Richard John Neuhaus RIP

When I was younger, I was planning on becoming a Lutheran minister in the Lutheran Church of American (LCA). I used to attend the Lay School of Theology every August which was held at Gettysburg Seminary, and there I became acquainted with the Lutheran Forum.

This was an independent publication that commented on Lutheran topics of the day. The editor was Richard John Neuhaus, who was a noted theologian and wrote quite a lively commentary. I strayed from this path and ended up going into behavioral neuroscience where I am currently gainfully employed.

In the last few years, I have re-discovered my Lutheran roots and wanted to find out what was still being published out there. Neuhaus had left the Lutheran church and joined the Roman Catholic Church where he became a priest. He also started up a new publication, First Things which was a conservative publication on religion. I was surprised in this as Neuhaus was fairly liberal expect on the abortion issue where he was pro life.

I read this statement on why he became a Roman Catholic, in his view Lutheranism was a reform movement and once said reforms where adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, Lutherans had a duty to return to the fold. Lutherans were not meant to be a new Protestant denomination. I was not very convinced by his arguments and felt that Lutherans had progressed a lot further that the Roman Catholics all for the better.

I have a subscription once again to the Lutheran Forum and in the latest issue of Forum Letter there are a number of remembrances of Neuhaus. It seems that he started out as a minister in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is a lot more conservative than the LCA or what it is currently today, Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA). Women, unlike the ELCA, cannot be ministers in the Missouri Synod and Biblical literalism was the norm. Neuhaus rejected this and joined the LCA/ELCA.

His pro life stance on abortion was not in agreement with the ELCA, and this I think lead him to the Roman Catholic church, no Biblical literalism like the Missouri Synod, and Pro Life on abortion unlike the ELCA. A happy medium for his beliefs.

He is remembered as a noted theologian and the writer of the Naked Public Square an important book on religion and civic life.