Father Richard John Neuhaus has died. Joseph Bottum’s obituary in First Things includes links to tributes, including Brian Anderson’s “A Priest in Full” in City Magazine and Ross Douthat in The Atlantic. Douthat observes:
No modern intellectual did so much to make the case for the compatibility between Christian belief and liberal democratic politics – and in the future, when the two have parted ways (as I suspect they will) more completely than at present, both Christians and liberals will look back on the synthesis he argued for with nostalgia, and regret.
RIP. Neuhaus was one of a kind.
He hated the sin and loved the sinner.
He did not personalize political and intellectual disagreements.
He argued with intensity and seriousness and skill, but without rancor and with charity and humor.
He was a man of civility in an age of flaming blog comments and verbal brutality.
We could use 100 more like him.