I am trying to recall when I first began to think about whether capital punishment is or is not moral. I don’t recall reflecting on that question when I was in grammar school, but perhaps at Jesuit high school, Xavier, the question began to enter my mind. During my years as a student in the seminary and as a young priest, I had accepted the view that capital punishment was immoral.
At St. John’s University, a professor who has a full schedule teaches three courses every semester. I always teach a full schedule. Sometimes with three different courses. This fall semester is the first time I am teaching the same course to three distinct classes of students. The title of the course is “Introduction to the Philosophy of Person.”
The following are some of the terms that have been used to describe the film “Casablanca” — “the most romantic film ever made,” “the best film to come out of a Hollywood studio ever,” “more of an icon than a film,” “seems to have been filmed under a lucky star.” So many things could have gone wrong in creating “Casablanca” and yet all of them were avoided.
When I am invited to give a lecture on film, I often make the claim that “A Man for All Seasons” is a perfect film. What I mean is that everything in the film “works” to produce a nearly perfect film — a film that is truly a masterpiece.
In the July-August issue of Commonweal magazine, there was an essay about film, entitled “All Things Shining,” that may be the best essay on film that I have ever read. It was written by Martin Woessner, a professor of history and society at the City College of New York City (CUNY) Center for Worker Education.
I think that before studying the philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1981), I would never have guessed that the philosophy of the most famous existentialist, indeed the most famous atheistic existentialist, would have helped me in reflecting on the mystery of God.
Like many influential atheistic philosophers, Karl Marx had some insights that can be accepted by thinkers who believe in God.
As I am reviewing some of the atheistic philosophies that I have taught in a course at St. John’s University, I am very aware of what I have tried to draw from the influential atheists, even though I disagree with their vision of reality. I am always looking for insights that the atheists might have that might help me and my students deepen and broaden our view of God.
Last spring, I taught a philosophy course at St. John’s University that had the awful title of “The Problem of God.” I have taught the course several times. It should have been called “The Mystery of God,” but that title is also used for a course in theology, and at St. John’s, two courses with the same title are not permitted.
For several reasons, I recently began to re-read sections of Father Ron Rolheiser’s spiritual classic, “Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity.” Probably the main reason I began to re-read some of Rolheiser’s beautiful comments on prayer was that I did not wish to allow my experience of praying to become a thoughtless routine. Perhaps many of us have to work against that happening to our prayers.
