Podcasts about aquinas

Groundbreaking Catholic political thinker Andrew Willard Jones joins the podcast to discuss a brilliant lecture he recently gave at the New Polity Conference. St. Thomas Aquinas is often said (dismissively) to have gotten his view of woman from Aristotle's biology. But while he did accept some of Aristotle's biological errors, they disagree on something far more fundamental, namely their metaphysical interpretation of difference and inequality among human beings. A comparison between the Aristotelian view and the Christian/Thomistic view of inequality is profoundly instructive for how we see not only the difference between the sexes, but civil society and the entire cosmic hierarchy willed by God.  LINKS  New Polity https://newpolity.com/ Andrew Willard Jones, The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics https://stpaulcenter.com/store/the-two-cities-a-history-of-christian-politics Episode transcript https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/hierarchy-and-woman-aristotle-vs-aquinas-w-andrew-willard-jones/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

In this episode, we continue our series on St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways by exploring his Third Way: the Argument from Contingency. Aquinas begins with a simple but profound observation: the things we encounter in the world don't have to exist. You exist, but you could have failed to exist. The same is true of trees, mountains, planets, stars, and everything else we encounter in the created world. Philosophers describe things like these as contingent beings.But if everything were contingent, i.e. if everything depended upon something else for its existence, then what ultimately explains why anything exists at all? Aquinas argues that contingent beings must ultimately depend upon a Necessary Being: a reality that does not receive its existence from anything else and cannot fail to exist.In this episode, we discuss:What "contingency" means in philosophyThe difference between contingent and necessary beingsWhy things in the world don't contain the reason for their own existenceWhy a collection of contingent beings cannot ultimately explain itselfAquinas' argument for the existence of a Necessary BeingWhy the Argument from Contingency does not require the universe to have a beginning in timeHow Aquinas' Third Way differs from the Argument from Motion and the Argument from Efficient CausalityHow Aquinas' first three Ways point towards the same ultimate reality from three different starting pointsThis episode is part of our series exploring St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways and the classical philosophical arguments for the existence of God. The First Way begins with change and leads us to an Unmoved Mover. The Second begins with efficient causality and leads us to a First Efficient Cause. And the Third begins with contingent existence and leads us to a Necessary Being.Whether you're interested in philosophy, Catholic theology, apologetics, metaphysics, or the relationship between faith and reason, I hope these episodes help make Aquinas' thought more accessible and encourage you to explore his arguments for yourself.SUPPORT THE PODCASTThis podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links: Donate via PayPal: ⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠ Support on Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠ Contact: ⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/⁠

New! Subscribe to The Greg Matsen Show - ‪@GregMatsen‬ Cardio Miracle, Learn More! - https://cardiomiracle.com/?ref=t4Hpzrm3 Alive and Intelligent Substack - https://aliveandintelligent.substack.com Wavemakers Podcaster Cruise - https://www.cwicmedia.com/wavemakers Lance and Kai Schwemmer join BYU professor Ralph Hancock to discuss: Christianity Needs Its Pride Back | Ralph Hancock on Virtue in a Secular Age "If Humility Rules, It Is No Longer Humble" | Ralph Hancock's Case for Virtue's Pride Your Humility Might Be Pride in Disguise | Ralph Hancock on Love and Virtue Tocqueville Was Right: We Need More Pride, Not Less | Ralph Hancock on the Culture of Repudiation The Trap of Equal Human Dignity | Ralph Hancock Responds to Yuval Levin Why the Constitution Cannot Save Us | Ralph Hancock on Adams, Washington, and Moral Foundations Grace Without Nature Destroys Everything | Aquinas, Agency, and the Ethics of Standing for Something Ralph's Book - Love and Virtue In Secular Age - https://amzn.to/4zKtqqP "Am I a Christian Nationalist? Make My Day." Irreligion Is Now the State Religion You Cannot Legislate Morality? You Never Legislate Anything Else The Eternal Weight of What You Do Today Moral Agency and the Second Estate Standing for Something Agai Hinckley, Aquinas, and the Courage to Judge Cwic Media Website: http://www.cwicmedia.com  

In this episode, we explore St Thomas Aquinas' Second Way, also known as the Argument from Efficient Causality. This is a classic cosmological argument for the existence of God.Aquinas begins with a simple observation: everything we encounter in the world has a cause. Houses are built by builders, paintings are painted by artists, and trees grow from seeds. But if every cause depends on another cause, where does the chain ultimately begin? Aquinas argues that there must be a First Efficient Cause that gives existence and causal power to everything else.In this episode, we discuss: What an efficient cause is Why nothing can be the efficient cause of itself The difference between temporal and hierarchical chains of causation Why Aquinas rejects an infinite regress of essentially ordered causes Peter Kreeft's "borrowed book" analogy How the Second Way differs from the Argument from Motion What Aquinas means by a First Efficient Cause Why this argument points toward God's existence without yet establishing every Christian belief about GodThis episode is part of our series on St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways and the classical arguments for the existence of God. Whether you're interested in philosophy, Catholic theology, apologetics, metaphysics, or the relationship between faith and reason, I hope these episodes help make Aquinas' thought more accessible and encourage you to explore these remarkable arguments for yourself.SUPPORT THE PODCASTThis podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links: Donate via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2 Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest Contact: www.caitlinwest.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/

John Zmirak, Eric Metaxas. Movie About Christian Resistance to the French Revolution, J.J. Carrell- Immigration Stats,  Destructive Darwinism, The Growing Case for Intelligent Design.   John Zmirak The Eric Metaxas Show John ZmirakThe Eric Metaxas  Aug 19 2026  Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, John Zmirak joins Eric to challenge the standard Darwinian account of human origins and discuss the growing case for intelligent design. They examine whether Christians can truly reconcile evolution with Genesis, why Zmirak believes Darwinism undermines the biblical understanding of humanity, Francis Collins and theistic evolution, and the cultural consequences of teaching that human life arose through unguided processes.  John Zmirak Joins0:26 Intelligent Design Vs. Darwinism3:29 Creation Or Evolution?5:11 Were Humans Really Descended From Apes?6:29 Can Christians Reconcile Genesis And Evolution?9:16 Why Darwinism “Multiplies Faith By Zero”11:40 Eric's Encounter With Francis Collins17:14 Deism, Providence, And The American Founders23:05    ----------------------------------------------------------- jjcarrellpolitics• Follow https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dblbbn-SMTw/   --------------------------------------------------------------------- Streaming movie recommended by John Zmirak- https://victoryordeathmovie.com/   When everything you value is on the line, when all you love and believe in is at stake, there's no other choice but to fight for it. Victory or Death Fight for Faith. Fight for Family. Fight for Freedom. --------------------------------------------------------------- Article by John Zmirak- New Book by Chaberek, Greene Probes Evolution as a “Catholic Dilemma” John Zmirak August 5, 2026 Evolution, Faith & Science I recently returned from a two-week wildlife safari through Zimbabwe and South Africa. I visited Victoria Falls, which dwarfs Niagara, the extraordinary Table Mountain, and several wildlife reserves including Kruger National Park. The jeep rides through the brush yielded close encounters with female lions shepherding their cubs, male lions sleeping off meals, a leopard in a tree crunching the skull of an impala, herds of piously maternal elephants — only one of which came close to charging us — and a dozen other species of predator or prey. The high point, I'll confess, was one wildlife encounter in particular: when a troop of baboons charged the outdoor diners at The Black Marlin in Cape Town, driving them to flee, so the apes could stuff their faces with pilfered pasta. Sadly, I was sitting inside, so all I could do was cheer the hairy creatures on from through the window. Privacy Note: On play, Google may track viewers. YouTube's Privacy Policy. The Book of Nature I hope that I'm sufficiently grateful for this encounter with the baroque, sublime abundance of biology that our planet is privileged to host — alone, so far as we know, among the billions of planets. Gratitude should be aimed at a giver, and it was reading the works of Discovery Institute authors that made this easier for me. I could wonder at the tiny penguins that somehow survive in the Mediterranean climate near the Cape of Good Hope, or the birds that live symbiotically with wildebeests by feeding on bloodsucking insects, without the deflating idea lurking in the back of my mind, “This all the result of blind chance and iron necessity, with no crafting intelligence behind it.” Instead, I saw works of art, and found myself thanking the Artist. I was reading the Book of Nature, and seeing in it glimmers of divine action, intention, and generosity — as “natural philosophers” did from Kepler and Newton to Pasteur and Mendel. Back when I unreflectively adhered to the theistic (really deistic) evolution that's preached in most Christian pulpits, I accepted the notion that God was somehow behind every aspect of the cosmos. If pressed, I would have said that God had “guided” or “instigated” the emergence of extraordinary creatures like the zebras that stared at our jeep, the elegant kudus that capered past us through the veldt, the wild dogs that seemed at once so alien and so familiar that it was tempting to hop out and try petting them. (“Do not attempt this,” I was informed by our solemn African guide.) But all of life was at best a convoluted Rube Goldberg contraption, which Someone had set in motion then stepped away to observe. God even had humans in mind — deciding, for some reason, to slowly evolve His earthly image through a long chain of predecessor species, until at some point He chose to implant both rationality and immortal souls in creatures who'd mutated in and then emerged from the womb of an animal. I used to speculate about how that allegedly worked, and how I could reconcile it in some fashion with the Genesis account of God making man directly from the dust of the earth, and woman from his side. I remember thinking, lamely, “Maybe they were identical twins … and He switched Eve's sex before the ape gave birth to them?” Then I stopped bothering, encouraged by modern priests who treat not just Genesis but most of the Old Testament as mostly wholesome mythology, akin to that found in Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton. Christianizing Darwinists Obeying the dictum of 19th-century “Higher Criticism,” Christianizing Darwinists aim to explain away every claim of miraculous action — from the direct creation of man to the parting of the Red Sea, from Jesus' virgin birth to even his Resurrection. I was taught in high school that the last, most crucial Christian miracle, amounted merely to the “ongoing presence” of Jesus in his apostles' hearts and minds. Big whoop. In that sense, Adolf Hitler is still sadly with us. (If you want an account of how and why biblical critics crafted such blinders, read Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker's magisterial Politicizing the Bible, which I edited for publication.) Priests, theologians, bishops and even (recently) popes have responded to the popular triumph of Darwinism by dismissing most of the events recounted in Genesis as purely allegorical and moral. Keen to avoid being tarred as “fundamentalists,” and encouraged by some cautious leeway granted to evolutionary thinking by popes such as Pius XII and John Paul II, most Catholics have eagerly accepted that Darwin's theories fully explain the emergence of every living species, even man. Otherwise-orthodox believers have made this intellectual concession, convinced that “the science” is irrefutable, so the theology must make room for it. But what if, in fact, the science is very shaky, and the implications for a Christian worldview profoundly toxic? Those are the questions asked and convincingly answered in a new book, Creation or Evolution? A Catholic Dilemma. It's written in an extremely engaging format — a series of questions posed by science journalist Steve Greene and answered by theologian Rev. Michael Chabarek, O.P. It was Chaberek's previous book, Aquinas and Evolution, that convinced me to take intelligent design seriously, and embark on the journey through the works of Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, Douglas Axe, and many others — to my profound intellectual and spiritual enrichment. This new book is every bit the equal of Chaberek's earlier work. He lays out the serious evidential weaknesses in the Darwinist claim to have explained the appearance of human beings by incremental mutations from previous apelike species. (For much more detail than this book offers, see Science and Human Origins, from Discovery Institute Press, which Chaberek cites.) He explains how circular logic and wishful thinking pervade the claims of paleontologists to have discovered non-human ancestors for our species, with periodic claims to have found a “missing link” based on tiny bone fragments of indeterminate origin. False First Principles But Chaberek's main focus is not on empirical flaws or gaps in the Darwinist account. Instead, he focuses on the false first principles that motivate, even compel Darwinists to invent their “just so” stories in the first place. Here's a sample of the straightforward, plain-speaking way that the authors convey key philosophical issues: If man did not come from the ape, then how did he come into existence? First, let us consider whether sciences such as paleontology and genetics are actually capable of providing an answer to this question. If man came into existence naturally, then, yes, because science explains the workings of nature. But if man came into existence supernaturally, that is, by the action of divine power exceeding the power of nature, then science cannot explain the beginning of man. Therefore, whether science can provide an answer to this question does not depend on scientific research, but on the previously adopted religious or philosophical assumptions. Chabarek argues convincingly that secularist and materialist assumptions precede and determine the scientific work of Darwinists, essentially forcing them to deny evidence of design, and to make impossible claims for the creative power of mutations — despite the overwhelming odds against blind chance happening upon even a single useful new protein in the entire history of life on earth (as Douglas Axe showed in exhaustive experimental detail in his book, Undeniable). When such bias-inducing reductionist assumptions migrate from the research papers of laboratory scientists into the works of Christian leaders, the consequences are even more baleful, Chabarek warns. If such a central question as the origin of the only rational species, the “image of God,” is to be surgically excised from the domain of religious authority and turned over to materialist scientists, what is to stop that same debunking impulse from undermining every mystery of faith? Should we leave Sarah's miraculous conception of Isaac to the gynecologists, the parting of the Red Sea to the oceanographers, and the resurrection of Jesus to the biologists? That's the inexorable logic of Christians who cling to Darwinist explanations of the “descent of man” from ancestral apes. Far better, Chabarek advises, for Christians who accept a long series of miracles and mysteries as entailed in the redemption of humanity to also make room for the Bible's literal account of the miracle of his creation — from the dust of the earth, by the hand of God. John Zmirak John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First. To read articles from John Zmirak visit- https://chroniclesmagazine.org/author/johnzmirak/   Endorsed Charities -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese -------------------------------------------------------- Food For the Poor https://foodforthepoor.org/ Help us serve the poorest of the poor Food For The Poor began in 1982 in Jamaica. Today, our interdenominational Christian ministry serves the poor in primarily 17 countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Thanks to our faithful donors, we are able to provide food, housing, healthcare, education, fresh water, emergency relief, micro-enterprise solutions and much more. We are proud to have fed millions of people and provided more than 15.7 billion dollars in aid. Our faith inspires us to be an organization built on compassion, and motivated by love. Our mission is to bring relief to the poorest of the poor in the countries where we serve. We strive to reflect God's unconditional love. It's a sacrificial love that embraces all people regardless of race or religion. We believe that we can show His love by serving the “least of these” on this earth as Christ challenged us to do in Matthew 25. We pray that by God's grace, and with your support, we can continue to bring relief to the suffering and hope to the hopeless.   Report on Food For the Poor by Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/592174510   -------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer from ACU. We try to bring to our students and alumni the World's best Conservative thinkers. All views expressed belong solely to the author and not necessarily to ACU. In all issues and relations, we hope to follow the admonitions of Jesus Christ. While striving to expose, warn and contend with evil, we extend the love of God to all of his children. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe talks with Ryan Hurd who recently converted from Protestantism to the Catholic Faith, how studying Thomas Aquinas led him across the Tiber, and how this could be becoming something of a meme… Transcript: Joe: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer and I saw a fascinating discussion between three Baptists about people studying Thomas Aquinas and becoming Catholic. And I though a great person to talk about that whole concept with would be Ryan Hurd, a Protestant domestic scholar who recently became Catholic. So first of all, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on. Co...

