First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life back issues from April 2009:
Richard John Neuhaus: May 14, 1936-January 8, 2009.(Correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2009; ... I am deeply touched by the death of the Reverend Father Richard John Neuhaus. I have known him for more than ten years and learned to admire him for his zeal for the Catholic faith, his intellectual robustness, his courage, and his love of the Church. Please accept my heartfelt ...
First things first.(Memorials)(Neuhaus, Richard John)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... For his friends this is the kind of loss that tilts the world on its axis; for so many things marking the world around just cannot be the same. How could it be that we'll never have those evenings again in the townhouse in New York, with the wine and cigars, and Richard John Neuhaus ...
To light a candle.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... I first came across the name of Richard John Neuhaus when he was writing religion columns for National Review in the 1980s. I vividly remember a day when I sat reading one of those columns and exclaimed to myself half-aloud, "Why can't we have someone like this?"--by which I meant, "Why ...
We're gonna turn this around.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Richard used to put up cartoons in his bathroom. One, which stayed there for some time, showed a Viking ship arriving on a beach where people were dancing and waving in welcome. The caption read: "They think that we are still sailing with Olaf the Good. Little do they know that we are now ...
I measure every grief I meet.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... He was the greatest reader I ever met. The greatest reader, and a cigar smoker, and a walker, and a preacher, and a brewer of some of the worst coffee ever made. What odd items the mind latches onto in moments of grief: the tilt of a friend's head, the way he used his hands when he spoke, ...
Neuhaus invades Poland.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Fr. Neuhaus had a missionary zeal, a fervor for argument and conversation in defense of the faith he loved so passionately. FIRST THINGS Was, of course, the vehicle by which that virtue presented itself to society at large. But FIRST THINGS is only one of his legacies. One of the richest ...
My brother in Christ.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... I was out of the country when I received the news that Richard John Neuhaus had died, and to my everlasting regret, I could not get back for the funeral. I felt the strangest sense of loss. Not only did we lose one of the great warriors in the battle between the culture of life and the ...
Comrades in arms.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... When I first came to spend my days in the office of the Institute on Religion and Public Life--this was sometime in early 1990--Richard Neuhaus had been a friend of mine for roughly twenty years. During that time, the two of us had been traveling, politically and culturally speaking, ...
Vintage Richard.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Over three decades ago, the phone rang in my office at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I was then teaching in the department of political science. A powerful, resonant baritone voice introduced the caller as Richard Neuhaus. He was calling, he said, to invite me to a ...
The Areopagus of Morningside Heights.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... The stained-glass chancel windows at St. Paul's Chapel on the Columbia campus form a triptych in which the Apostle Paul is shown preaching to a small crowd on the Areopagus. You know the episode in the Acts of the Apostles. In Jerusalem, Paul met with vehement protest, but in Athens it's ...
Pilgrimage to Fifth Avenue.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... On occasional pilgrimages to visit Richard John Neuhaus at the FIRST THINGS office on Fifth Avenue, I was one of the thousands treated to a few minutes of learned, boisterous, civil conversation. Since I had no insight to offer the public intellectual who already had everything, we talked ...
My Personal Strunk and White.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Growing up a Catholic boy in suburban South Jersey, I knew my share of priests. They were good and holy men doing good and holy work. Yet none of them were imposing figures. And it seemed, nestled as I was among the shopping malls and the subdivisions, that the priesthood was, in the ...
The Rockford Raid.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Longtime FIRST THINGS readers have heard, no doubt, about the "Rockford Raid." How, on the morning of May 5, 1989, when Richard Neuhaus was head of the Rockford Institute's New York Center on Religion and Society, he and his staff of four were ambushed at their offices, fired, and forced ...
Canadian Summers.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... My first impression of Richard John Neuhaus was not positive. Soon after his ordination as a Catholic priest, Joseph R. Windle, then the Catholic bishop of Pembroke, Ontario, took advantage of Richard's annual return to Canada, the land of his birth, to invite him to dine at the cathedral ...
Richard and the Jews.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... In his youth in rural Ontario and rural Texas, Richard John Neuhaus had little or no contact with Jews--but as an adult his contact was constant. And this played a key role in Richard's life and career as a priest and a public intellectual, for his constant contact with Jews went hand in ...
Talkin' 'bout My Generation.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Richard John Neuhaus first came into my life at a seminar run by the Carnegie Council on Religion and International Affairs in about 1963, when I was a green graduate student at Harvard University, barely out of Catholic seminary. He seemed to me, even then, shrewd and wise and quite ...
Day by day.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Richard John Neuhaus had a big life, but his day-by-day world was a small one. There was his comfortable, though hardly luxurious, apartment in the townhouse occupied by the Community of Christ in the City on Nineteenth Street; the Immaculate Conception parish where he served as priest a ...
