History of Western Civilization

Dr. John Rao discusses early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world particularly Christian life in the 200’s A.D. What was Christian life like by the 200’s A.D.? What did Christians think...

In this excellent talk, Father Vincent Miceli, S.J., acutely demonstrates how our “Enlightened” 20th Century Moloch world is at the root of the Jonestown tragedy. He explains the causes of...

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro treats the riches of Catholic political thought in the 16th and 17th century. That thought, which involved a variety of Jesuit scholars in particular, brought forth serious...

Chris Ferrara continues a discussion about the modern world and Pope Saint Pius X. Mr. Ferrara describes how, at the turn of the 20th century, Pope Saint Pius X condemned...

The Franks in Gaul under the Merovingian Dynasty led by Clovis and his descendents were the first German tribe to become Catholic. Dr. John Rao explains that their history from...

The monks of Cluny and others like them saw two groups that had to be “transformed” before all others: the soldiers and the clergy. In order to do this work...

Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the great religious and counterrevolutionary writers of the nineteenth century. He saw Russia and Russian Orthodoxy as being central to the battle for Christianity and...

Discussions of what to do to save the Crusades grew stronger after the total loss of the Holy Land in the late 1200’s. Dr. John Rao discusses the various crusading...

The whole postwar atmosphere, New Theology, the Council, and the post conciliar environment all pushed the Vatican to try to be more friendly with the Soviet Union. It is this...

Dr. John Rao discusses grace, free will, the Missions, Jansenism and Protestant Naturalism. Dr. Rao shows how Jansenism and the concerns of “pietist” Protestants who de-emphasized the importance of doctrine...

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro discusses the Cristeros movement in Twentieth Century Mexico, a magnificent militant expression of popular Catholic crusading for the Faith against a persecuting secularist, liberal/Marxist Mexican government in...

Mr. Michael Davies talks include readings of selections from the writings of St. John Fisher and Martin Luther. Listeners will be able to judge for themselves the way in which...

Dr. John Rao discusses the motivations and aftereffects of the Enlightenment. In this most important presentation Dr. Rao sheds light on how the ideas ingrained by the Enlightenment–as well as...

“The Wakefield Noah”, a Medieval Mystery Play, is performed by members of the Dietrich Von Hildebrand Institute. Taken from: Christianity in the Late Middle Ages-Early Renaissance – 1996 VonHildebrand Institute

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Mr. Michael Davies discusses the Catholic Doctrine on the Holy Eucharist. Mr. Davies opens his treatment of heresy in the late Middle Ages by discussing the Catholic doctrine of the...

Hinduism, a complex and contradictory system, promotes the worship of “enlightened God-men called Gurus.” However this dramatized study describes how Hinduism has gained a foothold in the west.

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Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand tackles a necessary but difficult subject: the personality of Luther and his troubled psychology. Anyone familiar with Luther’s language and his increasing paranoia and conviction of...

Monsignor William Smith regards the plight of the family and current trends that have an adverse effect on the family, including the sexual revolution and radical Feminism. “The Attack On...

Dr. John Rao’s next three talks all take up the problem of the Church’s struggle with a postwar world dominated by Marxism on the one hand and Americanist Pluralism on...

The entire legalist-Humanist-Protestant-Jansenist-Enlightenment alliance became a new Grand Coalition which seized upon the image of freedom and placed it on its banners. All those who yearned to be free had...