Bo Bonner, senior advisor of mission initiatives and director of the Center for Human Flourishing at Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, joins us to chat about his journey to the Catholic faith, how St. John Henry Newman has hounded him throughout his career, and much more.Special Guest: Bo Bonner.Links:Bo's Homepage — Bo Bonner has been involved in the Catholic teaching ministry (primarily Philosophy and Theology) since he converted in the midst of Protestant Seminary at Duke Divinity school in 2006. He is also a Benedictine Oblate at Our Lady of Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. He has been married for over a decade to his wife Robyn, and so far has four children: Elias, Stella, Antonia, and Finnian. Bo was born on the feast of St. Blaise, the patron of throats, and has not stopped talking ever since.Center for Human Flourishing — The Center for Human Flourishing aims to advance human flourishing through the study, pursuit, and production of practical wisdom in order to achieve sensible, real-world outcomes which promote the dignity, integrity, self-determination, and personal growth for the individuals and communities we serve.In the Shadow of Success: COVID, Newman, & the Dignity of Patients & Learners in Medical Ed - Fall Conference 2021 — A panel featuring Bo Bonner (Mercy College), Kristin Collier (University of Michigan), and Brett Robinson (University of Notre Dame). From the 2021 Notre Dame Fall Conference, "I Have Called You By Name: Human Dignity in a Secular World". Session chair: Jose Bufill (Bur Oak Foundation). Bound in Friendship - Fall Conference 2019 — Speakers: “Literature, Our Virtuous Friend: How Aristotle's Ethics and Poetics Inform Good Reading” by Bo Bonner (Mercy College of Health Sciences) “Virtue Friendship in the Catholic Literary Imagination” by Dorian Speed (Independent Scholar) “Friendship in the Literature of Addiction” by Eve Tushnet (Freelancer) Session Chair: Leigh SneadTheme song: "I Dunno" by Grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Fr. Harrison returns to the podcast to discuss his book, Mysterion: The Revelatory Power of the Sacramental Worldview.Special Guest: Fr. Harrison Ayre.Links:Mysterion: The Revelatory Power of the Sacramental Worldview — Mysterion unveils the underlying vision at the heart of Christianity and invites us to enter into a deeper understanding of the mystery and saving work of Christ. We discover the fulfillment of our deepest desires in the sacramental worldview—a powerful way of seeing all created things as pointing us toward God.Video Series: Mysterion — A 6-part series on YouTube featuring Fr. Harrison Ayre and an experience of Visio Divina.Podcast: Clerically Speaking — The award-winning podcast with Fr. Anthony Sciarappa and Fr. Harrison Ayre.Theme song: "I Dunno" by Grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Paul Blaschko is an assistant teaching professor in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He heads up curriculum design and digital pedagogy for the God and the Good Life Program, and has recently been working to develop similar curricula at universities across the nation as part of an initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Blaschko completed an MA in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, a PhD at the University of Notre Dame, and held the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship prior to being appointed to his current position.Special Guest: Paul Blaschko.Links:The Good Life Method — For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course “God and the Good Life,” in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful.Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society — The Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society is a community at Notre Dame where students and professors dedicated to exploring business and the liberal arts can do so through dedicated coursework, collaborative research, meaningful dialogue, and purpose-driven career discernment.ProfBlaschko on TikTokTheme Song: "I Dunno," by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Dr. Collier is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School and she completed her internal medicine residency and chief medical resident year at the University of Michigan Health System. She is the director of Michigan Medicine's program on Health, Spirituality & Religion. Her special clinical interests include preventative medicine, primary care, depression and heart disease.Special Guest: Kristin Collier, MD.Links:In the Shadow of Success: COVID, Newman, & the Dignity of Patients & Learners in Medical Ed — A panel featuring Bo Bonner (Mercy College), Kristin Collier (University of Michigan), and Brett Robinson (University of Notre Dame). From the 2021 Notre Dame Fall Conference, "I Have Called You By Name: Human Dignity in a Secular World". Session chair: Jose Bufill (Bur Oak Foundation).An Academic Program for Exploring the Divine Healing Touch in Medicine — "As a result of generous support by many, we have been able to create curriculum for medical students and connect with colleagues at UM and across the country on this topic. We now have required curriculum on religion and spirituality for the pre-clinical and clinical medical students. We also run a senior medical student elective where students rotating through our ICU's may participate in didactics and patient care with members of our chaplaincy staff."The Theobiology of a Mother's Voice — "Our words have power, even the power to impact physical changes in our biology. We should therefore speak as God speaks, sharing in the same Spirit. In our relationships we should speak edifying things into existence, words of truth and love, and where necessary, words of discipline and rebuke by the Spirit. We should speak as God speaks because we bear God’s image in our being and we share in his Spirit."Theme Song: "I Dunno," by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame presented the 11th annual Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal to Dr. John T. Bruchalski, MD, founder of Tepeyac OB/GYN, one of the largest pro-life clinics in the nation, at a celebration on April 23, 2022. "Dr. Bruchalski is a shining example of the Church's untiring commitment to directly serving mothers, children, and families," said O. Carter Snead, director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. "His personal conversion story is a compelling example of the power of God's grace to transform hearts, and his visionary work at Tepeyac OB/GYN over the past 27 years is an invitation to each of us to employ our talents in service to building a civilization of life and love."Special Guest: John T. Bruchalski, MD.Links:Video: Profile of Dr. John T. BruchalskiTepeyac OB/GYN — Tepeyac OB/GYN is a pro-life faith based obstetrics and gynecology practice serving the metropolitan Washington DC/NOVA/MD area for...
Writer, editor, publisher, and teacher, Gregory Wolfe has been called “one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation” (Ron Hansen). Both as a thinker and institution-builder, Wolfe has been a pioneer in the resurgence of interest in the relationship between art and religion—a resurgence that has had widespread impact both on religious communities and the public square. As an advocate for the tradition of Christian Humanism, Wolfe has established a reputation as an independent, non-ideological thinker—at times playing the role of gadfly but ultimately seeking to be a reconciler and peacemaker.Special Guest: Greg Wolfe.Links:Homepage: Greg WolfeNew York Encounter 2022 Panel: “I cannot say ‘I’ if I do not say ‘you’” | Klay, Mooney, Williams, & Wolfe — A presentation of The Meaning of Birth, a conversation between Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, and Giovanni Testori, playwright. Featuring panelists Phil Klay, author; Margarita Mooney, Associate Professor of Congregational Studies, Princeton Theological Seminary; Rowan Williams, theologian; and Greg Wolfe, writer and managing director of Slant Books.2004 CEC Fall Conference Keynote: "Shouts or Whispers? Faith and Doubt in Contemporary American Literature" — Keynote Address by Gregory Wolfe for the fifth annual fall conference, "Epiphanies of Beauty," held November 18-20, 2004.Slant Books — Slant is an independent, not-for-profit literary press specializing in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, philosophy, and belles lettres. Slant books are marked by the kind of meticulous craft and passion for language that are harder and harder to come by in our age of instant publishing and literary gimmickry. These are books that will lodge themselves in readers’ lives.Theme Song: "I Dunno," by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Dan Lipinski is the former US Representative for the 3rd Congressional District in Illinois from 2005 to 2021, a member of the Democratic Party. He was co-chair of the Bi-partisan Congressional Pro-life Caucus.Special Guest: Daniel Lipinski.Links:New York Encounter 2022: "Politics: A Zero-Sum Game?" — Précis: Overcoming ideological divides in the political battlefield, with William Haslam, former Governor of Tennessee, and Dan Lipinski, former U.S. Congressman, moderated by Kimberly Shankman, Dean of Benedictine College, Atchison, KS. The Encounter 2022 will explore how seeking the truth in any human endeavor, and loving it more than one’s own preconceived opinions, is essential in order to overcome ideological divides and restore a much-needed trust in each other and our public institutions. An area where the opposite seems to apply is politics. This is why examples of seeking the truth more than winning an