Dr. Christopher S. Morrissey: Publications

Academic Interests: Term Logic / Peircean Semiotics / Speculative Metaphysics / Philosophy of Nature / Mimetic Theory

Ph.D. (Simon Fraser University)
M.A. (University of British Columbia)
B.A. (University of British Columbia)
B.Sc. (University of Manitoba)

[Biography] [Papers and Presentations] [McLuhan Research] [Physiosemiosis Research] [Voegelin and Schelling] [C.G. Jung]

Associate Editor of The American Journal of Semiotics — published by the Semiotic Society of America

Certified Member, Institute for Advanced Physics

Translator of the ancient Greek poetry of Hesiod

Author of 逻辑之道 — The Way of Logic (Nanjing Normal University Press, 2018) ISBN 7-5651-3577-1

Book of poetry: C.S. Morrissey, Hesiod: Theogony / Works and Days (Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 2012)

"Simply put, this translation possesses the potential to stir the divine spirit flowing within oneself—praise few translations merit." —Rebecca LeMoine, book review in Voegelin View

"My favorite book of the year was, without a doubt, Canadian philosopher Chris Morrissey’s new translation of Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days (Talon). Morrissey has provided a spectacular and poetic read of one of the greats of antiquity. The profundity of Hesiod’s language as well as his mythopoetic vision shine forth in this new translation." —Bradley J. Birzer, "The Best Books I Read in 2012", Catholic World Report.

"Hesiod's appeal may widen with the publication of Morrissey's new translation. It is clear and reads well, especially aloud. Shifts in tone and vocabulary from the formal to the demotic are challenges that some translators fail to meet. Not Morrissey. ... Morrissey has brought fire and light to Hesiod's work, and offered it to us with clarity and good humour, in the darkening air of our time." —Vallum: Contemporary Poetry (issue 10:1): 85–87.

"Morrissey’s version … has a gnomic quality, and we do feel as if we are glimpsing the art of an ancient poet. … At the same time, the book does not discount the possibility of being used for academic purposes … this translation works effectively as a source for the myths which is uncommonly mindful of historical circumstances surrounding its composition, which we are at times in danger of forgetting. … Morrissey’s diligent style and innovative framing devices provide a new and helpful context to read and re-read some of the great founding narratives of classical literature." —Glasgow Review of Books

Forthcoming Publications and Current Writing Projects:

• "Kant's Abyss of Reason"
  


• "Do Androids Dream of Sacrificial Sheep?"
  


• "From City to Cyber-Nation: Awake in the Global Village with a Philosophy of History"
  


• "Dressed to Kill: Just War Themes and the Ring Composition of the Book of Judith"
  


• "Math and Logic Puzzles in the Book of Daniel"
  


• "Gödel's and Leibniz's Ontological Proofs Reconsidered: Updating the Algebra of Concepts with an Aristotelian Term Logic for Computational Metaphysics"
  


• Aristotelian Term Logic
  

Academic Publications:

• "The Pragmatic Basis of Logic: Existential Graphs for Excavation of Sacrifice in Narrative", in Farouk Y. Seif (ed.), Semiotics 2022: Intentionality and Semiotic Labyrinths (Semiotic Society of America, 2023), 205-213. https://doi.org/10.5840/cpsem202215
  


• Review of Jacques Maritain in the 21st Century: Personalism and the Political Organization of the World by Walter Schultz, for Kesher 42 (Winter/Spring 2023).
  


• "'The Cloven Hoof under the Cassock': Sacrifice Hidden in the Hebrew Bible and Roger Scruton",
  Perspectives on Political Science 52.2 (2023): 66-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2023.2183023
  


• "Marshall McLuhan: Canadian Political Philosophy for the Digital Age", in Lee Trepanier and Richard Avramenko (eds.),
  Canadian Conservative Political Thought (New York, NY: Routledge, 2023), 189-204. DOI: 10.4324/9781003367727-15 ISBN 978-1-032-43526-8
  


• "Christopher Dawson on the Causes of Culture", review of Joseph T. Stuart, Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022), for The University Bookman (Jan 2, 2023): https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/christopher-dawson-on-the-causes-of-culture/
  


• "Subversions of Exclusions: A Commentary on Esther", in Semiotics 2019: New Frontiers of Semiotics (Semiotic Society of America, 2021), 67-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/cpsem201910
  


• "The Logic of Relativism", Philosophical News: Official Publication of the European Society for Moral Philosophy 16 (2018): 145-159 (Special Issue on Dietrich von Hildebrand [printed in July 2020]).
  