In this episode, we explore St Thomas Aquinas' First Way, also known as the Argument from Motion. This is one of the most influential philosophical arguments for the existence of God.Building on our introduction to cosmological arguments, we unpack Aquinas' reasoning step by step. What does he mean by “motion”? Why does every change require a cause? And how does observing change in the world lead Aquinas to conclude that there must be an Unmoved Mover upon whom everything else depends?In this episode, we discuss: What Thomas Aquinas means by “motion” The difference between potentiality and actuality Why nothing can move itself from potential to actual How chains of simultaneous cause and effect differ from causes stretching through time Aquinas' distinction between primary and secondary causes Why an infinite hierarchical series of causes cannot explain change The meaning of the Unmoved Mover Why Aquinas' First Way is a philosophical argument for God's existence, and not yet a complete proof of every Christian belief about God This episode is part of our series on St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways and the classical arguments for the existence of God. Whether you're interested in philosophy, Catholic theology, apologetics, metaphysics, or the relationship between faith and reason, I hope these episodes help make Aquinas' thought more accessible and encourage you to explore his arguments for yourself.SUPPORT THE PODCASTThis podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating through the following links: Donate via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2 Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest Contact: www.caitlinwest.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/

Zach opens up about the crisis of faith that left him questioning whether Christianity was true at all, including the terrifying question that shook him to his core. His awakening to the role of reason in faith leads the guys to put the modern “my truth” mindset to the test and challenge what happens when personal belief becomes more powerful than reality. Al sets the record straight in a decades-old Robertson brotherly squabble about the summer 7-year-old Al was put in charge of his younger brothers while Willie recovered from a serious injury.  In this episode: Romans 1, verse 20; Mark 8, verses 22–26; Job 42, verses 2–6; John 9, verses 1–3; Romans 8, verse 26; John 14, verse 9; Mark 9, verses 14–24; John 20, verse 29; 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 Today's conversation is about Lesson 6 of Theology 101: The Western Theological Tradition taught by various Hillsdale Professors. Take the course with us at no cost to you!  More about Theology 101: Examine the great questions of Western theology from the ancient Hebrews through today. The gift of speech, or reason, given by God to man, enables us to think about God and to worship Him.  This free online course pursues this purpose by examining the nature of God as revealed in the Bible, exploring the great theological questions and controversies of the early Christian church, studying the history of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and much more.  We invite you to join us and explore the nature of the relationship between God and man, and how a proper understanding of this relationship can lead to a free and happy life. Sign up at ⁠http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Chapters 00:00 The Robertson Kids Were Basically Feral 07:32 How God Transformed the Robertson Family 15:02 Faith vs. Reason 18:24 Job Finally Sees God Clearly 22:15 Fluffy the Squirrel Takes Over Theology Class 27:12 Can We Really Know God? 31:10 Zach's Crisis of Faith 35:28 The Debate That Shook Zach's Beliefs 38:42 Are We Treating God Like a Fan Club? 42:06 Aquinas' Stunning Encounter With Jesus 47:02 The Secret to Working & Resting Well — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Theology as a Guide to Aquinas's Cognitive Philosophy” by Benjamin Augros (Baylor University). Presented at Thomas Aquinas College's 2026 Thomistic Summer Conference.

After a long break, we are back for Season 15! Join us as we begin discussing Philosophizing in Faith, a collection of essays by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., a 20th-century neo-Thomist philosopher and theologian. In this episode, we provide some historical background of who Garrigou-Lagrange was, and what neo-Thomism is, as well as discussing translator Matthew Minerd's introduction to the book. We then turn to the first essay, "On the Twofold Via inventionis and the Twofold Via iudicii According to St. Thomas", in which Lagrange discusses how we come to know God through temporal things, and how we know the world through science. We also discuss why people become Catholic, the relevance of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the issues with modern science. Follow us on X! Give us your opinions here!

Dr. Kelley Mathews Sharifa Stevens If you, like most of us in this audience, are Protestant, be prepared for a treat as you listen to this conversation about women saints we should know. Dr. Kelley Mathews joins host Sharifa Stevens to discuss a number of women from the early church who were named saints because of their faith and actions. You'll come away excited and perhaps surprised as you hear about these godly women who played major roles in church history. They teach us great lessons from their love for the Lord, their tenacity and bold courage. Recommended resources BOW's resources on Studying and Teaching the Bible Hildegard: A playlist of her music and her biography The Passions of Perpetua and Felicity Augustine's sermon (#280) on Perpetua & Felicity Monica  We learn most of our content about her in Augustine's Confessions. Clare: Biography Read her "Rule" Brigid article This episode is available on video as well. Timestamps: 00:21 Introductions 02:37 The difference between knowing and venerating the saints 03:40 Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs 12:10 Monica, Augustine's mother 19:29 Brigid of Kildare 27:35 Hildegard of Bingen 34:18 Clare of Assisi 41:32 Other resources TranscriptSharifa >> Welcome to Beyond Ordinary Women. I'll be your host for today, Sharifa Stevens. And today our topic is going to be about women, saints that we all should know about. I'm really excited to dig into this topic, and we're going to have our expert Dr. Kelley Mathews, explain more to us about these women whom we should know. And I want to tell you about Kelley. I bet most of you know Dr. Kelley already. But let me tell you a little bit more, just in case. Kelley Mathews, Dr. Kelley Mathews, has ministered to the church through writing and editing for over 25 years. She's a coauthor of eight books, including 40 Questions About Women in Ministry. And also she's a freelance writer and editor. A former women's ministry director and Bible study teacher. Kelley has been married to John, a school administrator, for almost 29 years. They are parents to four active, mostly grown children. Kelley earned her Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and earned a Doctor of Ministry in New Testament from Houston Theological Seminary just in 2025. Welcome. Now, I can't call you Dr. Kelley. Why? Kelley >> You kind of overdid it there. That's all. Sharifa >> That's my job. It's my job to overdo it. Kelley >> Okay. Okay. I'll take it from you. Not from anybody else, though. No, it's so new. It's still very strange to hear it. So that's all. Sharifa >> You earned it. So I'm using it. Kelley >> I had a lot of fun in that program, so if I could still go back to class, I would. You know, I shouldn't say that too loudly around here. Sharifa >> Tuition-free class? Yeah. Kelley >> Yeah. No, it was a great program over in Houston. So and that's a lot of what we're going to cover today is what I studied there. So yeah. Sharifa >> Excellent. Well let's dive in. We're discussing women saints who we should know. But before we get into the specific saints, I just wanted to know, is knowing the saints the same as venerating or worshiping them? Kelley >> No. Absolutely not. This is basically history. And I was a history major for my bachelor's degree. And so coming full circle with this theological study, I naturally went to the history of the church. So New Testament kind of morphed also into the early church, those first few centuries of what was the church getting up to? And so knowing the people. I mean I would assume that a lot of Christians would recognize names like Augustine or Aquinas or maybe Saint Francis or Luther. We're just giving you female equivalents, basically. So, yes, just as there were fathers of the church, there were mothers of the church. Sharifa >> I dig it. Thank you. Okay, so let's get into specifics.

“Aquinas in the Western Tradition of Divine Simplicity” by Dr. Brett Smith (Thomas Aquinas College, New England). Presented at Thomas Aquinas College's 2026 Thomistic Summer Conference.

“Aquinas on Simplicity and Analogy: A Problem in Natural Theology” by Rev. David Paternostro, S.J. (Creighton University). Presented at Thomas Aquinas College's 2026 Thomistic Summer Conference.

Full Text of Readings Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest Lectionary: 412 The Saint of the day is Saint Dominic Saint Dominic's Story If he hadn't taken a trip with his bishop, Saint Dominic would probably have remained within the structure of contemplative life; after the trip, he spent the rest of his life being a contemplative in active apostolic work. Born in old Castile, Spain, Saint Dominic was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle, studied the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma, where there was an attempt to revive the apostolic common life described in Acts of the Apostles. On a journey through France with his bishop, Dominic came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc. The Albigensians–or Cathari, “the pure ones”–held to two principles—one good, one evil—in the world. All matter is evil—hence they denied the Incarnation and the sacraments. On the same principle, they abstained from procreation and took a minimum of food and drink. The inner circle led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism not shared by ordinary followers. Saint Dominic sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy, and was commissioned to be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the preaching crusade was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the ascetical heroes of the Albigenses. Understandably, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best inns and had servants. Saint Dominic therefore, with three Cistercians, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for 10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders. His fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 Dominic founded a religious house at Toulouse, the beginning of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans. Dominic's ideal, and that of his Order, was to organically link a life with God, study, and prayer in all forms, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God. His ideal: contemplata tradere: “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God.” Reflection The Dominican ideal, like that of all religious communities, is for the imitation, not merely the admiration, of the rest of the Church. The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God, and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

