Famous Atheists Who Weren’t Atheists: Moon Landing Communion

Last updated on: August 18, 2014 at 3:04 pm By Artur Rosman

The manned moon landing might have been staged in a television studio somewhere in West Burbank. If that’s the case then the moon landing was exclusively a victory for science and skepticism in a strange way. Now, for those of us living in the real world the wars between science and religion ought to look like a stupid distraction from reality. Let’s be honest: early modern science was encouraged by medieval religious institutions, the leading evolution school handbook was written by... Read more

Polish Poetry: Milosz, Herbert, & Kamienska on Suffering & Insight

Last updated on: August 18, 2014 at 3:04 pm By Artur Rosman

Right now I have several friends who are going through extreme suffering. There aren’t words to describe their conditions both because their pain goes beyond words and I don’t have the full details. Poets frequently capture what is beyond the grasp of my own thinking and writing. And so here are some variations on the topic of suffering and insight (or lack thereof) from the pages of Polish poetry. I ask you for prayers. BODY by Czeslaw Milosz in Facing the... Read more

The Ultimate (2x TOP10) Summer Theology Reading List!

Last updated on: August 18, 2014 at 3:05 pm By Artur Rosman

The publishing world didn’t stop just because I piled on one more dissertation into the ProQuest archives. During the writing of my dissertation the boredom of non-stop writing and my nostalgia for reading led to the development of a curious habit. Whenever three or four in the morning would roll around I’d go hounding the websites of respected publishers looking at their recent releases. Then I’d write them. To my surprise almost nobody turned me down. Below is the list... Read more

Papal World Cup Final 2014: Argentina is on God’s Side #QED

Last updated on: August 18, 2014 at 3:06 pm By Artur Rosman

Above are the Catholic numbers for this 2014 World Cup Final. What can we learn from them about the future of the Church and who to put money down on for Sunday? One thing we know from the stats is that Germany is about as Catholic as Russia is Orthodox [NOT. VERY.]. In fact, Germany is about as Catholic as the United States! I suppose this would explain why the Germans are as bad about commiting liturgical abuses as the Americans are.... Read more

Barker’s First Temple Fireworks: Christianity, Judaism, Islam

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 4:53 pm By Artur Rosman

The ISIS attempts at reestablishing the caliphate are getting much press of late. They goaded me into recycling the following three older posts on Islam: Islam Does Not Need a Reformation, TOP10: Religion and World Politics Reading List, and Christianity is Neither a Monotheism Nor a Religion of the Book. All three posts engage the relationship between Islam and Christianity in some way. That well has run dry, so I’m going to turn to some new material. The relationship... Read more

Were Catholics Targeted by the Conservative Culture Wars?

Last updated on: January 17, 2015 at 12:06 am By Artur Rosman

Rachel Held Evans has finished her third book and is back to blog writing. I think it’s finally time to get back on the blog horse before I start losing my religion (that’s an idiom, by the way). As recounted elsewhere, I got back into practicing Catholicism after a few years at a secular state university. It took me a couple of years before figuring out the difference between what is theologically nourishing and what is total crap. During those years... Read more

Saint Socrates: What Damon Linker Got Wrong About Philosophy

Last updated on: February 9, 2017 at 4:06 pm By Artur Rosman

When translating the book Socrates and Other Saints I learned that Erasmus, among others, called Socrates a saint. How strange does that sound to your ear? It shouldn’t. The notion of spiritual exercises was first developed by the Greek philosophers and only later taken up (and democratized) by Christian thinkers. Ignatius of Loyola came fairly late in this tradition. Actually, very late, his Spiritual Exercises were a recovery of the tradition of the spiritual exercises after it went mostly underground during the... Read more

Science Doesn't Think: Neil deGrasse Tyson Busts a Move on Philosophy

Last updated on: May 7, 2014 at 9:41 am By Artur Rosman

There are so many temptations to keep writing my dissertation uninterrupted instead of blogging, but how can I give into them if someone on the internet is WRONG?! Ascesis calls. Ascesis: Pierre Hadot will tell you that Philosophy is a Way of Life. Following him, in a recent book, Jean-Yves Lacoste tells you that spiritual exercises (changing your life) have always been at the heart of philosophy. If I ever get around to pitching his books, which I’ve translated, you’ll hear Dariusz... Read more

Hans Urs von Balthasar and Weakness as Apologetic Form

Last updated on: May 1, 2014 at 11:46 am By Artur Rosman

Christians are not immune to the desire to come across as powerfully convincing in what they proclaim. Shouldn’t the New Evangelization be about finally speaking clearly and powerfully to a culture of death? What’s there not to like about powerful rhetoric that blows away your competition by exposing them for the stupids they are? But what if in your victory you end up losing? That’s a paradox I’ve proposed in my latest (von Balthasar inspired) Ethika Politika piece, “Apologetics and... Read more

The Consequences of Real-Existing Capitalism for Fertility

Last updated on: April 29, 2014 at 1:18 pm By Artur Rosman

This is an extension of the line of argument I began in “No More Throne and AltarSt. JP2 on Inequality is the Root of Social Evil.” My adopted hometown of Seattle is experiencing a population boom. No, it’s not human babies. Heck, my wife and I get dirty looks all the time on the street when she walks with our economically nonviable brood of three. They probably think she’s a “breeder,” obviously a term of opprobrium. Dogs breeding is a... Read more