Show Notes
Get free PDF of New Questions, Old Answers: Catholic Morals and Natural Family Planning https://profide.io/nfp/ Article on the marital debt https://christianrenaissancemovement.com/2023/02/23/thoughts-on-the-marital-debt/ The way Natural Family Planning is commonly taught does not adequately reflect the Church's perennial teachings on the purpose of marital relations, on sexual asceticism, and the good of continence. To be sure, critics of NFP are wrong when they say it is the same as contraception. The Church has deemed it legitimate to use under certain circumstances. Yet its typical presentation in marriage prep programs and by popular Catholic speakers has ended up, in practice, encouraging couples toward habitual venial sin. Discussions of NFP often end up in confusion because they fail to distinguish two separate moral issues: that of avoiding marital relations during fertile periods, and that of engaging in them specifically during infertile periods. As to the first issue, the Church has said we need sufficient reason to deliberately avoid procreating for a long period of time. But the second issue involves a moral doctrine that is virtually never heard of today: that there are particular ends which must be intended in any act of marital relations, and in particular, that it is a venial sin for married couples to have relations purely for pleasure (solam voluptatem, in Pope Innocent XI's phrase). The latter is the teaching of all Fathers and Doctors of the Church without exception. Given this moral doctrine, and given the Church's (and St. Paul's) traditional encouragement of asceticism within marriage, the question arises: may married couples engage in recreational relations specifically while trying to avoid conception? Answering this question involves questions about the intrinsic ends of sexual intercourse, questions about what "purely for pleasure" even means, etc. The stakes of the question are low in the sense that this would generally be a matter of venial sin, but high in the sense that it bears on our understanding of the very purpose of marriage and sex, and because habitual, deliberate venial sin is incompatible with a marriage's growth in holiness. Moral theologian Eamonn Clark joins the podcast to discuss his groundbreaking book (the first on this topic since the 1940s), New Questions, Old Answers: Catholic Morals and Natural Family Planning. His conclusions occupy a middle ground between the extremely strict position of some great Catholic authorities of the past, and the laxity and sensualism presented by some well-regarded and well-meaning popular speakers today. This discussion will be spiritually and perhaps emotionally challenging to many listeners, but I urge you to listen with an open heart, because even if you end up disagreeing with some of the specific conclusions, you will come away better informed about Church teaching, and equipped to consider for yourself how you can seek greater holiness in marriage. In particular, I highly recommend Eamonn's book to anyone who is involved in running marriage preparation programs. Eamonn Clark is a licensed moral theologian of the Catholic Church – he has an STB and STL from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he is currently a lay doctoral student researching the social teaching of Pope Pius XI. DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
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Thomas Mirus and Eamonn Clark discuss a statement they co-authored for Catholic Culture called the Pledge Against AI Catholic Content and Text (PAACCT). The pledge has been signed by a prominent Catholic writers, thinkers, and artists. Links PAACCT https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pledge-against-ai-catholic-content-and-text-paacct/ Eamonn's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@eamonnclark Subscribe to Alto using discount code CATHOLIC10: https://ascension-press.linkjolt.io/l/catholic-culture-podcast DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
Timothy Flanders rejoins the podcast for a freewheeling conversation in which he and Thomas interview each other. Timothy talks about his upcoming book on Catholicism in Russia, and then Thomas gives his thoughts on the place of jazz in the Western music tradition, improvisation as an analogy to the moral life, and the fundamental problem with AI music: AI has no song in its heart. Links The Meaning of Catholic https://meaningofcath.substack.com/ Thomas's lecture on God's role in artistic inspiration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH5KBsOIz_Y Structure and Freedom in Music and in Christ, w/ Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-33-structure-and-freedom-in-music-and-in-christ-mark-christopher-brandt/ Christians against AI art, w/ Susannah Black Roberts https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/188-christians-against-ai-art-susannah-black-roberts/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
Thomas Mirus's keynote address at the first annual conference of the Thomistic Artists Guild, on May 30 at the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles, CA. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH5KBsOIz_Y Thomistic Artists Guild: https://thomisticartistsguild.org/ DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter http://www.catholicculture.org/newsletter
Groundbreaking Catholic political thinker Andrew Willard Jones joins the podcast to discuss a brilliant lecture he recently gave at the New Polity Conference. St. Thomas Aquinas is often said (dismissively) to have gotten his view of woman from Aristotle's biology. But while he did accept some of Aristotle's biological errors, they disagree on something far more fundamental, namely their metaphysical interpretation of difference and inequality among human beings. A comparison between the Aristotelian view and the Christian/Thomistic view of inequality is profoundly instructive for how we see not only the difference between the sexes, but civil society and the entire cosmic hierarchy willed by God. LINKS New Polity https://newpolity.com/ Andrew Willard Jones, The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics https://stpaulcenter.com/store/the-two-cities-a-history-of-christian-politics Episode transcript https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/hierarchy-and-woman-aristotle-vs-aquinas-w-andrew-willard-jones/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
Ralph Martin returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, The Coming Judgment: Are We Ready? He and Thomas discuss the lack of a Scriptural worldview among many present-day Catholics, and the reluctance of many to believe in or preach what the Church has always believed hell, the urgent need for repentance, and the judgments of God. Links Ralph Martin, The Coming Judgment: Are We Ready? stpaulcenter.com/thecomingjudgment Thomas Mirus, "Bring back 'negative spirituality'" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/bring-back-negative-spirituality/ Eamonn Clark, "The Revenge of Amoris Laetitia" https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/revenge-amoris-laetitia/ DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters