The Catholic Culture Podcast

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Catholics create huge new ballet: interview with producer, composer, and choreographer of Raffaella Jun 11, 2024

Show notes

On June 29 and 30, in South Bend, Indiana, there will be a major and even unprecedented event in the history of American Catholic art: a new, full-length classical ballet production with a new story, new music, new sets and costumes, and nationally known dancers - with a cast of about fifty. This fairytale ballet, titled Raffaella, was commissioned by Duncan and Ruth Stroik in honor of their daughter Raffaella Maria Stroik, a dancer with the St. Louis Ballet who passed away tragically in 2018 at the age of 23.

In the first segment, Thomas Mirus interviews impresario Duncan Stroik about the ballet as a whole and the process of putting together such a huge production. In the second, he interviews composer Michael Kurek and choreographer Claire Kretzschmar about the collaboration between music and dance, and the difference between classical and modern ballet.

Links

Tickets for Raffaella https://raffaellaballet.org/

See rehearsal footage on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/raffaella.ballet/

Michael Kurek https://michaelkurek.com/

Claire Kretzschmar at Ballet Hartford https://www.ballethartford.com/

Duncan Stroik https://www.stroik.com/

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178 - Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? w/ Jessica Hooten Wilson May 07, 2024

Show notes

A new book presenting material from Flannery O'Connor's unfinished third novel shows the great Catholic writer pushing beyond her established fictional territory. Jessica Hooten Wilson returns to the podcast to discuss her book, Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress.

Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can continue! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Links

Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/542827

177 - "The Catholic Bach": Jan Dismas Zelenka Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Bohemian Catholic baroque composer who has at times been called "The Catholic Bach" because his best compositions are on par with those of J.S. Bach, who indeed knew and esteemed Zelenka. This episode covers Zelenka's career at the Catholic court chapel in Dresden with its grand liturgies inspired by Habsburg piety and Jesuit aspirations to evangelize the Protestants of Saxony.

Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can continue! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Links

Janice Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745): A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden https://archive.org/details/jandismaszelenka00stoc/

Music heard in this episode:

The first movements of the trio sonatas in F major and C minor, ZWV 181/5 and 181/6, found on the album Zelenka: Trio Sonatas Nos. 1-6, performed by Ensemble Zefiro https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8121143--zelenka-trio-sonatas-nos-1-6

Nisi Dominus, ZWV 92, performed by Ensemble Inegal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3cOwmrorI

Miserere in C minor, ZWV 57, performed by Il Fondamento/Paul Dombrecht https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAi_2B3QvAA

Missa votiva, ZWV 18, performed by Collegium 1704/Václav Luks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCL2CWQaH4A

Litaniae Lauretanae "salus infirmorum", ZWV 152, performed by Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Neue Hofkapelle München/Peter Dijkstra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPRhMBJm6xs

176 - God and the City - D.C. Schindler Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

One of the most brilliant philosophers working today, D.C. Schindler, returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss his latest book, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. In it, he draws an analogy between metaphysics as the most comprehensive science in the theoretical order and politics as the most comprehensive science in the practical order. Examining how in metaphysics, God is necessarily involved, yet without being the direct object of that science, Schindler argues that the same is true of the relationship between God and politics. Just as it is in God that the individual person "lives and moves and has its being", even before revelation and grace enter the picture, God is both the highest good of human community, and intimately present within it.

Links

God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics https://www.amazon.com/God-City-D-C-Schindler/dp/1587313286

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175 - St. Aldhelm's Riddles, Poetry & Public Service - A.M. Juster Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Today's guest is a man with two names and two careers. For decades he has been a distinguished poet and translator under the name of A.M. Juster. This is an acronym for his Christian name, Michael J. Astrue, who for many years was a lawyer, biotech executive, and public servant, most notably serving as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 to 2013. During this time, his political enemies tried to dig up dirt on him – but all they could find was that he wrote poetry on the side!

Juster has published multiple books of his original poems, most recently Wonder & Wrath in 2020. His work as a translator includes volumes of Petrarch, Horace, Tibullus, and the Latin verse riddles of the Anglo-Saxon bishop St. Aldhelm. Upcoming projects include another volume of Petrarch poems, a children's book about a female juvenile manatee called Girlatee, and an anthology of poems about the legendary phoenix, from Ovid to Shakespeare.

