This week, Dr. Spalding explains how that's the case and how the Declaration expresses the American mind.

While the Declaration was signed in July 1776, the "shot heard around the world" was fired 15 months earlier in April 1775. Dr. Glenn Arbery, Dr. Michael Wilmer, and Dr. Jim Tonkowich explore some of the history of those 15 months.

The 16th century English philosopher, statesman and scientist Francis Bacon famously stated, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is,” he went on to explain, “some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” 

Much to my surprise, that first podcast was seven and a half years, 390 episodes, and more than 205,000 downloads ago. And as of this episode, I’m hanging up my headphones and (for the most part) my mortarboard.

Links:

The Eucharist Podcast with Wyoming Catholic College

Mars Hill Audio Journal

Dr. Jim Tonkowich at The Stream

Purgatorio is the place where that melted down and malleable heart finds the forge, the place where the hammer of suffering purges all impurities and fashions our hard hearts into hearts perfected.

And finally Paradiso shows us the path of choosing the good, true, and beautiful habitually as we gaze on the Face of God eternally “lost,” as the hymnwriter put it, “in wonder, love, and praise.”

I came to myself in a dark wood,

for the straight way was lost.

Ah, how hard it is to tell

the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh—

the very thought of it renews my fear!

It is so bitter death is hardly more so. (Inferno 1.1-7)

During Lent and now during Easter, our sophomores, under the guidance of Dr. Tiffany Schubert, have been reading Dante's Divine Comedy in their humanities class. And while that reading is academic, no one can avoid Dante’s emphasis throughout the poem on our spiritual lives.

Theologian Dr. Jeremy Holmes shares his insights about the risen Christ as we celebrate the Octave of Easter.

The cross is the bridge from death to life, from Hell to Heaven, from the judgment we deserve to the grace we can never deserve, from eternal captivity to the self to eternal freedom in God.

With that in mind, during this Holy Week, it seemed appropriate to rebroadcast a conversation with theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski about the four last things.

Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.

During their final spring semester in their science course, Wyoming Catholic College seniors consider the theory of evolution. Their professor, Dr. Daniel Shields guides them towards, as the college catalog puts it, “the ultimate goal of achieving a coherent synthesis of faith and reason.”

Over the past few weeks, our Wyoming Catholic College juniors have been considering the French Revolution with their professor Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos.

Not that we don’t think about getting outside and enjoying nature even in the depths of January, but as the days warm, fishing, gardening, hiking, and all the joys of the warm seasons become topics of conversation.

Nature. Nature is a fundamental part of a Wyoming Catholic College education because—well, nature is fundamental.

Dr. Stanley Grove shares about the place of nature in the college's curriculum and in our lives.

What do we make of video games whether on phones, computers, TVs, or inside the Vision Pro? Are they sinful or perhaps as one pastor-theologian remarked, not sinful, but definitely dumb? Or…

Wyoming Catholic College senior, Greg Bowman, entitled his senior oration, “Are Video Games Fine Art?”

Moira Milligan’s oration was entitled “No Pain, No Gain: The Radical Nature of Sacrificial Love.” And she began with how she chose her topic.

Case in point, the college has launched a new podcast entitled “The Eucharist with Wyoming Catholic College” inspired by conversations about the National Eucharistic Revival.

The podcast features Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut and, our guest, theology professor and academic dean, Dr. Jeremy Holmes.

While it’s still winter, it’s not too early to think about Wyoming Catholic College’s summer PEAK program for high school juniors and seniors. In it we give them a taste of life at the college including backpacking, horseback riding, Catholic worship and devotion, and classes complete with homework and tests. Not only do high school students enjoy the two weeks of PEAK, but they walk away with a pretty good idea of what it would be like to come to college here at Wyoming Catholic. Many decide that it would be wonderful and join us as freshmen.

Mathematician Dr. Scott Olsson has taught a course at PEAK on infinity. And I asked Dr. Olsson to give us a finite preview of infinity. (To learn more about PEAK 2024, click here.)

It is always a great pleasure on the After-Dinner Scholar to introduce you to books written by our faculty and Dr. Tiffany Schubert’s book, Jane Austen’s Romantic Medievalism: Courtly Love and Happy Endings, has just been released.

That seems an odd way to prepare for a rigorous second semester of Latin, theology, philosophy, humanities, math, and science. Yet we consider snow camping a vital part of a Wyoming Catholic College education.

Karl Eby, Wyoming Catholic College class of 2013 is the Assistant Director of our Outdoor Leadership Program sheds a little light on the Freshman Winter Trip.

That may come as news to many modern Americans, but back in the fourth century BC Aristotle would have told you the same things. Friendship, he wrote in his Nichomachean Ethics, “is not only a necessary thing but a splendid one. We praise those who love their friends, and the possession of many friends is held to be one of the fine things of life.”

Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos recently taught The Nichomachean Ethics with our Wyoming Catholic College juniors and looking at, among other things, friendship.

Why do we do that during Christmas week? Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut clarifies it for us.

In this last week, we focus on his first coming as the babe of Bethlehem, his coming into our world of tears, death, morning, and crying.

Theologian Dr. Jeremy Holmes in his personal spiritual life, in his scholarship, in the classroom, and in his book Cur Deus Verba: Why the Word Became Word has spend a great deal of time considering the mystery of the Incarnation, of God become flesh.

Morten Lawridsen's "O magnum mysterium," which Dr. Holmes mentioned, can be found here.

As we try to sort it all out, here are some thoughts from Wyoming Catholic College’s choir director and composer-in-residence, Paul Jernberg.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert has been teaching The Aeneid to our Wyoming Catholic College sophomores.

 Rather than sounding nearly 100 years old, Pius’ words sound as though they were written yesterday. Theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski discusses why we need to pay a bit more attention to this last Sunday in the Church year as we prepare for Advent.

In truth… while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

The ancients understood—as most moderns don’t—that virtuous living makes us happy. Thus, Cicero argued, gratitude, thanksgiving is the gateway to happiness.

With the celebration of Thanksgiving Day approaching, Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut had this to say about the virtue of thanksgiving.

Dr. Virginia Arbery has taught Moby Dick for years is, once again, reading it with our Wyoming Catholic College seniors many of whom are introduced to the book and Captain Ahab for the first time.

Those are the words of Portia, heroine of William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice as she defends her husband’s friend Antonio from the Jewish moneylender Shylock who, Antonio having defaulted on a debt, demands a literal pound of Antonio’s flesh.

Dr. Adam Cooper has been reading The Merchant of Venice with our Wyoming Catholic College juniors.

Pieper wrote in 1947 in what was a devastated Germany. Everything was damaged or destroyed and workers were a vital necessity at all levels of the culture. It was a world of what he calls "total work," a world he believed would lose its soul without leisure properly understood.

Philosopher Dr. Michael Bolin attended one of student-led seminars and had this to share.

Mathematician Dr. Scott Olsson has thought and taught a great deal about the questions surrounding science and what it can--and can't--tell us about the world around us. Here are some ideas he brings to his Wyoming Catholic College students.

Dr. Jim Tonkowich has been teaching this freshman course this semester and shares some of the course's content and his own experience encountering the Old Testament with our students.

Student academic life at Wyoming Catholic College mirrors Bacon’s comment. Our students read the Great and Good books of our civilization and come to class prepared for what Bacon called “conference.” We would say conversation. And while writing is part of most courses, freshmen take "Trivium 101—Writing Truthfully."

This week's guest, Dr. Tiffany Schubert, finds teaching Trivium 101 a great pleasure.

Dr. Glenn Arbery is both a scholar and teacher of The Iliad who, once again, is reading the epic with our Wyoming Catholic freshmen.

This week is Fall Outdoor Week at the college. Students are rafting, rock climbing, backpacking and fishing, and canyoneering.

Last week I spoke with a senior who told me she was going on a trip she had wanted to do since she heard about it freshman year: rafting the Green River through the treacherous Lodore Canyon in northwest Colorado. And I recalled a podcast I recorded a few years ago with Paul Milligan who had just returned from guiding a trip through that canyon.

Here’s what Paul had to say.

We all, Aristotle contends, aim at what we believe is the good. But how do we know what is truly good? And how is it possible as he tells us, that the way to aim at the good has to do with politics?

Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos is reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with our Wyoming Catholic College juniors. Here's what he had to say about the good.

In this podcast, President Washut tells us about the earliest days at the college as well as his hopes and plans for its future.

