We continue our exploration of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s “The Day Is Now Far Spent”—a tour de force response to the present darkness in the Church. From the New York City skyline to the meaning of the word “Modernism”. We continue our discussion of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s “The Day Is Now Far Spent”. You can find the book here Robert Cardinal Sarah calls The Day Is Now Far Spent his most important book. He analyzes the spiritual, moral, and political collapse of the Western world and concludes that...
Apr 22, 2020•31 min
We begin our exploration of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s “The Day Is Now Far Spent”—a tour de force response to the present darkness in the Church. From the New York City skyline to the meaning of the word “Modernism”. We continue our discussion of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s “The Day Is Now Far Spent”. You can find the book here Robert Cardinal Sarah calls The Day Is Now Far Spent his most important book. He analyzes the spiritual, moral, and political collapse of the Western world and concludes that “t...
Mar 31, 2020•37 min
We begin our exploration of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s “The Day Is Now Far Spent”—a tour de force response to the present darkness in the Church. In this week’s reading, the cardinal pays a special tribute to such controversial churchmen as Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (all Ignatius Press authors). What he says may surprise you. You can find the book here Robert Cardinal Sarah calls The Day Is Now Far Spent his most important book. He analyzes the spiritual...
Mar 25, 2020•48 min
We will be praying with and learning from Blessed John Henry Newman for many, many years to come. Joseph Pearce has been an excellent student, as well as an instructor of (or should I say “illuminator of”) the life and work of this great man, John Henry Newman, and who is now a bonafide member of the Cloud of Witnesses. It’s ALWAYS a joy to talk with Joseph, but it was fantastic to speak with him in particular about Blessed John Henry Newman and the book released by Ignatius Press to help us gro...
Oct 12, 2019•31 min
We discuss “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis. Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, which has b...
Nov 12, 2018•29 min
Episode 10 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare Though a staple in high school English classes, Julius Caesar is not a simple play. Seemingly irreconcilable forces are at work: fate and free will, the changeableness and stubbornness of ambitious men, the demands of public service and the desire for private gain. Drawn from history as recorded by Plutarch, the major characters-Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony-are complex, as are the twists and turns...
Nov 04, 2018•28 min
Episode 10 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare Arguably Shakespeare’s finest and most important play, Hamlet is also one of the most misunderstood masterpieces of world literature. “To be or not to be”, may be the question, but the answer has eluded many generations of critics. What does it mean “to be”? And is everything as it seems to be? Probably the darkest of all Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is also one of the most challenging. Is it a work of nihili...
Oct 12, 2018•29 min
In this exciting novel set during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens expresses sympathy for the downtrodden poor and their outrage at the self-indulgent aristocracy. But Dickens is no friend of the vengeful mob that storms the Bastille and cheers the guillotine. As with all of his stories, his passion is for the unforgettable and unrepeatable individuals he creates. The sorrows of the suffering masses, their demands for justice, and the indiscriminate fury they unleash take flesh in Madame D...
Sep 23, 2018•28 min
Episode 8 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Jane Austen Jane Austen is arguably the finest female novelist who ever lived and Pride and Prejudice is arguably the finest and is certainly the most popular, of her novels. An undoubted classic of world literature, its profound Christian morality is all too often missed or willfully overlooked by today’s (post)modern critics. In all things, Jane Austen was a woman of faith. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Mansfiel...
Sep 16, 2018•28 min
Episode 21 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – T.S. Eliot and “The Waste Land” (Of special note: excerpts from “The Waste Land” are read by T. S. Eliot) “Eliot’s place as a poet of the highest stature is assured. The Waste Land is the quintessential debunking of modernity and is also, simultaneously, a potent antidote to the poison of postmodernism.” –Joseph Pearce -from Nov. 22, 2010, St. Austin Review — You can find the complete poem here An excerpt from “ The Waste Land ”...
Sep 09, 2018•28 min
Episode 15 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – St. Augustine The Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered one of the greatest Christian classics of all time. It is an extended poetic, passionate, intimate prayer that Augustine wrote as an autobiography sometime after his conversion, to confess his sins and proclaim God’s goodness. Just as his first hearers were captivated by his powerful conversion story, so also have many millions been over the following sixteen centuri...
Aug 26, 2018•28 min
Episode 13 – Bram Stoker and “Dracula” on Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce When solicitor’s clerk Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania on business to meet a mysterious Romanian count named Dracula, he little expects the horrors this strange meeting will unleash. Thus Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel of blood and passion begins, rapidly accelerating from Harker’s nightmarish experiences in Castle Dracula to a full-fledged vampiric assault on late-Victorian London itself. The story,...
Jul 27, 2018•29 min
We discuss “The Pilgrim’s Regress:: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism” by C. S. Lewis. The first book written by C. S. Lewis after his conversion, The Pilgrim’s Regress is, in a sense, the record of Lewis’s own search for meaning and spiritual satisfaction—a search that eventually led him to Christianity. Here is the story of the pilgrim John and his odyssey to an enchanting island which has created in him an intense longing; a mysterious, sweet desire. John’s purs...
Jul 19, 2018•36 min
Episode 9 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Nathaniel Hawthorne A key figure in the development of American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne was also profoundly influenced by his ancestors and the Christianity that underscored their Puritan heritage. A literary classic, The Scarlet Letter presents a profound meditation on the nature of sin, repentance, and redemption, and how such Christian concepts may be integrated into American democracy. Based on the Ignatius Critical E...
Jul 15, 2018•28 min
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is, according to many critics and fond readers, the great American novel. Full of vibrant American characters, intriguing regional dialects and folkways, and down-home good humor, it also hits Americans in one of their greatest and on-going sore spots: the fraught issue of racism. As Huck and Jim float down the Mississippi and encounter all manner of people and situations, and as Huck struggles mightily with his conscience concerning Jim, the novel str...
