Are We Listening to Be Offended

In this reflection, we explore the astonishing intellectual and spiritual life of St. Thomas Aquinas — the thirteenth-century Dominican friar who wrote over eight and a half million words, synthesized Christian thought with Aristotle, and gave the Church the Summa Theologica. All ...  Show more

In a world quick to excuse “little white lies,” this episode reveals why the Catholic tradition treats every falsehood—no matter how small—as a sentence spoken in the native tongue of the father of lies. Drawing on Augustine’s uncompromising clarity, Aquinas’s precise distinction ...  Show more

In this episode we explore the history of Israelite religion under Hellenism and the Roman empire. We examine the ways in which Judeans responded to, absorbed, and resisted Hellenic culture resulting in messianic movements, the Sadducee sect, Pharisee sect, and Essene sect. We in ...  Show more

This episode provides a brief sketch of the history of the Greeks. We start with a short discussion on the Minoans and the Mycenaean invasion. We talk about the emergence of a common culture within Homer’s epic of the Iliad and Odyssey while noting that “Greek” was a single, unif ...  Show more

Today we take a look at the Babylonian empire and the rise of Hammurabi. We analyze the way kingship and religion worked hand-in-hand to justify rule. We take a close look at the Code of Hammurabi and what it tells us about Babylonian religion. We examine the cosmology of the Enu ...  Show more

In our final episode of the season, we wrap up our theme of Empires of Faith. We start out with some shout outs and then present a brief timeline of the Roman and Byzantine Empire. We discuss the Romanization of Christianity and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. We talk a ...  Show more