This year’s ceremony, in addition to welcoming new students, President Glenn Arbery welcomed his successor, newly-appointed President Kyle Washut. Here are President Washut’s remarks to the class of 2027.

The scientist—actually more of an alchemist—gazed at his beautiful wife one day after they were married and remarked, “‘Georgiana has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?’”

She was beautiful, but not perfect and her birthmark became his and then her obsession. Surely science and technology could make Georgiana perfect.

Dr. Virginia Arbery spoke to the Wyoming School of Catholic Thought about “The Birthmark” as we considered “The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology.” Afterwards we had this conversation.

As the Wyoming School of Catholic Thought considered the topic “The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology” this past June, we thought we end not only Martin Heidegger, but with agrarian author Wendell Berry, reading two essays: “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer” along with letters to the editor and Berry’s responses and “The Use of Energy” where he, like Heidegger, worries that modern technology turns all things including humans and all human things into “standing reserve.”

Dr. Daniel Shields gave the Wyoming School these introductory remarks.

Despite the difficulties inherent in reading Heidegger, as this year’s Wyoming School of Catholic Thought considered issues surrounding technology, we read his 1953 essay “The Question Concerning Technology.” Heidegger, who lived from 1889 to 1976, witnessed a great deal of technological change, much of it extremely harmful. What did it all mean?

Dr. Glenn Arbery guided the participants in the Wyoming School in a give-and-take conversation about Heidegger’s essay with these words.

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus tells a cautionary story about technology. Using all the scientific learning and technology he could muster, Viktor Frankenstein literally and figuratively creates a monster—a monster he fears and who pursues him to the death.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert gave this introduction to Shelley’s novel to the Wyoming School of Catholic Thought as we considered The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology.

Writing amid the scientific and technological advancements of the early 1700s, Swift was less than convinced that the progress was actually progress and in Gulliver’s Travels he included a voyage to the flying island of Laputa where science and technology come under his satirical gaze.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert gave this introduction to Gulliver’s adventures on Laputa.

In his book The New Atlantis, published in 1627, the year after his death, Francis Bacon imagines being lost in the Pacific Ocean and landing in an unknown country, one filled with scientific and technological marvels.

Dr. Paul Giesting led the participants in the 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Though into a discussion of Bacon’s work with this introduction. The text to The New Atlantis can be found here.

This proof of God’s existence is the first of five that Thomas presents at the beginning of the Summa. And while that seems simple and convincing to most of us, many scholars are certain that the proof is not at all convincing insofar as it relies on Medieval physics and cosmology.

 In his new book, Nature and Nature’s God: The Scientific and Philosophical Validity of Aquinas’ Proof of an Unmoved Mover Wyoming Catholic College philosopher Dr. Daniel Shields argues that those scholars should take another look at Thomas’ argument.

In 1436, German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with movable type. In 1608, an unknown person invented the telescope, an idea that spread as a result of printing and was quickly picked up by Galileo who built his own, studied the heavens, and had his revolutionary findings printed by printing press.

At the Wyoming School of Catholic Though this past June, adult learner listened to this introduction to Early Modern science by Dr. Paul Giesting.

Readings:

• C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, Chapter 1
• Johannes Trithemius, De laude scriptorum, extracts
• Francis Bacon, Novum organum, Aphorism 129 of Book I
• Galileo Galilei, Sidereus nuncius, abridged
• Johannes Kepler, Dioptrics extract from the preface
• Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, pages 206-212

As the college’s 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought considered “The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology,” the Scriptures proved a vital guide to invention and evaluation.

At the school, Dr. Tonkowich gave this introduction to seminar discussions of Genesis 1-11 and Exodus 25-40.

Those words set the scene at the beginning of Aeschylus’ play “Prometheus Bound.” It’s the god Prometheus who stole fire from Hephaestus and gave it along with the technology to use fire to mortals, a race Zeus, newly crowned as chief god, intended to destroy.

Dr. Virginia Arbery gave the 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought this introduction to our seminar conversations about “Prometheus Bound.” You can find the text of the play here.

It seems almost beyond believing that as we worry about technologies such as artificial intelligence and smart phones, Plato considered and rejected the new technology of writing things down on paper. It’s evidence that for millennia, we humans have been inventing new things and debating about whether or not they are or are not useful—or even safe.

