Philipp Rosemann Episode — Beatrice Institute

Philipp Rosemann is chair of philosophy at Maynooth University in Ireland and the editor of the Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations series. A native of Germany who studied in Ireland and Belgium, Philipp joins Ryan for a frank discussion of the spiritual wasteland of contemporary Irish culture. Drawing upon themes from Philipp’s latest book, the two cover a variety of topics from Foucault, to the deserts of West Texas, to Catholic utopian literature.

What exactly have you been reading?
Foucault and French pouvoir—it’s more than just power
Foucault was not simply a Marxist
Foucault would be appalled by gender theory
LSD changed Foucault’s life
America has preserved the Western intellectual tradition
Education that is truly liberal is appropriate for a free person
The vast majority of Irish students are religiously illiterate
Secularization is a Christian heresy
Christ is the center of time
Calling someone a heretic is too flashy, particularly if it’s not true
“The kingdom is already here, so there’s nothing to hope for”
Ireland is a society with no transcendent horizon, so the State must bring about human happiness
U.S. has two things Europe lacks: a strong Christian faith and a tradition of liberty
It’s illegal to go to Mass or confession in Ireland
There’s an American sense of space—and freedom—that you don’t get in Europe
The desert gives you a sense of the contingency of life
Leonard Cohen is a better poet than Bob Dylan
There will be no human race in twenty thousand years
Tradition is dynamic—there is rupture, contraction, discontinuity
Thomas Aquinas was a revolutionary because he brought Aristotle into the Christian tradition
What would a Catholic utopia for the twenty-first century look like?
Ireland’s minister of education never completed an undergraduate degree…that’s absurd!