“Musings” on LATE TO LOVE with Iguana

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:14 pm By Sam Rocha

Almost two years ago, my good friend and fellow philosopher of education (at Hofstra University), Eduardo Duarte (a.k.a. “Professor Iguana,” his radio deejay name), began “Musings,” an experimental community radio project trying to think and talk about about the relationship between philosophy and music or even the idea of philosophy as music and vice versa. I’ve been the featured guest twice and today we recorded the first of an eventual trio of conversations focused on my forthcoming album, Late to... Read more

‘God’s Not Dead’ is Sort of Catholic? UPDATED

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:14 pm By Sam Rocha

More here soon, for now read this: Though it is frequently described as a “Christian film” (which it is), the fact is not always mentioned that the two men who penned the screenplay are devout Catholics, Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. Read the interview at the National Catholic Register. I’ll post a longer update soon, after I teach class this evening. If you haven’t read it yet, I’ll be referring to my review of God’s Not Dead, here. UPDATE: I don’t really feel... Read more

#GodsNotDead Soars on Bald Eagle Wings: Or, Postmortem Apologetics

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:14 pm By Sam Rocha

WARNING: Spoilers abound (not that they really matter). (Preface) As a film, a work of art, a motion picture, a combination of acting, light, camerawork, editing, postproduction, color, music and more, as that sort of thing that is interested in beauty for beauty’s sake, a story and good writing and all the complexities of directing and the tragicomic, in that respect let me be very clear: God’s Not Dead does not qualify to be called a ‘movie’ in the artistic... Read more

The End of the World Starts at the Beginning

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm By Sam Rocha

Your never delayed, but always on time, weekly apocalypse, in eight points: 1. The latest discovery of Jesus’s wife has overshadowed the much more serious and credible discovery of the city of Atlantis, unreported by the always-biased media, where a scroll is said to exist proving definitively that Jesus also had a husband along with several pets, among them a camel who had a phobia of passing through small, tight entrances. 2. The University of Notre Dame will honor Kevin Miller,... Read more

An Immigration Manifesto by Artur Rosman and Sam Rocha

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm By Sam Rocha

(Cross-posted at Ethika Politika.) Immigration has been reduced to two options: the naïve and ahistorical legal route or the sentimental and anecdotal one. Both approaches and parties argue one side or the other, and the politics and rhetoric generated from that empty strategy are as clueless and predictable as they are terrifying. The terror of the present situation at the border between the United States and Mexico is that it risks becoming institutionalized, branded into the flesh of our collective psyche and imagination.... Read more

“No Exit Catholicism” at Ethika Politika

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm By Sam Rocha

I’ve been considering the role of more indirect and oblique routes in building a sense of personal and social Catholic identity for some time now. The main reason, that I don’t share in this essay, is intimate and personal. It was this cultural Catholicism, in my own genealogical ties to the Church the beauty of the Liturgy, that kept me Catholic at a time of immense and serious doubt. It was as if I could not fall away, no matter... Read more

The Apocalypse Will Flood Your Mind

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm By Sam Rocha

Your flaky, but always weekly, apocalypse, in seven points: 1. A century after Nietzsche stole the words “Gott ist tot” from Hegel in The Gay Science, the razor sharp wit and ambitious artistic vision of the US Christian imagination has made a definitive rejoinder in the form of the motion picture God’s Not Dead. The film is reminiscent of that classic television series, “Touched by an Angel,” and promises to have similar cultural effects. 2. Stephen Colbert has decided to change... Read more

Don’t Miss “The Image of God,” Tomorrow!

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 5:51 pm By Sam Rocha

Tomorrow, in Portland, OR, two of my great loves — Terrence Malick’s masterpiece, The Tree of Life, and Augustine’s Confessions — will be combined into a very exciting event, led by John O’Callaghan, professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. The event is “The Image of God: Malick’s Tree of Life and Augustine,” tomorrow, March 22nd, from 3 to 7 pm, in Buckley Center Auditorium at the University of Portland. For those of us who are not able to attend, the... Read more

Pope Francis Against Ideology

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 5:51 pm By Sam Rocha

A short break in my ongoing attempt to Kickstart my debut album, LATE TO LOVE. * Today at, Ethika Politika, I have an essay — “Francis’ Radical Realism: Performance v. Ideology” — about what I am calling Francis’ “radical realism.” I trace this idea in three ways: (1) the words and deeds of his own pontificate, (2) the preceding progression of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and (3) in dialogue with the (surprisingly complimentary) thought of Alasdair MacIntyre and Slavoj... Read more

Profane Praise: On Estuary Music

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm By Sam Rocha

The expression for ‘fresh water’ in Spanish is agua dulce — sweet water. I always liked that way of putting it. An estuary is a place where sweet and salty water meet and combine into a brackish ecology of life between land and sea. * I grew up in the sweet waters of the charismatic Roman Catholic Church, leading worship where open major chords strummed in 4/4 and unison choruses ended singing acapella, in men’s and woman’s parts. Over the last decade of... Read more