At the 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought, the college’s adult week, Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos gave us this introduction to our readings from Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch.

Readings:

1. Sophocles, Antigone 334–375 2. Plato, Phaedrus 274c–275e 3. Plato, Laws 796e–800b 4. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.2 5. Aristotle, Politics 1.4, 2.8, 7.11 6. Plutarch, Marcellus ¶¶14–19

Wyoming Catholic College recently held our adult learning week, The Wyoming School of Catholic Thought. Our topic was “The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology.”

Dr. Glenn Arbery, the college president, opened up the week with these words about Hephaestus and techne from chapter 18 of The Iliad. The book can be found here.

Those cowboy hats are the symbol of their four years of exercising mind, body, and spirit in a Wyoming Catholic College education. College dean, Mr. Kyle Washut explains how the tradition began. 

His words were realistic about the challenges we face as a culture and as a Church, but there were nonetheless words filled with hope. After the graduation ceremony, I expressed my gratitude to him saying, “Thank you. I needed that.” And I suspect we all need what he had to say.

Here are Archbishop Aquila’s words to the Class of 2023 and the rest of us.

Before coming to Wyoming Catholic College, Emma Hermanson spent her high school years at a classical school in Colorado. At Wyoming Catholic, her favorite part of the curriculum was the humanities track, feeding her abiding love of literature. After graduation, Emma will be getting married and beginning her work as a high school literature and writing teacher in the fall.

Here is what Emma had to say at graduation.

For information on The 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought click here.

Graduation weekend begins with the senior dinner on Saturday evening—seniors, faculty, and staff only. Monday was Commencement. And Sunday, after Baccalaureate Mass we held The President’s Dinner at which college president, Dr. Glenn Arbery, addressed seniors their parents, families, and friends along with the faculty and staff.

Here’s what Dr. Arbery had to say.

BEATRICE A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

BENEDICK God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” has it all: heroes, villains, loyalty and betrayal, hatred and love, serious crime and silly sidelights. At one point it veers dangerously close to utter tragedy only to come right again with true love conquering even the coldest hearts.

I asked Dr. Tiffany Schubert to begin giving us an overview of the play.

At Wyoming Catholic College, the choir loft in our oratory and, during special masses such as our upcoming graduation mass, the choir loft at Holy Rosary Church here in Lander are crowded places. Our students love to sing.

And this spring semester they have the added inspiration of a new choir director, our Composer in Residence, Paul Jernberg. Mr. Jernberg is also the founder and director of the Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music.

Those words from St. Paul can and should comfort us. Nothing happens in our lives or our world that God does not intend to bring about good for His children. His providential care surrounds us. On the other hand, terrible things happen in our lives and in the world around us. Does God will evil? Allow evil? Maybe evil is not what we think it is?

Dr. Michael Bolin has been reading St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae with our Wyoming Catholic College sophomores considering, among other things, that “all things are governed by divine providence.”

This semester Dr. Virginia Arbery and Dr. Tonkowich each have two sections of sophomores for Trivium 202 and sat down for this conversation.

His later poetry, the poems we have today, were only published thirty years after his death.

Wyoming Catholic College President, Dr. Glenn Arbery suggested Hopkins' poem "Spring" would be a good one to consider during this Octave of Easter.

This is what St. Augustine had to say.

The text is copyrighted by d by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Fr. Romano Guardini was one of the towering Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century who for all his erudition, wrote a simple little book entitled Sacred Signs in which he gently and simply explained this connection between  material and the inner world of the spirit.

The book is a favorite of theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski and a wonderful book to read during these last weeks of Lent.

A Wyoming Catholic College education begins with three weeks backpacking in the mountains of Wyoming. After that, they spend an additional seven weeks in the backcountry, a week at a time during our fall and spring Outdoor Weeks.

Why? Dr. Tom Zimmer, Assistant Professor of Leadership and Outdoor Education and Director of the college's Experiential Leadership Program and COR Expeditions answers that question.

Wyoming Catholic College freshmen discover the many answers in Philosophy 102, going on this semester. Dr. Henry Zepeda has been teaching them the philosophy of nature and the material world and I asked him why student’s journey through philosophy begins here.

