Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ

Asst Prof Theology @MarquetteU (‘04)
Theo & Literature📚
V.Woolf & M.Robinson
Atheism🫥
Theo & Phenomenology🤔
Classics🤓
Poetry, Oxford Commas and Dry Humor

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@thomaschattwill

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@AljustrelBook @Vermeullarmine @GrayConnolly @SerranoAric Thanks @Vermeullarmine - I’ve been logged off for quite a while; interesting to wade back into the waters on Twitter! Prayers for all here attempting to engage fruitfully with culture from a Catholic perspective. 🇻🇦 🙏🏼

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

https://t.co/WJ76Sn0faL

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

Autocorrect strikes again, in the most blasé fashion... 🐟 🦴 🙌🏻 🕯️

[Russell Crowe @russellcrowe]

Today my eldest received his Bachelor of the Arts (Latin)…
I’m going to have to build some more storage space to pack away all this fatherly pride.
He’s a little bit taller these days … and he’s got a beard and such … but, same wise before his years fella

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

Dr. Jacob @riyeff speaks to a standing room only crowd at @boswellbooks on a chilly January night in Milwaukee about maintaining a contemplative soul and “fighting the warmth baths” of modern comfort-seeking 😁 @MarquetteU 🙏🏼

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

Dear @Apple

For the love of all things holy, and the memory of Steve Jobs:

please undo absolutely everything you introduced in #iOS26 .

You are uniting a divided world in distaste for this cluttermess and all of its empty promises!

Thanks in advance,
All of humanity 🙏🏼

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

We have shifted students away from laptops and phones to pens, notebooks and physical books in our theology classrooms @MarquetteU and it’s made all the difference. 👏 📚 🤓 #JesuitEducated

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

When New York State banned phones in public schools from bell to bell this past September, the goal was undistracted learning. But within weeks of the Great Phone Lockup, teachers began to notice an incidental (and arguably even more compelling) benefit: The teens were talking to one another as if they were in a Brat Pack movie. Sure, there’s been grumbling and some burner phones and scrolling in the bathroom. But generally, with phones off-limits, the atmosphere feels different. There’s a pleasant buzz in the lunchroom, chatter in the hallways, and an alphabet of new analog hobbies popping up just about everywhere. “We’ve had a lot more school spirit,” said one senior at a charter school in Harlem. “People are more willing to do stuff.”

What stuff are they doing? At many schools, teachers have made cards, board games, and sports equipment available during free time, and the kids have deigned to use them. Aidan Amin, a ninth-grader at Hunter College High School, is in a friend group that congregates in the school foyer to stack ‘OK Play’ tiles and compete at ‘Sorry!’ and other tabletop games during lunch. “I’d say it’s made us closer. Honestly, half the people I’m playing board games with I didn’t know at all before this,” Aidan says.

Read more about how the state’s device ban has shifted the atmosphere in New York public schools: https://t.co/NMOJzQT2nS

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@casinokrisa @NYMag Presuming your not a bot…

I’ll bet you’re fun at parties too.

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

No, not a joke!: we had a great conversation around Christmas, Hanukkah, and how to keep focused in these holy seasons...

https://t.co/LzMP7qIz1F

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@Kierkegaarddd Easy. I’ve used Camus in an introduction to philosophy class with undergraduates, to give them a taste of the emotional unease/intellectual confusion of existentialism.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

People say AI is a magic shortcut to creativity & success. I’ll tell you the real secret and it’s voraciously reading, being interested in everything, being diligent in the pursuit of learning, paying attention to the interior lives of others & keeping a heart open to the world.

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

Has anyone else seen #ManVsBaby on @netflix yet? It’s a disarmingly sincere, funny Christmas movie 🎥 ��that you can watch with the whole family.

(Warning 🚨: if you don’t like Mr. Bean, you won’t like this.)

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@MatthewSitman Excellent, incantatory read, especially for Advent. It is boring in a mesmerizing way.

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@Kulambq I generally agree with you, but… I can’t stomach his treacly, gummy writing. Didactic, saccharine, tiring. 😒

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

Where has all the artistic vision gone?

Ahh, to have been alive when this episode aired… 🦜 🚁

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

45 years ago today, Magnum PI debuted.

Let's remember one of the greatest episode endings of all time.

😂😂😂😂

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@MerriamWebster That’s not remotely the sense of the question, and if you don’t grasp that I don’t know you what thinker can help you. 😉

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@xai @krishgarg @yuviecodes @lohanipravin Thanks for making it crystal clear how AI slop is just ruining everything we used to enjoy, but won’t bother watching anymore. 👏

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@plainte_calme 🤯 With this novel, I am totally unfamiliar.

I’m grateful that you brought it to my attention! Seems like an important
archetype for our time in history…

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

I’m prepping for my spring upper division course, “The Question of God in a Secular Age.”

I want to include a novel this time.

Any thoughts on either of these?

[Fr. Joseph Simmons, SJ @PepeAMDG]

@jonmsweeney The first, I’m convinced, inspired the second.

Tendentious essay to follow.