There is a temptation in every generation to believe that the spiritual life consists primarily in learning new methods, acquiring hidden knowledge, or discovering techniques that promise quick access to God. St. Isaac the Syrian gently dismantles this illusion. When he speaks of the deeper forms of prayer, he deliberately refuses to satisfy our curiosity. It is a remarkable act of humility. He knows that the mysteries of prayer cannot be communicated as information because they are received only as a gift. They belong not to those who seek extraordinary experiences but to those who have quietly consented to be transformed through long obedience. This restraint reveals something profoundly important. The deepest prayer is never mastered. It is given. One does not arrive there through spiritual cleverness but by allowing grace to accomplish its hidden work over time. “Sit in your cell,” the ancient saying declares, “and your cell will teach you everything.” The cell becomes the place where the restless search for novelty dies, where the heart gradually ceases to seek explanations and begins instead to seek only Christ Himself. For Isaac, stillness is therefore not an escape from the world but the creation of an interior space where the face of Christ can finally be seen without distortion. This is why he speaks so forcefully about abstention from many concerns. The problem is not simply that busyness consumes our time. Far more dangerously, it fragments our attention. It scatters the heart among a thousand anxieties until it loses the capacity to remain before the Lord with loving simplicity. How striking that Isaac does not first speak about outward activity but about the inability to remain “directly before the face of God.” The Christian life begins here. Before there is ministry, teaching, writing, service, or even ascetic labor, there is the gaze of love. The Father turns His face toward us in His Son, and little by little we learn to return that gaze. Prayer is not first our speaking to God but our remaining before Him long enough for His presence to heal what has been wounded within us. This changes the whole character of spiritual struggle. We often imagine that holiness is achieved by greater effort, tighter control, or stricter discipline. Certainly there is ascetic labor, and Isaac never minimizes it. Yet its purpose is not self-perfection. It is to remove whatever prevents us from remaining peacefully before Christ. The battle is not ultimately against activity itself but against everything that steals our attention from the One who alone can heal the heart. Only in such stillness do we begin to notice the subtle movements of the soul. Isaac says that the monk learns to distinguish “what enters into and what comes out” of him. Here we discover the extraordinary psychological and spiritual depth of the desert tradition. Before modern psychology attempted to map the interior world, the Desert Fathers had already entered its hidden landscape. They understood that thoughts, desires, fears, fantasies, and memories continually seek entrance into the heart. Unless one lives before the face of Christ, these movements remain confused and unexamined. But in the light of His countenance they become discernible. His gaze exposes nothing in order to condemn; it reveals everything in order to heal. This is why the entire ascetical life must remain Christ-centered. Stillness divorced from Christ easily becomes isolation. Silence without Christ becomes emptiness. Solitude without Christ can become merely another form of self-absorption. But when every moment of silence is filled with the awareness of His presence, stillness becomes communion. The heart is no longer occupied with itself but quietly captivated by the beauty of the Lord. Here, I believe, we begin to understand what I have called throughout these writings desire and wonder. As the heart becomes less driven by endless concerns, it does not become emotionally barren. Quite the opposite. It awakens. Desire is purified because it is no longer dispersed among countless lesser loves but gathered into a single longing for Christ. Wonder returns because His presence is never exhausted. Every moment before Him becomes fresh. Every prayer becomes an invitation into a mystery that can never be possessed, only received. Perhaps this is the hidden fruit of Isaac's refusal to explain the higher forms of prayer. He wishes to protect us from seeking experiences rather than seeking Christ. For if we truly stand before His face day after day, if we patiently guard the heart, if we willingly relinquish the tyranny of unnecessary concerns, then prayer itself will teach us. Not because we have become experts, but because Love Himself has become our teacher. In the end, the goal is beautifully simple. To become men and women whose hearts are no longer scattered but wholly gathered before the Face that has always been turned toward us. And in that Face we discover that every true desire finds its fulfillment, every fear loses its power, and wonder becomes the atmosphere in which the soul learns to live. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:04:23 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 218 mid paragraph 4 00:07:02 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/the-name-above-every-name 00:07:22 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 218 mid paragraph 4 00:10:21 Linda Frasier: may I share the link with a friend? 00:10:31 Janine: Father…whatever happened to the gentleman from New Zealand who used to join? 00:10:35 Linda Frasier: thx 00:11:03 Janine: His dad wasn't well 00:11:12 Janine: Yes I was wondering 00:11:53 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/the-name-above-every-name 00:12:39 Linda Frasier: already ordered Monastic Heart—arriving Monday!! 00:14:14 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/the-name-above-every-name 00:15:37 Janine: The baby has joined! 00:27:32 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 218, paragraph 5, bottom of page 00:37:26 Kate: Footnote 1 on page 219 is quite convicting! 00:40:13 Adam Paige: Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come 'round right. 00:58:25 Bob Čihák, AZ: Re: story of Martha and Mary taking the “better path”: Christ doesn't specify what that better path might be. Many, including St. Augustine, say that it's the path of contemplation. I think it could be that “the better path” is the path for that person fulfilling the will of God, in that place, at that time. We all have different immediate paths to take, at different times. Obviously, Martha earned Christ's gentle rebuke which to me suggests that she should consider that her role at that time and place might be providing hospitality. 01:06:19 Nancy Pagan: Why if we can learn by ourselves some desert fathers insist in having a staret?I I really believe we can but I should not trust myself that way? 01:06:27 Nancy Pagan: Sorry 01:07:22 Lee Graham: “Without  distractions the devil has no means of entering the soul” the footnote #1 01:13:29 Art: I gain a lot of peace of heart and mind from the Benedictine motto “to work is to pray”.  I've also seen “Prayer is my work”. Work is my prayer”.  It helps me accept whatever it is I need to do 01:13:42 David Swiderski: In loving one another's God is us is made flesh. Simple not complicates but I have this written on my bedroom door because I forget and it has guided me for years. I rise and remember to be simple and the goal clear in the day. I think less words help the most as my grandfather left with me as a high school education tut taught me more than Aquinas or any spiritual father. As my mother said love few and profoundly. As I age I find all the answers where at my hands but I got lost at some times in my life. 01:13:53 James Hickman: Father, is there any distinction between unadulterated entertainment vs perhaps a cultural experience by watching a series or movie not too different from sitting down to read a novel or go to a play performed live? It might be an opportunity for leisure. I think of PBS Masterpiece where I can watch a high quality production of Les Miserables or The Count of Monte Cristo and ponder mysteries of forgiveness or the vices in my life. Certainly I'm not saying this is of greater value than spending two hours in stillness. I'm maybe admitting my weakness here, but I do wonder: is there a place for this in my life? Are there any good distractions? In moderation? 01:17:58 David Swiderski: Amen seeking beauty and what is good shapes our lives and our goals. 01:18:47 James Hickman: I breathe a sigh of relief

A conversation about Thomas Aquinas and the infused moral virtues How does the grace of God change a person? And how can we account for the times when grace most definitely has not changed a person? Thomas Aquinas, spoke of virtue, both natural and supernatural, that helped form a Christian's moral character. In Prof Angela Knobel's book, Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues, she navigates a path to help us understand the relationship between those virtues we can develop in our own right, and those gifted to us by grace, as she aims to help us see the root of the challenges we face in our Christian formation. She joins Kenny on this episode of TheoDisc as they talk about the virtues and Aquinas. Enjoy! SHOW NOTES Get Angela's book: HERE Listen to Angela lecture on Aquinas and the infused moral virtues: HERE

"A Fractured Mirror? Multiplicity and Intellection in Aquinas's Account of Eucharistic Presence," by Rev. Reginald Lynch, O.P. (Blackfriars, Oxford). Presented at Thomas Aquinas College's 2026 Thomistic Summer Conference.

Gene passes along some sports tidbits: The Sabres are in the news for their logo. Plus was there actually crying in baseball? Gene has all of your MLB news & notes.

There is an old story we keep telling because we cannot stop living it. A brother brings his offering and it is received; another brings his and it is not; and in the space of that difference something curdles. We know how it goes. We have felt the heat rise in our own chests when someone else is favored, praised, chosen—when the good that lands on them seems, by some dark arithmetic, to be subtracted from us. Cain rises up against Abel in a field, and the first human death is not an accident but a killing born of comparison.Why does this story refuse to stay in the past? Perhaps because it is not really about two men long ago. It is about the fault line that runs through every family, every generation, every heart—the temptation to believe that another's blessing is our loss, and that the answer is to strike. John Steinbeck understood this. In East of Eden he takes the Cain and Abel motif and lets it echo down through generations, refiguring it in new fathers and new sons, as if to say: this is the inheritance, this is what we hand down. But he also found, buried in the ancient text, a single word that breaks the spell. Timshel—thou mayest. Not thou shalt, not thou must, but thou mayest. You are not fated to strike. You may yet choose otherwise.That word is where despair and hope divide. And it is where a great novel becomes a school for the soul.My guest today is Michon Matthiesen, Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, who reads East of Eden with her undergraduates in a course on the theology of envy. She returns to the show to help us see what Steinbeck saw: how the oldest sin keeps rewriting itself across generations, and how a single word might set us free.Links:"Aquinas and the Limits of Forgiveness: A Case Study in Anna Karenina," by Anna Bonta Moreland, article via Church Life Journal "Graham Greene's 'The End of the Affair,' A Conversation with Josh McManaway," podcast episode via Church Life Today"C. S. Lewis's ‘The Great Divorce', a discussion with Josh McManaway," podcast episode via Church Life Today“The Lord of the Rings, Sickness, and Health, with Kristin Collier,” podcast episode via Church Life Today"Why Literature Still Matters, with Jason Baxter," podcast episode via Church Life TodayChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

How do we know that God exists? Can reason lead us to God?In this episode, we begin a new series exploring one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God: St Thomas Aquinas' cosmological argument.Before diving into Aquinas' First Way, we take a step back and look at the big picture. What exactly is a cosmological argument? How does it work? And why did Aquinas think that observing the ordinary world around us could lead us to the existence of a First Cause or Unmoved Mover?In this episode, we discuss: What a cosmological argument is Why we often reason from visible effects to invisible causes Aquinas' observations about change, causation, and contingent existence The difference between temporal and hierarchical causes What Aquinas means by a First Cause or Unmoved Mover Why Aquinas is not yet trying to prove every Christian belief about God How this overview prepares us for Aquinas' First Three Ways This is the first episode in a series unpacking St Thomas Aquinas' arguments for the existence of God. Whether you're interested in philosophy, theology, apologetics, or simply wrestling with life's biggest questions, I hope these episodes help make Aquinas' thought more accessible and encourage you to explore these remarkable arguments for yourself.SUPPORT THE PODCASTThis podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating through the following links: Donate via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2 Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest Contact: www.caitlinwest.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/

In this episode of Blind Techie Geek Speaks, host Kathleen Masciana bridges ancient philosophy with contemporary parenting debates about technology. Kathleen guides listeners through a thoughtful exploration of whether true moral knowledge is possible without the metaphysical frameworks of Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas, and what this means for how we make decisions about technology in our families. Kathleen examines Rachelle Farquhar's "iPad-free" parenting experiment alongside perspectives from social psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge. She discusses Twenge's rule from "10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World," which recommends waiting until a child has their driver's license before giving them a smartphone—typically at age sixteen. Kathleen offers a critical perspective on this rule, explaining why such a one-size-fits-all approach is unrealistic for persons with disabilities, particularly those who cannot drive. Drawing from her own experience as a blind online graduate student pursuing her master's degree in philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Kathleen shares how she received her first smartphone at fourteen and waited until nineteen to join social media—using a flip phone before that to stay connected with family. She argues that Twenge's book would benefit from modified rules that account for different circumstances, as smartphones often serve as essential tools for independence and access rather than just entertainment. Throughout the episode, Kathleen offers insights on digital literacy, balanced technology use, and how devices can serve as vital instruments for education and connection. Her perspective invites listeners to move beyond rigid thinking and consider more nuanced, inclusive approaches to technology in our lives and the lives of children.

