Word: murrays
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Theologian Murray helped liberalize his church, but he succeeded because he was essentially a conservative-so much so that some of the younger theologians, who prefer to storm the battlements, were disenchanted with his meticulous, scholarly approach. For John Courtney Murray always moved within church tradition, presenting his liberal conclusions as developments of the hallowed past; it was his special gift for holding the two together as a living whole that carried the day in Rome...
Exchange of Ideas. In addition to editing the Jesuit quarterly Theologica Studies for 26 years and writing a show er of articles on dozens of facets of life, Father Murray published five books. Most notable: We Hold Thesi Truths, which expounds the idea that the American structure of church-state relations is more congenial to Roman Catholic thinking on the subject than any other such structure in history; and The Problem of God, which contrasts the Old Testament question "Is God our God?" and the medieval question "What is God like?" with modern man's "new will actively...
...through personal contact that John Courtney Murray wielded much of his large intellectual influence. Thin and towering (6 ft. 4 in.), long-faced to the point of looking sad (which made his witty, self-depreciating smile all the more engaging), he possessed an intellectual charity and unfailing courtesy that ideally suited him to guide the exchange of ideas between peers of widely disparate persuasions...
Dialogue between serious men about serious things was for Father Murray the sine qua non of civilized society. The end in view was not agreement but the kind of understanding that honest disagreement presupposes. "Disagreement," he would often say, "is not an easy thing to reach." This, he felt, was society's protection against the confusion spread by the barbarian perpetually at the gates...
...city was John Courtney Murray's symbol of civilized society, and in writing about it, he once unconsciously described himself: "The cohesiveness of the city is not hot and humid, like the climate of the animal kingdom. It lacks the warmth of love and unreasoning loyalty that pervades the family. It is cool and dry, with the coolness and dryness that characterize good argument among informed and responsible...