John Courtney Murray and the American Civil Conversation.THE JESUIT political philosopher John Courtney Murray The Reverend John Courtney Murray, SJ (September 12, 1904—August 16, 1967), was a Jesuit priest, theologian, and prominent American intellectual who was especially known for his efforts to reconcile Catholicism and religious pluralism, religious freedom, and the American was once well known. In 1960 he even made the cover of Time magazine. His renown, however, was one of the many casualties of the Sixties-- not because he died in 1967, but because more radical thinkers have rejected the patient, erudite er·u·dite adj. Characterized by erudition; learned. See Synonyms at learned. [Middle English erudit, from Latin realism of his.work. Many of the essays included here--by such leading church-state scholars as Richard John Neuhaus Richard John Neuhaus (born May 21, 1936) is a prominent Catholic priest and writer born in Canada and living in the United States, where he is a naturalized citizen. He is the founder and editor of the monthly journal First Things , Francis Canavan, and Gerard Bradley-argue that the time has come for a Murray renaissance. Murray's best-known work was a collection of essays, We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition (1960), which probed the relationship between Catholic moral philosophy and the American experiment in self-government. Murray stressed that the American experiment rests not on "values," subjective preferences, or interests, but on self-evident "truths" about' man and society. Because these truths were uncovered not by the secular Enlightenment but through centuries of Christian moral philosophy, Murray -saw a basic harmony between American democracy and the natural-law tradition within Catholicism. Today, America's dominant public philOsophy has degenerated into nugatory Having little meaning. A nugatory statement or command is one that provides little value and might just as well be omitted. See deprecate. relativism relativism Any view that maintains that the truth or falsity of statements of a certain class depends on the person making the statement or upon his circumstances or society. Historically the most prevalent form of relativism has been See also ethical relativism. and clashing ideologies, and the self-evidence of the rounding truths seems precarious. But, as Rabbi David Novak David Novak is a scholar of Jewish philosophy, law (Halakha) and ethics. He has Conservative rabbinical ordination and has trained with Catholic moral theologians. Trained at Georgetown University, Novak has taught at the University of Virginia and currently teaches at the points out in his essay, Murray's natural-law approach is not sectarian; it depends on no specifically Catholic assumptions. In the present intellectual climate, Murray's approach offers an inviting means of defending the truths upon which American freedom rests. |
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