In this episode, we welcome back Ryan Grant of Mediatrix Press to discuss the disturbing roots of the Protestant Revolt.BECOME A PATRON OF THE GREAT TRADITIONHas our content blessed you or those you love? Then please consider becoming a monthly patron for $10/month or more.➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/become-a-patron/This apostolate is a non-profit under priestly authority, and all your gifts are tax-deductible. Your generosity makes it possible for us to produce our podcast, research, and written content with excellence, while making it available to the world for free, all for the salvation of souls. It also empowers us to work on even bigger projects behind the scenes (stay tuned).VISIT OUR WEBSITE➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/CONNECT ON SOCIAL MEDIAX: https://twitter.com/JoshuaTCharlesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshuatcharles/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuatcharles/DIVE DEEPERCheck out our “Becoming Catholic” resources, where you'll find 1 million+ words of free content (bigger than the Bible!) in the form of Articles, Quote Archives, and Study Banks to help you become, remain, and deepen your life as a Catholic:➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/becoming-catholic/SUBSTACKSubscribe to our Substack to get regular updates on our content, and other premium content:➡️ https://eternalchristendom.substack.com/EXCLUSIVE BOOKSTORE DISCOUNTS➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/bookstore/CHAPTERS00:00 - Intro: Ryan Grant and Proto-Protestant Movements02:22 - Welcome, Prayer, and Episode Roadmap05:59 - Setting the Stage: Medieval Christendom Before the Revolt13:20 - Aquinas, Averroes, and the Medieval Synthesis21:18 - Scotus, National Identity, and the Road Toward Protestantism24:12 - Cathars and Albigensians: Dualism, Crusade, and Disorder31:54 - Waldensians: Poverty, Preaching, and Rejection of Authority52:44 - William of Ockham, Nominalism, and the Breakdown of Universals01:08:25 - Heresy, Violence, Incarnation, and Hierarchy01:19:22 - Mediatrix Press, Closing ThoughtsThis podcast can also be heard on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comRobert P. George is a legal scholar and political philosopher. At Princetown, he's the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He's also a senior fellow at both the American Enterprise Institute and the Witherspoon Institute, which he co-founded. His many books include Making Men Moral and In Defense of Natural Law. We spent many years sparring in print over marriage, gays, and Catholicism.For two clips of the episode — on disobeying unjust laws, and the supposed harms of gay marriage — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: his dad's harrowing service in WWII; Robby growing up in Appalachia with his grandfathers in the coal mines; first in his family to go to college; stories of both of us being at Oxford at the same time; the origins of bluegrass; Robert Byrd's legacy; Plato's Gorgias; Aristotle and friendship; Robby's close friendship with Cornel West; Montaigne; Aquinas; Vatican II; Eastern Orthodox liturgy; neo-scholasticism; Darwin's survival of the fittest; Nietzsche; loving one's enemy as uniquely Christian; just law and unjust law; MLK's letter from a Birmingham jail; Hume; Oakeshott; natural law theorists vs legal positivists; the AIDS crisis; Christian marriage vs civil marriage; divorce; the Manhattan Declaration; Henry VIII's annulments; the sexual habits of Clinton and Trump; illiberalism on the left and right; and the beached squids of Ptown.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Ross Barkan on the DSA and Mamdani, John O'Sullivan on conservatism, Azam Ahmed on terrifying new drugs, and Megan McArdle on pretty much anything. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Aquinas and the Social Contract Tradition

There is a sin that has learned to survive by not looking like one. We have made room for it—quietly, in the way we work and compete and measure ourselves against the person beside us. We have given it respectable names: ambition, drive, a healthy edge. Everyone feels it, we tell ourselves. So perhaps it cannot be helped. And what cannot be helped, we assume, cannot really be a vice.But the Christian tradition never granted it that cover. It saw this thing as anti-life. It traced it back to Satan himself—not his first sin, but the bitter fruit of his pride, the refusal to bear that another might be beloved. It warned that this sin shrinks the heart, isolates the soul, and turns its poison first upon the one who harbors it—that to give way to it is, in the old and startling image, to lay the hangman against your own heart. It corrodes friendships and families, churches and nations. And it does all of this while convincing us it is only natural.What feeds it is a lie: the fear that there is not enough love to go around, that another's blessing must mean my own diminishment, that I am the less-favored child. And if that is the lie, then the remedy is not merely to try harder to be good. It is to be brought somewhere we can finally see the truth—that before God there is no greater and no lesser, only beloved children, and that the gift given at the altar is not divided when it is shared but multiplied. My guest today has spent years unveiling this sin and naming its cure. She is Michon Matthiesen, of the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and her work traces it through Scripture and the Fathers, through Aquinas and Dante, all the way to the one place she believes it can finally be undone: the Eucharist.Links:Sacrifice as Gift: Eucharist, Grace, and Contemplative Prayer in Maurice de la Taille, by Michon Matthiesen (Catholic University of America Press)Find an archive of Michon's work at Adoremus, including essays on the liturgy and Eucharistic sacrifice: https://adoremus.org/author/michon-matthiesen/On envy in the Summa Theologiae (II-II, q. 36), Thomas Aquinas: https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3036.htm"Hunger, Poverty, and the Eucharist," by Bishop Daniel Flores, article via Church Life Journal“The Joy of Hate Watching,” by Luke Burgis, article via Church Life JournalChurch Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Adam's about to be Coweta's biggest celebrity. Porter and Prairie Farm's SEO game has worked so well that a Tulsa news station called wanting an interview about egg prices and how they're crushing family farms. Problem is, Adam has no idea what egg prices are doing anywhere else. He just knows what he charges, and that they've lost 35 chickens in two weeks. Lady Haylee, in her prudence, said maybe skip the interview. Adam already said yes. The real debate of the week: overalls or no overalls for the camera. Overalls, obviously. Carhartt, not blue jean, collared shirt underneath. Now both guys want branded farm overalls, Niles Ranch and Fecundity Farm for Dave, Porter and Prairie Family Farm for Adam.Sponsor: Amen app (from the Augustine Institute) The Amen app is the free Catholic prayer app the guys use to walk through the Sunday Gospel with their kids on the way to Mass, plus free access to classics like Divine Mercy in My Soul and True Devotion to Mary. No paywall, no subscription trap. Download the Amen app right now.Sponsor: Select International Tours When Adam and Dave planned their first pilgrimage, Select International Tours is who everyone pointed them to, and having used them, the guys can vouch for it. Wherever you want to go, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see what they offer.Dave's week wasn't any calmer. He harvested and shucked 500 to 700 ears of corn with the whole family, then blanched all of it late into the night while Lady Pamela held down a house full of unexpected company. His exact line on the way out the door: "I gotta go drink with my buddy for Jesus. It's a ministry, babe." Piglets are due any day, and this time he's praying they're born alive.The pour is a revisit: Salterra 14-Year Single Malt Scotch, finished in an Oloroso barrel, 48% ABV. Warm, not hot. Worth going back to.The prayer request is Mary. She's got an eye procedure Thursday, lasers, to make sure her retina stays attached so she doesn't go blind. She needs to put on weight first. Some days she gains 70 grams, some days she loses it. Thank you for praying. Keep it up.Then the real topic: what actually happens to your soul between the moment you die and the resurrection of your body. Can fire really burn something with no body to burn? Pulling from Aquinas's Summa, the guys walk through it. Your body dies, your soul doesn't, and it faces judgment immediately, heaven, hell, or purgatory on the way to heaven. The senses go dark since they run through bodily organs, but the intellect and the will, the parts that never needed a body to operate, stay fully awake. Aquinas's answer to the fire question: it doesn't burn the soul like a stove burns wood. It binds it. In sin, you subjected your higher self to a lower appetite, so in justice, a lower thing, fire, now holds your higher self captive. It's God's instrument, not chemistry.Then the bonus round: limbo. The limbo of the fathers, emptied by Christ at the Harrowing of Hell. The limbo of infants, never defined as dogma, still debated, and Dave's new coinage for where he thinks it actually belongs: limburgatory. A place with no suffering doesn't belong bolted onto hell.Protect what you love. Provide the truth even when it costs you something. Establish your kids in what's actually at stake. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDPorter and Prairie Farm's SEO play working so well a Tulsa news station wants an egg price interviewLosing 35 chickens in two weeks and having zero idea what egg prices are doing anywhere elseThe overalls debate: Carhartt over blue jean, collared shirt, and the case for branded farm overallsThe economics of homesteading: it only "pays for itself" if you value your own labor at zeroDave shucking and blanching 500 to 700 ears of corn with the whole family in one night"I gotta go drink with my buddy for Jesus, it's a ministry, babe"Piglets due any day and praying for a better outcome than last timeBourbon of the week: revisiting Salterra 14-Year Single Malt Scotch, Oloroso barrel finish, 48% ABVPrayer update on baby Mary: a Thursday laser eye procedure to protect her retina, and the fight to gain weightWhat actually happens to the soul between death and the resurrection of the bodyMatthew 25:41 and what "everlasting fire" could mean for a devil who has no body to burnThe difference between your particular judgment at death and the general judgment at the end of timeWhy death is genuinely abhorrent: the violent separation of body and soul, not just leaving earthAquinas on why the intellect and will stay fully awake after death even though the senses go darkSt. Gregory versus Aquinas on whether merely seeing hellfire is itself the punishmentAquinas's actual argument: fire doesn't cook the soul, it binds it, as an instrument of divine justiceWhy the fires of hell and purgatory are, per Aquinas, the very same fireThe three conditions required for mortal sin, and why hell is always a freely chosen destinationThe limbo of the fathers, the bosom of Abraham, and Christ emptying it at the Harrowing of HellThe limbo of infants, the 2007 theological commission document, and why it was never defined as dogmaBaptism of desire and the "intent of an intent" question for unbaptized infantsDave's case for "limburgatory" against Dante's placement of limbo as an annex of hellWhy presuming on God's mercy is itself a sin, and how that shapes the whole limbo debateREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:Summa Theologiae, Supplement, Questions 69 and 70, by St. Thomas Aquinas (compiled by his students after his death)The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (limbo placed as an annex of hell)Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (free on the Amen app)True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort (free on the Amen app)Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1261 (hope for children who die without baptism)The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized, International Theological Commission, 2007 (approved by Pope Benedict XVI)Saints & Church Figures:St. Thomas AquinasSt. Gregory (the Great)St. AugustineSt. Francis de SalesSt. Maria Faustina KowalskaSt. Louis de MontfortPope Benedict XVIDr. Peter Kreeft (referenced via the Matt Fradd interview clip, and the recent death of his wife of 63 years)People:Adam Minihan (host; Porter and Prairie Family Farm, Lady Haylee, baby Mary's NICU and eye procedure update, M6 Marketing, The Grounded Builder on Substack)Dave Niles (host; Fecundity Farm, Niles Ranch, Lady Pamela, the corn harvest, coiner of "limburgatory")Lady Haylee (Adam's wife)Lady Pamela (Dave's wife)Matt Fradd (interviewer in the referenced Peter Kreeft clip)

Today we discuss Thomas Aquinas and some of my favorite strategies for managing stress and staying productive. Enjoy. email me at godseyeviewbook@gmail.comJoin the discord at: https://discord.gg/PRwpPBNY4

Fr Peter George Flynn takes a playful and surprisingly profound approach to Catholic teaching, through the poetry of the limerick. From a Latin prayer by Aquinas that fits the classic poem with a five-line rhyme scheme, to Monsignor Ronald Knox's witty poems about God and philosophy, Fr. Peter shows us how humour and verse can […] L'articolo Catechesis – Did St. Thomas Aquinas invent the Limerick? – Fr Peter George Flynn OFMConv proviene da Radio Maria.

In this audio episode of Blind Techie Geek Speaks, host Kathleen Masciana discusses iOS 27, her experience as an Apple developer beta tester, and the ideas of Aquinas, Aristotle, and Oderberg. The episode focuses on Screen Time, Time Allowances, Ask to Browse, Siri, ethics, practical wisdom, and human purpose.

It's the most meaningful clip I've ever seen on the internet… and it could change your life, too; China and Russia push the campaign to kill American AI; and we bring you all the latest Iran updates. Ep. 2464 Watch Pints with Aquinas w/ Dr. Peter Kreeft here: https://youtu.be/49GhuwT-NuY Pints with Aquinas is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. - - - Today's Sponsors: Shopify - Every self-made person started somewhere. Yours starts free at https://shopify.com/shapiro  Legacybox - Shop Legacybox's incredible America's 250 sale. Visit https://Legacybox.com/SHAPIRO to get started today. Don't let your family's story disappear on your watch. - - - Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://dwplus.watch/BenShapiroMemberExclusive - - - DailyWire+: Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe

The modern script for women seems to contemplate exclusively two options: either the feminist and childless virago, or the homemaker and mother of as many children as possible. While neither path may be “wrong”, and while we won't tell anyone how to live their lives! - a real problem may lie in the way both conservatives and progressives understand women more broadly. As important as motherhood may be, does women's generative nature “define” them? Are children a woman's “job”? If so, for how long? Even more radically, to what extent are men and women “different”?Biology provides some answers without a doubt. It is only with the help of lady philosophy, however, that both men and women can appreciate what to do with their differences and how to understand their common human nature. In this episode, we discuss these issues with Dr. Angela Knobel, professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas. Dr. Knobel's forthcoming book deals precisely with these questions, and with the unexplored territory of Aristotle and Aquinas' ethical naturalism applied to motherhood. Links & Resources Dr. Angela Knobel: https://udallas.edu/academics/programs/philosophy/faculty/knobel-angela.php Dr. Knobel's Book, Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues (2021): https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268201104/aquinas-and-the-infused-moral-virtues/ The University of Dallas: https://udallas.edu/ Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture: https://www.austin-institute.org The Austin Institute: https://www.austin-institute.org/

On today's episode, we discuss whether a quiet spiritual revival is emerging among young men, and how their search for meaning is drawing them back toward Christianity—especially the Catholic and charismatic traditions. The hosts describe a generation raised on secularism, postmodernism, and feminist messaging now rejecting “death cult” politics and cultural emptiness in favor of church community, disciplined faith, and serious theological thinkers like Aquinas, Chesterton, Augustine, and C.S. Lewis. They highlight practical pathways into this renewed faith, from daily Bible reading (aided by AI tools), to influencers such as Father Mike Schmitz, Joe Rogan's reported church attendance, and Russell Brand's dramatic conversion and baptism in the Jordan. The conversation also explores the boom in faith-centered films and series—including The Chosen, the David dramas, and The Most Reluctant Convert—as both helpful narrative entry points and works that still require Berean-style discernment against subtle distortions. Throughout, they frame modern ideologies like communism, radical feminism, and “new age” spirituality as corrosive alternatives to the Biblical vision of family, vocation, moral responsibility, and hope, urging listeners to seek truth at the source in Scripture and solid Christian teaching. Don't miss it!

