Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square

by Randy Boyagoda

Overview

A brilliant biography of one of the intellectual mavericks of 20th Century Catholicism.


     Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) was one of the most influential figures in American public life from the Civil Rights era to the War on Terror. His writing, activism, and connections to people of power in religion, politics, and culture secured a place for himself and his ideas at the center of recent American history. William F. Buckley, Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith are comparable -- willing controversialists and prodigious writers adept at cultivating or castigating the powerful, while advancing lively arguments for the virtues and vices of the ongoing American experiment. But unlike Buckley and Galbraith, who have always been identified with singular political positions on the right and left, respectively, Neuhaus' life and ideas placed him at the vanguard of events and debates across the political and cultural spectrum. For instance, alongside Abraham Heschel and Daniel Berrigan, Neuhaus co-founded Clergy Concerned About Vietnam, in 1965. Forty years later, Neuhaus was the subject of a New York Review of Books article by Garry Wills, which cast him as a Rasputin of the far right, exerting dangerous influence in both the Vatican and the Bush White House. This book looks to examine Neuhaus's multi-faceted life and reveal to the public what made him tick and why.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307953971
Publisher:	The Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

RANDY BOYAGODA is a professor of American Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto. His latest novel, Beggar's Feast, was selected as a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, nominated for the 2013 IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize, and has been published to critical acclaim around the world. His debut novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was nominated for the 2006 ScotiaBank Giller Prize. He has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, First Things, The Paris Review, and Harper's. He lives in Toronto with his wife and four daughters.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Part I From Small-Town Canada to Concordia Seminary, 1936-1960

Chapter 1 A Pastor's Son, Born and Baptized on "the Canadian Frontier" 3

Chapter 2 Pembroke's Most Patriotic Pastor, and Its Youngest and Most Newsworthy 15

Chapter 3 An "Uneducable" Little Lutheran Professor Enlists in a Grand Cause 29

Chapter 4 Boarding School Days: Prayer and Mischief Without Ceasing 40

Chapter 5 A Jackrabbit-Shooting Cisco Kid Turns Arbiter Elegentarium 50

Chapter 6 Goal, Malady, Means: A Seminary Formation in Church and Church Politics 63

Part II From Brooklyn to Africa, and Many Points in Between, 1961-1974

Chapter 7 A Young Pastor Discovers "the Glory and Tragedy of Life in This City" 85

Chapter 8 From Brooklyn Pastor to National Newsmaker 100

Chapter 9 Missouri's Militant Instrument of God's Peace 112

Chapter 10 1968: Passionate Diatribes and Tumultuous Receptions 127

Chapter 11 A Thoroughly Radical Writer Makes a Radical Run for Congress 144

Chapter 12 The Lonely Radical Looks Elsewhere 159

Part III From Hartford to Rome, Via the Naked Public Square, 1975-1990

Chapter 13 Appealing for Right Religion, Appalling 179

Chapter 14 Books to Empower People and Pastors Alike 196

Chapter 15 Seeking Freedom for His Own Kind of Ministry 212

Chapter 16 1984: The Naked Public Square Campaign 231

Chapter 17 More and More Catholic Moments, Among Many, Many Others 248

Chapter 18 The Raid 266

Part IV First Things First: A Catholic Priest in the Public Square, 1990-2009

Chapter 19 Neuhaus Becomes a Catholic… Neuhaus Named Catholic of the Year 287

Chapter 20 As He Lay Dying 304

Chapter 21 The End of Democracy? The Beginnings of Greater Influence 323

Chapter 22 A Time of Triumph, a Time of War, a Time of Scandal 341

Chapter 23 "The Most Influential Clergyman in America," AKA the "Theocon-in-Chief" 360

Chapter 24 Meeting God as an American 382

Acknowledgments 401

Notes 405

Index 449

Editorial Reviews

Each half of Neuhaus's life supplies ample material for a biography. The question of how Neuhaus began where he did, only to finish at the opposite ideological pole, adds that much more meat to the broth. In Richard John Neuhaus, Randy Boyagoda…keeps the story from becoming overcomplicated, however, by eschewing excursions into social history or speculation about his subject's motives. The result is a deeply researched, lucidly written, only lightly argued biography…Boyagoda has explored and explained this fascinating American as well as anyone could have hoped.

