The Catholic Culture Podcast CatholicCulture.org

Poet & philosopher James Matthew Wilson rejoins the show to read poems from his new collection, Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds, published by Word on Fire; and to discuss the tradition of English poetry, especially with regard to meter.
Don't miss the title poem, a verse setting of a passage from Aquinas's Summa Theologiae!
Links
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/saint-thomas-and-the-forbidden-birds
The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p82/The_Fortunes_of_Poetry_in_an_Age_of_Unmaking%2C_by_James_Matthew_Wilson.html
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On June 29 and 30, in South Bend, Indiana, there will be a major and even unprecedented event in the history of American Catholic art: a new, full-length classical ballet production with a new story, new music, new sets and costumes, and nationally known dancers - with a cast of about fifty. This fairytale ballet, titled Raffaella, was commissioned by Duncan and Ruth Stroik in honor of their daughter Raffaella Maria Stroik, a dancer with the St. Louis Ballet who passed away tragically in 2018 at the age of 23.
In the first segment, Thomas Mirus interviews impresario Duncan Stroik about the ballet as a whole and the process of putting together such a huge production. In the second, he interviews composer Michael Kurek and choreographer Claire Kretzschmar about the collaboration between music and dance, and the difference between classical and modern ballet.
Links
Tickets for Raffaella https://raffaellaballet.org/
See rehearsal footage on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/raffaella.ballet/
 Michael Kurek https://michaelkurek.com/
Claire Kretzschmar at Ballet Hartford https://www.ballethartford.com/
Duncan Stroik https://www.stroik.com/
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A new book presenting material from Flannery O’Connor’s unfinished third novel shows the great Catholic writer pushing beyond her established fictional territory. Jessica Hooten Wilson returns to the podcast to discuss her book, Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress.
Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can continue! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Links
Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/542827
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Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Bohemian Catholic baroque composer who has at times been called "The Catholic Bach" because his best compositions are on par with those of J.S. Bach, who indeed knew and esteemed Zelenka. This episode covers Zelenka's career at the Catholic court chapel in Dresden with its grand liturgies inspired by Habsburg piety and Jesuit aspirations to evangelize the Protestants of Saxony.
Please consider donating to Catholic Culture's May fundraising campaign so this show can continue! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Links
Janice Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745): A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden https://archive.org/details/jandismaszelenka00stoc/
Music heard in this episode:
The first movements of the trio sonatas in F major and C minor, ZWV 181/5 and 181/6, found on the album Zelenka: Trio Sonatas Nos. 1-6, performed by Ensemble Zefiro https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8121143--zelenka-trio-sonatas-nos-1-6
Nisi Dominus, ZWV 92, performed by Ensemble Inegal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-3cOwmrorI
Miserere in C minor, ZWV 57, performed by Il Fondamento/Paul Dombrecht https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAi_2B3QvAA
Missa votiva, ZWV 18, performed by Collegium 1704/Václav Luks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCL2CWQaH4A
Litaniae Lauretanae "salus infirmorum", ZWV 152, performed by Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Neue Hofkapelle München/Peter Dijkstra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPRhMBJm6xs
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One of the most brilliant philosophers working today, D.C. Schindler, returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss his latest book, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics. In it, he draws an analogy between metaphysics as the most comprehensive science in the theoretical order and politics as the most comprehensive science in the practical order. Examining how in metaphysics, God is necessarily involved, yet without being the direct object of that science, Schindler argues that the same is true of the relationship between God and politics. Just as it is in God that the individual person "lives and moves and has its being", even before revelation and grace enter the picture, God is both the highest good of human community, and intimately present within it.
Links
God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics https://www.amazon.com/God-City-D-C-Schindler/dp/1587313286
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Today’s guest is a man with two names and two careers. For decades he has been a distinguished poet and translator under the name of A.M. Juster. This is an acronym for his Christian name, Michael J. Astrue, who for many years was a lawyer, biotech executive, and public servant, most notably serving as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 to 2013. During this time, his political enemies tried to dig up dirt on him – but all they could find was that he wrote poetry on the side!
Juster has published multiple books of his original poems, most recently Wonder & Wrath in 2020. His work as a translator includes volumes of Petrarch, Horace, Tibullus, and the Latin verse riddles of the Anglo-Saxon bishop St. Aldhelm. Upcoming projects include another volume of Petrarch poems, a children’s book about a female juvenile manatee called Girlatee, and an anthology of poems about the legendary phoenix, from Ovid to Shakespeare.
In this episode Juster discusses his two careers, his interest in translating early Latin Christian poetry, St. Aldhelm’s riddles, and his own original poetry.
Links
A.M. Juster on Twitter https://twitter.com/amjuster
Saint Aldhelm’s Riddles https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/saint-aldhelms-riddles-aldhelm-juster/
Wonder & Wrath https://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/wonder-and-wrath
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