Exploring Church History: Key Figures and Renew Network Vision Join us in this episode as Bobby and David dive into an insightful discussion about their journey with the Renew Network, aiming to restore and renew the New Testament church. They explore notable figures in Christian history, such as Irenaeus, Augustine, Aquinas, and Luther, who contributed to shaping Christianity. The founders discuss the importance of following God's Word, the challenges of embracing the Holy Spirit, and the need for courageous leadership. They highlight the mission and values of Renew Network, focusing on discipleship, church planting, and upholding biblical authority. Discover their vision for the future and how they plan to equip churches and individuals to make disciples and expand God's Kingdom. Download the free RENEW.org App - https://renew.org/renew-app/  Visit RENEW: https://renew.org/   Check out the following from RENEW.org: Events: https://renew.org/resources/events/ Videos: https://renew.org/media/videos/ Podcasts: https://renew.org/media/podcasts/ Articles: https://renew.org/articles/ Free eBooks: https://renew.org/resources/free-ebooks/ Books: https://renew.org/resources/books/ Audiobooks: https://renew.org/resources/audiobooks/ Sermon Tools: https://renew.org/resources/sermon-tools/ Job Board: https://jobs.renew.org/ Renew University: https://renewuniversity.org/ Real Life Theology Conversations: https://renew.org/rltc/ Sign up for our newsletter: https://renew.org/resources/newsletter-sign-up/

For the 4th of July, the 250th birthday of America, Adam did the most Okie thing a man can do to celebrate: he took the family to a rodeo. Both boys went mutton busting, Friday and Saturday. Leo, six, drew a slow sheep the second night and rode it a full 17 seconds, hanging on and hollering "keep going, keep going!" into its ear because he knew he needed that sheep to move to score.-----------Sponsor: The Amen app (from the Augustine Institute)The Amen app is the free Catholic prayer app the guys use to prep the family for Sunday, listening to the Sunday Gospel on the way to Holy Mass so the kids are ready to receive it before they walk in. No paywall, no subscription trap, no upfront cost. Download the Amen app right now.Sponsor: Select International Tours: selectinternationaltours.comWhen Adam and Dave decided to lead their first pilgrimage, one name kept coming up: Select International Tours. Having used them, the guys can vouch for it. Wherever in the world you want to go, Select has a tour ready. Whether you want to lead a pilgrimage or attend one, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see everything they offer. You won't regret it.----------He placed top three, took home a little money and a free snow cone, and nobody's sure which one he was prouder of. John, three, puffed his chest out all day, crumbled at the chute, rode two seconds, hit the dirt, cried, and then immediately declared he was doing it again tomorrow. He did. Same result. He was in it for the story.Then there's Adam and the bull. He's always had the itch to put himself on the line, to go where it takes fortitude and prudence and a whole lot of luck. So he slipped up to the chute with the cowboys, just to feel the atmosphere next to something that powerful. A storm blew in and cut the bull riding short. Adam's calling that one Providence, same as the fight that got cancelled back when COVID shut down the world. Some signs you don't get to ignore.The pour is Teeling Wonders of Wood Single Pot Still, Virgin Swedish Oak. Ninety three dollars, and worth it. No Jim on hand to work the yummy scale, so the guys guessed it might've metamorphosed into a 7.321. Deep, resonant, dangerously delicious.The prayer request is Mary. She's a little over four months now, still in the NICU. Adam sent a photo of her smiling right through all the tubing, and it melted everybody. It's been a hard stretch, a step back, but she recovered fast, her breathing's improving, and there's talk of scheduling open heart surgery in the next four to six months. Adam described the NICU "tree," the pole that once held fifteen to twenty bags and lines and now holds four. Look where they were. Look where they are. Thank you for the prayers. They have not been in vain, and Lady Haylee has been heroic through all of it.Then the topic: what to do when you're struggling. Not just spiritual struggle. Focus, work, sin, the whole weight of it. Most of it isn't laziness. It's disorder, a misalignment between the intellect and the appetites, an internal civil war stoked by stress and exhaustion and distraction. Aquinas names it. Augustine sharpens it: the mind commands the body and it obeys instantly, but the mind commands itself and is resisted. Adam's own admission cut deepest. There is a part of him that does not want to be holy. Naming that was the whole battle. Once he saw the enemy clearly, fasting and prayer stopped feeling like punishment and started feeling like war worth waging. Protect, provide, establish, and fight for your own soul while you're at it. Win the next 15 minutes. Then win the next one. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDCelebrating the 4th of July, America's 250th, the most Okie way possible: a rodeoLeo and John mutton busting both nights, and Leo riding a slow sheep 17 seconds while yelling at it to keep goingJohn, three years old, crumbling at the chute, crying, and immediately signing up to do it againThe bull that jumped the arena into the stands, and Adam's lifelong itch to ride oneAdam sneaking up to the chute and the storm that cut the bull riding short as ProvidenceCarl's 4th of July party, the Declaration recited by teenagers, the bike parade, and drinking a beer while riding a bike ("bunking")Bourbon of the week: Teeling Wonders of Wood Single Pot Still, Virgin Swedish Oak, $93Running the yummy scale without Jim and guessing at a 7.321Prayer update on baby Mary: four months in the NICU, a smiling photo through the tubing, and open heart surgery on the horizonThe NICU "tree" as a visualization of progress, from twenty lines down to fourWhy most struggle is not laziness but disorder and a lack of a clear vision of the endThe human person broken down: intellect, will, and appetites, each with different triggersSt. Thomas Aquinas on the harmony between intellect and appetite, and the civil war when they misalignSt. Augustine on the mind that commands the body instantly but resists commanding itselfThe full life of St. John Paul II as a case study in struggle met with faith and joyWhy you should tell your kids and grandkids your real struggle stories, not hide themRedemptive suffering, and the shortage of real perseverance stories for kids raised on pop cultureTolkien on dragons: children already know dragons exist; they need to know dragons can be beatenCuriosity as the quiet vice, and choosing the good over even a lesser goodWhy it's about atmosphere and scenarios, not willpower, because willpower gives out fastAdam's admission that part of him does not want to be holy, and going to war against itFortitude as the virtue of winning by not losing, and building a habit of small victoriesThe Dave Ramsey debt snowball as a picture of stacking winsCustody of the eyes, stopping the struggle before it starts, and "today, I will be a saint"REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:Confessions by St. Augustine (the mind commands itself and is resisted)Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas (harmony and misalignment of intellect and appetite)The Aeneid by Virgil (Adam reading it aloud with his boys over the summer)Tolkien's line on dragons in children's stories (misremembered on air as "Jetson")Saints & Church Figures:St. John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła (the extended story of his life and suffering)St. Thomas AquinasSt. AugustineThe bishop referenced in the "bishop's flattery" aside, may he rest in peacePeople:Adam Minihan (host; the rodeo, the chute, baby Mary, M6 Marketing, The Grounded Builder on Substack)Dave Niles (host; Lady Pamela and the kids)Lady Haylee (heroic through Mary's NICU stay)Leo and John Minihan (the mutton busters)Karl Graham (friend of the show; the 4th of July party)Dave Ramsey (the debt snowball and the philosophy of stacking wins)

Guido Hülsmann examines the interest rate through both economic analysis and moral theology—tracing the debate from Aristotle through Aquinas and Heinrich Pesch to the Austrian School. His conclusion overturns the traditional doctrine: interest income from voluntary lending is intrinsically just and good, both for the contracting parties and for society as a whole, because it funds the division of labor in finance, strengthens social bonds between savers and borrowers, fuels economic growth through longer production processes, and creates a natural saturation mechanism that prevents capital accumulation from becoming an end in itself.However—and this is the essay's most important turn—the legitimacy of interest income is corrupted when it arises through unjust institutions, particularly the fiat money system. Central banks override the natural saturation of capital accumulation, inflate credit markets beyond any limit that would exist under sound money, and redistribute income from the poor to those closest to money creation. The scholastics were wrong to condemn all interest as usury. But the income generated by today's monetary system—artificial, coerced, and redistributive—is precisely the institutionalized usury that Bernard Dempsey warned about in 1943.Read the original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/economics-and-ethics-interest-rates

Episode Topic: History of Philosophy Explore Thomas Aquinas' rigorous engagement with the Falsafa tradition. From the mechanics of the soul to the dignity of science, discover how his relational rationality bridges medieval wisdom and modern inquiry. Listen in as we synthesize these timeless metaphysical debates for the contemporary professional.Featured Speakers:Stephen Ogden, University of Notre DameKatja Krause, Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceRichard C. Taylor, Marquette UniversityRead this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/045a76.This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Aquinas at 800.Thanks for listening! The ThinkND Podcast is brought to you by ThinkND, the University of Notre Dame's online learning community. We connect you with videos, podcasts, articles, courses, and other resources to inspire minds and spark conversations on topics that matter to you — everything from faith and politics, to science, technology, and your career.Learn more about ThinkND and register for upcoming live events at think.nd.edu.Join our LinkedIn community for updates, episode clips, and more.

You know how something gets said in one corner of the community and somehow reaches the exact person it's about in under two hours? Yeah… we're that episode. We get honest about why gossip moves so fast around here, how you literally can't take words back once they're out, and why “but it's true though” still doesn't get you off the hook. We also talk about whether just being curious is a problem (Aquinas had some thoughts on that), the difference between venting to someone who will actually check you versus just spreading it, and why holding onto that grudge for three years might be hurting you more than the person you're mad at. It's the conversation we've all kind of needed. And yes, we're very aware of the irony of priests making an entire episode about gossip. Featuring: Fr. Simon Esshaki, Fr. Andy Younan, Fr. Fadi Auro, Br. Sinan ––– 00:00 Travel Rumors and New Assignment 02:04 How Gossip Spreads 04:03 St Philip Neri Feather Lesson 07:59 Truth vs. Gossip vs. Slander 13:58 Gossip Can Ruin Lives 18:19 Forgiveness and Letting Go 26:59 Venting Is Still Gossip 30:41 Curiosity As A Vice 35:11 Wonder vs. Trivial Questions 37:48 Celebrity Knowledge Trap 42:33 Church Gossip And Family 43:27 Dream Dinner Draft –––

Frank and Tim grab a couple of citrus wheat ales and head to the theater for Supergirl, the DCU's next step after Superman. The verdict: liked it, didn't love it — an earnest, surprisingly un-cynical B-movie with a great cast, gorgeous practical aliens, and a message clearly aimed at kids it's frankly too dark to show them. Along the way: the Casablanca clue, Lobo done right, and a genuinely unhinged detour into Augustine vs. Aquinas. Cheers! Beers of the Week Sam Adams Summer Ale Harpoon UFO White In this episode Who is this movie even for? Dark subject matter vs. a "you don't have to be perfect to be good" message Krem, and whether every villain really needs a backstory James Gunn's fingerprints and director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) The kill — did it undercut what Kara just told Ruthie? As the former hosts of the top Supergirl podcast on the internet… (RIP Supergirl TV Talk) Bradley Cooper & David Krumholtz as dueling Jor-Els Momoa's Lobo: a better fit than Aquaman The Casablanca clue — "she's Rick" Augustine vs. Aquinas: the actual theology of Supergirl Earning the suit from the inside out (the anti-Spider-Man: Homecoming) Chapters 00:00 Welcome — hop on the magic space bus 00:46 Beers of the Week 02:18 Spoiler-free: "liked it, not loved it" 04:34 Box office & the half-empty preview screening 07:38 The trailer delivered exactly what it promised 09:41 SPOILERS start 10:41 The message: you don't have to be perfect to be good 11:26 Who is this movie even for? 12:12 Krem, and do we need every villain's backstory? 15:17 James Gunn's fingerprints & director Craig Gillespie 16:52 The kill — did it undercut Kara's message to Ruthie? 19:09 Krypton, Allura's ADR backpedal & Jor-El 24:31 "The former hosts of the top Supergirl podcast…" 25:16 Kryptonite overload: they keep depowering Kara 28:18 Bradley Cooper & David Krumholtz as Jor-El 30:37 Lobo & Momoa: an agent of chaos done right 33:38 The aliens, practical makeup & Fifth Element vibes 35:56 James Gunn needle drops & the iPod 36:43 Kara vs. Clark: why she isn't the optimist 37:28 Augustine vs. Aquinas: the theology of Supergirl 39:45 The Casablanca clue — "she's Rick" 40:31 Earning the suit from the inside out 44:19 Final verdict: glad we saw it on the big screen 45:50 The better movie that got tampered with 48:07 Where to find us

