Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009
Father Richard John Neuhaus died this morning at the age of seventy-two. Father Neuhaus is a controversial figure, I know — some would have us believe that he devoted much of his energies to plotting a theocratic coup, a hostile takeover of American democracy. I think that’s nonsense on stilts, to borrow a phrase that Father Neuhaus was (perhaps overly) fond of. But I don't want to get into the polemics now. I just want to pay a certain kind of tribute.
When I just getting started as a teacher and writer, in the late 1980s, I was at something of a loss to find an outlet for my ideas. I was deeply interested in what we might call the theology of culture. I was trying to think as a Christian — not so much about the Bible or the life of a disciple, though those matters were deeply important to me personally, but about books and movies and television and music. I thought my thoughts out of a conviction that the great traditions of Christianity could be brought to bear in interesting and valuable ways on the concerns of late modernity, on the issues of now. And I did not want to write just for my fellow scholars but for a broader audience of smart and thoughtful people, Christians and people from other religious traditions or none, who could hear what I had to say and could offer serious responses to it. But though I looked and looked I couldn't find any journal — any journal with an audience of more than a few hundred, anyway — that seemed to be doing what I was trying to do. Or that would have been open to my way of doing it.
Then one day in 1990, I was browsing the periodical rack at 57th Street Books in Chicago’s Hyde Park, and I saw a magazine called First Things. I learned later that Father Neuhaus had started it soon after being kicked out — almost literally — of his previous job as the editor of a little journal called Chronicles, but I knew nothing about him at the time. (UPDATE: Correction from Jody Bottum: "RJN never worked at Chronicles. He briefly edited a magazine called This World, until thrown out by the Rockford Institute (which also owned Chronicles)." My apologies for the error.) I scanned the mgazine briefly, bought it and took it home, read it through. A couple of days later I mailed off to the editors two brief essays I had recently written. The editor, Jim Neuchterlein, rejected one of them but took the other, a meditation on (of all things) a Talking Heads song. (I am compelled to admit that the sorry little thing is now online — sometimes I hate the damned Internet.)
One thing led to another. I started writing the occasional review, more brief opinion pieces, and eventually larger essays. I worked chiefly with Jim Neuchterlein and, later, Jody Bottum, but every now and then I would get a brief handwritten letter from Father Neuhaus thanking me for my work and telling me how pleased he was to have me writing for First Things. (In recent years these tended to be emails, though often dictated. But they were gratifying to receive all the same.) Once, when one of my books got a lukewarm review in the magazine, Father Neuhaus waited a respectful month or two and then wrote in his monthly column, “The Public Square,” that he disagreed with his reviewer and liked the book very much. When we finally met, a few years ago when Father Neuhaus came to give a lecture at Wheaton College, I was touched by the warmth of his greeting, the evident pleasure he took in shaking my hand after some years of correspondence and labor in the same vineyard.
So when I think of Father Neuhaus I think primarily of two things. First, I think of his personal encouragement and support of me when I was a young and unknown writer. And second, I think of the major role he played in creating a new space for serious and thoughtful reflection on the place of religion in the public square; for informed and critical cultural commentary; for appreciation of the role of art in shaping and interpreting religious faith and practice. In that way First Things has been, and continues to be, a gift to me as a reader as well as a writer.
Of course much appears in First Things that I don't agree with. Which makes it, in that respect, exactly like every other magazine I know. I don't know exactly what the magazine will become now that Father Neuhaus’s part in it is completed, but I couldn't be more grateful for what he did to establish its initial direction.
Now, First Things is only a small portion of Father Neuhaus’s legacy, as an editor and a writer and a priest. But it’s the part of his work I know best. And on the basis of that work alone I think I am more than justified in saying the words that I believe he will hear from an infinitely greater voice: Well done, good and faithful servant.
Thank you, Professor, for your remembrance. From other comments I’ve seen just this morning, it’s evident that Fr. Neuhaus was personable and encouraging to many. I know he was to me. As an avid reader of the newsletter that preceeded First Things, then of the journal itself, I was intrigued (at the time, perhaps even worried) about his becoming a Roman Catholic (which event was noteworthy enough—as was his ‘firing’ from Rockford Inst—to be recorded in his ‘parish newsletter’ the NY Times). I wrote to him asking specific theological questions about the choice, expecting to get the written version of a pat on the head or some other polite kiss-off. To my amazement he sent a two-page, single-spaced typewritten letter answering some of my specific questions, referring me to sources he found useful for others. He included a photocopy of a memo he had written for broader distribution explaining his decision in detail, and also photocopies of articles I might find useful. I corresponded with him several other times and met him on a few occasions and was always profoundly impressed that, given his peripatetic schedule and voluminous output, he had time to be genuinely interested and encouraging to me.