• "Benedict Ashley's Reappraisal of Marxism", in Grant Havers and Lee Trepanier (eds.),
  Walk Away: When the Political Left Turns Right (Lexington Books, Aug 15, 2019) ISBN 978-1498595193.
  


• "The Five Ways of World-Empire", in
  Eric Voegelin Today: Voegelin's Political Thought in the 21st Century (Lexington Books, July 15, 2019) ISBN 978-1498596633.
  


• "The Five Ways of the Cosmos: Stoicism and Eco-Spirituality in the Perennial Tradition", in Gabriel Ricci (ed.),
  Natural Communions, Volume 40 of Religion & Public Life (Routledge, 2019), 1-13. ISBN 978-0367231811.
  


• Review of Travis Smith, Superhero Ethics, in The Dorchester Review 8.2 (Autumn/Winter 2018): 92-94.
  


• "The Analogy of Marshall McLuhan", in Rajesh Heynickx and Stéphane Symons (eds.),
  So What's New about Scholasticism? How Neo-Thomism Helped Shape the Twentieth Century (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2018), 231-253.
  ISBN 978-3110586282.
  


• 逻辑之道 — The Way of Logic (Nanjing Normal University Press, 2018),
  Select Works of Eminent Contemporary Semioticians (Jie Zhang and Hongbing Yu, Series Editors), ISBN 7-5651-3577-1.
  


• "Thoughts on 'Hellbound?' as a Way of Life", in Kevin Miller (ed.), Hellrazed? (Kevin Miller XI Productions Inc., 2017), 115-122.
  


• "Analogy and the Semiotic Animal: Reading Marshall McLuhan with John Deely",
  in The American Journal of Semiotics 32.1-4 (2016): 49-78, Special Issue on The Semiotic Animal, ed. Richard Currie Smith.
  DOI: 10.5840/ajs2016112315 [Published: 24 Nov 2016].
  


• "The Holy Grail of Semiotics: Culture as a Species-Specific Extension and Expression of Nature",
  Essay on John Deely's Augustine and Poinsot in Paul Cobley (ed.), "Deely in Review",
  Special Issue of Chinese Semiotic Studies, 12.3 (2016): 423-429.
  


• "“Grace That Shimmers on the Surface of Beauty”: Beyond Platonic-Aristotelian Form, a Stoic Vision of Primary Causality",
  Quaestiones Disputatae: A Journal of Philosophical Inquiry and Discussion Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring 2016): 10–25. ISSN 2150-5756.
  


• "Is the 'Intuition of Being' a Religious Experience?",
  in Richard Feist and Rajesh C. Shukla (eds.), Essays on Religious and Political Experience
  (Leuven: Peeters, 2016), 51-66.
  


• "On Finding Beauty and Truth in René Girard",
  in James Bryson (ed.), The Religious Philosophy of Roger Scruton
  (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), 99-110. [Published: 28 Jan 2016]
  


• "A Logic Without Nominalism: Existential Assumptions on the Aristotelian Square of Opposition Revisited",
  The American Journal of Semiotics, 31.3-4 (2015), 183-202.
  DOI: 10.5840/ajs201621011 [Published: 11 Feb 2016]
  


• "Natural Law and Scapegoating",
  in Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions:
  A Journal of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies 10 (2014): 185-201. [Published: 2016]
  


• "Aquinas on Polysemy and The Elusive Covenant Revisited:
  A Structural-Semiotic Reading of the Biblical Genesis and Aronofsky's Noah",
  in Jamin Pelkey and Leonard Sbrocchi (eds.), Semiotics 2014 (Ottawa: Legas, 2015), 503-510.
  


• Review of Dietrich von Hildebrand, My Battle with Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich,
  Translated and Edited by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby (New York: Image, 2014),
  in Contemporary Church History Quarterly, Reviews, Volume 20, Number 4 (Dec 2014).
  


• Review of Vasileios Syros, Marsilius of Padua at the Intersection of Ancient and Medieval Traditions of Political Thought
  (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012) in "Letters in Canada 2012",
  Vol. 83, No. 2 of University of Toronto Quarterly: A Canadian Journal of the Humanities (Spring 2014): 555–556.
  DOI: 10.3138/UTQ.83.2.397
  


• "Deferral of War: The Religious Sign System of Ritual Violence", in Gabriel R. Ricci (ed.), Faith, War, and Violence.
  Religion and Public Life, Volume 39 (Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2014), 133–147. ISBN 978-1412854993.
  


• "Semiotics and Causal Analysis: Objective Specificative Causality in the Middle of McLuhan's Tetrad",
  in Jamin Pelkey and Leonard Sbrocchi (eds.), Semiotics 2013: Why Semiotics? (Ottawa: Legas, 2014), 293–302.
  


• Review of Brendan Purcell, From Big Bang to Big Mystery: Human Origins in the Light of Creation and Evolution
  (Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2012) in Voegelin View (June 11, 2014). ISBN 978-1565484337. [HTML].
  


• "Hesiod and Historiogenesis: Eric Voegelin's Discovery of a Millennial Constant",
  in Karen Haworth, Andrea Johnson, and Leonard G. Sbrocchi (eds.),
  Semiotics 2012: Semiotics and New Media (Ottawa: Legas, 2013), 111–118. [PDF]
  


• "The Intuition of Being: Guardian of Metaphysics in a Time of Unbelief", in
  Montague Brown (ed.), Love and Friendship: Maritain and the Tradition,
  American Maritain Association Publications (Catholic University of America Press, 2013), 157–167. ISBN 978-0982711927. [CUA Press]
  


• "'The Great Visible God': Socrates, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas on the Way from Nature to Nature's God", in
  Nikolaj Zunic (ed.), Distinctions of Being: Philosophical Approaches to Reality,
  American Maritain Association Publications (Catholic University of America Press, 2013), 83–102. ISBN 978-0982711927. [PDF] [CUA Press]
  


• "Philosophical Distinctions in the Social Thought of Benedict XVI:
  Maritain, Ratzinger, and Voegelin on Natural Law, Reason, and Gnosticism",
  Études maritainiennes - Maritain Studies XXVIII (2012): 121–130. ISSN 0826-9920. [PDF]
  


• "Thomas Aquinas and Adolf Reinach on States of Affairs",
  Quaestiones Disputatae: A Journal of Philosophical Inquiry and Discussion Vol. 3, No. 1 (Fall 2012): 65–77. ISSN 2150-5756.
  


• "Thomas Aquinas on Providence, Prudence, and Natural Law", in Gabriel R. Ricci (ed.), Politics in Theology.
  Religion and Public Life, Volume 38 (Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2012), 133–145. ISBN 978-1-4128-4300-3.
  


• "A Model for the Many Senses of Scripture: From the Literal to the Spiritual in Genesis 22 with Thomas Aquinas",
  Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 19 (2012): 231–248. ISSN 1075-7201.
  [PDF Copyright © 2012 by Michigan State University. This article originally appeared in Contagion Vol. 19, 2012, pages 231–248]
  


• "Solesmes Old and New: Modeling Systems Theory and Gregorian Semiology", in William Renwick (ed.),
  Chant: Old and New, Proceedings of the conference of the Gregorian Institute of Canada, Dalhousie University, August 4–7, 2011, with a Foreword by Jennifer Bain (Lions Bay, Canada: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2012), 63–72. ISBN 978-1-926664-12-5.
  


• "How Agent Intellect Enables a Syntactic Interior Word: Aquinas's Contribution Within Neoplatonism",
  Quaestiones Disputatae: A Journal of Philosophical Inquiry and Discussion Vol. 2, Nos. 1 and 2 (Spring–Fall 2011): 165–184. ISSN 2150-5756. [PDF]
  


• "Aquinas's Third Way as a Reply to Stephen Hawking's Cosmological Hypothesis",
  Études maritainiennes - Maritain Studies XXVII (2011): 99–121. ISSN 0826-9920. [PDF]
  


• Review of Ryan Topping, Augustine (Continuum Library of Educational Thought, Vol. 17), in
  Études maritainiennes - Maritain Studies XXVII (2011): 159–162. ISSN 0826-9920.
  