What did Augustine and Aquinas actually believe about virginity — and what does it reveal about us? In this episode, we explore the surprisingly rich theology of the Church Fathers on sex, celibacy, and the body. Their views can seem strange to modern ears, but that strangeness might be the point: it forces us to examine assumptions our culture takes for granted. We also tackle one of the harder pastoral questions in the church today — can unwanted singleness ever be called a "gift"? And what role does a voluntary vow play in living out the kind of celibacy the Bible actually describes? Support the Podcast Support us on Patreon Website: thatllpreach.io IG: thatllpreachpodcast YouTube Channel

There's a new Niles in the world. Joshua Benedict Rex was born this week, and Dave wants you to know how stressful it all was. For the dad, that is. The pressure. The anxiety. All those things. None of which come to mind right now. Joke's on Dave, though, because Lady Pamela got to the birth center, the midwife offered to break her water, and Joshua arrived eleven minutes later. That's boy number three, bringing the count to three boys and four girls. Adam got the "we're going in" text at the hospital, stopped to pray, and barely beat the birth. The baby's a content little guy. A stereotypical Niles baby, the spitting image of baby Davy. Baptism's in a couple weeks with Uncle Father Sean, godparents are Sarah and Drew, and somewhere in there is a real theology question the guys throw to the priests who listen: can you name godparents after the fact for a baby baptized in a rush? Asking for a Mary.That birth set the whole table. Every time a baby comes into this circle of friends, the men pull their money, buy one nicer bottle of whiskey, sign it with the kid's name, and drink it together. They call it the "baby bottles" tradition. It blends friends into family. And it's exactly the kind of gift that makes you grateful, which is what this whole episode is about.They're recording on a Friday, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, the same day the bishops of America consecrated the entire country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pour is Glendalough, a pot still Irish whiskey the guys actually visited on pilgrimage. Triple distilled by law, smooth, no burn, and oddly cheap. The bottle shows St. Kevin in cruciform, a bird nesting in his open hand. The pious legend says he held that prayer posture so long the eggs hatched. Jim's scale (Irish edition): 3.96 out of 6.Then the meat: gratitude. Not the bumper-sticker kind. Gratitude is a virtue, a sub-virtue of justice, because it renders to another what's due, first to God who gave us everything. Aquinas lays out three degrees: recognition, expression, repayment. Most of us fail at the first one. We take the morning, the clothes, the breath for granted. St. Bernard calls ingratitude a scorching wind that dries up the streams of grace. God pours, the man doesn't return thanks, the flow stops.The hardest, most masculine turn in the episode is receiving. Men hate it. I don't need your charity. I can carry this cross. But refusing a gift graciously offered isn't humility. It's a wall. Adam's lived on the receiving end through Mary's time in the NICU, and he's learned the Christian paradox: the more graciously indebted you are, the richer your life, because the score is never even. That's not a debt to clear. That's a brotherhood.And the punchline ties it all together. Eucharist means thanksgiving. A man of gratitude is a Eucharistic man. You can't repay God for creating you, so He came down, became one of us, and offered Himself on your behalf. All you have to do is show up. Protect, provide, establish, and give thanks. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDJoshua Benedict Rex Niles is born, baby boy number three, bringing the Niles count to three boys and four girlsDave's tongue-in-cheek case that the dad has it hardest in childbirthLady Pamela's eleven-minute birth at the birth center after the midwife broke her waterThe "kingship" theme running through the Niles boys' names: David, Joseph, and now Joshua Benedict RexWhy every Niles baby is a "cookie cutter" content baby, and Joshua looking just like baby DavyThe wonder that a child somehow looks like both mom and dad, "only God could make a baby look like both"Baptism plans with Uncle Father Sean and godparents Sarah and DrewThe open question for the priests who listen: can you name godparents after the fact for a baby baptized in a rush?The "baby bottles" tradition, the men pooling money for a signed bottle of whiskey to honor each new babyWhy this kind of tradition blends friends into familyRecording on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, and the U.S. bishops consecrating the country to the Sacred Heart of JesusWhiskey of the week: Glendalough pot still Irish whiskey, triple distilled and smoothThe legend of St. Kevin of Glendalough, the bird's nest in his hand and his love of all God's creaturesWhy Irish whiskey is the most approachable place to start, and surprisingly cheapJim's scale (Irish edition): 3.96 out of 6"Better than I deserve, I'm sure," Adam's go-to answer to "how are you?"The man at the pharmacy who'd just lost his wife, and never knowing what people are carryingGratitude as a virtue, and specifically a sub-virtue of justiceThe book of Job as the model of gratitude to the core: "the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away"Why a member of the Body of Christ is doing well no matter what else is going wrongAquinas's three degrees of gratitude: recognition, expression, repaymentWhy recognition is the weak spot for most people, the habit of taking things for grantedThe internal act of the will toward the benefactor as the heart of repaymentThe humility it takes to receive a gift, and why most men refuse charityHow receiving a gift graciously multiplies joy and binds a community togetherThe Christian paradox of being "graciously indebted," and why the score is never evenSt. Bernard of Clairvaux on ingratitude as a burning wind that dries up the streams of graceDeacon Garlick's prayer of thanks as a model for opening prayerMeditating on the magnitude of the Incarnation, the worm-and-the-man analogyWhy real men don't complain or "vent," and complaining as carrying the cross while griping about its weightDying for your family is easy; living for your family is hard, the little deathsAre you willing to get up, eat right, moderate your drinking, and put the phone down for your family?The Malcolm Gladwell mentorship lesson and the hidden cost of remote work, tribal knowledge not getting passed downWhy none of our best fatherhood or business "hacks" are original, and the duty to pass them onSt. John Chrysostom and St. Thérèse of Lisieux: gratitude as the superpower of the soulWhy you won't become holy without the habit of gratitude"People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed"Keeping the right perspective so you don't live in a false reality the devil wants for youEucharist means thanksgiving, a man of gratitude is a Eucharistic manREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:The Book of Job (the model of gratitude through suffering)The Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas, Second Part of the Second Part (the three degrees of gratitude; ingratitude as sin)Malcolm Gladwell's work on mentorship and learning a craft (referenced by Adam)Saints & Church Fathers:St. Thomas Aquinas (the three degrees of gratitude; gratitude as a sub-virtue of justice)St. Bernard of Clairvaux (the "leaky vessel"; ingratitude as a burning wind that dries up the streams of grace)St. Kevin of Glendalough (the bird's-nest legend; love of God's creatures)St. John Chrysostom ("gratitude is the superpower of the soul")St. Thérèse of Lisieux (gratitude and the spiritual life)Simon of Cyrene (carrying the cross with Christ)People:Adam Minihan (host; founder of M6 Marketing; writes The Grounded Builder on Substack)Jim (in studio, keeper of the yummy scale)Lady Pamela Niles (delivered baby number seven)Joshua Benedict Rex Niles (newborn), David Jr., and Joseph Niles (the "kingship" names)Baby Mary Minihan (still in the NICU, the gifts and prayers received)Uncle Father Sean (baptizing Joshua); Sarah and Drew (godparents)Deacon Garlick (his prayer of thanks)Programs & Institutions:The Catholic Man Show pilgrimage (where the guys visited Glendalough)Glendalough Distillery, IrelandSPONSOR BLOCKSponsor: Select International Tours: selectinternationaltours.comWhen Adam and Dave decided to lead their first pilgrimage, one name kept coming up: Select International Tours. They're the best. Having used them, the guys can vouch for it. No matter where in the world you want to go, Select has a tour ready for you. Whether you want to lead a pilgrimage or attend one, head to selectinternationaltours.com and take a look at everything they offer. You won't regret it.

In this episode I look at the connections and distinctions between Aquinas and Aristotle in Ernest Fortin's essay Aquinas. I focus on the four cardinal virtues and the different between natural law and human law.

Holy Wars — Show Notes: Fight Laugh Feast Documentary In this Fight Laugh Feast documentary, CrossPolitic traces the inescapable question of holiness from Moses at the burning bush through the Great Awakenings, the Crusades, and into the present culture war — arguing that holiness is not private sentiment but public, world-transforming fire. Featuring historical and theological commentary from Joe Boot and others, the documentary confronts counterfeit holiness in both secular activism and charismatic revivalism, and calls Christians to fight a holy war with the weapons God has actually given them: his Word, his Spirit, and his people. Timestamps 0:00 — Intro — Moses, the burning bush, and the holy ground that launched a nation 0:43 — How we've privatized holiness — and who filled the public square when we did 1:53 — Holiness is inescapable: not whether, but which 3:06 — The First Great Awakening — Edwards, justification by faith, and national cohesion 4:14 — From holy ground to holy war: how the Great Awakening built the War for Independence 5:46 — The Second Great Awakening — emotionalism, manipulation, cults, and cultural chaos 9:25 — Activism fills the vacuum — and the turn toward natural law and raw political power 11:03 — Sponsor: Patriot Mobile 12:22 — What holiness actually is: the fiery presence of the triune God 14:36 — Creation, the Fall, sacrifice, and the way back into God's presence 18:44 — Golgotha — the curtain torn, the fire unleashed, we are holy ground 21:38 — Is actual war holy? Just war theory: Augustine, Aquinas, and the Reformers 23:24 — The Black-Robed Regiment, the lesser magistrate, and the War for Independence 27:43 — The Crusades — were they just wars? Separating the first, fourth, seventh, and eighth 31:20 — Counterfeit holiness: BLM as pilgrimage, anti-racism as penance, revivalism as emotional currency 34:20 — The question before this generation: Christ's finished holiness or substitutes that leave ash 34:45 — Fight Laugh Feast 2026: Holy Wars — speakers, theme, and why we're gathering 36:18 — We are that bush — holy war in family, church, and state until the earth is full of his glory 43:46 — Deus vult — God wills it. He always has. He is doing it. Fight Laugh Feast 2026: Holy Wars Join us October 1–3 in Franklin, Tennessee for the Fight Laugh Feast Conference. This year's theme mirrors the documentary: Holy Wars — Just War, the Crusades, and the Christian Life. Featuring Doug Wilson, Joe Boot, George Grant, Jared Longshore, Joe Rigney, Ben Merkel, and the CrossPolitic crew. Early Bird pricing ends July 1st — we're nearly halfway sold out. Tickets: https://tickets.flfnetwork.com/holy-wars-conference This Episode's Sponsors Patriot Mobile America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. Same nationwide 4G and 5G coverage as the major carriers — with U.S.-based customer support and dollars that fund religious freedom, constitutional rights, the sanctity of life, and veterans and first responders. Switch today and get a free activation with code CROSSPOLITIC. Website: patriotmobile.com/crosspolitic About CrossPolitic CrossPolitic exists to put Jesus over Politics and reclaim the public square through bold, joyful, biblically grounded media. We confront the chaos discipling America and build the next generation of Christian media infrastructure. Our mission is simple: all of Christ for all of media for all of America. Mainstream media is collapsing. Eighty-seven percent of journalists identify as progressive, and even many conservative outlets prioritize profit over principle. Meanwhile, billions of hours of digital content are discipling the world every day. CrossPolitic stands in that gap, producing courageous, entertaining, truth-filled media for households, churches, and leaders across the nation. Become a CrossPolitic Club Member Support the mission and unlock exclusive content, behind-the-scenes shows, and theology series. https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/menu/checkout Subscribe & Share! Every like, comment, and share helps push Christian media back into the algorithm where it belongs. Follow CrossPolitic YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CROSSPOLITIC X: https://x.com/CrossPolitic Facebook: https://facebook.com/crosspolitic Instagram: https://instagram.com/crosspolitic Email List: https://crosspolitic.com/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NRBTV, DirecTV, Dish, and everywhere podcasts are found. #CrossPolitic #HolyWars #FightLaughFeast #JustWar #Crusades #ChristianMedia #Holiness

