“The Age of Enlightenment and Our Souls: Legacies of Cultural Conflict, Engagement, and Retreat.”

When Kristina and I were undergraduate students at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids we took a course taught by a visiting professor, Dr. Joseph Stuart, called, Catholic Political Thought. It was a really interesting, and challenging, class that combined history, philosophy, and theology. Most distinctly, I remember that the final exam was one of the hardest tests I’ve ever taken.

Last month, Dr. Stuart reached out to me out of the blue saying that he had stumbled upon my article about spiritual abuse: The Place Where You Stand is Holy Ground. He asked if he could reference it during an upcoming lecture he was giving at Aquinas College about the Catholic response to the Enlightenment.

The night of the talk I ducked out of my group counseling class early to attend the lecture. It was a fascinating talk, and Dr. Stuart was very generous towards me in his comments about my article.

The lecture was just published online and I wanted to share it with you.

You can also buy his book—Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason— here: https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/rethinking-the-enlightenment

Dr. Joseph Stuart is Associate Professor of History and Fellow in Catholic Studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND, where he lives with his wife and four children. Dr. Stuart grew up near Big Rapids, MI, worked at the Russell Kirk Center in Mecosta, MI, for a number of years, and completed his graduate studies at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Stuart taught as an Adjunct Professor at Aquinas College in 2010. He is now the Chair of the History program at the University of Mary and is the author or co-author of three books.