Special Guests: Donnell Leahy and Natalie MacMaster.

Links:

• Natalie and Donnell Homepage — Learn more about Natalie and Donnell, and explore their music.
• Natalie and Donnell on Apple Music
• Natalie and Donnell on streaming
• 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

Special Guest: Greg Wolfe.

Links:

• Homepage: Greg Wolfe
• New 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

Special Guest: Carter Snead.

Links:

• What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics — The natural limits of the human body make us vulnerable and therefore dependent, throughout our lives, on others. Yet American law and policy disregard these stubborn facts, with statutes and judicial decisions that presume people to be autonomous, defined by their capacity to choose. As legal scholar O. Carter Snead points out, this individualistic ideology captures important truths about human freedom, but it also means that we have no obligations to each other unless we actively, voluntarily embrace them. Under such circumstances, the neediest must rely on charitable care. When it is not forthcoming, law and policy cannot adequately respond. In this provocative and consequential book, Snead rethinks how the law represents human experiences so that it might govern more wisely, justly, and humanely.
• ‘What It Means to Be Human’ Review: Unchosen Obligations (by Yuval Levin) — "A critical examination of the moral suppositions underlying contemporary bioethics might shed light on much more of our common life than our engagement with biology and medicine. Such an ambitious examination has now been taken up by O. Carter Snead in 'What It Means to Be Human.' The result is a rare achievement: a rigorous academic book that is also accessible, engaging and wise."
• Answering the Psalmist (Review by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput) — "Today we have the ability, or soon will, to rewire ourselves at the biological level; to “improve,” in the sunny language of science boosterism, what it means to be human from the inside out. Genetic catastrophe is not (yet) in our vocabulary. And what harm can a little merging of humans and machines do? Like the sorcerer’s apprentice, we’re long on knowledge and ambition, but short on wisdom. This is what makes a new book by O. Carter Snead both timely and so important."
• Video: Faculty Seminar on Public Bioethics — O. Carter Snead, Notre Dame Law School professor, director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, and author of the new book "What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics," presents the thesis of his book in a seminar and Q&A session for the dCEC's Sorin Fellows Program.
• 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

Special Guest: Todd Hartch.

Links:

• A Time to Build Anew: How to Find the True, Good, and Beautiful in America — America is in crisis. This book is a response to that crisis. But it is not about politics as usually understood. It is not a diagnosis of cultural malaise. It is not a theoretical proposal or plan. This is a book of examples, of models, of how to live in America. The hour of criticism has passed. It is time for rebuilding. Catholics and all persons of good will need to create anew. For some this will mean writing beautiful poems or making beautiful works of art. For some it will mean sacrificial service of the poor. For some it will mean establishing schools and other Catholic institutions to replace those that have lost their way. For many it will simply mean building strong families. In short, this is a time to focus on the true, the beautiful, and the good, first through contemplation and second through building, making, and revitalizing. A Time to Build Anew provides models of men and women who have produced works of beauty in challenging circumstances, who have taught truth without fear, who have served the most vulnerable with great joy.
• 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

Special Guest: Anja Renkes.

Links:

• Theology, studio art, and Irish studies come together in undergraduate’s creative research project on Ireland’s holy wells — The Grotto is one of the most beloved places on campus for many students, but for junior Anja Renkes, it’s where her passions and purpose combine. “An important part of my identity that I bring here is my love of the outdoors and God's creation,” she said. The open-air, prayerful environment of the Grotto captures her desire to stay active — she enjoys hiking and backpacking and is a member of the women’s rowing team — while its significance as an outdoor Catholic shrine, set in the landscape, represents her academic interests in theology, landscape art, and Irish culture.
• Fiat Fine Art on Facebook — My artwork explores the magnificent beauty of simplicity, demonstrated in the humility of Catholic popular piety at holy wells in Ireland. Variously intimate and vast landscapes help dispose both pilgrim and passersby to look outside of themselves. Upon returning to their own conscious breath, the experience of mysterious Love communicated in the beauty of the environment and humble devotions of those who have come before helps one to experience awe and wonder at what is freely given and received by the nature of human experience in Christ. May we follow in the footsteps of the Blessed Virgin Mother’s fiat, her yes to the will of God.
• Fiat Fine Art on Instagram
• The Irish Taught Me How to Say Thank You — When I arrived at the ferry in Galway, I knew I was meeting a man who would be carrying a walking stick. That was pretty much all I knew. This fairly limited preparation characterized much of my research and travel over the course of two months in Ireland, which unfolded by the grace of God and His radical mercy and attention to detail. I had to learn how to be dependent, and receive gifts.
• 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

Special Guest: Elizabeth Lev.

Links:

• Elizabeth Lev's Homepage — Elizabeth Lev is an American-born art historian with the good fortune to live and work in Rome. Life in the “Eternal City” allows her the perfect environment to pursue her many passions. For on an average day, one can find Elizabeth working on her latest article or book, preparing for one of her worldwide speaking engagements, touring visitors through the treasures of Rome, or using her skills as a sommelier to find the perfect wine to pair with dinner.
• TED Talk: The unheard story of the Sistine Chapel — The Sistine Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings on earth — but there's a lot you probably don't know about it. In this tour-de-force talk, art historian Elizabeth Lev guides us across the famous building's ceiling and Michelangelo's vital depiction of traditional stories.
• ND Fall Conference 2016 Keynote: "The Gifts of the Magi: The Catholic Imagination and Birth of the Modern Museum" — Presentation given at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture's 17th Annual Fall Conference, "You Are Beauty: Exploring the Catholic Imagination." Elizabeth Lev is professor of art history at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, and is a Permanent Research Fellow of the NDCEC.
• Guido Reni: St. Matthew and the Angel — Painted between 1635 and 1640, located in the Pinacoteca Vaticana (Vatican Museum picture gallery).
• Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (with George Weigel) — In Roman Pilgrimage, bestselling theologian and papal biographer George Weigel, art historian Elizabeth Lev, and photographer Stephen Weigel lead readers through this unique religious and aesthetic journey with magnificent photographs and revealing commentaries on the pilgrimage’s liturgies, art, and architecture. Through reflections on each day’s readings about faith and doubt, heroism and weakness, self-examination and conversion, sin and grace, Rome’s familiar sites take on a new resonance. And along that same historical path, typically unexplored treasures-artifacts of ancient history and hidden artistic wonders-appear in their original luster, revealing new dimensions of one of the world’s most intriguing and multi-layered cities.
• How Catholic Art Saved the Faith — "How Catholic Art Saved the Faith" tells the story of the creation and successes of a vibrant, visual-arts SWAT team whose war cry could have been “art for Faith’s sake!” Over the years, it included Michelangelo, of course, and, among other great artists, the edgy Caravaggio, the graceful Guido Reni, the technically perfect Annibale Carracci, the colorful Barocci, the theatrical Bernini, and the passionate Artemisia Gentileschi. Each of these creative souls, despite their own interior struggles, was a key player in this magnificent, generations-long project: the affirmation through beauty of the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church.
• Theme Music: "I Dunno" by grapes — I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque