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Thomistic Studies Remembers Fr. Richard John Neuhaus
1/8/2009
 Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things and one of the most significant Catholic intellectuals in the United States, died this morning in New York City. A longtime friend of the University, Fr. Neuhaus served on the Center for Thomistic Studies Advisory Board for more than 10 years. Ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1960, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1990—a move presaged by his book The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World, which argued that the Catholic Church is the signal institution for sustaining Christianity and advancing world culture. He remained all his life an advocate and participant in ecumenical dialogue.
Fr. Neuhaus’ 1984 book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, challenged the “wall of separation” interpretation of the establishment clause of the Constitution’s first amendment and so fundamentally altered the public debate concerning the relations between church and state in the United States. He institutionalized this debate in 1990, with the founding of First Things, a journal published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, “an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” Neuhaus maintained that constitutional democracies could not survive without some commitment to substantive human goods and moral principles discoverable through natural law. His column “The Public Square” was the final item in First Things each month, with the result that most of its subscribers read the journal back-to-front.
In his book written as a cancer survivor, As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning (2002), he argues that “The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well.” Fr. John Neuhaus’ friends, who range from the famous to the obscure, from prominent intellectuals to those who had to struggle loyally and lovingly each month through First Things, are today proclaiming resoundingly that he, indeed, lived well. His friends on the Center for Thomistic Studies Advisory Board including, Dr. Dominic Aquila, VPAA, Dr. Terry Hall and Dr. John Hittinger, pray Requiescat in pace, Richard John Neuhaus.
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