Science, Reason, and Faith

Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, PhD, is a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order and president of the Spitzer-Magis Institute of Reason and Faith (magiscenter.com). Fr. Spitzer is also the president, master of ceremonies, and speaker at the Napa Institute. He was president of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009. He currently hosts a weekly EWTN television program, Father Spitzer's Universe, and has made multiple media appearances, including Larry King Live (debating Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow, and Deepak Chopra on God and modern physics), the Today Show (debating on the topic of physician-assisted suicide), the History Channel in God and the Universe, and a multiple-part PBS series Closer to the Truth. He has also appeared on dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs.

His academic specialties are philosophy of science, particularly space-time theory and transcendent implications of contemporary big bang cosmology; metaphysics, particularly the theory of time and philosophy of God; and biblical apologetics concerned with science, reason, and faith. He founded five major national institutes: 1) The Spitzer-Magis Institute, 2) the Spitzer Center, 3) Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education, 4) Healing the Culture, and 5) University Faculty for Life. He is the author of fifteen books, including New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Eerdmans, 2010), for which he won the Catholic Press Association's Award for best book in faith and science.