Professor Feingold on St. Ignatius bishop of Antioch (audio)

Last night the Association of Hebrew Catholics sponsored a lecture by Professor Lawrence Feingold (Ave Maria University) on St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred about AD 107. The audio of the lecture can be downloaded as an mp3 here.

St. Ignatius was a direct disciple of St. John (d. AD 100), and quite possibly had been ordained by St. Peter. For that reason his testimony gives us a window into the mind of the Apostles and into the Scriptures and the early Church. Pope Benedict calls St. Ignatius the "Doctor of Unity," because he teaches the basis for unity and the nature and sinfulness of schism. Concerning St. Ignatius' seven epistles, Cardinal Newman wrote that "the whole system of Catholic doctrine may be discovered, at least in outline, not to say in parts filled up, in the course of them." In his lecture Professor Feingold shows that to be the case, laying out St. Ignatius' participatory understanding of redemptive suffering and Christ's Passion, the hierarchical structure of the Church through sacramental authority in succession from the Apostles, and the implications regarding the Eucharist and schism, the primacy of the See of Rome, the true humanity and true divinity of Christ and the implications for the Eucharist and works of charity, St. Ignatius' understanding of the fulfillment of Judaism in Christianity, and his reference to the practice of consecrated virginity. The letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch can be read online here.