Hadley Arkes
Posted on 06/01/2010 9:52:44 AM PDT by NYer
Hadley Arkes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic Church’s voice for the littlest among us got even stronger last month.
Hadley Arkes, professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College, and one of the foremost Pro-Life legal scholars in the country, received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and first Communion at the chapel of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. on April 24.
Born and raised a Jew, Arkes said he views his newly-embraced Catholic faith as a fulfillment of his Jewish faith. Rather than a departure, he sees it as accepting Christ as Messiah.
More than a decade ago, Arkes realized that there was something special about the Catholic Church as a “truth-telling institution.” When the Church stood against the currents of opinion in the world, he was inclined to believe the Church was right, he told The Anchor.
Before he embraced the Church’s faith, he had embraced the Church’s respect for human reason. In an article about his conversion for The Catholic Thing, an online periodical, he described his appreciation for the Church’s tradition of defending and promoting the natural law, with regard to the Pro-Life issue and in general. “The natural law we know through that reason that is natural for human beings. The Church’s moral position here did not depend on faith or belief. One didn’t have to be Catholic to understand it. And that was precisely the teaching of the Church.”
He told The Anchor, “I found myself explaining the Catholic position to Catholics.”
Robert George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, wrote about his friend Arkes’ conversion on Mirror of Justice, a blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory. He noted that, although the Catholic Church’s moral witness on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sex has made the Church a “sign of contradiction” to many of the most powerful in contemporary Western culture, that same witness drew Arkes to the faith. Despite the failings of many of its members and leaders, especially in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis, Arkes recognized that the Church is indeed “a truth-telling institution,” he said.
“In teachings that many find to be impediments, Hadley found decisive evidence that the Church is, indeed, what she claims to be,” George wrote.
Friends have said that Arkes has remarked that it is not a surprise that a faith that believes God himself comes under the appearance of unleavened bread is sensitive to the dignity of human life in even its tiniest form.
Joe Reilly, a former executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, told The Anchor that Arkes is a “deep thinker” and one of the most brilliant men he has come across in his work to defend life. He says he has long helped the whole Pro-Life movement think more deeply about the legal and philosophical principles at play.
Former students of Arkes have thanked him for leading them to the truth found in natural law and, well before Arkes became a Catholic, for helping them to become better Catholics.
One former student, Ned Desmond, who grew up on Cape Cod and graduated from Amherst in 1980, said that Arkes’ course on political obligations was “very clever” and “really steadied my hand and my mind as far as what I believed and what I thought was right,” he told The Anchor.
Arkes taught that abortion can never be justified, and Desmond said he was struck by the “deep saneness” of natural law theory. He later made the connection between the theory and Catholic teaching, which brought him closer to the faith.
“He helped so many Catholic students get their bearing at Amherst,” said Desmond, who now lives in Maryland where he is the president of Go Sportn, Inc, and a former executive at Time magazine.
Many leading Pro-Lifers give Arkes credit for some of the biggest recent achievements of the Pro-Life movement. Arkes helped write the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 and calls the legislation proof that “you don’t have to wait for the court to do everything.” He regularly contributes to journals and has written several books. He is currently working on a new book while on leave from Amherst, where he has taught since 1966.
Although he accepted the teachings of the Church, Arkes waited to convert. Concerns about how family members would take the news held him from taking the leap right away. He did not want to hurt his family nor seem to disrespect the Jewish faith.
He found that many Catholics respected Jewish tradition. They, like him, believed Abraham made a covenant with God. He saw the connection between the manna in the desert and the Eucharist. “You can read the Old Testament without the New, but you can’t really read the New Testament without the Old. Everything is predicated on the Old,” he told The Anchor.
Last year in October, after the Red Mass for members of the legal profession in Washington, Arkes and his wife Judy were approached by Father Arne Panula, the director at the Catholic Information Center where Arkes would be baptized. Father Panula provocatively asked him what was preventing the most famous non-Catholic at the Red Mass from coming into the Church. Arkes responded in the tradition of “The Wizard of Oz’s” Cowardly Lion, “c-c-c-courage.” In a homily one month later at a Mass at which Arkes was present, Father Panula said what the first reading and the Gospel of the Mass showed was the need for “c-c-c courage.” For Arkes, that illustration and inside joke “was the hook that finally worked.”
In a letter to friends after the baptism, Arkes wrote to thank them for their continued support.
“Judy and I are still dealing with the after-glow. It lingers, magically, and we aren’t inclined to snuff it out right away and get on with other things,” he said. “We can’t thank you all enough.”
Arkes and his wife, Judy, met in high school and have been married 48 years. Judy is Jewish, and Arkes said he could not have joined the Church without her support.
In a second Mirror of Justice blog entry, David Forte of Cleveland State University School of Law and a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that Arkes was like Jesus in ministering to those who reason. Arkes, he said, “has never entered a debate to debate, much less to ‘win.’ Rather, he prepares for contests by seeking to understand, and he enters the lists seeking to persuade.”
“For all of his adult life, Hadley Arkes has followed in the steps of the Master. He now walks along side of him,” he added.
I have read some of Luther's and Calvin's stuff...I am neither a Lutheran nor a Calvinist...But I have read a LOT of Catholic stuff...
This is all I ask. She is the beautiful bride of Christ, unstained and pure.
I also read the scriptures...That's how I know that your religion is NOT the Bride of Christ...The actual Bride of Christ is people...People who make up the Body of Jesus Christ...Individual Christians...
