Why Avery Dulles Matters

Avery Cardinal Dulles, who Joseph Bottum described as “one of the greatest thinkers in the modern Roman Catholic church and perhaps its most distinguished representative in the United States,” died on December 12, 2008. In our May issue—now free to all readers—Thomas G. Guarino examines the wide-ranging interest and influence of the first American Jesuit to be named a cardinal:

Dulles’ theological vision pivots on two unwavering axes. The first is his deeply Catholic imagination that endeavors to take account of every possible position, consolidating widely diverse views into an authentic unity. The second is his commitment to the Second Vatican Council. Always he sought to display the continuity of that momentous event with the rich biblical, doctrinal, and spiritual heritage of the Catholic Church, even while embracing the council’s significant reforms and invigorating theological developments. At Vatican II, Catholicism confronted the innovations of natural science, historical scholarship, and the secular state. Like the council itself, Dulles aspired to remain entirely faithful to the principles embedded within the Christian tradition, while applying those principles creatively and imaginatively to a new world. His theological research was dedicated primarily to the nature of the Church and to the Christian understanding of revelation. But the sweeping scope of those two topics ensured that his writings would touch on virtually every significant area of theological inquiry.

Dulles produced hundreds of scholarly works, over thirty of which were first published in First Things . Listed below are his articles from 1990–2008:

• The Freedom of Theology (May 2008)


• Who Can Be Saved? (February 2008)


• Saving Ecumenism from Itself (December 2007)


• God and Evolution (October 2007)


• Love, the Pope, and C.S. Lewis (January 2007)


• The Orthodox Imperative (August/September 2006)


• From Ratzinger to Benedict (February 2006)


• The Covenant With Israel (November 2005)


• Development or Reversal? (October 2005)


• Mere Apologetics (June/July 2005)


• The Deist Minimum (January 2005)


• The Rebirth of Apologetics (May 2004)


• The Church in a Postliberal Age (October 2003)


• True and False Reform (August/September 2003)


• The Population of Hell (May 2003)


• Passionate Uncertainty (April 2002)


• Religious Freedom: Innovation and Development (December 2001)


• Catholicism & Capital Punishment (April 2001)


• What Price Reform? (June/July 2000)


• Can Philosophy Be Christian? (April 2000)


• Two Languages of Salvation: The Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration (December 1999)


• Witness to the Witness (November 1999)


• Evangelical and Catholic (January 1999)


• Should the Church Repent? (December 1998)


• Problems of Ecclesiology (November 1998)


• The Ways We Worship (March 1998)


• Evangelizing Theology (March 1996)


• John Paul II and the Truth about Freedom (August/September 1995)


• The Challenge of the Catechism (January 1995)


• Historians and the Reality of Christ (December 1992)


• Tradition and Creativity in Theology (November 1992)


• Ecumenism Without Illusions: A Catholic Perspective (June/July 1990)