Jul 03, 2018•28 min
“In brief, however, the power of Tolkien lies in the way that he succeeds, through myth, in making the unseen hand of providence felt by the reader. In his mythical creations or sub-creations, as he would call them, he shows how the unseen hand of God is felt far more forcefully in myth than it is ever felt in fiction. Paradoxically, fiction works with facts , albeit invented facts, whereas myth works with truth , albeit truth dressed in fancy disguises. Furthermore, since facts are physical and...
Jun 03, 2018•30 min
Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Charles Dickens St. Pope John Paul II described Dickens’ books as “filled with love for the poor and a sense of social regeneration . . . warm with imagination and humanity”. Such true charity permeates Dickens’ novels and ultimately drives the characters either to choose regeneration or risk disintegration. In Great Expectations , Pip — symbolic of the pilgrim convert — gains both improved fortunes and a growth in wisdom, but as he acquires...
May 20, 2018•28 min
Episode 4 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce podcast – Oscar Wilde and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” In true Faustian tradition, The Picture of Dorian Gray authored by Oscar Wilde tells the tale of a young man who sells his soul to the devil in return for youthful immortality, only to discover that the “devil’s bargain” is no bargain at all. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? When Dorian Gray is asked this question he knows the answe...
May 13, 2018•28 min
Episode 20 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – G. K. Chesterton and “The Man Who Was Thursday” “A powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each of us encounters in his single-handed struggle with the universe.” –C. S. Lewis — Chesterton’s own response, and riposte, to the Decadence of the 1890s can be found in his novel “The Man Who Was Thursday”. Whereas the Decadents–taking their own perverse inspiration from the dark romanticism of Byron, Shelley and Keat...
May 06, 2018•28 min
Another phenomenal work by the prolific Joseph Pearce, this time bringing us the “ Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church.” Our conversation covers a pivotal century which brings us many of the extraordinary spiritual figures of 16th century. Filled with fascinating insights, this is not just a book about yesterday, but offers guideposts for our lives today! Don’t miss! You can find the book here From the Inside Flap: The Protestant Reformation began five hundred years...
Dec 01, 2017•28 min
Episode 14 – Herman Melville and “Moby Dick” on Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce A sea adventure, a study of evil, and a cast of fascinating characters, including the crazed captain who is obsessed with hunting down the whale that maimed him — Moby-Dick is all of this and more. Based on the author’s experiences as a sailor, Herman Melville’s probing look into the human heart has been read and analyzed from every angle, including the most absurd. The tragic tale is looked at a...
Apr 30, 2016•7 min
Episode 11 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare part 2 The Merchant of Venice is probably the most controversial of all Shakespeare’s plays. It is also one of the least understood. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is the meaning behind the test of the caskets? Who is the real villain of the trial scene? Is Shylock simply vicious and venomous, or is he more sinned against than sinning? One of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear is also one o...
Mar 11, 2016•29 min
Episode 7 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few options open to nineteenth century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge, enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of millions of her contemporaries. Uncle Tom’s Cabin paints pictures of three plantations, each worse than the other, where even the best plantation leaves a slave at...
Feb 13, 2016•29 min
Episode 11 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – William Shakespeare part 2 The Merchant of Venice is probably the most controversial of all Shakespeare’s plays. It is also one of the least understood. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is the meaning behind the test of the caskets? Who is the real villain of the trial scene? Is Shylock simply vicious and venomous, or is he more sinned against than sinning? One of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear is also one o...
Jun 04, 2015•29 min
Episode 6- Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is one of the greatest satirical works ever written. Through the misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver, his hopelessly “modern” protagonist, Swift exposes many of the follies of the English Enlightenment, from its worship of science to its neglect of traditional philosophy and theology. Swift’s satire on the threats posed by the Enlightenment and the embryonic spirit of secular fundam...
Dec 29, 2014•29 min
Episode 3 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Mary Shelley Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most influential and controversial novels of the nineteenth century; but has also become one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has been vivisected critically by latter-day Victor Frankenstein’s who have transformed the meanings emergent from the novel into monsters of postmodern misconception. Rather than understanding Frankenstein and his monster through the l...
Oct 16, 2014•28 min
Episode 2 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights is one of the classic novels of nineteenth century romanticism. As a major work of modern literature it retains its controversial status. What was Emily Brontë’s intention? Were her intentions iconoclastic? Were they feminist? Were they Christian or post-Christian? Who are the heroes and the villains in this dark masterpiece? Are there any heroes? Are there any villains? Based on the Ignatius Critic...
Oct 01, 2014•28 min
Another outstanding addition to the Joseph Pearce canon! “Shakespeare on Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet” is a terrific read. Once again Jospeh Pearce helps us to see that the story we thought we knew is something very different when viewed with the Catholic Shakepeares len’s. Is Romeo a hero or a self indulgent cad? Is Juliet a free thinking woman or a relationship starved 13 year old victimized by an adult male predator? And how about those adults? Just look at what happ...
Jun 11, 2013•28 min
Joseph Pearce is one of my all time favorite writers!!! What a joy to speak to him about “Candles in the Dark: The Authorized Biography of Fr. Richard Ho Lung and the Missionaries of the Poor”. Fr. Ho Lung is a fascinating figure: poet, teacher, mystic, and musician (reggae, no less). The child of Chinese Buddhist immigrants, this Jamaican priest is the founder of one of the fastest-growing religious orders in the world, whose mission is to serve the poorest of the poor. With all those elements ...
Apr 30, 2013•27 min
