Biographical sketch

Mariano Artigas was born in Zaragoza on 15 December 1938. In the academic year 1955-56 he moved to Barcelona to begin his studies in Physical Sciences. He obtained the Degree of graduate in June 1960 and began his doctoral studies in Physics, which were temporarily interrupted because in 1961 he went to Rome to fill in for the ecclesiastical studies he had already begun in Spain. In Rome he had the opportunity to meet the Founder of Opus Dei, Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and his successor, the Servant of God Don Álvaro del Portillo, who always followed his intellectual career very closely. Years later, Bishop del Portillo would write a prologue to one of his books: "Man in the Light of Science", a volume which also contains a dialogue with the Servant of God on "Science and Conscience". His Roman years, his proximity to these great figures and his close experience of the Second Vatican Council, development , left a clear imprint on his personality that would translate into a deep-rooted eagerness to serve the Church. In time, his activity earned him the appointment of consultant of the Pontifical committee for Dialogue with non-believers (April 1992), ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas (December 1999) and member of the Scientific Committee of file of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (October 2002).

In July 1963 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the School of Philosophy at the Lateran University. His work was entitled "The problem of the substantiality of elementary particles: a study on the applicability of the notion of substance to microphysics". The thesis was supervised by Professor Roberto Masi. The title of this work is a good example of one of the guiding lines of his intellectual production: to highlight the compatibility of classical philosophy with the notions of modern science and to reread the old themes of the classical and Thomistic tradition with the language provided by contemporary science.

In 1964 Mariano Artigas was ordained a priest and returned to Barcelona. There he was chaplain of the high school Mayor Monterols for more than 20 years. During this time he had the opportunity to develop a wide and deep pastoral work, especially with university students. Many of these university students remember him today as a cordial priest, always available for everyone and, at the same time, with a great sense of how to make the most of his time. During this period of his life he managed to make his pastoral work compatible with the publication of dozens of articles of scientific knowledge dissemination and with the work necessary for fill in his academic training : he obtained the Degree of Doctor in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona in October 1968. The degree scroll of the work was: "Relación y estructura en la mecánica newtoniana" (Relationship and structure in Newtonian mechanics) and was directed by Professors Roberto Saumells and Luis María Garrido. That same year he began to teach monographic courses on Philosophy of Nature and Epistemology at the same University. In the classes, readings and programs of study of these years, he matured the contents and approaches of the books he would later write, such as the manuals on Philosophy de la Naturaleza y de la Ciencia. He stopped giving courses at the University of Barcelona in 1972 and, from the following year until 1978, he taught teaching as lecturer in Theology at the high school de programs of study Universitarios.

In June 1979 he obtained a new doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona. The degree scroll of his research makes reference letter to a topic that will occupy abundant space in his later publications: "The reliability of science and its philosophical impact". On this occasion he was directed by Full Professor Francisco Canals. In the same year he publishes a brief critical study that is the result of his doctoral thesis : "Karl Popper. Search without end".

During these years, his intellectual activity led him to enter contact with personalities of the stature of Karl Popper, with whom he corresponded on various philosophical questions, such as realism in science; Evandro Agazzi, for many years president of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science; or the Nobel Prize for medicine, Sir John Eccles, award .

Agazzi prefaced his first book written in 1984: "Science, reason and faith". Its title expresses Artigas' deep-rooted conviction, which appears in different ways throughout his intellectual production, of the harmony between science and faith and, at the same time, of the need for reason, understood as philosophical rationality, to achieve this harmony. Science, reason and faith are in Mariano's production and thought like three pillars that reinforce and complement each other. The attempt to reduce any one of them to the others would mean, in Artigas' thinking, the ruin of all three. He always defended the need to maintain their legitimate autonomy as well as their mutual and close interdependence.

Sir John Eccles prefaced his second book published in the same year, "The Frontiers of Evolutionism", which also includes an afterword in the form of an interview with Eccles himself. He became a sincere friend of Eccles. This book was soon translated into Portuguese and Italian and is now in six editions. Its contents are a practical example of what is advocated in the first: various keys are given to dissolve the controversies which often arise between the advocates of evolutionary theories and those who defend the truth of what has been revealed to us by faith. It also illustrates the extraordinary truths and advances achieved by the biological sciences, while pointing out the limits of biology as a science. In this way, it highlights the reductionism of many statements that are particularly frequent in popular science books and articles. From these years are also a short volume graduate "Introducción a la Filosofía" and the first edition of a guide written with Professor Juan José Sanguineti and graduate "Filosofía de la Naturaleza".

The solid academic prestige he had already achieved at that time was undoubtedly a major reason why in 1987 he was appointed Full Professor of Philosophy of Nature and Science at the Ecclesiastical School of Philosophy at the University of Navarre. This appointment took him to Pamplona where a few months later he was appointed Dean of the same School, which began its academic activities in 1988. He therefore had the not easy task of starting up an Ecclesiastical School , with all the work that this entailed, such as, for example, the promotion of students. Artigas held this position for almost ten years. He then held the post of position for two different periods, between 1998 and 2001, and from 2004 until his death, Associate Dean of the same School.

In 1987, the year in which he was also appointed Professor of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Navarra, he taught, for students of licentiate degree, the subject "Philosophy of Science". He also taught the following courses to PhD students at the same School : "Nature and Technology", "Current Problems in the Philosophy of Science" and "Galileo's Texts on Scientific Truth". At the School of Theology he taught, at different academic levels, courses on "Logic", "Metaphysics", "Philosophy of Nature", "Philosophy of Science" and "History and Methodology of Science", among others. Later he was also Visiting Professor at the "Pontificia Università Della Santa Croce", between 2002 and 2005, and taught several doctoral courses there.

The position of Dean, with its demands on his time for bureaucratic tasks, and his considerable teaching commitments, were not an obstacle for him to continue with his research work, for which he had a real passion. He took part in numerous congresses in various countries in Europe and America, presenting oral communications or papers such as visiting professor, which have been published to a large extent. These trips helped him to meet and make sincere friendships with experts in the different fields in which he was working. The ease with which he made lasting friendships during these brief periods of academic meeting was one of his appreciable virtues.

It can be said that the pace of its publications and research work grew year by year. In total, 19 different monograph titles have been published to date. Some of the most recent books have been published with other co-authors originally at language . A number of them have been reprinted and translated into English, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese or Korean. The number of articles and other contributions is close to 300.

The fruits of his constant and painstaking work were especially visible in the last year of his life. When he was already struggling with his illness he saw the publication of "Negotiating Darwin. The Vatican confronts evolution 1877-1902" (with Thomas Glick and Rafael Martinez as co-authors), edited by Johns Hopkins University Press; "Galileo Observed. Science and the Politics of Belief" (with William Shea), published by Science History Publications and, shortly before his death in his hospital bed, he received the first copy sent by Oxford University Press of "Oracles of Science. Celebrity scientists versus God and Religion" (written with Karl Giberson). In this last period of his life he completed three other books (one of which he wrote entirely in those months), two of which have already been published posthumously: "The Origin of Man. Science, Philosophy and Religion" (written with Daniel Turbón) and "Science and Religion. Fundamental Concepts". The third, graduate "Galileo y el Vaticano", studies the work of the commission appointed by John Paul II to study the Galileo case, and is written jointly with Monsignor Melchor Sánchez de Toca.

As we have seen, the philosophy of Mariano Artigas is far-reaching and invites us to study it in a calm and profound manner. The merits of his contribution have not gone unnoticed either by the general public, to whom he directed much of his efforts, or by specialists. To the aforementioned commissions and distinctions granted by various ecclesiastical bodies, we could add that of being a member of the European Association for the Study of Science and Theology; corresponding member of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science; Honorary Professor of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, Peru); and member of the committee that guides the project "Science & Human Values". In 1995 he received a award from the Templeton Foundation for his activity professor in the field of relations between science and religion. He was recently appointed a member of the International Society for Science and Religion, an association based at School of Theology, University of Cambridge.

Prof. Artigas died on 23 December 2006 at the University Clinic in Pamplona at 00:15 in the early hours of the morning. When the doctor told him three days earlier that nothing more could be done and that the end was imminent, he replied with great serenity that he was prepared both physically and spiritually.