• "Aristotle's 'Natural Slaves' and Colossae's Unnatural 'Scythians': A Generative Exegesis of Colossians 3:11",
  in Ann W. Astell and Sandor Goodhart (eds.), Sacrifice, Scripture, and Substitution:
  Readings in Ancient Judaism and Christianity, Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series, Volume 18
  (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), 410–423. ISBN 0268020388. [UND Press] [PDF excerpt]
  


• "Did the Latin Age Really Begin with Augustine?" in Leonard G. Sbrocchi et al. (eds.),
  Semiotics 2009: The Semiotics of Time (New York: Legas, 2010), 296–303. ISBN 1897493193. [PDF]


• "Dialectic and Demonstration in the Philosophy of Nature,"
  Etudes maritainiennes - Maritain Studies XXIII (2007): 64–75. ISSN 0826-9920. [HTML].


• "René Girard's Accusation: Intellectuals are the Castrators of Meaning", An interview with Giulio Meotti in Il Foglio (March 20, 2007);
  Translation by Paul N. Faraone and Christopher S. Morrissey in
  Modern Age (Spring 2008): 180–185. [HTML].


• Review of Rémi Brague, The Law of God in
  Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.09.46. [HTML].


• "Original Sin and Generative Anthropology,"
  Anthropoetics 13.2 (2007). ISSN 1083-7264 [HTML].


• "The Epigenetic Evolution of the Immaterial Intellect on the Originary Scene," in Adam Katz (ed.),
  The Originary Hypothesis: a Minimal Proposal for Humanistic Inquiry, Critical Series in the Humanities (Aurora, Colorado: Davies Group, 2007), 75–99. [HTML].


• "The Politics of the Oresteia," in
  Theatre at UBC Companion Guide to The House of Atreus (2005): 5-6. ISBN 0-88865-633-5 [PDF].


• Review of Clifford Angell Bates Jr., Aristotle's "Best Regime": Kingship, Democracy, and the Rule of Law (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2003), in
  The Historian 66.4 (2004): 897-898. [PDF].


• "'Pomo Homer': A Review of the Troy Movie",
  Chronicles of Love and Resentment 304 (June 26, 2004): <http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw304.htm>.


• Review of Ari Hiltunen, Aristotle in Hollywood: The Anatomy of Successful Storytelling, in
  Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies (May 2004): <http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/bookreview.php?issue=may2004&id=320§ion=book_rev>. ISSN 1465-9166


• "Oedipus the Cliché: Aristotle on Tragic Form and Content",
  Anthropoetics 9.1 (2003): 1-14. ISSN 1083-7264 [HTML].


• Review of Michael Tierno, Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization, in
  Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies (Nov 2003): <http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/bookreview.php?issue=nov2003&id=442§ion=book_rev>. ISSN 1465-9166


• "Aristotle’s Hollywood Renaissance", Review of Michael Tierno,
  Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization, in
  University Affairs (March 2003): 42.


• "Reading Mimesis Against Revenge: Girard and Mimetic Violence",
  West Coast Line 37.1 (Spring 2003): 55-66. (Violence and Its Alternatives: A Special Section [No. 40]). ISSN 1182-4271.

CWR Publications: Catholic World Report

Other Publications:

• "A Meditation on Malick's Tree of Life & Voegelin's Philosophy of Consciousness",
  The Imaginative Conservative (May 28, 2013).
  


• "Between the Beginning and the Beyond",
  Voegelin View (May 15, 2013).
  


• "The father of modernity was a Greek farmer", Interview in
  BC BookWorld Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 2012): 23. [HTML]
  


• "Outbreak of the Divine",
  Convivium Magazine: Faith in Our Common Life 1.1 (March 2012): 30–33.
  


• "Carpe diem: Stick to today", translation of Horace, Odes i.11, with Micah Towery, in
  Loaded Bicycle: Journal of Poetry, Art, and Translation (2011) <http://www.loadedbicycle.com/horace1.html>.
  


• "Redeemer Pacific College: New life for Catholic higher education in Canada",
  Catholic Insight (May 2007): 33–34. [HTML].
  


• "Protection for human reason", Review of James V. Schall, S.J., Roman Catholic Political Philosophy, in
  Homiletic and Pastoral Review (March 2005). [HTML].

