Cardinal Avery Dulles, a scion of diplomats and Presbyterians who converted to Roman Catholicism, rose to pre-eminence in Catholic theology and became the only American theologian ever appointed to the College of Cardinals, died today died Friday morning at Fordham University in the Bronx. He was 90. His death, at the Jesuit infirmary at the university, was confirmed by the New York Province of the Society of Jesus in Manhattan.
Cardinal Dulles, a professor of religion at Fordham University for the last 20 years, was a prolific author and lecturer and an elder statesman of Catholic theology in America. He was also the son of John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the nephew of Allen Dulles, who guided European espionage during World War II and later directed the Central Intelligence Agency.
A conservative theologian in an era of liturgical reforms and rising secularism, Cardinal Dulles wrote 27 books and 800 articles, mostly on theology; advised the Vatican and America’s bishops, and staunchly defended the pope and his church against demands for change on abortion, artificial birth control, priestly celibacy, the ordination of women and other issues.
Eternal rest grant unto your servant, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory!
I scarcely knew Father Dulles at all, but of course I knew him quite well through his works and am very sorry that he has died. At the same time, I give thanks for a great life.
One of Cardinal Dulles’s last essays was also one of his most thought-provoking. It appeared in First Things in December 2007 and offered a new way of thinking about and of carrying out ecumenism. That essay prompted some reflection on my part, which led to a long letter published in FT in March 2008. To that letter and another one Cardinal Dulles graciously responded in print in the same issue. There followed, privately, some warm letters back and forth between us. He was very kind and encouraging. I’m tremendously grateful for that.
All this led to a little essay by me called “Radical Ecumenism,” which simply tried to take Cardinal Dulles’s thoughts a bit further. It appeared in the Sewanee Theological Review about six months ago and was excerpted in Episcopal Life in June, I believe.
In brief, my glimpse into the career of this remarkable figure of 20th- and 21st-century life and thought told me that he was a fine teacher, for teachers know when and how to push, as Cardinal Dulles did with his incisive article on a new path for ecumenism (stressing receptivity and conversion, not negotiations and agreed statements), and when to pull, as Cardinal Dulles did in my case through his encouragement, particularly his generous comment that I had not completely misread the thrust of his remarks.
Most of all, of course, I am grateful that he would take time to deal with someone–a stranger–when he himself was suffering and his own capacities were dwindling. I just thought he was a great guy.
Not Roman here but Dulles was definitely one of the good guys.
Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Thy servant who has fallen asleep and make his memory to be eternal…
Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal!
Under the mercy,
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
An [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj4pUphDitA]Orthodox [/url] Christian
Cardinal Dulles will be sorely missed.
Accept Your servant into Your Kingdom, Lord and grant him eternal peace.
You will find a generous helping of Cardinal Dulles’s essays (including the one referred to above: “Saving Ecumenism from Itself”) on the First Things Web site:
http://www.firstthings.com/
Cardinal Dulles was a model of kindness—and a genuinely nice guy. When I was in seminary at Yale, one year Cardinal Dulles was a visiting professor in theology—teaching a morning course in systematic theology and an afternoon advanced seminar. Between classes he would come along to Mory’s and continue the class over an extended lunch. He also spoke of his own faith journey that led him from to Roman Catholicism while at Harvard and then in the navy. While I could never claim anything more than this brief acquaintance, when I was ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal church he sent me a congratulatory note and a copy of a lecture he gave (turned into a small booklet) on the priesthood.
Theology aside … he was a prince of a man.
Although I didn’t know Cardinal Dulles, I’ve heard much about his brilliance, kindness, generosity, and humility.
Oddly enough, I was thinking of him while on a walk this morning—only to learn at mid-day that he had died.
His book Models of the Church was that rare, rare thing: a book that was both academically exciting and yet accessible and easy to read. Oh that we had more teachers in academe who nourished us like that!
From Cardinal Dulles 1998:
“As the Church purifies herself from sin and the effects of sin, she grows into deeper union with her divine Lord and advances toward her heavenly goal, where Christ and the saints now dwell in glory. By putting off the encumbrances of worldly attachments, the Church makes herself ever more transparent to the Lord. The kingdom of God, already present in mystery, is obscured by tepidity and infidelity but is made powerfully present by penance and renewal. The program of contrition and reconciliation initiated by John Paul II is therefore charged with hope and promise. Faithfully carried out, it could usher in at the turn of the millennium a new springtime of Christian witness.”
I submit we are seeing this happen among the Anglicans…may all of us, singly and corporately, find the joy and comfort of penitence.
I was at a retreat in a monastery a couple of years ago…and I heard a priest call for repentance and confession during the service in a voice that was so charged with love, gentleness, tenderness and peace that I heard and saw ‘Our Father’s’ heart for sinners…that He calls us to repentance not to punish, to chide, to humiliate, but to envelop us in His love, to wash, renew, give us life for death, beauty for ashes….
…to give us… bread for the stones of hatred and hardness, fish for the scorpions of sin…
[i] I heard a priest call for repentance and confession . . . in a voice that was so charged with love, gentleness, tenderness and peace [/i] —GA/FL [#10]
GA/FL: We often think of calls to repentance as laden with the speaker’s judgment against his hearers (and that is certainly how secular culture regards them). You aptly remind us of the real stakes: our relationship with an infinitely loving God to whom we owe [i]everything[/i].
For those unfamiliar with his work, I would recommend Dulles’ [url=http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6126]”Who Can Be Saved?”[/url]
Terry Tee (#9),
You aptly called attention to Cardinal Dulles’ great book, Models of the Church, as a particularly fine example of a first-class work of original theology that is also highly accessible to non-specialists. May I add a couple thoughts?
First, T19 readers unfamiliar with that modern classic on ecclesiology should be sure to read the second, expanded edition, where Avery Dulles added a sixth model of the church to his previous five, and I find that sixth one especially congenial myself, i.e., the church as a “community of disciples.”
Second, I would also recommend another book of the same type, which is perhaps a little less accessible and a little more technical, but equally outstanding: Dulles’ perceptive work, Models of Revelation. That book is highly relevant to our Anglican debates over biblical authority, because it deals with the whole topic of HOW divine revelation is conveyed to us and how we receive it. A large part of what has made our Anglican civil war so intractable and hard to resolve are different underlying assumptions or conflicting commitments regarding the reality and accessibility of divine revelation, i.e., the clash between different models of revelation that the opposing sides are taking for granted or championing.
Finally, although Avery Dulles is not the first Jesuit to be made a cardinal (the fabulous French patristic scholar Jean Danielou has that honor), it is still extremely rare, given that Jesuits take that unique fourth vow of absolute obedience to the Pope. And of course, the vast majority of cardinals are bishops/archbishops and not academic theologians. So for Avery Dulles to be made a cardinal or theological advisor to the Pope was a very rare and exceptional honor (as was the case with John Henry Newman and only a few others).
John Foster Dulles has a world-famous airport named for him. I wonder how his even greater son will be remembered by future generations?
David Handy+