The Romantics in the nineteenth century saw Satan as the real hero of Paradise Lost, a mighty warrior who will not except defeat, will not apologize for his rebellion, insists on fighting on against impossible odds, and asserts his inner convictions, his inner identity no matter what.

Others aren’t so sure.

Prof. Adam Cooper has been teaching Paradise Lost to our Wyoming Catholic College juniors, debating, among other things, the character of Satan and his demon hoards.

Thus begins Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s last and arguably his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Recounting the story of Fyodor Karamazov and his three sons, Alexey, Ivan, and Dmitri, Dostoyevsky addresses suffering, the existence of God, good and evil, crime and punishment, worldliness and holiness.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert and our Wyoming Catholic College seniors have just finished reading the book.

On February 21, 2010, the day Pope Benedict made that remark, Lent had already begun. For us, today is Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of this season of spiritual retreat. Fr. Godfrey Okwunga, who grew up in Nigeria, is Wyoming Catholic College’s Latin chaplain and had this to say about Lent.

We all know the feeling: While trying to lose some weight, you pass the donuts someone put in the break room. Just one won’t hurt. Reading St. Thomas Aquinas is a great idea, but I’m tired in the evening and TV is an easier option. The alarm goes off, but well… there’s a snooze button. 

Our guest, Mr. Aidan Wood, wrote his senior thesis and oration on the topic of discipline. Clear here to hear his presentation.

Senior Abigail O’Brien’s thesis title was: “The Age of Gnosticism: Transgenderism, Transhumanism, and Human Identity in the Digital Age.” Miss O’Brien is our guest this week.

Click here to hear Miss O'Brien's oration.

Dr. Daniel Shields is attending sophomore humanities this semester and has been reading through Confessions with our students and he shares with us what he finds so compelling about the book.

Lola Shub is a member of the Luddite Club, students who eschew technology—including smart phones—for the sake of other, better pursuits such as meeting together in a park, drawing, painting, and reading books included Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.” 

Whether or not “Luddite Clubs” will become a social trend among teens has yet to be seen, but it does seem that the Wyoming Catholic College technology policy is, in fact, a good that’s ahead of its time.

As technologies and the needs of our students change, we update the policy and Dr. Kent Lasnoski has been at the center of recent revisions.

Part of the reason there is no common ground in the abortion debate is that our pro-abortion family and friends don’t understand our arguments and we don’t understand theirs.

Wyoming Catholic College philosopher, Dr. Michael Bolin allows his students to puzzle over what might be the best philosophical argument for abortion rights: Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” published in the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs in 1971—about 18 months before Roe v. Wade was decided.

With that in mind, this week and next will focus on the theology and philosophy of life beginning this week as theologian, Dr. Jeremy Holmes, discusses the encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Our guest this week, Wyoming Catholic College Professor Kyle Washut, reflects on this great feast. 

Poet, novelist, and Wyoming Catholic College president, Dr. Glenn Arbery helps us reflect on the birth of Christ using the poem "Nativity" by John Donne.

Of course, Moore’s paean to St. Nick is hardly the only Christmas poetry in the world. Christians have been writing poems about the First Coming of Christ as a babe in Bethlehem for two thousand years.

As a Christmas gift to you, our listeners, on this podcast Wyoming Catholic College students share from that treasury of Christmas poetry.

Here is Caesar, and all the offspring

of Julus destined to live under the pole of heaven.

This is the man, this is him, whom you so often hear

promised you, Augustus Caesar, son of the Deified,

who will make a Golden Age again in the fields

where Saturn once reigned, and extend the empire beyond

the Libyans and the Indians....”

It’s no surprise that Virgil wrote such extravagant praise of Caesar Augustus into his epic. After all, Caesar Augustus gave him the job of creating the founding myth of the Roman Empire that had supplanted the Roman Republic.

As he has been teaching The Aeneid to our Wyoming Catholic College sophomores, Dr. Pavlos Papadopoulos has been thinking a great deal about that transition.

This Thursday, December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Wyoming Catholic College theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski joins us to shed a bit of light on the subject.

Bazarov is skeptical about everything with the exception of science. It is a position that played well in cosmopolitan St. Petersburg, but which seems a bit out of place in farm country.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert has taught the novel to our Wyoming Catholic College juniors and tells us a bit more about the book.

The question is how to achieve happiness if “achieve” is even the right word.

