John Courtney Murray

For other religious figures named John Murray, seeJohn Murray (disambiguation) § Religion and theology.

The Reverend Dr. John Courtney Murray SJ
Born	(1904-09-12)September 12, 1904 New York City, New York
Died	August 16, 1967(1967-08-16)(aged 62) Queens, New York
Academic background
Alma mater	Boston College Gregorian University
Academic work
Institutions	Ateneo de Manila, Jesuit theologate Woodstock, Maryland
Main interests	Theology
Notable works	We Hold These Truths
Notable ideas	Dignitatis humanae

John Courtney MurraySJ(September 12, 1904 – August 16, 1967) was an AmericanJesuitpriestandtheologianwho was especially known for his efforts to reconcileCatholicismandreligious pluralismand particularly focused on the relationship betweenreligious freedomand the institutions of a democratically-structured modern state.

During theSecond Vatican Council,he played a key role in persuading the assembly of the Catholic bishops to adopt the Council's ground-breaking Declaration on Religious Liberty,Dignitatis humanae.

Early life and education

John Courtney Murray was born inNew York Cityon September 12, 1904. In 1920, he entered the New York province of theSociety of Jesusafter attendingXavier High School.He studiedClassicsandPhilosophyatBoston College.He obtained hisbachelor'sandmaster'sdegrees in 1926 and 1927, respectively. After graduation, he traveled to thePhilippines,where he taughtLatinandEnglish literatureat theAteneo de Manila.

Career

In 1930, Murray returned to theUnited States.He was ordained aRoman Catholicpriestin 1933. He pursued further studies at theGregorian UniversityinRomeand in 1937 completed adoctorateinsacred theology.

After his return from Rome to the United States, just before the beginning ofWorld War II,he joined the Jesuit theologate inWoodstock, Marylandand taught Catholictrinitariantheology. In 1940, Murray still fully supported the Catholic doctrine that there was no salvation outside the Church.

In 1941, he was named editor of the Jesuit journalTheological Studies.He held both positions until his death.

As representative of theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishopsand consultant to the religious affairs section of theAllied High Commission,he helped draft and promote the 1943Declaration on World Peace,aninterfaithstatement of principles forpostwarreconstruction. He successfully promoted a closeconstitutionalarrangement between the restoredGerman stateand theChurch,which included the sharing of tax revenue with the churches.

By 1944, Murray's endorsement of full co-operation with othertheistsled many Catholics to complain that he endangered American Catholic faith, which then recommended minimal co-operation with non-Catholics for fear that lay Catholic faith would be weakened.

Similarly, Murray advocated religious freedom and pluralism as defined and protected by theFirst Amendmentof theUS Constitution,which contradicted Catholicdoctrinesof church-and-state relations before Vatican II.

"Pluralism, therefore, implies disagreement and dissension within the community. But it also implies a community within which there must be agreement and consensus."

Postwar reconstruction

His background and training suggest a heavily-theoreticalbent, but Murray became a leading public figure, and his work dealt primarily with the tensions betweenreligionand public life. His best-known book,We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition(1960), collects a number of his essays on such topics.

In 1951 to 1952, after a lectureship atYale University,he collaborated on a project withRobert Morrison MacIverofColumbia Universityto assessacademic freedomandreligious educationin Americanpublic universities.Ultimately, the proposal argued for public aid toprivate schoolsand for sympathetic exposure of religious faiths inpublic schools.The project was both nationally influential and personally formative, as it deepened Murray's understanding of and esteem for Americanconstitutional law.

In his increasingly public role, several Americanbishopsconsulted Murray on legal issues such ascensorshipandbirth control.He argued against what he saw as the reactionary and coercive practices of some Catholic bishops and instead advocated participation in substantive public debate, which he suggested offered a better appeal to public virtue. Instead of civic coercion, he argued, presenting moral opinions in the context of public discourse enabled Americans to deepen their moral commitments and to safeguard the "genius" of American freedoms.

From 1958 to 1962, he served at theCenter for the Study of Democratic Institutionsand appliedjust warcriteria toSoviet-American relations.

Throughout the 1950s Murray promoted his ideas in Catholic journals where they received heavy criticism from the leading Catholic thinkers of the day.Msgr Fentonwas the most prominent of those that opposed Murray as Murray's line was much closer toAmericanism,which had been condemned byLeo XIII.Murray had the advantage of being friends withClare Boothe Luce,the US ambassador to Italy and the second wife ofHenry Luce,the prominent magazine magnate. Murray's ideas were featured in Henry Luce'sTimemagazine, most prominently on December 12, 1960, when Murray graced the cover in a feature aboutUS Catholics and the State.Henry Luce was a prominent Republican and close friends withJohn Foster Dulles,the father ofAvery Dulles,SJ, who was known to be sympathetic to Murray's theology and with CIA DirectorAllen Dulles,who was John's brother.TheCIAthen sought to use the news media to influence public opinion during theCold War.Murray's liberal approach to religious liberty and the traditionally-strong Catholic opposition tocommunismwere useful in the global battle against communism, especially inLatin Americaand other Catholic strongholds.After his death in 1967, his obituary inTimedeclared that he had been responsible for incorporating /the US secular doctrines of church-state separation and freedom of conscience in to the spiritual tradition of Roman Catholicism "despite the efforts of the" ultra conservative "faction in the Church.

