The After Dinner Scholar

President's Address to the Class of 2021 by Dr. Glenn Arbery

Each year on the evening before commencement, it falls on the president of Wyoming Catholic College to host the President’s Dinner and to address not only the graduates, but their parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends.

The Wyoming Catholic College class of 2021’s junior and senior years were, of course, marked by pandemic, panic, and social distance. Theirs was an unusual college career.

Yet, as college president, Dr. Glenn Arbery, noted in his address at the President’s Dinner, it was a class that nonetheless excelled in every way.

Here are Dr. Arbery’s remarks in their entirety.

Note: Please excuse the fidelity of the speech. It is not as good as we had hoped. Dr. Arbery's words, however, will more than make up for any inconvenience.

Student Commencement Address by Mr. Anthony Jones

Each year our Wyoming Catholic College graduating class selects one of its members to speak on its behalf during the commencement exercises. This year, the Class of 2021 chose Mr. Anthony Jones as their spokesman.

In addition to graduating Magna Cum Laude—posting the second highest grade point average in his class—Anthony founded Cowboys for Life, the college’s pro-life group and organized the first pro-life march in Lander. He was active in Wyoming politics, serve as summer intern at Family Research Counsel and The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, and traveled to Ireland one summer to fight the legalization of abortion in Ireland.

After graduation and two weeks in the backcountry with classmates, Anthony will be moving to Austin, Texas to work at the Texas Policy Foundation before attending graduate school in public policy.

Here are Anthony’s remarks in their entirety.

Faith and Reason in Benedict XVI's The Regensburg Address with Dr. Michael Bolin

When he delivered his “Regensburg Address” in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI set off a firestorm of anger. Not only had he criticized Islam and modern scientism, he had the temerity to suggest that what the world really needs is Catholicism. Nearly fifteen years later, sound far less profligate and far more prophetic.

Of course, the Regensburg Address was not primarily about Islam or about scientism. Pope Benedict argued for the place of reason in human life. Without it, we either end up with subjective religiosity ungoverned by reason and leading toward fanaticism or we limit reason to mathematics and physics leading to a cold, calculated science that erases religion and morality and with them our humanity.

Dr. Michael Bolin read Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address with our Wyoming Catholic College seniors in the weeks before graduation.

Russell Kirk and the State of Conservatism with Dr. Susan Hanssen

“Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it,” wrote conservative political theorist Russell Kirk, “they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.”

The twentieth century, in contrast with what Kirk wrote, witnessed various attempts to improve society by setting them on fire. And the twenty-first century has the nasty feel of more of the same.

Our final guest lecturer here at Wyoming Catholic College was historian Dr. Susan Hanssen from the University of Dallas. The day before her lecture, she addressed the student St. Boethius Society about Russell Kirk and the history and current state of American conservatism.

"30 Days with Married Saints" with Kent and Cait Lasnoski

As they begin their devotional guide for married couples, 30 Days with Married Saints, Wyoming Catholic College theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski and his wife Cait ask the reader to imagine a beatification ceremony for a married couple. The words they quote are from St. John Paul II’s homily at the beatification of Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, but they add, “One day, God willing, such a homily might be given for you! You may think this possibility highly unrealistic and perhaps it’s true that you and your spouse will never be officially canonized. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot become saints.”

Their book 30 Days with Married Saints is a means to that end.

I began by asking Kent and Cait what inspired them to write the book.

Why the WORD Became Words with Dr. Jeremy Holmes

Quoting St. Jerome, the great fifth century Bible scholar, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (133) tells us:

The Church “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”

Theologians throughout the life of the Church pointed out not just a connection, but a identification between Jesus Who is the Word of God made flesh and the Scriptures, the Word of God written and handed down to us. 

But how does that work? What does it mean?

Theologian Dr. Jeremy Holmes hopes that his new book will answer that question. The title is Cur Deus Verba: Why the WORD Became Words.

To sign up for the free distance learning course "Reading Your Bible for All It's Worth," visit the Wyoming Catholic College website.

An Introduction to Christian Mysticism with Dr. Jason Baxter

In his new book An Introduction to Christian Mysticism: Recovering the Wildness of Spiritual Life, Wyoming Catholic College professor Dr. Jason Baxter notes that today mysticism makes us more than a little nervous. It seems to have New Age and Eastern connotations. Nonetheless, he notes, “in the premodern age..., ‘mysticism’ wasn’t some bizarre, exotic, cultish, or unusual phenomenon (like it has become), stored on bookshelves dealing with paranormal occurrences; rather it was seen as the lifeblood of prayer and adoration of God in the soul.” Then he goes on, “Ignoring it would be like selling a precious family heirloom at an estate sale because you didn’t know what it was.”

In this podcast, Dr. Baxter begins by explaining what this heirloom—what mysticism is.

For more of Dr. Baxter's books, articles, and lectures go to jasonmbaxter.com

An Invitation to "The Brothers Karamazov" with Prof. Adam Cooper

In his 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky explores questions of good and evil, alienation and belonging, the existence of God and the nature of morality.

As scholar and author Kenneth Boa writes in his four-volume A Taste of the Classics, “The Brothers Karamazov is a remarkable work that explores the whole human range of behavior, from the depths of depravity to the heights of exultation and from the meanness of the human spirit to the great nobility of which it is capable.”

This semester, Wyoming Catholic College seniors have been reading “The Brothers K” under the capable tutelage of Prof. Adam Cooper. I asked Prof. Cooper what attracts him to the novel.

Can Science Fiction Be the Epic of Our Times? with Dr. Frederick Turner

It makes no sense at first: a band of heroes,
Led by an old man with a bolo tie,
Who saved a world that was not worth saving.
There’s nothing for it then but to explain.
Perhaps for most of you it’s history,
But there’s a right way and a wrong way
To tell a story, and this on is epic.

Thus begins Fredrick Turner’s modern science fiction epic, Apocalypse. It’s the third sci-fi epic he has written and like Homer, Virgil, Milton, and Dante before him, he has written them in verse.

Dr. Turner is a poet, a cultural critic, a playwright, a philosopher of science, an interdisciplinary scholar, an aesthetician, an essayist and a translator, as well as the author of 28 books, including Natural Classicism: Essays on Literature and Science; Rebirth of Value: Meditations on Beauty, Ecology, Religion and Education; and Epic: Form, Content, and History. 

Dr. Turner, now retired Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Texas Dallas, delivered a lecture here at Wyoming Catholic College.  While he was in Lander, Dr. Turner was kind enough to join us for a podcast interview.

Dr. Turner's lecture can be found here.

He Is Risen! with Dr. Kent Lasnoski

“The Resurrection of Jesus,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross.”

The resurrection is not reincarnation. It’s not reanimation. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, second Person of the Blessed Trinity really and truly died on the cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and rose again from the dead.

During Holy Week, our podcast featured Dr. Jeremy Holmes discussing the Gospel of John chapter 19—the cross. During this Easter Octave, Dr. Kent Lasnoski joins us to discuss John chapter 20 and the resurrection.