It’s finally time to write a post here at Patheos. I’ve kept busy the past week figuring out how to transition into the new blog and life after finishing up my PhD. I’ve been accompanied through this time of transition and anxiety by two books. First, there’s Michael Gubser’s book on phenomenology: The Far Reaches. Gubser argues that phenomenology is not an abstract academy pursuit, not some isolated idealism, but rather a philosophy that always engages with the world. According to... Read more
Alright folks, it certainly does seem like this will be one of the last times I publish on this site. CosmosTheInLost is slowly migrating to Patheos. For the record: I’ve written a post about the tangled legacy of Solidarity for Ethika Politika and the role Walesa played in it. If you’ve been following my recent posts on phenomenology then you’ll sense how I am attempting to slowly build a concrete bridge between the historical social movement and the philosophical... Read more
One of the guiding threads of Gubser’s book on the Central European origins of phenomneology (The Far Reaches) is that the philosophical movement was always an ethical movement as well. This preoccupation predisposed its adherents to religious belief, especially Catholicism. In turn the conversions of his students had some surprising ramifications for Catholic relations with Judaism. Husserl inherited the earnest late 19th century concern for the need to overcome nihilism with a moral, cultural, and spiritual renewal. His work showed... Read more
I think I first encountered the notion of Krakow as the capital of phenomenology in Kenneth Schmitz’s At the Center of the Human Drama: The Philosophy of Karol Wojtyla/Pope John Paul II. I didn’t know what this meant until I spent three years in Krakow. While in Krakow I took a seminar on Max Scheler’s Ordo Amoris with Swierzawski and translated essays for the Tischner’s journal of philosophy Thinking in Values. Phenomenology is alive and well there. I also keenly remember reading the poet... Read more
Contemporary philosophical movements are not known for connecting on a practical level with Catholics. Catholics tend to run like hell from them. It’s as if they’ve been trained to think, “Just look at what contemporary philosophy has done to the Mainline!” I’ve previously discussed here how things are different with phenomenology. This originally Eastern European (German, Polish, Czech, Austrian) revolution in thinking had a large Catholic following from the start. What’s more, it proved to be the gateway-thought for outstanding early 20th century converts such... Read more
The title of this post, identifying Joseph Ratzinger with Socialism is exaggerated on purpose, or is it? I had a lot of fun with the responses to yesterday’s post about the unquestioned libertarianism of Elizabeth Warren. One thing is certain: many of the responses were mimetically sealed into the Democrat and Republican duopoly. Some respondents were so bound to their rivalries that they thought my piece was a call to vote Republican! Is there a greater sign of the Right... Read more
When you clicked on the link that brought you here, you probably weren’t expecting a meditation on scapegoating and the preemptive use of “good” violence. You won’t. For now. Elizabeth Warren is generally perceived as a fresh new voice in American politics much like Obama was six years ago. She comes across as someone who is finally willing to stand up to the Wall Street bullies. Some of that might have been sullied by the Heritage Foundation’s recent troll (apologies for the Jonah... Read more
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,which a person finds and hides again,and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchantsearching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price,he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” I recently ran across this great passage from Stephen L. Carter‘s book God’s Name in Vain for the umpteenth time. I think it’s... Read more
I’ve gone done an interview with Patrick Deneen of the political science department at Notre Dame and author of Democratic Faith. Here’s a preview of our conversation about Catholic NeoCons: “But I would rejoin that Catholics don’t properly think and act as Catholics if we treat these spheres as if they were autonomous and unrelated; indeed, it seems to me that basic economic arrangements that privilege individual autonomy, materialism, mobility at the expense of community, and an ‘amoral’ market significantly... Read more
I remember the days when First Things was riding high as the representative of a robust ecumenical orthodoxy that believed it could fill up the butt-naked public square. It’s the place where I got my first taste of a public theological education. That period now does seem a little overly optimistic, but the journal still remains the publication of note when it comes to religion in public life. This is why what I have to say about the past is... Read more
Cosmos The In Lost
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