Franciscan University of Steubenville Must Repent

December 10, 2014 By Sam Rocha

On May 17, 2012, I wrote the following post regarding Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS) bestowing an honorary degree to General Michael Hayden. My alma mater, Franciscan University of Steubenville, has been in the news lately. They’ve been skewered and adulated by the two, predictable sides of every news story for discontinuing their student healthcare coverage. Their main published reason for doing so is out of concern for participating “in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of... Read more

Book Release: A Primer for Philosophy and Education

December 8, 2014 By Sam Rocha

After countless drafts and a strong run as a self-published book, I am very happy to announce that A Primer for Philosophy & Education has found a good home with Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. The new edition is priced at a proletarian rate and is slightly expanded with edited artwork, a new preface, exercises and questions at the end of each section, and a list of suggestions for further reading. You can order a copy here. Thanks... Read more

You, Sir, Are No Buckley: A Reply to Stephen Herreid

November 24, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Stephen Herreid has written a reply to two critics of his post, “How to Fend Off Freeloaders,” a personal and petty attack on Artur Rosman. The two critics he mentions are J. Arthur Bloom (based on private correspondence) and myself (based on my reply). For some reason Herreid did not reply to Rosman, who wrote a graceful reply of his own. Since then Bloom has posted a reply and Justin Tse has posted as well, at Rosman’s blog, Cosmos the in Lost. Herreid did... Read more

The Apocalypse Will Cure Us Dead

November 16, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Your almost-on-time Weekly Apocalypse, in eight points: The midterm election cured the press of the reporting-on-ebola epidemic. A not-so-recent social science study went out of date again. An Italian karaoke-singing nun, after winning the derivative Italian version of The Voice, signed a record deal with Universal and released a debut where she performs covers songs, bringing an official and much anticipated end to the credibility of the popular music industry. A Catholic online publication is blown away by another edgy and original... Read more

Late to Love in the Classroom, on the Streets

November 14, 2014 By Sam Rocha

This past week, two sections of Hofstra University’s Honors College course, “Culture and Expression” — taught by my dear friend and colleague, Eduardo Duarte (who was also the author of the meditations in the liner notes) — listened to my Augustinian soul album, Late to Love, as a companion text to their study of Augustine’s Confessions. The two classes sent me a number of questions about the album, its composition and content, and its relation to Augustine. I was asked to reply in the form of a YouTube... Read more

Hatred of the Poor: Sad, Self-Loathing Poison from the Right-Wing Catholic Ghetto – UPDATED

November 4, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Moving to Canada has afforded me a convenient, but slight, distance from the septic squalor of US political commentary. I trace the headlines with my eyes, but little more than that. I mention this to reenter the fray, and address a recent post at the Candid World Report, by Stephen J. Herreid, entitled “How to Fend Off Freeloaders: What Keeps Left and Right so Far Apart?” The post claims to be about the perils of political partisanship, but what it really amounts to... Read more

Late to Love: A Concert and Q&A

October 29, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Last week I played a concert and did a Q&A at Seattle Pacific University Arts Center, sponsored by Image Journal. Although it was sparsely attended, those who were there, including my Patheos colleague Artur Rosman and his children, were a wonderful and hospitable audience on a damp and chilly Wednesday night. I also think the acoustics of the room were nice and are fairly well captured in this video: In other Late to Love news, here is a fine review of another... Read more

“I’d Rather Be Whole,” an Essay About Art at Ethika Politika

October 20, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Today I have an essay at Ethika Politika where I think about what sort of artist and person I am. As I’ve mentioned a few times here, many of the reviews and questions surrounding Late to Love have led me to think and re-think not only my art, but also myself. Here is an excerpt: … questions of artistic identity may not be about art in the sense that is strictly related to the making and crafting of music or other... Read more

Gradualism and the Aesthetics of Communication

October 13, 2014 By Sam Rocha

I’ve stayed away from the Synod news. I’ll read the documents in due time, but I have no journalistic interests to hasten me. Two small impressions have occurred to me, which I offer below in limited relation to the actual Synod event. These are speculative remarks, made in response to the always unreliable informant that is my Twitter feed and Facebook wall. Feel free to ignore them or to apply them where they might fit in that discussion, but do keep in... Read more

Left Behind After the End that Never Began

October 4, 2014 By Sam Rocha

Your mostly faithful Weekly Apocalypse, in nine points: People terrified by an Ebola outbreak in the United States also seem to object to universal healthcare. Postmodernist, libertarian, and know-nothing consumerist anti-vaxers unite in relativistic denial of herd immunity, temporarily disproving the theory of natural selection. Every journalist in the entire world seems to have forgotten about the Islamic Golden Age. George Weigel reads Evangelical Catholicism and Evangelii Gaudium with golden and red pens and is pleased with the result. A social science survey on... Read more