Theology & Apologetics
Defending and explaining the Christian faith.
All Episodes
530 Episodes
WOF 537: How to Keep the Momentum in the Surge of New Conversions
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. A wave of fresh converts
WOF 536: Bishop Barron's New Book on Persecution Against Christians
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. Although not widely repo
WOF 535: Bishop Barron on Bishop Fulton Sheen
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. The faithful recently re
WOF 534: The Evangelical Power of the Old Testament
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show.* Thank you for joining us. The Old Testament is abo
WOF 533: Hollywood & Catholic Priests
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. Hollywood is not known f
WOF 532: The Suffocating "Warmth" of Marxist Collectivism
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. Marxism, unfortunately,
WOF 531: Social Media in Light & Darkness (pt. 3)
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. For the last two episode
WOF 530: Catholic Ministry & Social Media (pt. 2)
Welcome back to the *Word on Fire Show*. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the *Word on Fire Show*. Thank you for joining us. In our last episode, *Ev
WOF 529: The Art & Means of Communication (pt. 1)
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Today, we're bringing you a
WOF 528: The Early Days w/ Bishop Barron & Fr. Steve (pt. 2)
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. As we continue this second h
WOF 527: Reason and Authority (12 of 12)
The Enlightenment believed reason was its own authority. Heteronomous authority was anathema. Autonomy was the ideal. Thus, the Church's hierarchical structure was viewed as enslaving. In light of thi
WOF 526: The Early Days w/ Bishop Barron & Fr. Steve (pt. 1)
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. In 2025, Word on Fire Cathol
WOF 525: The Illative Sense (11 of 12)
Since the mind can infer truths of which it does not have certainty, what judges the validity of an inference in concrete matters? The Illative Sense. It is the power of judging and concluding when no
WOF 524: The Dangers of Life Becoming Too Easy
In a recent episode of the Joe Rogan show, evolutionary biologist and public intellectual Bret Weinstein observed that two emerging features of contemporary societies, especially, though not exclusive
WOF 523: The Grammar of Assent (10 of 12)
*An* *Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent* was Newman's most difficult work. While not a formal epistemology (theory of knowledge), Newman prompted a movement away from modern epistemology, stressing
WOF 522: What's It Like to Be a Catholic Bishop?
St. Pope John Paul the II memorably observed that the Catholic Church comes from the eucharist and that the eucharist, in turn, comes from priests. As Bishop Barron noted in a recent letter to his dio
WOF 521: The Philosophical Habit (9 of 12)
Newman believed that a liberal arts education would instill a philosophical habit of mind in students, helping students reason to the foundational principles of every discipline and see how everything
WOF 520: Defending Religious Freedom
Religious freedom, especially for Christians, is under attack across the globe, including in the West–including right here in the United States. Whether insidiously in the form of diversity, equity, a
WOF 519: The Queen of the Sciences (8 of 12)
Theology is the queen of the sciences. It is not just one science among many but the principal organizing science. If it is taken out of this central organizing place, something else will take its pla
WOF 518: What Is the Christian Way of Caring for the Poor?
Poverty is not only a complex problem to address economically–not to mention sociologically, psychologically, and culturally; it is also often caught up in political and ideological currents, both dom