argument and bridging the sectarian divide that dominates the political arena, even to the point of sacrificing personal power, are so important. Both speakers have long careers on the political frontlines and will share stories of these attempts and their views about where to go from here.dCEC Fall Conference 2021: "The Catholic Answer Our Divided Nation Needs" — Précis: The divide in America today is best described as a sectarian partisan divide. This new type of partisanship, which is increasingly embraced by Americans on both sides, is a moralized identification with each party having an established set of beliefs and a strong focus on maintaining ideological purity and distinction from its counterpart. The potential triumph of the sectarian left’s replacement of the biblical view of humans with expressive individualism as a policy basis, poses an existential threat to America. But zero-sum sectarian partisanship on the right that negates the political process, embraces political messianism, and muddles temporal politics with Christianity is also a threat to our democratic republic. Our divided nation needs a Catholic answer - rejecting sectarian partisanship on both sides and being Catholic first.Author Page at First ThingsAuthor Page at Public DiscourseTheme Song: "I Dunno," by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Abigail Favale, Ph.D., is a writer, professor, and speaker. She is Dean of the College of Humanities at George Fox University. Raised an evangelical Christian, she converted to the Catholic faith in 2014. Her newest book, The Genesis of Gender, is due to be released by Ignatius Press in May 2022.Special Guest: Abigail Favale.Links:Abigail Favale's HomepageDr. Favale at dCEC Fall Conference 2021Dr. Favale at New York Encounter 2022 - Body and Identity — A presentation on gender theory and its social implications, with Abigail Favale, Dean of the College of Humanities, George Fox University, and Helen Joyce, executive editor for events business of The Economist, moderated by Holly Peterson, Principal of Nativity: Faith and Reason School in Broomfield, CO.Dr. Favale on "What is Sex For?" at MICL Cultures of Formation ConferenceBook: "Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion"Book: "The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory"New York Encounter — NEW YORK ENCOUNTER IS AN ANNUAL THR...
Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC is a priest with the Legionaries of Christ ordained in 2013. He is currently writing a doctoral thesis in moral theology through Regina Apostolorum in Rome while living in the diocese of Arlington, Virginia. Since leaving his hometown of Calgary, Canada, he has ministered in various locations throughout the USA and Canada. He is also known for his online writing and social media, @FrMatthewLC across social media.Special Guest: Fr. Matthew Schneider, LC.Links:Fr. Matthew on TwitterFr. Matthew on InstagramFr. Matthew on Facebook — I Jesus. Jesus us. I help you experience him & become his apostle. I'm a religious priest with the Legionaries of Christ. I post inspirational stuff.Fr. Matthew on Licensing the Catechism — Eight Years ago, Brandon Vogt had a long piece on how much trouble it is that the Catechism and NAB (Bible translation used at Mass) are so expensive, and how hard they are to distribute. I think he is mainly right but I suggest maybe one slight variation. This came up as an issue as people were talking about Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a year. Someone noted how initiatives to read the catechism had been stifled in the past by rules around publishing it.Theme Song: "I Dunno," by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque
Christopher Beha is the author of a memoir, The Whole Five Feet, and the novels Arts & Entertainments and What Happened to Sophie Wilder. His latest novel, The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, was nominated for the 2020 National Book Award. He is the editor of Harper’s Magazine.Special Guest: Christopher Beha.Links:Author's Homepage: Christopher BehaThe Index of Self Destructive Acts — Longlisted for the National Book Award A New York Times Editors’ Choice Finalist for the Gotham Book Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, The Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, and BuzzFeedThe Whole Five Feet — In The Whole Five Feet, Christopher Beha turns to the great books for answers after undergoing a series of personal and family crises and learning that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics to educate herself during the Great Depression. The result is a smart, big-hearted, and inspirational mix of memoir and intellectual excursion that “deftly illustrates how books can save one’s life” (Helen Schulman).Theme Song: "I Dunno" by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque