Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square by randy boyagoda image, 459 pages, $30 The Richard Neuhaus I knew first appears on page 179 of Randy Boyagoda’s biography of the founder and perpetual genius loci of First Things. It is then, anno Domini 1975, that RJN embarks on that process . . . . Continue Reading »
On March 7, 2015, Randy Boyagoda of Ryerson College, R. R. Reno of First Things, and Raymond de Souza and Peter Stockland of Convivium, discussed the legacy of Richard John Neuhaus and the life of magazines in a panel discussion hosted at St-Jean-Baptiste parish of Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario. What follows is a selected transcript of their remarks. Continue Reading »
Neuhaus, public intellectual? Yesterday, CBC radio ran a long segment on the legacy of Richard John Neuhaus. Native of Pembroke, Ontario, it's fitting that Canada's public radio would cover the publication of his biography, written by Randy Boyagoda, also a Canadian. RJN's a native son gone . . . . Continue Reading »
The biography is out. Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square was researched and written by Randy Boyagoda. It was a five-year project, including time spent in New York interviewing Neuhaus’s friends and colleagues, digging into his extensive correspondence and archival . . . . Continue Reading »
Randy Boyagoda’s biography of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square came out last month and has already received significant notice. (See reviews and notices here and here and here and here) A few weeks ago, Boyagoda himself . . . . Continue Reading »
• I am not Charlie. I am not a trickster or prankster. I do not think freedom is based on mockery and transgression. I do not believe that a culture of freedom is nourished by the conceit that nothing is sacred. • Charlie Hebdo reflects a self-complimenting nihilism. It claims the . . . . Continue Reading »
When in the course of human events . . .” Thus Jefferson and his associates, evincing a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” began their explanation of what they were up to. To be sure, launching a new journal is not on a par with launching a new nation. Nor do we have any . . . . Continue Reading »
In over two decades of friendship, Richard John Neuhaus and Wolfhart Pannenberg conspired together to bring religion back to the forefront of the public square. Their correspondence speaks of many things—the joys of intellectual conversation, the driving, dogged hope for ecumenical unity, and the intimacy of genuine friendship. Some letters focus on the mundane—logistics and inquiries about health—others rise to questions of the divine, and still others slide fluently from the mundane to the divine and back again. This ease of conversation is rare, and both Neuhaus and Pannenberg knew it. Their friendship was a private manifestation of their public commitments, and their public collaboration spoke of their deep friendship. Continue Reading »
I recall being deeply moved by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’ recounting of his journey from Lutheranism into the Roman Catholic Church (“How I Became the Catholic I Was”). It is a move that not a few have made, with denominational provenance spanning most every Protestant confession. . . . . Continue Reading »
Sometimes the complaint is heard that no one preaches about hell any longer. The subject of hell, if not attractive, is at least fascinating, as any reader of Dante’s Inferno or Milton’s Paradise Lost can testify. Equally fascinating, and decidedly more pressing, is the question of how many of . . . . Continue Reading »
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