In this episode Juster discusses his two careers, his interest in translating early Latin Christian poetry, St. Aldhelm's riddles, and his own original poetry.

Links

A.M. Juster on Twitter https://twitter.com/amjuster

Saint Aldhelm's Riddles https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/saint-aldhelms-riddles-aldhelm-juster/

Wonder & Wrath https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/wonder-and-wrath

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174 - Medieval Mystery Plays w/ Gregory Roper Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

Gregory Roper, a professor of literature at the University of Dallas, joins the podcast to discuss medieval "mystery plays" (also called "miracle plays"). In England these plays, often grouped together in cycles spanning all of salvation history, were performed by town guilds for the festival of Corpus Christi. This tradition, which developed out of the liturgy, could be said to represent the revival of drama in Europe, and was an important influence on the Elizabethan theatre. Shakespeare referenced this tradition a number of times in his plays.

The plays, which served a partly didactic purpose, are full of theological typology, but also delightful verse, earthy humor, and a thought-provoking use of anachronism.

Links

Episode on English carols https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-59-glorious-english-carol/

A.C. Cawley, Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays https://www.amazon.com/Everyman-Medieval-Miracle-Plays-Cawley/dp/046087280X

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173 – Chastity, Integrity and the Desert Fathers – Bishop Erik Varden Feb 15, 2024

Show notes

Erik Varden, bishop of Trondheim, Norway as well as Trappist monk, joins the podcast to discuss his new book Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses.

Topics discussed include:

Recovering the true meaning of the word "chastity"
Continence and chastity are not the same thing
What the Desert Fathers can teach us about chastity
Why we need to meditate on the original vocation of man before the Fall rather than limiting our options to what our sinful nature is capable of
Why having a sense of dignity in one's masculinity or femininity helps us to be chaste
The importance of friendship between men and women
The redirection of eros

Links

Erik Varden, Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/chastity-9781399411400/

Élisabeth-Paule Labat, The Song That I Am: On the Mystery of Music, trans. Erik Varden https://litpress.org/Products/MW040P/The-Song-That-I-Am

Thomas's 3-part essay inspired by the Labat book https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/mystery-music-part-i/

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172 - Fr. John Saward on turning away from von Balthasar, and on the invisible world of angels Feb 08, 2024

Show notes

The renowned English theologian Fr. John Saward makes his podcast debut to discuss his new book on angels, the role of art and beauty in his theological work, and his turn away from the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar after years of studying and translating his works.

Fr. Saward's books named in this episode:

World Invisible: The Catholic Doctrine of the Angels https://angelicopress.com/products/world-invisible-john-saward

The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity and the Truth of Catholicism https://angelicopress.com/products/the-beauty-of-holiness-and-the-holiness-of-beauty

Sweet and Blessed Country: The Christian Hope for Heaven https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sweet-and-blessed-country-9780199543663?cc=us&lang=en&

SUBSCRIBE to the Catholic Culture Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-catholic-culture-podcast/id1377089807

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The Heresies—Judaizers and Ebionites: Denying Christ's Divinity Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

Is Jesus Christ God? Is he a man? Is he both? Spoiler alert: the mainstream Church answered with the both/and, but the factions on the fringes tended to choose one or the other. For our first heresy, we take a look at the Ebionites, and their New Testament-era predecessors, the so-called Judaizers. These concluded that Jesus Christ was a mere human. A human who became a prophet perhaps, but just a human.

This is season 4, episode 2 of Way of the Fathers. Subscribe to the podcast here: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/way-fathers/

Highlights: Jonathan Roumie, classical Christian education, Nouvelle théologie Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

This episode collects highlights from episodes 74-76 of the Catholic Culture Podcast. Links to full episodes:

Ep. 74—What Is Classical Christian Education?—Andrew Kern https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-74-what-is-classical-christian-education-andrew-kern/

Ep. 75—Don't Scapegoat the Nouvelle Théologie—Richard DeClue https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-75-dont-scapegoat-nouvelle-thologie-richard-declue/

Ep. 76—Playing Jesus on The Chosen—Jonathan Roumie https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-76-playing-jesus-on-chosen-jonathan-roumie/

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