Mokslas ir religija
Introduction
Mokslas ir religija (Science and Religion) is a 1964 Lithuanian-language apologetics work by Dr. Juozas Prunskis, published in Los Angeles by Lietuvių Dienų Leidykla. The book presents profiles of eminent scientists—physicians, biologists, physicists, chemists, and astronomers—whose religious faith Prunskis argues was compatible with or even deepened by their scientific work. Published in the heart of the Cold War diaspora, the volume responds implicitly to Soviet atheist propaganda by demonstrating that serious scientific inquiry and Catholic faith were not in conflict.
Community and publication context
Community and publication setting
Context and significance
Significance
Mokslas ir religija represents a significant strand of Lithuanian diaspora intellectual life: the effort to maintain Catholic identity and counter Soviet atheism through scholarly argument addressed to an educated émigré readership. By profiling scientists across medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, and astronomy as men of sincere faith, Dr. Prunskis engages directly with the ideological conflict of the Cold War era, offering the diaspora community a reasoned rebuttal to materialist propaganda emanating from Soviet-occupied Lithuania. The volume's dedication to Domicėlė and Pranas Gineičiai, described as martyrs deported and killed in Siberia in 1941, embeds the apologetics argument within a deeply personal and communal memorial function, linking intellectual resistance to lived suffering under occupation.
The work also testifies to the breadth of the diaspora's cultural networks: its bibliography spans English, French, German, Spanish, and Lithuanian sources, reflecting the cosmopolitan Catholic intellectual tradition that Lithuanian émigrés consciously cultivated. Published by Lietuvių Dienų Leidykla—the press associated with the diaspora periodical Lietuvių Dienos—at a fixed price of two dollars, the book circulated as accessible community literature. Its presence in the Žiburio archive indicates it was used in heritage and educational contexts, where it could serve both as devotional reading and as a model of Lithuanian-language scholarly writing for younger generations.
How this record carried memory
Lithuanian-language Catholic intellectual publishing in the North American diaspora, sustaining religious and national identity against Soviet-era atheist ideology while maintaining engagement with Western scholarly discourse.
Record connections
People, places, and institutions linked in the catalog