Anna is taking a break from the newsletter this week, so we’re sending through a simple bulletin letting you know what we’re up to.

Concerning our recent activities, the first thing to note is that we’ve posted four videos to our YouTube channel. These include Mark’s interviews with Dr Brian Coman and Keith Wheeler, as well as two talks given by Gary Furnell (“Flannery O’Connor and the ‘Interleckchuls’” and “Flannery O’Connor and the Devil”). If you haven’t yet subscribed, we’d be grateful if you could do us the favour since the more subscribers we have, the bigger the fish we can land!

Our TMC talks also continue, with the latest being last Wednesday at Indooroopilly in Brisbane. Dr Nathanael Lambert gave an address based on his doctoral thesis entitled, “Old Discourses of Virtue and Don Quixote”.

Below is a summary of the two YouTube interviews, as well as a report about the talk Gary Furnell gave in Toowoomba on July 15 entitled, “Jane Austen and John Paul II: Truth in Courtship”.

Brian Coman Interview

Dr Brian Coman is a former research biologist who started his career with the Vermin and Noxious Weeds Destruction Board in Victoria. After retiring from a career in rabbit-control (a good preparation for his book, Tooth and Nail: A History of the Rabbit in Australia), Brian entered the academy to pursue his interest in the humanities. Holding two doctorates, his interests range from literature and philosophy to bird-watching, boat-building and book-binding. He has also contributed numerous articles to Quadrant and News Weekly.

Brian begins by providing a brief summary of his upbringing followed by a compressed 2000-year history of the rabbit, in which he details the Iberian origins of the animal, its spread throughout Europe (due, in part, to the ancient Romans’ penchant for eating rabbit foetuses), and the accidental release of the calicivirus in Australia in 1996, among other things.

He then discusses Alasdair MacIntyre – specifically, MacIntyre’s role in the recovery of Aristotelian philosophy, his interest in Marxist thought, and the content of his most famous work, After Virtue. He also covers MacIntyre’s call to break away from Burkean conservatism, as well as the idea of Christians forming ‘parallel institutions’ in the post-Christian West.

Finally, Brian addresses some of the limitations of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and, in particular, the extreme views of Richard Dawkins and his ilk.

Keith Wheeler Interview

Keith Wheeler is an American evangelist who has spent much of the past 40 years carrying a 12-foot cross around the world. Beginning in 1985, on Good Friday, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wheeler has walked over 28,000 miles (45,000 kms) in over 185 countries.

Raised in a non-religious home, Keith converted to Christianity in 1982 whilst at university (he had also qualified for the Olympic trials as a pole-vaulter). Full of zeal, he began evangelising people at bars, where he got to know the patrons, owners, bartenders, bouncers, and pimps by cleaning the venues’ toilets for and by offering a complimentary ride service.

Keith recalls a variety of encounters he’s had over the years, such as receiving a chieftain’s staff in Vanuatu, being the fulfilment of a man’s dream in Mongolia, introducing a Hindu to Jesus in Guyana, spending the night with Al-Qaeda on the Egyptian side of the Libyan border in 2011 (or thereabouts), entering Rwanda in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 genocide, and miraculously escaping execution in southern Mexico in the early 1980s.

Finally, he also talks about some of his personal crosses, namely, the failure of his marriage and his recent open-heart surgery (shortly after which he died momentarily). Much more could have been said – it turns out there was a period in his life that was truly Job-like, that he is largely of Cherokee descent, and that he met Fr Rob Galea in Malta, who arranged for him to have an hour-long audience with John Paul II in 2003 – but alas, it’s hard to pack such an eventful life into 90 minutes!

Upcoming YouTube Interviews

Regarding interviews on the horizon, we have four planned, with two local guests and two international ones.

One of those guests will be Dr Owen Vyner, an academic specialising in sacramental theology at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Dr Vyner is a Perth native who did his PhD at the John Paul Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne. He will be joining Mark to discuss a variety of topics, including: the way in which the Eucharist unites us to Christ and His Church; its importance with respect to ecumenism; the theological significance of adoption; and the notion that baptism represents a participation in the death (and resurrection) of Christ.

Truth in Courtship

On July 15, the Thomas More Centre co-hosted an event with Toowoomba Catholic youth group Veritas featuring a talk by Gary Furnell. Gary’s talk on “Truth in Courtship” explored the themes of romance and marriage in Jane Austen’s novels, as well as the virtues and vices that can lead to happy or unhappy marriages – as demonstrated by the assortment of characters in Austen’s books.

Gary emphasised the relationship between love and truth and the importance of discovering the truth about a person, quoting Pope John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility to enhance his explanation. Gary’s talk prompted further discussion among the youth in attendance, who raised concerns about the issues affecting marriage, family and relationships in today’s society. Ultimately, there is much to learn from Austen’s beloved and timeless stories!

As always, thank you for your support!

Mark Makowiecki and Nicole Yap
On behalf of the Thomas More Centre