by Father Robert Lauder
There are many things about St. John’s University that I love. On the top of the list would have to be the Vincentian university’s mission to serve the poor. That commitment makes me proud that I am a member of the faculty.
I also find admirable, exciting and even inspiring the university’s commitment to make available an education that taps into the best in Catholic intellectual life. Several years ago, shortly after his death, Father Paul McKeever, who had taught moral theology at St. John’s, had an endowed chair in theology named after him.
More recently, seven years ago, Peter and Peggy D’Angelo established the D’Angelo Chair in the humanities. Both Peter and Peggy graduated from St. John’s, and I suspect that the chair was their way of showing gratitude to the university. The chair is occupied every other spring by an outstanding intellectual. In the last seven years, the three Catholic intellectuals who have occupied the D’Angelo Chair, each for a semester, have been John Haught, Alice McDermott and Peter Steinfels.
When the chair was established, a committee was recruited to recommend possible future occupants. I was chosen to be on that committee. I proudly admit that I played some role in bringing Haught, McDermott and Steinfels to that chair. I believe their presence at St. John’s was good for them, and I know their presence was good for the university.
Shortly after I began to teach at St. John’s, I was given a course with the strange title “The Problem of God.” After I taught the course for a few years, some students may have referred to it as “The Problem of Lauder!”
As soon as I agreed to teach the course, I began to select the books that I would use in class. I chose one that had selections from famous philosophers and another that commented on some of the most influential atheistic philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries. I wanted a third book but did not know what to choose.
Life-Changing Book
One day I saw an ad in a Catholic magazine for a new book titled “What Is God? How To Think About the Divine” (New York: Paulist Press, 1986, pp. 143, $14.95) by John Haught. Then I did something a professor should never do: I ordered the book for the course before I had even read the book! My decision was one of the best I have ever made in creating courses. I am not exaggerating when I say that the book changed my life. It changed my view of God, of the human person and of what I think about “unbelievers.” One of the special benefits for me of having Haught on campus for a semester was that we became close friends.
I believe Alice McDermott may be the finest contemporary American novelist. She has enormous talent and has written seven novels. My favorites are “Charming Billy” (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, pp. 280, $22), “After This” (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 279, $24) and her latest, “Someone” (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, pp. 230, $25). With “Charming Billy,” which won the National Book Award, McDermott has created a fictional figure many Irish Catholics have identified as strongly resembling someone in their families or at least someone they know. I am hoping that the novel will be adapted for the screen. To have McDermott teaching creative writing at St. John’s was a special gift.
Peter Steinfels is a former editor of the prestigious Catholic magazine, Commonweal. I think that in a previous column I confessed that nothing has influenced the way I think about culture and other related topics as much as Commonweal. I started reading the magazine in 1953 and have been a faithful reader for most of the last 60 years.
Steinfels also wrote a column on religion for The New York Times for 20 years, and those columns stood out as among the best in the newspaper. For years, the first thing I would do after breakfast on Saturday mornings was look for his column. He never disappointed me. When he retired, the paper lost one of its best, if not its best commentator. His book “A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003, pp. 392, $26) is exceptionally good. I think it is “must reading” for anyone who wishes to understand the problems facing the Church at this time in America. Steinfels has the enviable talent of presenting provocative insights in a writing style that is eminently clear.
Next time I see Peter and Peggy D’Angelo, I am going to thank them.[hr] Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.