The Catholic Culture Podcast CatholicCulture.org

Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P.’s definitive scholarly biography of St. Thomas Aquinas has recently received its third edition. Translator Matthew Minerd returns to the Catholic Culture Podcast to discuss what we can learn from Fr. Torrell about the life of St. Thomas and the context in which works like the Summa theologiae were written.
This episode is a deep dive into Thomas’s vocation in a number of senses – his Benedictine formation and eventual decision to become a Dominican instead, his intellectual formation as a student of St. Albert the Great and eventual Bachelor of the Sentences, and his duties in teaching, writing, disputation and preaching as a Master of the Sacred Pages at the University of Paris and elsewhere. Looking into these things can teach us much about Thomas’s spirituality, his working methods, and the intellectual climate of the time.
Links
Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., Saint Thomas Aquinas: Vol. 1, The Person and His Work https://www.cuapress.org/9780813235608/saint-thomas-aquinas/
Matthew Minerd’s essay in defense of Garrigou-Lagrange https://www.academia.edu/97075759/Who_Wasnt_the_Sacred_Monster_of_Thomism_Overcoming_Certain_Narratives_about_Fr_Reginald_Garrigou_Lagrage_OP_in_the_Hope_of_Mutual_Honesty_Among_Faithful_Catholics
Ep. 38 with Minerd on Garrigou-Lagrange https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-38-sacred-monster-matthew-k-minerd/
Kirwan and Minerd, The Thomistic Response to the Nouvelle Theologie https://www.amazon.com/Story-Great-Medieval-Book-Rethinking/dp/1551117185
Philipp W. Rosemann, The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard’s ‘Sentences’ https://www.amazon.com/Story-Great-Medieval-Book-Rethinking/dp/1551117185
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 Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

In the last of the YouTube livestreams related to Catholic Culture’s May fundraising campaign, Jeff Mirus and Phil Lawler discuss their approach to writing responsible, sober commentary during a time of crisis in the Church: that is, when the news is crazy, how can we talk about it sanely?
We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). 
Donation links below: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DZRZRJ5723MLA
Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of content, including news, articles, podcasts, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

In this livestream, James Majewski and Thomas Mirus we discussed errors artists can fall into in pushing back against a moralistic approach to art found within the Church. Rather than reacting away from rigidity to excessive openness, the mature Catholic artist has to get over himself and be a servant.
Also discussed: The relation between order and surprise in beauty, morality and culture.
Note: the video begins abruptly in the middle of our introductory fundraising campaign pitch - because of some glitched-out audio, we cut the first 6 minutes or so.
We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). 
Donation links below: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate
 https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DZRZRJ5723MLA
Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of content, including news, articles, podcasts, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

For those who missed the YouTube livestream Q&A with Mike Aquilina on May 8th, 2023, here is the audio. It was a lively conversation where Mike fielded viewer questions about important cities of the early Church, early evidence for papal primacy, the role of charity in the early Church, Origen, the providential role of easy travel for the spread of the Gospel in the first centuries, and more.
We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). Donation links below:
http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DZRZRJ5723MLA
We’ll be doing more YouTube livestreams where viewers will be able to interact, ask questions and prompt discussion via the live chat box. Upcoming livestreams:
5/15, 8pm ET—Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast)
5/22, 8pm ET—Phil Lawler & Jeff Mirus (CatholicCulture.org writers)

Catholic University of America Press recently launched a major new series: the English Critical Edition of the Works of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II. The first volume of the series was a new translation of Wojtyła's 1969 book Person and Act, along with related essays.
In Person and Act Wojtyła set forth the foundation of his blend of phenomenology, Thomism and personalism, a foundation underlying much of his other philosophical and theological writing. The first English translation is generally considered to be quite inaccurate, and, crucially, removed the Latin terms by which Wojtyła refers to the Thomistic and scholastic tradition, leading to a false impression that Wojtyła was much more of a pure phenomenologist and less of a Thomist than he really was. Thus the new translation by Gregorz Ignatik is a significant moment for the reception of Wojtyła/John Paul II's thought in the Anglosphere.
In this episode, Timothy Flanders joins Thomas Mirus to discuss Person and Act as they attempt to boil down some of the key points of this rather challenging book, to set Wojtyła's philosophy in its intellectual, cultural, and religious context, and showing why his insights about human consciousness, the experience of morality, and the person are important for us as well.
Points discussed include:
How Wojtyła's use of phenomenology and personalism relates to the traditional Aristo-Thomistic anthropology The importance of phenomenological methods for the "healing of experience" and giving an objective account of the subjective Correcting modern errors about consciousness The concept of the person in relation to the traditional concept of human nature The need to integrate cognition with experience and the danger of the "emotionalization of consciousness" The centrality of morality to personhood Links
The Meaning of Catholic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaMoKEEA-KKDNgx3icjA36Q
Person and Act and Related Essays https://www.cuapress.org/9780813233666/person-and-act-and-related-essays/
Recommended secondary sources:
Accessible:
Crosby, The Personalism of John Paul II https://www.amazon.com/Personalism-John-Paul-II/dp/1939773148
Jablonska, A Pope for All Seasons https://www.amazon.com/Pope-All-Seasons-Testimonies-Inspired/dp/1621388840
Less accessible:
Buttiglione, Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II https://www.amazon.com/Karol-Wojtyla-Thoughtof-Became-Thought-ebook/dp/B002BWPTOW
Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II https://www.amazon.com/Witness-Hope-Biography-Pope-John/dp/0062996010/
DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio
Go to Catholic Culture's website for tons of written content, including news, articles, liturgical year info, and a vast library of documents: https://www.catholicculture.org

We'll be doing YouTube livestreams on the next 3 Monday evenings, as part of CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. In these freewheeling conversations, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and prompt discussion in the live chat box!
5/8, 8pm ET - Mike Aquilina (host, Way of the Fathers podcast)
5/15, 8pm ET - Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast)
5/22, 8pm ET - Phil Lawler & Jeff Mirus (CatholicCulture.org writers)
You can use this link to connect to the Mike Aquilina livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXvhOJuLZ8
The links to the other two livestreams will go up on the Catholic Culture YouTube channel a few days before each one.