Last Article?
by John Turner
I know rather little about Father Richard John Neuhaus, who died last week. He was, however, a seminal figure in the recent evolution of politically conservative Catholicism and an even more seminal figure in the forging of ecumenical ties between religious conservatives of various ecclesiastical stripes. Along with Charles Colson, Neuhaus was a prime mover behind Evangelicals and Catholics Together, which called for an end to proselytization between the two groups (the latter position angered a large number of evangelicals and created a backlash against some evangelical ECT signers) and created a framework for mutual public engagement. Neuhaus also gained prominence through founding of First Things, an ecumenically religious conservative periodical.
While writing a review of Jon Shields's forthcoming The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right, I came across Neuhaus's review of the same. It must be one of the very last things he wrote, as the First Things website identifies it as a January 2009 publication.
Can any of our readers help assess his significance in modern American religion, the Christian Right, etc.?
I know rather little about Father Richard John Neuhaus, who died last week. He was, however, a seminal figure in the recent evolution of politically conservative Catholicism and an even more seminal figure in the forging of ecumenical ties between religious conservatives of various ecclesiastical stripes. Along with Charles Colson, Neuhaus was a prime mover behind Evangelicals and Catholics Together, which called for an end to proselytization between the two groups (the latter position angered a large number of evangelicals and created a backlash against some evangelical ECT signers) and created a framework for mutual public engagement. Neuhaus also gained prominence through founding of First Things, an ecumenically religious conservative periodical.
While writing a review of Jon Shields's forthcoming The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right, I came across Neuhaus's review of the same. It must be one of the very last things he wrote, as the First Things website identifies it as a January 2009 publication.
Can any of our readers help assess his significance in modern American religion, the Christian Right, etc.?
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http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/19.html
article.php3?id_article=
5329&var_recherche=relativism) impact conversations in Catholic high school religion classes about the threat of "moral relativism" to the foundation and fabric of American society? I don't understand the connection, but my experience is that contributors to _First Things_, most of whom are very well educated and eloquent, and anti-abortion activists saying the rosary outside clinics are at least speaking the same language. Too bad there isn't a Richard John Neuhaus Jr. to go along with a William F. Buckley Jr. Celibacy...