Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009
First Things announces his death and reprints an old, relevant, and quite brilliant piece of his, on the subject of death.
It was a couple of days after leaving intensive care, and it was night. I could hear patients in adjoining rooms moaning and mumbling and occasionally calling out; the surrounding medical machines were pumping and sucking and bleeping as usual. Then, all of a sudden, I was jerked into an utterly lucid state of awareness. I was sitting up in the bed staring intently into the darkness, although in fact I knew my body was lying flat. What I was staring at was a color like blue and purple, and vaguely in the form of hanging drapery. By the drapery were two “presences.” I saw them and yet did not see them, and I cannot explain that. But they were there, and I knew that I was not tied to the bed. I was able and prepared to get up and go somewhere. And then the presences-one or both of them, I do not know-spoke. This I heard clearly. Not in an ordinary way, for I cannot remember anything about the voice. But the message was beyond mistaking: “Everything is ready now.”
Do read it. It is deep, open, thoughtful, funny moving and wise. Typically, so.
One of those deaths where there is so much to say, but nothing is coming to my mind beyond the hope I’ve always had of someday “growing up” in my adult faith like Neuhaus – because he was a grown-up – the regret that I’ll likely never make it, and the gratitude that he has left a body of work so large, I can keep trying. His latest book American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile is released this March.
Neuhaus was such an accessible, always-interesting writer and teacher, and a man of tremendous faith. R.I.P.
John Allen has a superb obituary, here.
A 2006 profile in the NY Times.
A priest of the New York archdiocese and a former Lutheran minister, Neuhaus was best known to society at large as an intellectual guru of what came to be known as the “religious right.”
From the early 1970s forward, Neuhaus was a key architect of two alliances with profound consequences for American politics, both of which overcame histories of mutual antagonism: one between conservative Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals, and the other between free market neo-conservatives and “faith and values” social conservatives.
…
Over the years, even people who disagreed with Neuhaus’ politics or theology would devour his monthly essay in First Things, titled “The Public Square,” for sheer literary pleasure. His combination of epigrammatic formulae and occasionally biting satire often reminded fans of English-language Catholic luminaries of earlier eras, such as G.K. Chesterton or Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Also writing (continually updated as I find things):
Patrick O’ Hannigan dedicates a review to Neuhaus
Anthony Esolen at Touchstone
Rachel Zoll for the AP
Editors at NRO
Peter Wehner
Ted Olson
The Deacon’s Bench
Kathryn Jean Lopez
John Podhoretz
Inside Catholic: Zoe Romanowsky
Dallas News
America Magazine: Michael Sean Winters
Commonweal
American Spectator
Catholic News Agency
Red State
Blogging Religiously (with a great closing line!)
Sanctus Benedictus
Amy Welborn
Books by Richard John Neuhaus:
Amazon.com Widgets
I don’t see the link to the piece you said First Things reprints an old, relevant, and quite brilliant piece of his
[Don - go to the link at First Things, to the death notice, and scroll just below it, for the entire article - admin]
I’m saddened. This is a blow to the stomach. I didn’t know he was ailing. Was he ailing, or was this unexpected? I loved, amongst other things, the twinkle in his eye.
I had not read “Living Toward Dying” before. It’s a good thing I’m typing this, because I will not be able to speak without my voice breaking for a little while, now. Thank you for that link.
It would be good to be like Neuhaus when I grow up – or perhaps, as you point out, he’s a good yardstick to see how one is growing. I’m very unlikely to ever exceed that measure.
I got a smile from a reader’s comment on the notice of Fr. Neuhaus’ death at the website of America Magazine (the liberal Catholic publication). The commenter was guessing that Tim Russert needed Fr. Neuhaus for a panel discussion. I hope that’s one of the first things on Fr. Neuhaus’ new to-do list.
May God grant him rest & peace.
Anchoress, there was ome article of his that I read on First Things years ago. He talked about a speech he gave to a group of Christians and conservatives in Washington at that time, and reminded them that the focus of their attention, ultimately, “should not be the ‘Road to Victory’, but the Way of the Cross.”
Right after, a few people approached him, distraught, and one even said to him, “I’ve listened to everything you’ve said over the years. I feel betrayed!” But he replied to the poor man, “That is not the point. Not at all.”
A Baptist like me “got it” on the spot. Many times, we tend to forget that admonition from the Apostle Paul, to “Keep your sights on things of above, not on things of the earth.” And many times, precisely because we forget that, we fall flat on our faces in the public square. Fr. Neuhaus knew exactly where his sights were set, and he was not afraid of reminding all of us, even if it made us mad at times.
May he rest in peace eternally.
RIP
Even as I read this my aunt is being prepared to go to her last Mass. She passed peacefully Sunday night after months of suffering. Her nurse said she had asked for a Pepsi and as they were talking, the nurse noticed her heart rate dropping. She died with a peaceful look and her lips puckered up as though she were kissing someone. May they both rest in peace.