Fr. Spitzer has had a long-standing interest in the ontology of physics, metaphysics, and their interrelationship with faith. His doctoral dissertation (entitled A Study of Objectively Real Time--Ann Arbor, University of Michigan microfilms, 1989) is concerned with the fundamental nature and underlying conditions of temporality. He shows consistencies between this ontology of time and the special and general theories of relativity.

His newest developments in this area are expressed in an article entitled, "Definitions of Real Time and Ultimate Reality," (Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning Vol. 23:3-September 2000-pp. 260-276). This article was selected by the section editors as best JURAM article for 1999-2001.

While at Georgetown University (1984-1990), Fr. Spitzer started an interdisciplinary institute called the Philosophical Foundations of Physics. This group of physicists, chemists, philosophers, and theologians, discuss the underlying conditions of space, time, and energy from both a physical and philosophical perspective. It also investigates the relationship between these fundamental realities and faith.

Fr. Spitzer has also studied the newly expanding area of proofs for the existence of God. He has just completed and submitted a book manuscript entitled, New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Late Twentieth Century Physics and Philosophy. He has also published three articles in this area.

"Proofs for the Existence of God - Part I: A Metaphysical Argument." International Philosophical Quarterly, 41:2 (June 2001) pp. 162-186.

"Proofs for the Existence of God - Part II." International Philosophical Quarterly, 41:3. (September 2001) pp. 305-331. Abstracted in The Review of Metaphysics, September 2001.

"Indications of Creation in Contemporary Astrophysics." Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Philosophy of Understanding, 24:3 (September 2001) pp. 208-254.

He has just completed a new article entitled, "Indications of Supernatural Design in the Universe," which he has submitted to Zygon (Chicago Center for Religion and Science).

Fr. Spitzer has been involved in teaching about the intersection between physics, metaphysics, and faith for many years. He taught the Georgetown pro-seminar in metaphysics, the Seattle University honors seminar in the ontology of physics, was the co-recipient of a John Templeton grant for teaching in religion and science (1998), and co-organizes an annual lecture series entitled, Physics and the God of Abraham. He is the co-founder and director of the Institute for Christian Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at Gonzaga University.

In 2000, he delivered the John Templeton lecture at Gonzaga University entitled, "A Tale of Two Sciences" (concerning methodological and ontological differences in biology and physics). In 2001, he delivered three lectures in the area of ontology of physics: 1) "Physics and Faith: Metaphysical Complementarities" (Gonzaga University), 2) "Is Human Consciousness Merely Brain Circuitry?" (Whitworth College), and 3) "Fine Tuned for Life: Design and the New Physics" (Seattle Pacific University). Lecture notes and visuals are available through the Office of the President, Gonzaga University.

He is currently interested in the ontological justification of implicit teleologies in quantum physics, cosmology, biology, and self-consciousness.

He is completing a new volume entitled, Real Time: Horizons and Parameters of Philosophical Reflection on Quantum Cosmology.