University of Texas Austin Professor of Government and Philosophy, Dr. J Budziszewski, takes on that question in a new book, How and How Not to Be Happy.

Dr. Budziszewski lectured at Wyoming Catholic College on the topic of that new book and was kind enough to join us for this podcast.

Dr. Stephen Hodkinson begs to differ. Dr. Hodkinson is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Nottingham. He is co-organiser of the International Sparta Seminar and founder of the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies. And in 2010 he was awarded Honorary Citizenship of modern Sparta for his contributions to Spartan history.

He is also in Lander visiting his son, Wyoming Catholic College professor Christopher Hodkinson and kindly tells us about Ancient Sparta.

Articles by Stephen Hodkinson can be found here.

Perhaps it would be best to let Mary Jessica Woods tell us more about the story.

To order Markmaker by Mary Jessica Woods, click here.

Perhaps by happy providence, perhaps by cunning design, back in 2017, Wyoming Catholic College professor Kyle Washut was teaching the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium to our seniors just in time for All Saints Day. Here is what he had to say.

Within the Bible, the story of the Exodus, chronicling how God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt lent a strong sense of identity to the American colonists, the founders, and African-Americans, and others.

Dr. Virginia Arbery has an abiding interest in  story of the Exodus and our American imagination.

Initially they lived well and over the decades those seventy became thousands. Then we read, “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” and he and his people were afraid of these hoards of foreigners. So the king, Pharoah enslaved them. Dr. Kent Lasnoski has been reading Exodus with our Wyoming Catholic College freshmen and had this to say about the book.

Such considerations need to come first since without them, theology can lose the moorings it needs in the intellect and in the world as it is.

To help us understand the place of philosophy in our theology, our guest this week is the professor who teaches Theology 201: The Mystery of the Trinity, theologian Dr. Jeremy Holmes.

Books Recommended by Dr. Holmes

• Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas (Aquinas Institute Edition)
• Who Designed the Designer?: A Rediscovered Path to God's Existence by Michael Augros
• Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker by F. C. Copleston
• Aquinas (A Beginner's Guide) by Edward Feser
• A Summa of the Summa by Thomas Aquinas and Peter Kreeft

The Greek Platonist and priest of Apollo at Delphi, Plutarch understood the project of instruction by writing the lives of great Roman and Greeks.

Dr. Tiffany Schubert has been teaching Plutarch’s Lives with the Wyoming Catholic College sophomores.

A small company of pilgrims forms and, as the go, each tells a tale. 

Like the Samaritan woman Jesus spoke with in John chapter four, The Wife of Bath says she has had five husbands not to mention “other companye in youthe.” She is a wealthy woman who had been on pilgrimage as far as Jerusalem. She is also rather fond of sex and knows quite a bit about marriage.

Prof. Adam Cooper has been reading The Canterbury Tales with Wyoming Catholic College juniors and shared these thoughts.

"Points of Light: The Church in the 19th Century," the upcoming free, six-week distance learning class with Dr. Jim Tonkowich, is intended to set listeners on that road to sanity in our increasingly insane era.

Why the nineteenth century? The Catholic Church at the dawn of the nineteenth century looked as though she was on the ropes at best and, at worst, down for the count. But God had other plans. 

The course begins Thursday, September 29. To register for this free course, click here.

Eighteenth century British thinker and Member of Parliament, Edmund Burke is one of six politicians highlighted by Dr. Daniel J. Mahoney in his new book The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, and Moderation.

Dr. Mahoney, Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute, Senior Writer at Law and Liberty, and professor emeritus at Assumption University delivered a lecture last Friday at Wyoming Catholic College and was kind enough to record this interview.

What is field science? To quote our website: “this course is an introduction to natural science through field study that puts students in direct contact with the local natural environment. Through the direct experience and methodical observation of the heavens, geological formations, flora, and fauna, observational skills are sharpened and a sense of wonder at nature and natural history is cultivated. Students spend much time outdoors, drawing and recording data in sketchbooks.”

Dr. Stanley Grove has been out in the field with multiple freshmen field science groups and reflects on what the students have learned.

It is customary, as you might imagine, for the college president, Dr. Glenn Arbery to address the new freshmen. Here is what Dr. Arbery had to say last week to the Wyoming Catholic College class of 2026.

