Whoever said television can’t tackle big ideas apparently forgot to tell that to Benjamin Wiker. Tomorrow Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the network which presents around-the-clock Catholic-themed programming, founded by Mother Mary Angelica, which began broadcasting on Aug. 15, 1981 from a garage studio at the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama, which Mother Angelica founded in 1962, will air in several different time slots Part 1 of its series Saints vs. Scoundrels, hosted by Wiker, a senior fellow at the Veritas Center for Ethics and Public Life at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Wiker guides viewers through pairs of influential Catholic saints and thinkers and those the church considers important historical figures, but scoundrels and sinners nonetheless.
Wiker, who holds a PhD in theological ethics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, is also an associate professor of political science and human life studies at Franciscan University. First up Sept. 10: St. Augustine, the erudite and prolific theologian and Early Church Father from the 4th and 5th centuries and 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with Jeremy Tillery an actor known for his earlier work in The Wanderers (2013) and Stephen and Samantha (2006) appearing as Rousseau, while actor Lamar Babi, known for Crave (2012), Real Steel (2011) and Detroit Unleaded (2007), plays Augustine of Hippo.
Wiker appears as himself, welcoming Rousseau to discuss his book Confessions. Unlike St. Augustine’s book that bears the same name, Rousseau outlines his negative views of the Church and why society must free itself from it. St. Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Saints vs. Scoundrels airs on EWTN Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 2 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) and is repeated at 5:30 p.m. CDT.
Future episodes pair up the historical figures of contemporaries Saint Thomas More and Henry VIII, and Flannery O’Connor and Ayn Rand.

