MacIntyre: What the Natural Sciences Do Not Explain

Last updated on: November 1, 2014 at 11:41 am By Artur Rosman

I am going through a bit of a MacIntyre renaissance of late. I’ve realized the range of topics he has addresses in his writings goes far beyond the discussions of tradition and virtue in Whose Justice? Which Rationality? and After Virtue. As you may remember reading Dependent Rational Animals was something of a revelation for me. The following video, which obliquely picks up on themes of authority from yesterday’s post on the Reformation, might stretch your thinking to its limits as... Read more

Reformation Day is an Oops?

Last updated on: January 29, 2015 at 12:22 pm By Artur Rosman

Another day, another year, another Halloween, and yet another Reformation Day. Today some of us remember the deeds of Martin Luther. I like to harp on this, because it never really registers: Luther never meant to break away from the Catholic Church. The act of nailing the 95 theses was not an unusually dramatic gesture. It was a traditional medieval practice to nail theological conundrums to cathedral doors in order to declare an open debate about them. The tradition was... Read more

Doubt Douthat’s Donatist Precipice

Last updated on: January 17, 2015 at 12:15 am By Artur Rosman

Ross Douthat’s “The Pope and Precipice” has received plenty of attention of late. Rod Dreher presents it as an insightful piece and even invents a pithy Galatians 2 tag for it: resisting the pope to his face (while ignoring how Paul got into Peter’s face to argue for doctrinal development, or, even a break with the past practice of excluding Gentiles). What I see in Douthat’s article instead is the specter of a shapeless, because baseless, fear. First of all,... Read more

The Church’s Geopolitical Chess Strategy

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 11:35 am By Artur Rosman

Today I conclude my interview on the Church and Hong Kong with Dr. Justin Tse of the University of Washington Comparative Religion department. The conversation moves mainland: Artur Rosman: Are the dynamics on the mainland similar to those in Hong Kong? What is the Catholic strategy there, if any? Justin Tse: This is a brilliant question because it gets right to the heart of Cardinal Zen’s real agenda: Sino-Vatican relations. In 2011, Cardinal Zen said in a press conference that... Read more

The Consequences of God’s Maternal Thinking for Theology

Last updated on: October 28, 2014 at 2:17 pm By Artur Rosman

The feminist Sara Ruddick must be doing something right if both Alasdair MacIntyre and Janet Martin Soskice cite her as an influence. MacIntyre credits the feminist philosopher’s work in the field of disability studies at the start of Dependent Rational Animals. Soskice borrows Ruddick’s phenomenology of the parental gaze in Maternal Thinking for her writings on parenting and spirituality in The Kindness of God. Here Soskice adopts Ruddick’s phenomenology of the parent’s gaze in order to make an analogy with the classical experience of... Read more

Mini TOP10: Books on Vatican Relations with China and Hong Kong

Last updated on: January 30, 2015 at 9:51 pm By Artur Rosman

Today we feature an exclusive peek ahead to the third installment of my interview on Hong Kong with Dr. Justin Tse of the University of Washington. It will appear on Ethika Politika this Wednesday. What follows below is a list of the five essential books to read to better understand Vatican relations with China and Hong Kong. The Wednesday interview (totally new content) will deal with questions that dovetail into this book list. The previous two parts of our... Read more

What We Want is a Spirituality of Wiping Bottoms and Breastfeeding!

Last updated on: July 4, 2015 at 12:52 pm By Artur Rosman

Yesterday’s post featured Alasdair MacIntyre discussing how much the philosophical tradition has ignored the dependencies built into all of our lives. In the long citation in that post he touches upon childhood while concentrating upon disability as an extreme case that is revelatory of the inescapable facts of constant human weakness and depencency. Janet Martin Soskice’s The Kindness of God takes up the important topic of child-rearing in relation to spirituality. I did not recognize the significance of this topic... Read more

MacIntyre’s Revelatory Argument About Disability

Last updated on: January 28, 2015 at 11:22 am By Artur Rosman

There is nothing like the thrill of discovering a new vein of thought. The only thrill greater is the discovery of a new vein of thought in a thinker you thought you knew. Alasdair MacIntyre is someone who is frequently quoted in theology and philosophy papers. You see his After Virtue referenced all over the place. You might also find mentions of his God, Philosophy, University and many tiresome variations on the title Whose Justice? Which Rationality? You almost never... Read more

Percy on Mental Hygiene: You Are Entitled to Your Depression

Last updated on: October 21, 2014 at 2:17 pm By Artur Rosman

Octorber 5-11 was mental health week. You probably heard it mentioned on any of the following: radio commercials, TV programs, and social media blitzes. Chances are that you have struggled with some of the things that you heard discussed–the same goes for me. Abnormality is the new normal. It is also probably true, as one of my former professors, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen argues in his Making Minds and Madness: From Hysteria to Depression, that there are plenty of vested interests for... Read more

The Veils of Separation Drop

Last updated on: October 18, 2014 at 3:20 pm By Artur Rosman

In a curious reversal of the Parable of the Good Samaritan I picked up an old helping friend last night: Martin Laird’s A Sunlit Absence. The last few months have left me exhausted (more than usual) by persistent self-doubts, anxieties, career stress, and money worries. You know things are not going well when someone like myself who churns out TOP10 book lists with abandon loses the motivation to pick up a book. And so I turned, once more, to a book!... Read more