“The belief that love can reach into the afterlife,” wrote Pope Benedict, “that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death—this has been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it remains a source of comfort today.”

Dr. Michael Bolin gave the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought participants this introduction to Spe Salvi.

While “curing” death may seem far-fetched, the so-called trans-human project seeks to do just that.

Kass, an Orthodox Jew, wrote the essay for those with no or with little religion. Wyoming Catholic College philosopher, Dr. Daniel Shields gave the participants in this year’s Wyoming School of Catholic Thought this introduction to Kass’ essay before we broke into seminar groups.

St. Robert Bellarmine, had, it seems, a congregation that had, for the most part, forgotten that truth. Their lives were focused on this world, their concern for death and judgment weak, their hearts cold to the things of God and to their faith.

As a good pastor, they needed to be warned. Bellarmine preached four sermons on the four last things: death, judgment, hell, and heaven. At the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought, we read the first of the four, Bellarmine’s sermon on death.

Dr. Scott Olsson gave us this introduction before we broke up into seminar groups to discuss Bellarmine’s words.

“What the dead had no speech for, when living,

They can tell you, being dead: the communication

Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”

In Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Dante’s Divine Comedy, we read about encounters with those who have died. Odysseus seeks wisdom from the prophet Teiresias and his mother, Anikleia (Odyssey 11.1-224). Aeneas meets his father Anchises, parent and prophet (Aeneid 6.739-983). And Dante holds a long conversation in Heaven with his great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida who also assumes the role of prophet (Paradiso 15-17).

What can we learn from these fictional encounters with the dead? Dr. Glenn Arbery gave this introduction at the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought.

In “Go Down, Moses,” the final chapter of his novel Go Down, Moses, William Faulkner tells us the story about a funeral. The deceased is a young man executed in Chicago for murder. Home is back in Mississippi and his grandmother who raised him is determined to bring him back home to bury him. For that she’ll need a great deal of help.

Dr. Virginia Arbery gave the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought this introduction to Faulkner’s story.

His sister, Antigone, won’t stand for it.

Sophocles’ tragedy, “Antigone” was one of the readings as the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought considered “Mortality and Eternity.” In the play Antigone risks and loses her life over the filial duty of burying the dead.

Before we broke up into seminar groups to discuss the play, Prof. Adam Cooper gave us this introduction.

Those words are from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Are they the thoughts of a bitter cynic? Of a cranky, world-weary old man? Or encouraging words of wisdom?

When Dr. Jim Tonkowich introduced the book at the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought, he argued for the latter: Ecclesiastes contains encouraging words of wisdom, words our culture, so self-focused and materialistic, so forgetful of death, desperately needs to hear.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “Ivan Ilyich is dead!”

Thus begins Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, the first reading for the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought. It’s intriguing that the story begins with Ivan Ilych’s death, recounting his life and his dying as a flashback after we hear of his funeral.

At the Wyoming School, Wyoming Catholic President, Dr. Glenn Arbery introduced Tolstoy’s novella this way.

This past June 12-17, the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought convened here in Lander. Adult learners came from California, Texas, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and elsewhere to study great texts on the theme “Mortality and Eternity.”

Our Wyoming Catholic College faculty led the sessions comprised of a short lecture introducing the reading followed by seminars.

This summer, The After-Dinner Scholar will bring you those lectures. And while they are helpful on their own, they will also serve as an introduction to your own study of the texts in the curriculum.

We began Sunday, June 12 with an after-dinner lecture to introduce the week. That night Dr. Jim Tonkowich spoke about Psalm 90.

Now, O Holy Spirit (given) for us

One with the Father (and) the Son

condescend to enter [us] at once

(you) having been poured into our breasts

Wyoming Catholic College students study Latin during their freshman and sophomore years. From there they move to two years of Latin reading groups. One of the groups this last semester read Latin hymns including Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus.

Prof. Eugene Hamilton—better known simply as Magister—led the reading group along with Dr. Travis Dziad. Prof. Hamilton is our guest on this podcast.

Our graduation speaker was Dr. R. R. Reno. Dr. Reno, the editor of the journal First Things and author of numerous books, is a keen and well-read observer of our modern culture and politics. Here's what he had to say to the graduates, parents, and the college community about the world, the future, and the liberal arts.