The New York Times Book Review - Daniel McCarthy

12/08/2014
Boyagoda (Beggar’s Feast), a novelist and professor of American studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, explores the fascinating life of Richard Neuhaus, a man not shy about sharing his opinions or taking controversial positions on public issues. From Neuhaus’s humble childhood in Canada, through his tenure as a Lutheran pastor, to his highly public conversion to Catholicism and ordination to the priesthood, the author investigates all facets of his subject’s life and the profound effect he had on people around the world. While Neuhaus could be a very polarizing figure and was referred to as the Theocon in Chief, the man encountered in these pages is also faithful, generous, and focused on doing God’s work. Most fascinating is Neuhaus’ transformation from civil rights activist and darling of the Christian left to spokesperson for conservative Catholicism as editor of the journal First Things; he was also consultant to presidents and popes. Anyone interested in the history of Catholicism in the 20th century will enjoy this stellar biography. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Deeply researched, lucidly written." – New York Times

"In Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square, Randy Boyagoda captures his subject’s deep sense of vocation and the complexity of his personality, offering a comprehensive biography and, along the way, a thoughtful introduction to some of the 'culture wars' of the past several decades." – Wall Street Journal

"[A] stellar biography." – Publishers Weekly

"Boyagoda dispassionately describes this fascinating and active life, and he manages to blend skills as a folksy storyteller, researcher and unbiased historian, providing a biography that is balanced, interesting and relevant. A useful, provocative spotlight on one of the leading lights of the 20th century." – Kirkus 

"[A] page-turner." – National Review  

"Boyagoda’s biography is an invaluable account of the political and ecclesiastical controversies in which Neuhaus played a central, influential and controversial role." – America Magazine

"A wonderful biography." − Raymond Arroyo, New York Times bestselling author and host, EWTN's The World Over

"Boyagoda persuasively argues that Neuhaus was a charismatic leader and original thinker whose contributions to American culture and politics make him someone worth knowing about." − American Conservative

"Boyagoda’s luminously intelligent study of the man makes clear that Richard John Neuhaus — however one regards his politics — deserved his place in a long line of memorable American preacher politicians." − National Post

"Neuhaus was a hugely influential figure, and Boyagoda tells his story with novelistic empathy and narrative panache." − The Globe and Mail

"Boyagoda found the Neuhaus I knew, complete with all the man’s winsome qualities and not a few of his contradictions. Not surprisingly, he also revealed facets of the man I could never guess." − Russell E. Saltzman, Aleteia

"And up until now, no one has offered a more credible, careful, and colorful biography of this convert to Catholicism. " – Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, author of True Freedom
 
"Thorough, vivid, and keenly understanding of the interplay of personality, faith, and cultural context, Boyagoda's biography of Neuhaus does justice to this man of faith." – Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus

"Until his death in 2009, Father Richard John Neuhaus was a powerhouse in American public life and a monument in American Catholic history...Randy Boyagoda, an extraordinary author best known for his work in fiction, knew that someone had to tell Fr. Neuhaus’ story — and that it deserved to be told well." − CatholicVote.org

From the Publisher

03/01/2015
Richard John Neuhaus (1936–2009) was a lightning rod of controversy and was frequently the center of media attention in his day. As a Lutheran pastor for a predominantly African American and Latino congregation in Brooklyn in the 1960s, Neuhaus marched beside Martin Luther King Jr. and was arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in the infamous clash with Chicago police. In later life, he grew conservative—but no less vocal—and converted to Roman Catholicism, becoming a priest in that faith, and wrote caustic commentary on American society for First Things, the journal he founded. Novelist Boyadoga (American studies, Ryerson Univ.; Beggar's Feast) has written a workmanlike account of this prominent and still-baffling presence; there is rather little sense of Neuhaus's driving impulses, only a series of impressions of his unfailing courage to speak out. VERDICT The first major biographical monograph on Neuhaus, but perhaps not the last, this efficient account should be of interest to academic libraries.

Library Journal

2014-11-06
The many sides of Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009).Boyagoda (American Studies/Ryerson Univ.; Beggar's Feast, 2011, etc.) does a true service by offering this first full-length biography of the Christian cleric. Though Neuhaus was a man who defied labels, he was classified by many as a radical leftist, neoconservative, Lutheran, Catholic, activist, writer, etc. Boyagoda begins with a compelling account of Neuhaus' boyhood as the precocious son of a conservative Lutheran pastor in Canada. One of eight children, he nevertheless soon stood out as unique, playing preacher and giving sermons to his little sister. Despite largely misspent teen years, which Boyagoda does not blanch to reveal, Neuhaus finally settled into a life of the mind at a St. Louis Lutheran seminary. There, he caused trouble not so much through alcohol and pranks as through doctrinal difference. Eventually, Neuhaus pursued urban ministry in New York and fell headlong into the civil rights movement and liberal politics. By the end of the 1960s, however, his views had begun to change, and he began to move toward becoming one of America's most recognizable neoconservatives. Moreover, he continued on a spiritual road that would eventually bring about his conversion to Catholicism and ordination as a Catholic priest in 1990. Along the way came international fame, the editorship of First Things and such acclaimed books as The Naked Public Square (1984). Neuhaus also rubbed shoulders with legions of important politicians, activists, theologians, pundits and others during the course of his life. Boyagoda dispassionately describes this fascinating and active life, and he manages to blend skills as a folksy storyteller, researcher and unbiased historian, providing a biography that is balanced, interesting and relevant. A useful, provocative spotlight on one of the leading lights of the 20th century.

Kirkus Reviews