Two months ago I bounded up the steps of the BGC at Wheaton College, anxious not to be late to his lecture on the Pentateuch. The emptiness that greeted me that evening (he had cancelled owing to his now fatal illness) was a foretaste of what I feel now at his passing.
— Jeff Wentling · Jan 8, 08:37 PM · #
Fr. Neuhaus with First Things and his book om the naked public square had a profound influence on the growing resurgence of orthodox Christianity in America. For quite a few years I have treasured First Things, and on receiving it turn first to The Public Square, Neuhaus’s commentary on the current scene.
Should Christianity make a serious comeback in America, Fr. Neuhaus will surely be regarded as an important figure in the process. May this great man recquiscat in pace.
— Peter Leavitt · Jan 8, 11:26 PM · #
As a presbyterian in Northern Ireland received into the Catholic Church after many years of reading Newman, I cam across First Things a few years ago and became instantly addicted. Father Neuhaus, whom I have never met became a familiar friend to my wife and I through his writings. We are deeply saddened by his death but rejoice at a life well lived in Christ. The Church has lost a true champion who strengthened us in these post modern times. We shall miss him. Resquiscat in pace
— Brett Lockhart · Jan 8, 11:57 PM · #
I once had breakfast in Krakow with Fr. Neuhaus. I have no memory of what the group talked about. All I remember is that he finished off his breakfast with a cigar and a beer.
What always impressed me about his regular FT column (“On the Square”) was its breadth and the sly wit that could cut deeply (sometimes too deeply, no doubt).
— Bryan · Jan 9, 05:32 AM · #
That is the thought I came to, after reading several reflections on Neuhaus’s passing yesterday—that he would be hearing, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
His article on death (put up at First Things yesterday) was comforting. He was ready.
I did not read a lot of his writing (it was demanding), but enjoyed it when I did. He was amazingly articulate, and deft at using humor to power the thrust of his point. He offered an intellectually credible and respectable representation of faith, with an edge of humor that kept it interesting.
— Julana · Jan 9, 04:20 PM · #
Thank you, Prof. Jacobs, for your words. I was first introduced to Fr. Neuhaus in seminary when I was assigned to read his exchanged with Stanley Fish. I was hooked, and have been an avid reader of Neuhaus and FT ever since. I met Fr. Neuhaus once, at a conference at Beeson Divinity School, and nervously offered a copy of “The Naked Public Square” for signing, telling him how much I admired the quality and quantity of his writing. He kindly signed the book, and replied that he could write as much as he did because it was all mediocre.
It is to our great benefit that his work was far from mediocre, and I will be forever indebted to him. As he was so fond of saying to others: “Rest in peace, and may choirs of angels great you as you come to your heavenly home.”
— Clint McBroom · Jan 9, 05:16 PM · #
Thank you for writing that. I appreciate learning more like this about Father Neuhaus — it helps make up for the sense of loss.
— The Reticulator · Jan 12, 08:43 AM · #
Amen, Alan. For every writer, like yourself, grateful for a forum to discuss issues in depth and at length for an audience wider than the academy, a place with a strong conservative Roman Catholic perspective yet hospitable to writers from Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish, and other traditions, there were thousands of readers equally grateful to Fr. Neuhaus for the opportunity to read such consistently excellent, thoughtful, challenging articles by writers like yourself.
— Michael Straight · Jan 12, 08:34 PM · #
I appreciate this tribute very much because it seems to me (someone who reads First Things almost reluctantly most of the time, but always with interest) to praise RJN for what everyone acknowledges to be his best traits. The Alan Jacobs-esque First Things is a delight to me; the George Weigel-esque version of it gives me conniptions. RJN embraced both of them. He was a fascinating man, no doubt, and a brilliant observer of the contemporary scene. His fatal flaw was an inability to find fault with anything that emanated from the leadership of the Republican Party.
— Josef · Jan 14, 05:07 PM · #
Even more than my Catholic wife of 34 years, it was Fr. Neuhaus and subscribing to First Things since 1994 that at last led to my becoming a Catholic. His erudition, his writing, his sharp and wonderfully unique humor, most importantly his eloquence on the role of religious values in our ever more decadent secular culture — his death is a terrible loss. I had the privelege of briefly meeting him several years ago at a Loyola University event here in Chicago. There was a procession and my first view of Fr Neuhaus was proceeding up the aisle singing so engagingly and enthusiastically he reminded me of the same singing of my Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor proceeding up the aisle a half century ago. After his talk, I had the privelge of briefly meeting him in a receiving line. In a nervous gaffe, I called him “Fr. Niebuhr.” He smiled good naturedly at this Freudian slip and I had the pleasure of a few words with him about how much First Things meant to me. Right now the Public Square that he so eloquently inhabited seems terribly empty. Undoubtedly his legacy will live on. Rest in peace, Father.
— Ed Willneff · Jan 16, 05:14 AM · #