Interviews and Media Coverage:

• "Homeschool to resurrect 'dead' language for Mass",
  The Catholic Register, October 13, 2013, page 6. [HTML]


• "Pope's ground-breaking remarks",
  CBC TV, The National, September 19, 2013. [Video]


• "Pope elected",
  JOY TV News, Channel 10, March 13, 2013. [Video]


• Media coverage: "Darwinism debate delves deep",
  Mars' Hill (March 9, 2013). [HTML]


• Media coverage: "Prof-etics: TWU's liberal interpretation of a liberal arts education",
  Mars' Hill, Volume 17, Issue 5 (November 21, 2012): 8. [HTML]


• Media coverage: "A Student Association for RPC",
  Mars' Hill (March 14, 2012): 8. [HTML]


• "The father of modernity was a Greek farmer", C.S. Morrissey interviewed in
  BC BookWorld Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 2012): 23. [PDF] [HTML]


• Media coverage: "Do good, avoid evil: unwritten law",
  The B.C. Catholic (May 2, 2011), 3–13. [PDF]


• "For the love of Latin": C.S. Morrissey interviewed by Maggi Hall,
  Mars' Hill, Volume 13, Issue 10 (2009). [HTML]


• Media coverage: "Reconsidering the Analogy of Being",
  Mars' Hill (March 21, 2007). [HTML]


• "Redeemer launches ecumenical journal", C.S. Morrissey interviewed by J. J. Hutcheson in
  The B.C. Catholic (November 6, 2006): 4. [JPG]


• "Da Vinci not worth a fuss, prof says", C.S. Morrissey interviewed by Nicholas Read in
  The Vancouver Sun (May 20, 2006): B5.

Limited Editions:

• "Can We Prove God Exists?", Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 6 (2011): 89–100. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "A Twitch Upon the Thread: Aquinas on Elicited Natural Desire for God", Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 5 (2010): 131–158. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "The Luminosity of Existence", an essay on David Walsh's The Modern Philosophical Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008), in Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 4 (2009): 77–96. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "A Common Ground for Global Culture", Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 4 (2009): 113–119. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "Transfiguring Heidegger: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Philosopher Friend," Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 3 (2008): 121–136. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "The Analogy of Being: Three Misunderstandings, Three Clarifications", Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 2 (2007): 103–129. ISSN 1718-9446.


• "Metaphysics Defined, Justified, and Exemplified", Fideles: A Journal of Redeemer Pacific College 1 (2006): 45-75. ISSN 1718-9446.

Newspaper Publications:

• "Morgentaler's legacy is a diminished liberty in Canada", in The Globe and Mail (May 30, 2013).


• "The Via Romana", Review of Paula Fredriksen, Augustine and the Jews, in The Globe and Mail (Apr 11, 2009), F13.


• "For the love of Latin": Interview with Maggi Hall, Mars' Hill, Volume 13, Issue 10 (2009).


• "Blessings and blood," The Globe and Mail: Books (Feb 23, 2008), D8. [View item].


• "Reading between the Vatican's lines," The Globe and Mail (July 23, 2007), A13. [View item].


• "The Nativity code" in The Globe and Mail: Books (Dec 23, 2006) [View item].


• "Da Vinci not worth a fuss, prof says", C. S. Morrissey interviewed by Nicholas Read in The Vancouver Sun (May 20, 2006): B5.


• "Joining God's army," Review of Michael W. Higgins, Stalking the Holy: The Pursuit of Saint Making, in The Globe and Mail: Books (Feb 11, 2006), D4. [View item].


• Review of John L. Allen, Jr., The Rise of Pope Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church, in The Globe and Mail: Books (June 18, 2005), D10. [View item].


• "The pontiff with incurable vertigo," The Globe and Mail: Books (January 1, 2005), D10. [View item].


• "Let 'he' who is a Latin teacher instruct him," The Globe and Mail (November 30, 2004), A21. [View item].


• "The ancient world: 'Wars and homos'," Review of Thomas Cahill, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, in The Globe and Mail: Books (December 6, 2003), D6. [View item].

An Earlier List of Publications by C.S. Morrissey

Additional Writings for Newspapers: The B.C. Catholic