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I recently had the absolute joy of speaking with Daniel McInerny!
Join me as he shares the beautiful way that St. John Henry Cardinal Newman asked to be his friend.
About Daniel:
Daniel McInerny is a novelist and dramatist as well as associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia.
In March 2023 Chrism Press published his novel, The Good Death of Kate Montclair, which his fellow Catholic novelist Maya Sinha has called “an instant classic of 21st-century Catholic fiction.”
The Good Death of Kate Montclair depicts a brave woman in midlife struggling to come to terms with a terminal diagnosis by joining an apparently innocent death discussion group (loosely modeled after the contemporary phenomenon of The Death Café). It is a suspenseful, heartbreaking, topical, and often humorous story set in Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia during COVID Year 2020, with flashbacks to the Italy of the 1980s, told from Kate Montclair’s present tense POV. The book deals with one of our culture’s most hotly contested issues, euthanasia, as well as with the themes of conscience as an argument for God’s existence, and bespoke spirituality and ritual in our contemporary world.
Acclaimed Catholic poet James Matthew Wilson has said the following of the novel:
“Daniel McInerny brings us a novel of characters flirting with the temptation to be their own author only to discover the plot of their lives is not up to them. This is a book of and for our dreary moment but one which reminds us that a good story brings serious pleasure and joyful wisdom to transform even the darkest of ages.”
As a scholar Daniel is foremost interested in retrieving an Aristotelian understanding of mimetic art, long out of favor among philosophers. In June 2024 Word on Fire Academic will bring out his scholarly monograph, The Way of Beauty: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts. Early reviews of the book have said the following:
“This is literally the best book on beauty that I have ever read: the most convincing, clear, and comprehensive; the most eye-opening and satisfying; the most insightful and delightful. It is a masterpiece. I do not use that word lightly, but there is no other word for it.”
–Dr. Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, and author of Socrates’ Children (Word on Fire 2023)
“Daniel McInerny’s book clarifies why we enjoy works of art—pictures, music, drama and movies, poetry and novels—and it also shows why we revere such works: not as ends in themselves, but because they place us in the truthful presence of what they depict. The book reactivates Aristotle’s understanding of mimesis and Aquinas’s enhancement of it. It shows how art elevates what it displays as well as the community that experiences it. It is a metaphysical and theological reflection on the arts, written in the style and spirit of C. S. Lewis: limpid prose, abundant citations, colorful examples. A book to study and learn from, then to browse in and enjoy.”
—Msgr. Robert Sokolowski, Elizabeth Breckenridge Caldwell Professor of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America
At Christendom College Daniel teaches courses on the Philosophy of Art & Beauty, the Philosophy of Technology, the Philosophy of Culture, and Ethics & Imagination.
He received his BA in English from the University of Notre Dame (1986) and his PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America (1994). He has taught and worked at various universities in the United States, including a stint as associate director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture, now called the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture, at the University of Notre Dame (2003-09). He has taught at Christendom College since the fall of 2019.
Daniel is also the author of three books in the humorous Kingdom of Patria series for middle grade readers, as well as a play, The Actor, on the early life and wartime dramatic activities of Karol Wojtyla, the man who would become Saint John Paul II, which will premiere at Christendom College in the fall of 2024.
He also writes the Substack newsletter, The Comic Muse, where he shares weekly reflections on philosophy, the arts, technology, and culture.
Daniel is a native of South Bend, Indiana. He is the youngest child of the late Ralph McInerny, revered philosopher at the University of Notre Dame for over fifty years, and best known by many as the author of the beloved Father Dowling series of mystery novels.
Daniel and his wife Amy have three grown children and one preternaturally adorable grandchild, and they live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Daniel’s book:
The Good Death of Kate Montclair
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