Catholic Studies

Catholic Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Catholicism about their new books.

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Miracle Man (with Joe McGivney)

March 1, 2024

Miracle Man: Intercession and Healing

Joe McGivney

Lifelong alcoholic Joe McGivney drank himself into brain damage and permanent disability. The day after being placed into the assisted care he would n…

Harriet Lyon, "Memory and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Early Modern England" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

February 22, 2024

Memory and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Early Modern England

Harriet Lyon
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The dissolution of the monasteries was recalled by individuals and communities alike as a seismic rupture in the religious, cultural, and socio-econom…

Robert Louis Wilken, "Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom" (Yale UP, 2019)

February 20, 2024

Liberty in the Things of God

Robert Louis Wilken
Hosted by Ian Drake

Robert Louis Wilken, the William R. Kenan Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia, has written an intellectual…

Gwyn McClelland, "Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki: Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives" (Routledge, 2019)

February 19, 2024

Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki

Gwyn McClelland
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

On 9th August 1945, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Of the dead, approximately 8500 were Catholic Christians, representing over six…

Homo sapiens catholicus (with Jeremy Holmes)

February 15, 2024

Homo sapiens catholicus

Jeremy Holmes

Theology Professor Jeremy Holmes of Wyoming Catholic College teaches a class called “Science and Theology,” which is about the Darwin’s theory of evol…

Ed Simon, "Relic" (Bloomsbury. 2024)

February 15, 2024

Relic

Ed Simon
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Object Lessons is a Bloomsbury series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. This book, Relic, by Dr. Ed Sim…

Anthony Kaldellis, "Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium" (Harvard UP, 2019)

February 13, 2024

Romanland

Anthony Kaldellis
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Though commonly used today to identify a polity that lasted for over a millennium, the label “Byzantine empire” is an anachronism imposed by more rece…

The Good Fire: Theology of Stewardship & Controlled Burning (with Peter Hess)

February 1, 2024

The Good Fire

Peter Hess

Peter Hess (Ph.D, FFT2) is a theologian, an environmental scientist, a wildland fire practitioner, and firefighter type two. I ask Peter about this wo…

Eugenio Refini, "Staging the Soul: Allegorical Drama as Spiritual Practice in Baroque Italy" (Legenda, 2023)

January 25, 2024

Staging the Soul

Eugenio Refini
Hosted by Kate Driscoll

As per William Shakespeare, ‘all the world’s a stage’. But what if the human soul was a stage too? What if the stage of the world and the stage of the…

Nicholas Morton, "The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187" (Oxford UP, 2020)

January 22, 2024

The Crusader States and their Neighbours

Nicholas Morton
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Nicholas Morton’s The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187 (Oxford UP, 2020) explores the military history of the medie…

Jane Ohlmeyer, "Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World" (Oxford UP, 2023)

January 20, 2024

Making Empire

Jane Ohlmeyer
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Empire and imperial frameworks, policies, practices, and cultures have shaped the history of the world for the last two millennia. It is nation states…

"Apocalypto" and Mel Gibson (with Jonathon Fessenden)

January 18, 2024

"Apocalypto" and Mel Gibson

Jonathon Fessenden

The 2006 Mel Gibson movie, Apocalypto, takes us into a decadent Maya civilization in the Yucatan on the eve of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. It coul…

Matthew Carr, "Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614" (Hurst, 2017)

January 8, 2024

Blood and Faith

Matthew Carr
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

A centuries-old story with remarkable contemporary resonance, Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614 (Hurst, 2017) is celebrated jour…

The Men We Need (with Brant Hansen)

January 8, 2024

The Men We Need

Brant Hansen

“What is a man?” asks Hamlet. If all he does is “sleep and feed,” then “a beast, no more.” That’s not enough for Hamlet, and it’s not enough for Brant…

Marcy Norton, "The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492" (Harvard UP, 2024)

January 4, 2024

The Tame and the Wild

Marcy Norton
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 (Harvard University Press, 2024), Dr. Marcy Norton offers a dramatic new interpretation of the…

Margaret M. McGuinness, "Katharine Drexel and the Sisters Who Shared Her Vision" (Paulist Press, 2023)

January 3, 2024

Katharine Drexel and the Sisters Who Shared Her Vision

Margaret M. McGuinness
Hosted by Allison Isidore

Although Katharine Drexel has been the subject of several biographies, they have tended to treat her as a perfect human being whom the Church later tr…

Max Deardorff, "A Tale of Two Granadas: Custom, Community, and Citizenship in the Spanish Empire, 1568–1668" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

January 2, 2024

A Tale of Two Granadas

Max Deardorff
Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

In 1570's New Kingdom of Granada (modern Colombia), a new generation of mestizo (half-Spanish, half-indigenous) men sought positions of increasing pow…

John Christopoulos, "Abortion in Early Modern Italy" (Harvard UP, 2021)

January 1, 2024

Abortion in Early Modern Italy

John Christopoulos
Hosted by Jana Byars

Today we have John Christopoulos, Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, to talk about his new book, Abortion in Early …

Kathy Stuart, "Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

December 13, 2023

Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany

Kathy Stuart
Hosted by Jana Byars

Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of “earning” their execut…

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 6: A Medieval Anti-Racist

December 10, 2023

A Medieval Anti-Racist

Hosted by Zachary Davis

What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and t…