Richard's Book Club.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Some virtues may be learned, others are inborn. Punctuality, for example, can be taught, at least in the sense that the costs for procrastination can be made too high. I suspect every West Point cadet shows up for class on time, but such a cadet never enrolls in an elective course called ...
Evangelicals and Catholics together.(Memorials)(Richard Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... The sudden death of Fr. Neuhaus from recrudescent cancer hits us all hard. FIRST THINGS itself, which he founded in 1990 and faithfully nurtured by loving and enterprising editorship, will feel the draft; so will Evangelicals and Catholics Together, the ecumenical project that he initiated ...
Fishers of men.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... My memories of Fr. Richard go back to his beginning and before. He was the second son of my sister, Ella Prange, and Pastor Clemens Neuhaus. The story begins in a little Arkansas town on the White River. The town was named Crockett's Bluff, where the legendary Davy Crockett swam the fiver ...
In grateful memory of Father Richard John Neuhaus.(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY establishes the FATHER RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS SCHOLARSHIPS to honor this pastor and intellectual leader and to equip the next generation of Catholic leaders. To join this effort in Fr. Neuhaus' memory, or to receive more ...
The gift of lightheartedness.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... In what has become a winter of farewells for conservatives, the hardest loss was that of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. He was always "Fr. Neuhaus" for me, never "Richard." I knew him mostly through his writing, though I was blessed to be able to join him for a few meals. (Man, could he drink.) ...
Religion, culture, and public life.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Richard John Neuhaus never seemed to lack for pithy, authoritative formulations. Neuhaus Law provides an obvious example: Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed. It's memorable, quotable, and it rings true. His saying it does not make it so, but his way ...
Here he stood.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... A Year after Richard John Neuhaus left Martin Luther's Wittenberg for St. Peter's Rome, he was interviewed for an Australian publication. He noted the Roman turbulence into which he was plunging, and he remarked, "Cardinal Newman wrote that when he was received into the Catholic Church it ...
Bread upon the waters.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... The death of Richard John Neuhaus shocked and saddened me. I learned of it by calling to express concern and assure him of my prayers in his fight against that cancer of unknown origin. It was too late. He had died the previous morning. Although news of his death gave me a ...
Multiplying himself.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... How to capture the essence of Richard John Neuhaus and his impact on others? Perhaps numbers help. As anyone who knew Richard even slightly would recognize, this is somewhat counterintuitive. When Jim Nuechterlein handed over the editorship of this journal to Jody Bottum, he had one word ...
Evening prayer.(Memorials)(Richard John Neuhaus)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009; ... The Richard I knew and loved was a man of prayer and of liturgy. He knew that the greatest gift we could offer to God was not our words, not our ideas, not our projects, but a heart ablaze with the fire of love. "Honor and glory belong to God alone," said St. Bernard, "but God will receive ...
In Refusal of Politics: Sapphics for Richard John Neuhaus.(Poem)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009; ... <Pre> In Refusal of Politics Sapphics for Richard John Neuhaus If I have seen geese low on the east horizon,seen the long reeds strain in the dawn to follow,watched the first clean ice of the season takeroot for the winter, what worth are those clear scenes in ...
The great convivium.(Speech)
Apr 01, 2009; ... Cardinal Ratzinger said in his funeral homily for John Paul the Great: "This is not the time to speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate." Likewise, this is not the time to speak about the specific content of the rich literary life and public achievements of Fr ....
The Kingdoms of he world.(American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2009; ... AMERICAN BABYLON: NOTES OF A CHRISTIAN EXILE by RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS Basic, 265 pages, $26.95 NEAR THE END of American Babylon comes a paragraph that reads: "The truth about life is that we die. We understandably protest the finality of that truth. We do ...
Mediating institutions.(To Empower People: From State To Civil Society)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2009; ... TO EMPOWER PEOPLE: FROM STATE TO CIVIL SOCIETY TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION by RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS and PETER BERGER American Enterprise Institute, 244 pages, $25 BECAUSE RICHARD JOHN Neuhaus was so prolific, and his interests were so amazingly broad and ...
Ministering to ministry.(Freedom for Ministry)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2009; ... FREEDOM FOR MINISTRY by RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS Eerdmans, 272 pages, $26 AMONG HIS MANY books, Freedom for Ministry held a special place in the affections of Richard John Neuhaus. In part, it was because this book, while not overtly autobiographical, is a ...
On the square.(The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2009; ... THE NAKED PUBLIC SQUARE: RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA by RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS Eerdmans, 292 pages, $28 WHEN YOU REVISIT AN important book after the passage of years, you can't be sure what you will find. The book may be even better than you ...
The one true church.(The Public Square: A Continuing Survey of Religion, Culture, and Public Life)(Essay)
Apr 01, 2009; ... My church is better than your church. It sounds like the stuff of schoolboy quarrels on the playground: My dad can beat your dad! Yet, sad to say, that is how many Christians have understood recent statements on Catholic ecclesiology. In 2000 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ...
George Lindbeck was an official Lutheran observer at the Second Vatican Council and he recalls a meeting with John XXIII when the pope spoke on some of his favorite words from Scripture, "the mercies of the Lord are new every morning.".(While We're At It)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... George Lindbeck was an official Lutheran observer at the Second Vatican Council and he recalls a meeting with John XXIII when the pope spoke on some of his favorite words from Scripture, "the mercies of the Lord are new every morning." The pope said he had a hard time deciding what to do ...
Long ago, when I was a student at Concordia College (now Concordia University) in Austin, Texas, I was greatly impressed by a sermon that kept returning to the theme, "God has no grandchildren. He only has children.".(While We're At It)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Long ago, when I was a student at Concordia College (now Concordia University) in Austin, Texas, I was greatly impressed by a sermon that kept returning to the theme, "God has no grandchildren. He only has children."The preacher's point was that faith cannot be inherited; each of us become ...
A medieval monk, it is said, worked all day on a manuscript, finally writing in the margin, Nunc scripsi totum, pro Christo da mihi poturn--I have now written everything, for the sake of Christ give me a drink.(While We're At It)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... A medieval monk, it is said, worked all day on a manuscript, finally writing in the margin, Nunc scripsi totum, pro Christo da mihi poturn--I have now written everything, for the sake of Christ ...
Everybody who writes much, and especially those of us who write too much, gets asked from time to time, Who have been the great influences on your thinking?(While We're At It)(Arthur Carl Piepkorn)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Everybody who writes much, and especially those of us who write too much, gets asked from time to time, Who have been the great influences on your thinking?Your scribe is eager to acknowledge his debts to a host of thinkers who have personally graced his life, including such as Richard ...
Avery Cardinal Dulles, the closest of collaborators and friends, died December 12 at age ninety in the infirmary of the Jesuit residence at Fordham University.(While We're At It)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Avery Cardinal Dulles, the closest of collaborators and friends, died December 12 at age ninety in the infirmary of the Jesuit residence at Fordham University. Avery Dulles was a master of the Catholic theological tradition by which he was mastered and which he joyfully served. He combined ...
Just one more word on our friend Avery Dulles.(While We're At It)(In memoriam)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Just one more word on our friend Avery Dulles. I note the obituary written by Fr. Drew Christiansen, S.J., editor of America, which suggests that Dulles' conservative turn in the 1970s had to do with his signing the 1975 Hartford Appeal for Theological Affirmation "at the request of his ...
Cardinal Newman's reference to his patron saints recalls last month s comment on the declining practice of bestowing the names of saints at baptism.(While We're At It)(John Henry Newman)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Cardinal Newman's reference to his patron saints recalls last month s comment on the declining practice of bestowing the names of saints at baptism. At the risk of excessive self-referentiality, a word on the use of "Richard John," about which I have frequently been asked. The story of how ...
There are, however, other movements afoot. When the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) came out in 1989, Canadians jumped the gun and started using it in the Mass.(While We're At It)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... There are, however, other movements afoot. When the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) came out in 1989, Canadians jumped the gun and started using it in the Mass. Rome jumped on the Canadians, noting that there were doctrinal problems with the NRSV, which was in some instances more an ...
Meanwhile--are you still with me?--other English-speaking conferences, led by the UK and Australia, decided to undertake their own revision of the NRSV.(While We're At It)(United Kingdom, New Revised Standard Version)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Meanwhile--are you still with me?--other English-speaking conferences, led by the UK and Australia, decided to undertake their own revision of the NRSV. The project was going along swimmingly until, quite abruptly, the NCC let it be known that it would not give permission for the NRSV to ...
I see that Lionel, the maker of model trains, which had been operating out of a Detroit suburb for the past four decades, has moved its headquarters back to Manhattan.(While We're At It)(Detroit, Michigan; Manhattan, New York)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... I see that Lionel, the maker of model trains, which had been operating out of a Detroit suburb for the past four decades, has moved its headquarters back to Manhattan. A while back I had a meeting in midtown and, having mistaken the time, arrived an hour early. I decided to spend some of ...
This is simply for the record.(While We're At It)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2009 ... This is simply for the record. Every time I mention New York City's being the prolepsis of the New Jerusalem, it provokes a protest from a reader or two who wonders how we can live so deprived of "nature." Of human nature there is plenty, needless to say, but also of other kinds. For ...