics of Faërie https://angelicopress.org/product/the-flame-imperishable/

Jonathan's Flame Imperishable blog https://jonathansmcintosh.wordpress.com/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Episode 39 - Composing Liturgical Music That's Noble, Accessible... and Sacred - Paul Jernberg May 29, 2019

Show notes

Paul Jernberg is a composer of sacred music and director of the Magnificat Institute, which offers education in the patrimony of Catholic liturgical music. He tells Thomas about his career, including an interesting digression about gospel music and its relation to Catholic liturgy, the criterion of "noble accessibility" in liturgical music, and what Roman Catholic composers can learn from the ancient Eastern chant traditions.

This episode contains selections from Jernberg's Mass of St. Philip Neri, used with permission. If you would like to hear more episodes with music throughout, please send Thomas feedback at podcast@catholicculture.org.

Links

http://www.pauljernberg.com/

Purchase the Mass of St. Philip Neri album http://www.pauljernberg.com/preview

Magificat Institute of Sacred Music https://magnificatinstitute.org/

Paul Jernberg, "The Logos of Sacred Music" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=535

Jernberg on David Clayton's Way of Beauty Podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5xpu6Ldr-A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIAK-o5JIL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NxbTo4BO4Q