When Protestant Curiosity Meets Catholic Wisdom with Pete Wehner
Good Faith
Good Faith
4.8 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
What can Protestants learn from the Catholic tradition?
Host Curtis Chang and The Atlantic writer and former White House staffer Pete Wehner explore how Catholic social teaching—from subsidiarity and solidarity to the preferential option for the poor—offers a rich framework for Christian public life. They consider the limits of sola scriptura, unpack the importance of intellectual rigor, and define Christian humanism. Curtis and Pete also contrast the public faith of Pope Leo XIV and Vice President JD Vance, asking why faithful Christian witness should shape how believers respond to artificial intelligence and other challenges of our time.
02:31 - Does Catholic Theology Meet a Protestant Need?
04:41 - Tradition Is Powerful
08:43 - Does Sola Scriptura Have Limits?
10:19 - Protestant Traditions and Discernment
13:54 - Catholicism's Robust Frameworks
17:08 - Reclaiming Tradition for Protestants
21:36 - Embracing the Life of the Mind
27:22 - Christian Humanism fand 21st Century Questions
30:08 - A Protestant-Catholic Convergence
37:42 - Comparing Visions: JD Vance and Pope Leo
41:16 - The Power of a Faithful Witness
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Referenced in the Episode:
- Pete Wehner's article American Christians Face a Choice
- Learn about the seven themes of Catholic social teaching
- Carl F. H. Henry's The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism
- Alan Jacobs's The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
- Christian Wiman's My Bright Abyss
- John F. Kennedy's 1960 address to Protestant ministers in Houston (video)
- Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica Humanitas
- Pope Leo XIII's encyclical on capital and labor, Rerum Novarum
- Daniel K. Williams on J.D. Vances' Communion What Type of Christian is J. D. Vance?
- Miroslav Volf on Forgiveness, Justice, and Reconciliation (video)
- Miroslav Volf & Christian Wiman's Glimmerings
Scriptures Referenced:
- Psalm 127:3–5 (ESV)
- Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)
- Luke 4:1–13 (ESV)
More from Pete Wehner:
- Pete Wehner's articles at The Atlantic
- Pete Wehner's opinion pieces at The New York Times
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Catholic Church over its history has had some horrifying moments and tradition has gotten them in trouble, just as tradition has gotten, you know, the Protestant world in trouble. |
| 0:08.6 | The Catholic Church at its best has appreciated, honored, and embraced scholarship and thinking intellectual rigor, which has led to kind of moral rigor. |
| 0:20.3 | And that kind of thing is desperately |
| 0:23.3 | needed within the evangelical and sense of the world. |
| 0:47.2 | I'm your host, Curtis Chang. |
| 0:48.7 | This podcast is produced by a nonpartisan 501C3 organization. |
| 0:57.8 | In the broad history of how Christians have existed in the world, |
| 1:03.0 | a seismic event happened on October 31st, 1517. |
| 1:07.7 | That was when Martin Luther allegedly nailed his 95 theses to the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany. |
| 1:11.6 | That document outlines severe flaws in Catholic theology, |
| 1:16.6 | and essentially led to the declaration, |
| 1:18.6 | we Protestants have no need for your Catholic theology? |
| 1:23.6 | Well, over five centuries later, I wonder if we've come to something of a full circle. |
| 1:30.2 | What if now is a moment when, at least in America, we Protestants desperately need Catholic theology. |
| 1:38.9 | That's the topic of my conversation with Pete Wainer, columnist at the Atlantic and the New York Times. As always, |
| 1:45.6 | I love talking with Pete because as a fellow Protestant like me, Pete brings great insight and |
| 1:52.7 | humility to this important topic for all Christians, Protestants or Catholic. Here's my |
| 1:59.1 | conversation with Pete. |
| 2:06.9 | Let's start with the way that I think Protestants are hungry for something. |
| 2:17.4 | Are Protestants hungry for even more than just a individual spiritual statesman that they can rally around and look up to. Are they hungry for something more? |
| 2:19.3 | Is there something about Catholic theology, perhaps, that Protestants are hungry for, that |
| 2:25.5 | the Catholic table presents? We're like, oh, that looks good. I think so. I think so. I don't |
... |
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