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Remembering a servant of truth:
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009)
By Paul T. Stallsworth

On January 8, 2009, Father Richard John Neuhaus, 72, died in New York City. Some claim he was the most significant theologian in American public life since Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). I will simply attest that he was a great man.

From 1984 to 1990, as a United Methodist elder on special appointment, I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with Richard Neuhaus in New York City—first at The Center on Religion and Society, and then at The Institute on Religion and Public Life. During those years, it became evident to me that Neuhaus was a great man because he followed the truth. In his preaching and pastoral work, in his speaking and writing, he served the truth.

Neuhaus recognized that truth brings unity, and that Christian unity is an essential of the Christian faith. He excelled at bringing Christians—all different kinds of Christians—to the table. Over twenty years ago, he invited leaders of the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and leaders of Mainline Protestantism’s National Council of Churches to engage one another, in conferences, on matters related to Church and society.

Those related to United Methodism were often involved in such Neuhaus projects. For example, Professor Stanley Hauerwas of Duke University and Professor Thomas Oden of Drew University were frequent participants. In addition, Neuhaus hosted a theological seminar called The Ramsey Colloquium, which was named after Professor Paul Ramsey, a United Methodist, of Princeton University.

Neuhaus also initiated Evangelicals and Catholics Together (with Charles Colson) to put Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics in theological conversation with each other. Furthermore, he was committed to serious Christian-Jewish dialogue that encompassed theological, cultural, and political claims. Anchored in the truth, he extended friendship and engagement to the unexpected.

Committed to the truth of the Church’s faith, Neuhaus was all about making and maturing ecclesiastical Christians. As such, he was a constant and severe critic of “the American religion” (Harold Bloom), which is the experiential religion of the self, and the philosophy of “the sovereign self” (Neuhaus), which is the secular counterpart of the religion of the self. Neuhaus believed that life in Christ (and the Church) and life in society, ideally and empirically, have to do with webs of relationships and communities, not isolation and privacy. For him, this was a matter of truth, not preference.

But American public life was also Neuhaus’ concern. Much of his ministry was spent insuring that “the naked public square” (as he called it), with its aim of eliminating moral content and religious reference from public life, was pushed back. In the early 1970s, Neuhaus paid a high personal price, as many of his friends and colleagues bid him farewell, for recognizing that the moral foundation of the Civil Rights Movement also undergirds the Pro-Life Movement. Over the next 35 years, he became the most articulate spokesman for the truth of the dignity of the human person.

For Richard John Neuhaus, the truth was first and foremost embodied in Jesus Christ and his Church. For decades, Neuhaus was a Lutheran pastor strongly committed to Word and Sacrament ministry. For many years, he pastored the Lutheran Church of St. John the Evangelist, an ethnic-minority congregation in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. In 1991, ordained at the hands of John Cardinal O’Connor of the Archdiocese of New York, he became a Roman Catholic priest. During the last years of his life, Neuhaus, maintaining a Lutheran-like boldness in preaching and a singular commitment to the centrality of the Eucharist, celebrated the Mass daily at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on East 14th Street. The truth spoken and enacted, Word and Sacrament, formed the foundation of the life and ministry of Neuhaus.

It should be noted that Richard Neuhaus knew how to enjoy a good meal, a good drink (or two or three), and a good cigar. His conversation on such occasions was filled with jokes, joshing, and uncommon flashes of insight, which pushed the boundaries of conventional wisdom.

Now Richard John Neuhaus, this great man, is gone. He has crossed the Jordan, as he would say. But he has left behind much for present and future use. First Things—an influential, monthly journal on religion and public life, of which he was the editor in chief for 150 issues—will continue publication. An ecumenical, interreligious community of discourse, formed around First Things, will certainly expand. Projects such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, regular table talks with theologians, and occasional scholars conferences will most probably persist. And the paper trail he leaves, which is miles and miles long, will remain open to investigation. His nearly thirty books and countless essays might well be read and engaged by more now than when he was alive. For years to come, Neuhaus will be quoted on matters related to religion and public life, and his legacy will be evidenced within the public witness of the various churches.

If and as all that occurs, Richard John Neuhaus will have been a servant of truth in life and in the life beyond death.

Paul Stallsworth is the pastor of St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Morehead City, North Carolina, and the editor of the quarterly newsletter Lifewatch.



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