Tensions with the Vatican, 1954

By the late 1940s, Murray argued that Catholic teaching onchurch-and-state relationswas inadequate to the "moral functioning" of contemporary peoples. TheAnglo-AmericanWest, he claimed, had developed a fuller truth abouthuman dignity,which was the responsibility of all citizens to assume "moral control" over their own religious beliefs and to wrest control frompaternalisticstates. That truth was an "intention of nature" or a new dictate ofnatural lawphilosophy.

Murray’s claim that a "new moral truth" had emerged outside the Church led to conflict with CardinalAlfredo Ottaviani,Pro-Secretary of the VaticanHoly Office.In 1954, the Vatican demanded for Murray to end both writing on religious freedom and publishing his two latest articles on the issue.

Second Vatican Council, 1963

In spite of his silencing, Murray continued to write privately on religious liberties and submitted his works to Rome, all of which were rejected.

In 1963, he was invited to the second but not the first session of theSecond Vatican Councilin which he drafted the third and the fourth versions of a document on religious freedom.

In 1965, the document eventually became the Council's endorsement of religious freedomDignitatis humanae personae.He continued to write on the issue by claiming that the arguments offered by the finaldecreewere inadequate even if the affirmation of religious freedom was unequivocal.

In 1966, prompted by theVietnam War,he was appointed to serve onLyndon Johnson's presidential commission, which reviewedSelective Serviceclassifications. He supported the allowance of a classification for those opposed on moral grounds to some but not all wars, but that recommendation was not accepted by theSelective Service Administration.

Murray then turned to questions of how the Church might arrive at new theological doctrines. He argued that Catholics who arrived at new truths about God would have to do so in conversation "on a footing of equality" with non-Catholics andatheists.He suggested greater reforms, including a restructuring of the Church, which he saw as having overdeveloped its notion of authority and hierarchy at the expense of the bonds of love that had from the start defined the authentically Christian life.

Death

In August 1967, Murray died of aheart attackinQueens, New York,one month before his 63rd birthday.

Further reading

• Baxter, Michael J. "John Courtney Murray."The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology(2004): 150-164.online

• Bersnak, P. Bracy. "John Courtney Murray, SJ, and the Development of Doctrine."Catholic Social Science Review27 (2022): 57-68.online

• Cadeddu, Francesca. "A call to action: John Courtney Murray, SJ, and the renewal of American democracy."Catholic Historical Review(2015): 530-553.online

• Cadeddu, Francesca. "John Courtney Murray."The Oxford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr(Oxford University Press, 2021) pppp. 180-198.online

• Curran, Charles E.Catholic moral theology in the United States: A history(Georgetown University Press, 2008)online.

• Diaz, Miguel H. "An Unfinished Project: John Courtney Murray, Religious Freedom and Unresolved Tensions in Contemporary American Society."Loyola University Chicago Law Journal50 (2018): 1+.online

• Ferguson, Thomas P.Catholic and American: the political theology of John Courtney Murray(Rowman & Littlefield, 1993).online

• Hollenbach, David. "Religious Freedom, Morality and Law: John Courtney Murray Today."Journal of Moral Theology1.1 (2012): 69-91.online
• Hooper, J. Leon, and Todd Whitmore, eds.John Courtney Murray & the growth of tradition(Rowman & Littlefield, 1996).online

• Komonchak, Joseph A. "The American Contribution to" Dignitatis Humanae ": The Role of John Courtney Murray, SJ."US Catholic Historian24.1 (2006): 1-20.online
• Lovin, Robin W. "Religious Freedom and Public Argument: John Courtney Murray on the American Proposition."Loyola University Chicago Law Journal50 (2018): 25+.online
• Whelan, Gerard. "John Courtney Murray on Church and State."Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review106.421 (2017): 70-94.online

• Witte, John, and Frank S. Alexander, eds.The teachings of modern Roman Catholicism on law, politics, and human nature(Columbia University Press, 2007).

External links

• Published and Unpublished Workswoodstock.georgetown.edu
• Essays on Murray's Thoughtwoodstock.georgetown.edu
• A compilation of writings by and about Fr. John Courtney Murray, SJ.johncourtneymurray.blogspot
• "The Problem of God Yesterday and Today".Georgetown University Library.Retrieved2015-12-09.