From 2012 to 2020, Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ delivered hundreds of lectures and master classes at the Lumen Christi Institute. Seeking to share the depth of his scholarship, this podcast offers many of his lectures (edited for coherence and quality) to the public in digital format for the first time. The first season will feature a course that Fr. Mankowski gave on Joseph Ratzinger’s Jesus of Nazareth and dozens of lectures centered around the books of the Bible (including Genesis, many of the prophets, the Gospel of Matthew, and St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans). Episodes will be released on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from September through December. To conclude the season, we’ll offer one or two interviews with people who knew Fr. Mankowski well and can offer an entry point to his person and scholarship.

Witness to the Light: The Mankowski Lectures

A webinar discussion with Russell Hittinger (Lumen Christi Institute), Tracey Rowland (University of Notre Dame, Australia), and Fr. Thomas Esposito, O.Cist. (University of Dallas), moderated by Fr. Andrew Summerson (University of Toronto; Lumen Christi Institute). Originally recorded May 7, 2023.

Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute, The Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, First Things, and The Portsmouth Institute for Faith and Culture.

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From his role as a key peritus at the Second Vatican Council, a professor in Germany, to his tenure as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger was a part of almost every Catholic theological conversation in the latter half of the 20th century. As pope, he brought his lifetime of learning to bear on his preaching, encyclicals, and continued publishing.

In this webinar, our panel looks back upon Pope Benedict’s theological vocation and offers perspectives on his enduring legacy and witness.

The Vocation of a Theologian: The Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 2/6)

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 3/6)

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 4/6)

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 5/6)

Judges (Episode 5/7)

Judges (Episode 4/7)

Judges (Episode 3/7)

Judges (Episode 1/7)

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 6/6)

Judges (Episode 2/7)

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 1/6)

Ezekial and Daniel (Episode 1/1)

Elijah (Episode 1/1)

Genesis (Episode 2/2)

Judges (Episode 6/7)

Judges (Episode 7/7)

Genesis (Episode 1/2)

Amos and Hosea (Episode 1/1)

Isaiah (Episode 1/2)

Isaiah (Episode 2/2)

Matthew (Episode 1/5)

Matthew (Episode 2/5)

Matthew (Episode 4/5)

Matthew (Episode 5/5)

Romans (Episode 1/3)

Romans (Episode 2/3)

Romans (Episode 3/3)

Dr. Jared Ortiz on September 10, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club.

In the City of God, Augustine eloquently speaks about “two cities” that are divided by their two loves. In God’s city, there are angels and humans united in their love of God. In the earthly city, there are demons and humans united in their devotion to their own wills. For Augustine, the city of God on earth is the Church, but in this life it is a church which intermingles citizens of the two cities. It is a church on pilgrimage which longs to be fully united and secure with the heavenly city of God. But even now, in the Eucharist and in the miraculous intercession of the saints, the Church can achieve a foretaste of the unity it will experience in heaven.

“In the One, we are One”: Christian Unity and the City of God

Author Paul Kingsnorth and Professor James Matthew Wilson on September 25, 2025 at the University Club of Chicago.

“Our culture is not in danger of dying; it is already dead, and we are in denial.  This, now, is the reality we have to wrestle with—and transcend.”

We all experience how the rapid advance of technology, especially AI, has affected the way we live, think, and experience the world. But has it also changed who we are? In his new book, "Against the Machine: on the Unmaking of Humanity," Paul Kingsnorth explores the consequences of hyper-technologized society. With the deftness of an essayist who is also a poet, Kingsnorth takes us through the historical and theological roots of post-Industrial Revolution advancement. He ultimately suggests that the dangers we face have a spiritual cause, and spiritual consequences. “If you knock out the pillars of a sacred order,” he writes, “the universe itself will change shape.” This technological reshaping will lead man to become the machine—unless we can learn to transcend it.

A Spiritual Manual for the Technological Age: A Discussion of Paul Kingsnorth's Against the Machine

Prof. Scott Moringiello on October 15, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club.

The twentieth century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said that Augustine’s Confessions was possibly the most serious book ever written. There’s good reason to think he was right. In the book – equal parts memoir, prayer, philosophical treatise, and theological masterpiece – Augustine explores the nature of goodness, the puzzle of sin, and the necessity of friendship. He savors the love of God that is offered in Christ and his Church. He even realizes (as we all do eventually) that his mother was right all along. 

In this lecture, Prof. Moringiello introduces the Confessions, one of the greatest books in the Western canon, and one especially dear to Pope Leo’s heart. He talks about his experience teaching it to undergraduates at Villanova University and DePaul University. And he focuses on how one of the most famous lines in the book — “our hearts are restless until the find rest in You, Lord” (1.1.5) – speaks to his students and to all of us who live in a world dominated by restlessness and who continually search for the rest that God’s love provides.

Our Hearts Are Restless: Augustine’s Confessions and Modern Anxiety

Season Finale - Special Episode

Dr. Carlos Eire and Dr. Kirsten Macfarlane on October 29, 2025 at the University of Chicago's Swift Hall.

Levitation. Bilocation. Witchcraft. Demonic Possession. Europe in the early modern era was simultaneously the site of Kepler, Newton, Copernicus–and of eyewitness accounts of levitating saints and nocturnal witches’ sabbats. 

In his history of the impossible, award-winning historian Carlos Eire mines the firsthand accounts and archival evidence of the miraculous and demonic. How did an increasingly skeptical and scientific culture account for events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals? What does this say about the supposed boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity?

In this lecture, Carlos Eire explores the major themes of "They Flew" and asks: what makes something impossible? And is there more to reality than meets the eye? University of Chicago Divinity School professor Kirsten Macfarlane offers a response and engages Eire in a conversation.

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This project was made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Workshop on the Early Modern World. The opinions expressed in this publication ​are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. 

A History of the Impossible: Carlos Eire on They Flew

Dr. Carlos Eire on October 30, 2025 at Saint Ignatius College Prep.

Two of the most significant features of Catholic Christianity are its focus on holy men and women and the miracles ascribed to them. What is it that makes saints and miracles so significant? What difference does this characteristic of Catholicism make, not just for its history, but for us, here and now? Asking such questions is absolutely necessary for Catholics, and in this talk we explore why this is so.

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This project was made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of the Bollandist Society and St. Ignatius College Preparatory School. The opinions expressed in this publication ​are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Why Do We Need Saints and Miracles?

Dr. Erika Kidd on November 12, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club.

Doctor of the Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo, has a lot to say about teaching. He writes memorably about the way his early teachers failed him, teaching him to love praise and worldly success. He writes too about the vocation of the teacher, a vocation he lived in many different ways as rhetorician, father, priest, and bishop. In his early work “On the Teacher” he insists teaching is not a matter of passing along information. Instead, he writes, true teaching is an invitation to attend to the voice of Christ. Join Dr. Erika Kidd to learn more about Augustine’s timeless teaching wisdom and its continued relevance today.

Augustine the Teacher

The Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought was founded by Catholic scholars at the University of Chicago in 1997 to bring the light of Christ and the Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition to the secular academy and the general public. On this station we make available our many lectures and programs, as well as interviews with visiting scholars.

To support our work, visit www.lumenchristi.org/donate

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