Holy Wars — Show Notes: Fight Laugh Feast Documentary In this Fight Laugh Feast documentary, CrossPolitic traces the inescapable question of holiness from Moses at the burning bush through the Great Awakenings, the Crusades, and into the present culture war — arguing that holiness is not private sentiment but public, world-transforming fire. Featuring historical and theological commentary from Joe Boot and others, the documentary confronts counterfeit holiness in both secular activism and charismatic revivalism, and calls Christians to fight a holy war with the weapons God has actually given them: his Word, his Spirit, and his people. Timestamps 0:00 — Intro — Moses, the burning bush, and the holy ground that launched a nation 0:43 — How we've privatized holiness — and who filled the public square when we did 1:53 — Holiness is inescapable: not whether, but which 3:06 — The First Great Awakening — Edwards, justification by faith, and national cohesion 4:14 — From holy ground to holy war: how the Great Awakening built the War for Independence 5:46 — The Second Great Awakening — emotionalism, manipulation, cults, and cultural chaos 9:25 — Activism fills the vacuum — and the turn toward natural law and raw political power 11:03 — Sponsor: Patriot Mobile 12:22 — What holiness actually is: the fiery presence of the triune God 14:36 — Creation, the Fall, sacrifice, and the way back into God's presence 18:44 — Golgotha — the curtain torn, the fire unleashed, we are holy ground 21:38 — Is actual war holy? Just war theory: Augustine, Aquinas, and the Reformers 23:24 — The Black-Robed Regiment, the lesser magistrate, and the War for Independence 27:43 — The Crusades — were they just wars? Separating the first, fourth, seventh, and eighth 31:20 — Counterfeit holiness: BLM as pilgrimage, anti-racism as penance, revivalism as emotional currency 34:20 — The question before this generation: Christ's finished holiness or substitutes that leave ash 34:45 — Fight Laugh Feast 2026: Holy Wars — speakers, theme, and why we're gathering 36:18 — We are that bush — holy war in family, church, and state until the earth is full of his glory 43:46 — Deus vult — God wills it. He always has. He is doing it. Fight Laugh Feast 2026: Holy Wars Join us October 1–3 in Franklin, Tennessee for the Fight Laugh Feast Conference. This year's theme mirrors the documentary: Holy Wars — Just War, the Crusades, and the Christian Life. Featuring Doug Wilson, Joe Boot, George Grant, Jared Longshore, Joe Rigney, Ben Merkel, and the CrossPolitic crew. Early Bird pricing ends July 1st — we're nearly halfway sold out. Tickets: https://tickets.flfnetwork.com/holy-wars-conference This Episode's Sponsors Patriot Mobile America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. Same nationwide 4G and 5G coverage as the major carriers — with U.S.-based customer support and dollars that fund religious freedom, constitutional rights, the sanctity of life, and veterans and first responders. Switch today and get a free activation with code CROSSPOLITIC. Website: patriotmobile.com/crosspolitic About CrossPolitic CrossPolitic exists to put Jesus over Politics and reclaim the public square through bold, joyful, biblically grounded media. We confront the chaos discipling America and build the next generation of Christian media infrastructure. Our mission is simple: all of Christ for all of media for all of America. Mainstream media is collapsing. Eighty-seven percent of journalists identify as progressive, and even many conservative outlets prioritize profit over principle. Meanwhile, billions of hours of digital content are discipling the world every day. CrossPolitic stands in that gap, producing courageous, entertaining, truth-filled media for households, churches, and leaders across the nation. Become a CrossPolitic Club Member Support the mission and unlock exclusive content, behind-the-scenes shows, and theology series. https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/menu/checkout Subscribe & Share! Every like, comment, and share helps push Christian media back into the algorithm where it belongs. Follow CrossPolitic YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CROSSPOLITIC X: https://x.com/CrossPolitic Facebook: https://facebook.com/crosspolitic Instagram: https://instagram.com/crosspolitic Email List: https://crosspolitic.com/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NRBTV, DirecTV, Dish, and everywhere podcasts are found. #CrossPolitic #HolyWars #FightLaughFeast #JustWar #Crusades #ChristianMedia #Holiness

Should Christians love their own nation more than other nations? Does patriotism conflict with the Great Commission? And what does the Bible teach about our responsibilities to family, church, community, and nation? In this special in-studio episode of The Magistrate, Josh Howard is joined by guest host Alex Kocman for a discussion on patriotism, nationalism, missions, and the Christian doctrine of rightly ordered loves . Drawing from Scripture, Augustine, Aquinas, and the historic Christian tradition, they explore whether Christians have unique obligations toward their own people and nation, how patriotism differs from nationalism, and why love for those nearest to us does not negate our responsibility to the nations.Topics include:Christian patriotismOrdered lovesThe Great CommissionNationalism and "America First"Civil magistrates and public lifeFamily, church, and nationBiblical duties and loyaltiesMissions and evangelismCan love of country be a virtue? Or does it inevitably compete with loyalty to Christ? This episode tackles one of the most debated questions facing Christians today.

Dave took another trip to the emergency room this week — though this one wasn't for him. His daughter Bernadette and one of his boys built a foam block bridge, she went off the side of it, landed on the wall, and broke her clavicle. Clean break. When Adam got the x-ray, he zoomed in, screenshotted just the broken collarbone, and sent it to Lady Haylee with no context — let her think Adam had been out grinding, building fences, shouldering it like a tough guy. Bernadette, for the record, is doing great. Three weeks and she's back to normal. As Dave put it, if you're going to break your clavicle, do it young. Don't do it at Jim's age.A lot of life packed into this one before the topic. Adam and his boys, Luke and Jude, are going to read the Aeneid together this summer — Luke already read it at Holy Family Classical School, so he'll lead the way. Adam helped Dave harvest wheat (the invoice is coming), and the two of them talked homesteading honestly: you don't get into it to save time or money. It's a lifestyle, and the pork chop costs $400 if you're foolish enough to count your own labor. Adam also turned 40 — by the time this airs, the birthday's passed — and he spent his Substack this week reflecting on the four ten-year cycles he's got left, if he's lucky. The big lesson from 30 to 40: he had it backwards. He was making his life serve the business instead of the business serve his life. Build the habits of prayer, reading, and friendship young, because life only gets busier, and it's far easier to keep a habit than to add one.Two prayer requests worth holding. Lady Pamela's due date is this week — baby Niles number seven, two middle names this time, names not yet shared. And baby Mary is still in the NICU. They're going to try again this week to take her off the breathing tube. She's weaning off sedation — which means withdrawals, which is hard — but she's gaining weight and getting stronger. Get past the tube and the next hill is open heart surgery. Adam's grateful for every prayer, and for the guys who sent DoorDash cards. Keep praying for Mary. And a shout-out to Dan O'Brien, David's father-in-law, walking the Camino as this drops — Dan, hope the feet are holding up.This week's pour is a funny one: WhistlePig's 250th Anniversary of America 10-Year "Piggy Bank" Limited Edition Straight Rye, 55% ABV. The box is a literal piggy bank and the bottle is a chrome-plated ceramic pig. Spicier and more herbal than your Weller or Buffalo Trace — but smooth for the proof, with caramel and warm undertones. Picked up at Broken Arrow Wine and Spirits, owned by a good Catholic family from St. Benedict. Jim's yummy scale (bourbon scale): 5.87 out of 6.Then the main course: the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. Luke 2, the last joyful mystery, the only Gospel that records it — and the very first time Jesus is recorded speaking. Adam walks through it with the Catena Aurea, Aquinas's compilation of the Church Fathers edited by St. John Henry Newman. The caravan to Jerusalem split women and children up front, men in the back, and a twelve-year-old could be in either — so Mary thought He was with Joseph, Joseph thought He was with Mary. Theophylact says it wasn't negligence. A logistical blind spot. Any father who's left a kid at church after coffee and donuts gets it.The three days they searched? St. Ambrose says that's no accident — a rehearsal for the three days of the Passion, lost and then found again. The age of twelve is no accident either: right before the bar mitzvah, the Lord fulfilling the law perfectly, right on time, and twelve standing for the tribes and the apostles. Watch Mary, too. She brings her grief straight to her Son without accusation — "why have you done this to us?" — modeling how a soul carries pain to Christ: honestly, blaming no one, trusting before she fully understands. Watch Joseph, who says nothing, and pursues his mission relentlessly without drama. That's the masculine answer to adversity: very well, and you handle it. Protect, provide, establish.Was Jesus being disobedient? The Fathers say no — His higher obedience to His Father's business ran underneath the surface, and verse 51 shows Him going home and being subject to them. God first, then family, and that order doesn't fracture the home. It grounds it. And where did they find Him? In the temple. His Father's house. Which is the whole point: you can find Jesus in nature, in the car, anywhere — but you are guaranteed to find Him in the church, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the tabernacle of every Catholic church in the world. If you want to become holy, go be with Him. Get an adoration hour. Holiness doesn't happen the way Adam's buddy Juan figured he'd "just kind of one day have a six pack." You have to do something about it. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDDave's daughter Bernadette breaking her clavicle falling off a foam block bridge the kids builtAdam screenshotting the x-ray and sending just the broken collarbone to Lady Haylee with no contextAdam reading the Aeneid with his sons Luke and Jude this summer — and why he's doing it men's-group styleHarvesting wheat, and the honest economics of homesteading ("the $400 pork chop")Why you never homestead to save time or money — it's a lifestyle, not a shortcutAdam turning 40 and his Substack reflection on the four ten-year cycles he has leftThe biggest lesson from 30 to 40 — making the business serve your life instead of your life serving the businessWhy habits of prayer, reading, and friendship are easier to keep than to add laterLeveraging competent friends instead of trying to do everything yourselfLady Pamela due this week with baby Niles number seven — and the two-middle-names debateBaby Mary update — another attempt to come off the breathing tube, weaning off sedation, gaining weightWhy open heart surgery is the next hill after the breathing tubeDan O'Brien walking the Camino — a shout-out for sore feetBourbon of the week: WhistlePig 250th Anniversary 10-Year "Piggy Bank" Limited Edition Straight Rye, 55% ABVThe ceramic pig bottle, the piggy-bank box, and why a limited shelf whiskey runs $250–$350Jim's yummy scale hitting 5.87 out of 6 on the bourbon scaleThe Finding of Jesus in the Temple — Luke 2, the last joyful mystery, and the only Gospel that records itThe first recorded words of Our LordReading the story through the Catena Aurea — Aquinas's compilation of the Fathers, edited by St. John Henry NewmanHow the Passover caravan split women and children up front and men in the back — and how Jesus fell into the gapTheophylact on why it was a logistical blind spot, not negligence or bad parentingSt. Ambrose on the three-day search foreshadowing the three days of the Passion and ResurrectionWhy the age of twelve matters — the year before the bar mitzvah, and the symbolism of the twelve tribes and apostlesJesus fulfilling the law perfectly and right on time, not jumping aheadMary bringing her grief to Christ without accusation — the model for carrying pain to the Lord"About my father's business" vs. "in my father's house" — the translation and what it meansSt. Bede on faith preceding comprehension — assenting before fully understandingSt. Joseph as the model father — pursuing his mission relentlessly, without drama or self-pityMary honoring Joseph's fatherhood — "your father and I" — and why spouses don't belittle each otherHow complaining about your spouse to others actually breaks your wedding vowsWas Jesus disobedient? The Fathers say no — the higher obedience running underneathThe devil's-advocate case that He chose to be left behind, and His right as the Logos to do soJesus using the Socratic method in the temple — asking questions and "making them wonder upon him"The hierarchy of Christ's presence — and why you're guaranteed to find Him in the tabernacleA convert's story and the simple counsel: you just need to be in front of Jesus"Nothing if not you" — non nisi te, Domine — St. Thomas Aquinas's answer to the LordThe spiritual six pack — why holiness never just "happens on its own"Getting an adoration hour as a statement about the kind of man you want to beREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aquinas, edited by St. John Henry Newman (the Fathers' commentary on the Gospels)The Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 (the Finding in the Temple, vv. 41–52)The Aeneid by Virgil (Adam's summer read with his sons)The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer (mentioned alongside Luke's classical reading)Adam's Substack, The Grounded Builder — this week's reflection on his ten-year cyclesSaints & Church Fathers:St. Thomas Aquinas (the Catena Aurea; non nisi te, Domine)St. John Henry Newman (editor of the Catena Aurea)Theophylact (the caravan blind spot, not negligence)St. Ambrose (the three days foreshadowing the Passion; Mary's grief without rebuke; "right on time")St. Bede the Venerable (faith preceding comprehension; the hierarchy of loves)St. Teresa of Avila ("no wonder you have so few friends, with how you treat them")St. Humbert of Romans (the importance of place and location in prayer)The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph (the model of unified, honoring...

Creation demonstrates the existence of God, leaving unbelievers without excuse. So, why are so many people still skeptical? Today, R.C. Sproul assesses the influence of Immanuel Kant's philosophy on our relativistic age. Get 46 messages from R.C. Sproul with your donation. You'll receive his teaching series Defending Your Faith on a special-edition DVD, plus the digital messages and study guide. You'll also get his digital series Apologetics of the Early Church: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/   Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request both digital teaching series and the digital study guide with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global   Meet Today's Teacher:   R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Adam's youngest son, John, locked himself in the bathroom. No big deal — kid's fine, sang songs in there for forty-five minutes like a champ. The problem was the doorknob. Broken cam, broken spring, faceplate screws on the wrong side, and no way in. So Adam did what any father of six at the end of a long day does: he took an angle grinder to the thing and ground the entire doorknob into a pile of metal shards on the floor. Dave's suggestion — order the door open under holy obedience — came in a little too late.Then Dave told on himself. Reseating a toilet, scraping the wax ring, already in a state of borderline rage. He bumped the tank against the tile and cracked it. In a fit of Herculean fury he hoisted the seat over his head, ready to Hulk-smash it into a million pieces — and heard, somewhere, his guardian angel. Jesus doesn't want you to do this. He set it down. Didn't destroy it. And got rewarded for it: American Standard honored a lifetime warranty he didn't know he had and shipped him a $1,600 toilet, free, to replace the $200 one he broke. Resisting the rage paid out at eight to one.Then a quieter note. Baby Mary is still in the NICU. They got her off the breathing tube — she lasted about 24 hours before she had to be re-intubated. Good progress, long road still ahead. Oklahoma City's two hours off, the kids are out of school, and the Minihans are looking at hiring a nanny. But Adam wanted to brag on Lady Haylee. A stranger at the NICU left her a handwritten note and a crochet sweater with Mary's name on it — telling Haylee her faith had been an encouragement, that God is using her right there in that place. Haylee wasn't trying to be a witness. She was just being a mother in a hard place. That's exactly why it landed. Keep praying for Mary.This week's pour: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon from Nevada H&C Distilling out of Las Vegas. 59.29% ABV — hand-written on the bottle, so every batch runs a little different. Hot, full-flavored, plenty of grit. Jim's yummy scale gave it a 6.0, which broke the scale, because the scale apparently only went to four until tonight.Then the real work. The spiritual significance of manual labor. Summer's coming — the season of labor — and the guys make the case that work isn't a curse of the fall. Adam was tending the garden before sin entered the world. His very name comes from the dirt — adamah — made from it, named for it, made to work it. St. Augustine: what's more wonderful than to watch God's creation respond to human hands? Aquinas gives his four reasons for manual labor — obtain your livelihood, remove idleness, curb concupiscence ("I'm almost too tired to sin"), and give alms from the surplus. And the deeper distinction: servile work, done out of necessity, and liberal work, done for the sake of rest. We don't work to work. We work so we can look at what we've made, see that it is good, and rest. Same thing a man does in the soil, he does for his wife — order the environment so the thing entrusted to him can thrive. Protect, provide, establish.It's hard. It's supposed to be. What did you think hard was going to be? The man who can fix things is a threat to the throwaway culture — and the same will that fixes a thing is the will that prays the rosary on the morning you'd rather not. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDAdam grinding his kid's bathroom doorknob into shards with an angle grinder after his son John got locked inDave nearly Hulk-smashing a toilet seat in a fit of rage — and the guardian angel that stopped himHow resisting the rage earned Dave a free $1,600 American Standard toilet under a lifetime warrantyBaby Mary update — off the breathing tube for 24 hours, re-intubated, long road still aheadThe Minihans looking at hiring a full-time nanny with the kids out of schoolThe handwritten note and crochet sweater a stranger left Lady Haylee at the NICUHow you carry suffering as a Christian can be a witness even when you're not trying to be oneBourbon of the week: Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon, Nevada H&C Distilling, 59.29% ABVJim's yummy scale hitting 6.0 and breaking its own four-point ceilingWhy we even have to talk about manual labor when it used to be everybody's daily lifeAttention as agency — guarding what you direct your mind toward in a world built to fracture itAcedia, apathy, and becoming a cog flung to and fro like Francesca in Dante's ninth circle"The world fears the man who can fix things" — Fr. Mori of Clear Creek AbbeyThrowaway culture and why things are programmed now instead of built to be repairedAdam's M6 Marketing memo on "character without exception" — work and life are one line, not twoManual labor in Genesis — Adam tending the garden before the fall, not afterAdamah — why the first man was made from dirt, named for dirt, and made to work itSt. Augustine on God's creation responding to human handsAquinas's four necessities of manual labor: livelihood, removing idleness, curbing concupiscence, giving alms"I'm almost too tired to sin" — why a hard day's work curbs temptationServile work vs. liberal work — laboring out of necessity vs. laboring for the sake of restJosef Pieper and the Catholic mind: we work so that we can restWhy hard is supposed to be hard, and how it trains the willChoosing to pray the rosary on the morning you've already decided you won'tSelf-sacrificial love — doing the dishes when you don't want to, because she shouldn't have toPrayer as both work and rest — peace as the tranquility of order in this life, rest in the nextWhy unstructured, leisurely time is where the desire to write, paint, and create actually surfacesPassing the habit of manual labor — and the courage to fix things — down to your kids"It's not about the nail" — the philosophy of life behind refusing to just throw things awayREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef PieperLeisure, the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (Pieper's broader work on work and rest)Adam's Substack, The Grounded Builder — recent article on five overlooked books worth readingThe Book of Genesis (the creation and naming of Adam; the call to tend the garden)Dante's Inferno (the ninth circle; Francesca in the second circle, flung to and fro)Shakespeare's As You Like It (staged locally by the Sheard family and other homeschool families)Saints & Historical Figures:St. Thomas Aquinas (the four necessities of manual labor; servile vs. liberal work)St. Augustine ("what is more wonderful than to observe the workings of nature...")Adam (the first man — adamah, made from and for the dirt)People:Adam Minihan (host; founder of M6 Marketing; writes The Grounded Builder on Substack)Dave Niles (host)Jim (in studio — keeper of the yummy scale; shipping Patreon gifts; prays with Hallow)Fr. Mori of Clear Creek Abbey ("the world fears the man who can fix things")Brandon Sheard (quoted the same line; the Sheard family staged the Shakespeare production)Dan (Dave's father-in-law — never trusted a man who works with music on in the background)Josef Pieper ("the peepster" — Adam's favorite German philosopher)Bob Ross (Dave's aspirational painting instructor)Lady Haylee MinihanLady Pamela NilesPrograms & Institutions:Clear Creek AbbeyHallow (prayer app — Jim uses it; not a sponsor)M6 Marketing (Adam's company)SPONSOR BLOCKSponsor: Select International Tours — selectinternationaltours.comWhen Adam and Dave decided to lead their first pilgrimage, one name kept coming up: Select International Tours. They're the best. Having used them, the guys can vouch for it. Wherever in the world you want to go, Select has a tour ready. Whether you're looking to lead a pilgrimage or attend one, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see everything they offer. You won't regret it.Support the show: patreon.com/thecatholicmanshow — Patreon gifts are shipping out again, and the Catholic Man Show Glencairn glass is being paused soon (maybe back around Christmas). If you want one, become a patron now — you've got about four minutes.

Are Aliens Demons, Our Cosmic Neighbors, or Something Stranger?   Host Curtis Chang and author Andy Crouch explore the theological implications of UFOs, extraterrestrial life, and the possibility that humans are not the only created beings in the cosmos. They ask whether aliens should be understood as material creatures, angels and demons, image bearers, or cosmic neighbors—and what Scripture, Christian theology, and even Aquinas suggest about our human uniqueness. Along the way, they consider whether first contact would reveal Christian love, humility, and wonder—or our instinct toward fear and domination.   00:47 - Introduction to Alien Life and Declassified UFO Reports 02:19 - Do Aliens Exist? 08:32 - The Value of Pondering Alien Life 13:02 - Aliens vs. Angels and Demons 23:18 - God's Mysterious Creatures in Scripture 27:42 - The Octopus Dilemma and Human Specialness  38:26 - Missional Work and Alien Life? 44:26 - The Nature of God's Love 48:49 - Domination or Love : The Human Response to Aliens 50:58 - Andy Imagines Worshipping with Cosmic Neighbors   Turn on Apple Podcasts Automatic Downloads: Go to the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap Apps, then tap Podcasts. Tap Automatically Download, then tap an option. Tip: To automatically download episodes from a particular podcast, go to the Podcasts app on your iPhone, tap Library, then tap Shows. Touch and hold the show, then tap Settings. Tap Automatically Download to limit automatic downloads to a certain number of episodes or a timeframe. Sign up for the Anxiety Opportunity Course Use the code: Goodfaith   Scriptures Referenced: Job 1–2 (ESV) Job 38–41 (ESV) Genesis 1–2 (ESV) Genesis 4 (ESV) Ephesians 2 (ESV) 2 Peter 1:4 (ESV) Romans 8 (ESV) Isaiah 11 (ESV) Romans 10 (ESV)   Mentioned in This Episode: UFO-related declassified files UAP disclosure Meghan Sullivan and Notre Dame's DELTA project What is the Fermi paradox? Eleanor Stump's Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering C.S. Lewis's Perelandra Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary: A Novel A scene from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind A scene from Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial A scene from Denis Villeneuve's Arrival St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica: reason / will / dominion Salvation as Theosis: The Teaching of Eastern Orthodoxy (article) Isaiah's peaceable kingdom  Thunderbird in Native American traditions Do octopus brains work like humans'? (article) Pythagoras and Johannes Kepler's Musica Universalis or the Music of the Spheres   More From Andy Crouch: Check out Andy's website Check out Andy's work at Praxis Read Andy's book: The Life We're Looking For   Follow Us: Good Faith on Instagram Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter) Good Faith on Facebook   The Good Faith Podcast is a production of a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that does not engage in any political campaign activity to support or oppose any candidate for public office. Any views and opinions expressed by any guests on this program are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Good Faith.  

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comHarvey is a political philosopher. He's been on the faculty at Harvard since 1962, and he's currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government. His 13 books include Taming the Prince, Manliness, and Machiavelli's Effectual Truth. His new book is The Rise and Fall of Rational Control: The History of Modern Political Philosophy. Harvey was my tutor as a graduate student at Harvard, an overseer of my dissertation, and I was a teaching fellow for the course in modern political thought that his latest book reprises brilliantly. To be honest, my reverence for him made me nervous for this podcast. But his brilliance and dry humor and joie de vivre all came through, and he put me at ease.For two clips of the episode — on the shift from virtue to freedom during the Enlightenment, and how Nietzsche reframed the West — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: raised by New Deal liberals in New Haven and DC; his dad a Yale professor and mom a musician; Leo Strauss an academic mentor; thymos and masculinity; Plato's Apology of Socrates; Aristotle; Aquinas; why democracy leads to tyranny; the humor of Machiavelli; Spinoza and dissent; Locke's Two Treatises; the incest prohibition; Hegel; Hobbes; common sense; Nietzsche and nihilism; deconstructing Christianity; science as a product of “white supremacy”; the sex binary; de Beauvoir's Second Sex; the postmodern view of science; Rawls; AI and human obsolescence; grade inflation; Judith Shklar and her love of Montaigne; Oakeshott; anti-semitism on campus after 10/7; and how moderns set aside the deepest questions.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. We have some real stars coming up: Ben Rhodes on Iran and speech-writing, HW Brands on the life of George Washington, John Gray on Trump's new world, Bob Wright on the evolutionary force of AI, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Daniel McCarthy on conservatism, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, and Robby George on all our disagreements. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This week we're continuing down the Sheldrake path with The Physics of Angels by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, where a theologian and a scientist try to make sense of angels in a modern context. Pulling from figures like Aquinas and Hildegard, we explore whether these “beings” might actually point to forms of intelligence or organization we still don't fully understand. Whether you buy it or not, it's a solid look at how our view of reality might be a lot more limited than we think. Welcome to this banger Plus+ Extension! The long awaited uber saga that is From the Mundane to the Magnificent is at hand! This remarkably fun story is very much an epic tale loaded with insights that will take your mind off of the nonsense found littered about this so called “reality”. Part one offers us instructions for leaving the restrictive body for astral exploration, a new look at the Earth and solar system only to bring it all home by shrinking to the size of an atom, and stopping to have a chin wag with a cell offering their interpretation of life from their perspective. Thank you for being on Plus+ with us! Sit back and enjoy a fresh perspective that could change everything about your Youniverse and unlock hidden potential within yourcelf.  The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet   From the Mundane to the Magnificent - Vera Stanley Alder LinksPlus+ ExtensionThe extension of the show is EXCLUSIVE to Plus+ Members. To join. click HERE.Links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices