In this episode, I speak with the professor of theology Fritz Bauerschmidt about Graham Greene’s novel, The Heart of the Matter. We discuss the moral psychology of sin, and how it is that human beings are able to knowingly act against their own good (in this case: knowingly and deliberatively choose their own eternal damnation). How can someone find what is evil and good? The answer in this case is a deft exploration of the interplay between pride and pity, self-deception and self-conceit.

As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Frederick C. Bauerschmidt is a Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of many books, including The Love That Is God: An Invitation to Christian Faith, 2020, Catholic Theology: An Introduction, 2017, Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason and Following Christ. Oxford, 2013, and Holy Teaching: Introducing the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, 2005. You can follow him on Twitter @BauerschmidtC

Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department.  She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and six chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @jennfrey.

Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.

Audio Edited & Music Produced by Anthony Monson