Posted on 08/24/2010 1:44:03 PM PDT by NYer
Hadley Arkes is a leading expert on American political philosophy, public policy and constitutional law. He has been known as a prominent Jewish pro-life advocate. According to his biography on the website of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, of which he is a senior fellow, he was the “main advocate, and architect, of the bill that became known as the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act.”
Now he is Catholic.
The Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College, Arkes has published five books with Princeton University Press and two books with Cambridge University Press — most recently, Constitutional Illusions & Anchoring Truths: The Touchstone of the Natural Law.
Arkes came into the Catholic Church in April under the sponsorship of his friend Michael Novak. He spoke recently with Register senior writer Tim Drake (delete in online version) about his journey to the Church.
Where did you grow up?
Wartime Chicago. I was born in 1940, the very first grandchild on both sides. I’ve explained what a morning in that household looked like: A 2-year-old wanders into the kitchen early in the morning. The kitchen is filled with grown-ups getting ready to go to work. The child says, “Good morning” and receives a standing ovation. I grew up with a sense that the world was filled with catchers in the rye — everyone wanting to look after you and take care of you.
Later, the question arose, How was it that a working family, where no one went to college, was able to impart that sense of security to a youngster? And I think the answer is that the grown-ups were competent to their ends. They could be counted on to be there when you needed them. They were always there.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Cardinal [Jean-Marie] Lustiger [of Paris] famously said that when he became a Catholic he did not abandon the Jewish people. Those who do understand the connection have understood at once what I’ve meant when I’ve said that I’ve not left the Jewish people or repudiated the Jewish tradition.
As Catholics, we see that connection so clearly. Welcome home!
I would encourage you to read the entire interview at the above link. It is most interesting.
"What you do to the unborn child, you do to Jesus." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
I know Hadley very well. It is a delight to see that in God’s providence that he has come to the Catholic church - even though I am a reformed Protestant.
Thank you for posting this. What joyful news!
LOL! So did I! Welcome, Dr. Arkes!
What a wonderful story! I especially love this paragraph:
“My Catholic friends did not try aggressively to proselytize and convert me. When one or two of them actually made the case or earnestly asked me to consider coming over, I didn’t take offense, for there was a need to understand them as they understood themselves. They were trying to put before me the case that there was a serious truth to consider. It was never a posture of Catholic aggressiveness on their part. And the best stance for them to take is simply to help people to understand the continuities. As my friend Michael Novak remarked, to be Catholic one has to be at least Jewish.”
This gives me much food for thought on how I approach ecumenical threads.
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