In your eyes, are Catholics in your Parish unstained and pure??? I would guess you think they aren't...Well then, the Catholic Church isn't the people, priests or popes...It's not your Church Fathers...What then is your Church??? Is it the 'message'???
Well of course we get it...People aren't non Catholics because of ignorance...Quite the contrary...
I claim I am a Christian of the Scriptures...You claim you are a Christian of what you call religious Traditions and philosophy outside of the Scriptures mixed with the book of allegories, the bible...Mormons, JWs, Izlamaniacs have the same philosophy...
Your religion says, 'join your Church'...My scriptures say, 'call on the name of Jesus'...
I don't believe you and you don't believe me...One of us is trusting the words of Jesus in the scriptures...One of us is trusting the words of a religion...I'm counting on what was revealed in the scriptures 'alone' to get me to heaven just as John says...
Joh 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Based on John's statement and tons of other scripture, I put my trust and authority in the written worlds of God; alone...
You mean Catholic apologists, of course...I have a greater authority...The written words of a Holy God...The scriptures condemn your religion...Your apologists defend your religion...I'll stick with the scriptures...
please, try to remember John 17. Love one another, as a witness to the Lord.
That’s a good question.
If you read Ephesians 5, you’ll find your answer.
The Bride of Christ is his Church. It’s right there.
“I claim I am a Christian of the Scriptures...”
Yes, you claim this. However, this is not so. Scripture does not claim to be the only authority. Scripture itself writes that tradition is also necessary.
The Church teaches, if you care to read, that Scripture and Tradition are both essential. You cannot rightly understand the one without the other.
It does not claim, as you assert that scripture is worthless, or that tradition is superior. Tradition and Scripture, Scripture and tradition together.
“Your religion says, ‘join your Church’...My scriptures say, ‘call on the name of Jesus’...”
What is the difference? Christ himself formed the Catholic church. He wants Christians to be together with one another, not as individuals.
“I don’t believe you and you don’t believe me...One of us is trusting the words of Jesus in the scriptures”
No, we both do, except one of us is wrong in what it says. You are very wrong in saying that scripture asserts sola scriptura. It does not. Scripture actually says that the tradition of the church has been handed down from the Apostles to the catechumens, the new believers, and these new believers have a duty to do the same.
“Joh 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
And Timothy says we are to pass the traditions we have learned to one another.
“Based on John’s statement and tons of other scripture, I put my trust and authority in the written worlds of God; alone...”
Where does John include the word, alone? It’s not there. You’ve interpolated it into the text as Luther has.
In which case, traditions would have nothing to do with our salvation...Because John said everything to do with our salvation had been written...Traditions would be such as shaking hands with the brethern as they gather...
But more to a scriptural reference, the traditions were the scriptures before they were written...
Timothy said tradition OR scripture...How could one OR the other be authorative unless they are the same...How can you pick one, or the other unless they are the same???
Not at all...Show me how you would rewrite the sentence to include tradition without adding to what John wrote...
Yes Thats The Apostles creed- I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven
and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He
descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of
God, the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come
to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church(universal church), the communion of
saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the
body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.
Don’t bother arguing with this person. Gone are the days of civilized, reasoned argument; FR is full of snake-handlers, Roundheads, and Rapture jockeys now, and you might as well try debating with a bag full of sponges. Just leave him to the Holy Spirit and let him get back to his self-centered home-brew religion.
Well said.
Remember this gem?
;-)
That is simply and completely false, but it does illustrate an annoying and damning facet of Protestantism. Protestants are often very quick to declare what the Catholic Church does or does not without ever having actually bothered to study the teachings of the Church.
Instead they cling to the false premise that Christianity is a religion of a book and not of the living Word of God. They would have us believe and accept that the Holy Spirit no longer moves and works among us; It's works having been completed when Scripture was completed (except for that brief time in the 16th century when the all inclusive scripture was redacted).
A sect based upon a document is what one would expect from the vain and ambitious lawyers who created much of Protestantism. It is their realm, one that can be manipulated, twisted, and argued. It is one in which they, not God, can declare their fellow man in breach of and impart earthly punishments.
You would do yourself better by sticking to declarations on what you do and don't believe and stop trying to guess or parrot what you think Catholics do and don't believe because it really doesn't matter a tinker's damn to any of us.
Iscool:
I am grateful that you trust the Sacred Scriptures which the Catholic Church, which as Christ’s Body and Bride, defended and defined via the Holy Spirit in the 4th century.
Thus, everytime you quote the Sacred Scriptures, you are relying on the authority of the Catholic Church and its formal definition of the Biblical Canon in the 4th century councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393), Carthage (397) and culimating with Pope Innoncent’s Letter to the Bishops of France in 405 confirming throughout the Latin Catholic West the decisions of the Councils mentioned earlier.
What a terrific human and eternal life-affirming story.
I’m going to go back and read it again.
Now there's a reasoned, civilized argument...HaHa...
But no; just trying show you guys that Jesus said to come to Him, not a religion...You have to be 'in' Christ; not into Church...And they are not the same thing...
Right...Like the 'Come Home Network'...It's been stated how many times that you're not home unless you are in the Catholic religion...
Every Catholic gets baptized into the Catholic Church, right???
A little problem there...I don't quote from the Catholic scriptures...I quote from the scriptures that were borne out of Antioch, Syria, where people were first called Christians...
And those scriptures condemn your religion and it's priesthood...
However, even the Catholic scriptures point out serious errors in your religion but your church father, Origen, convinced your church that the scriptures were no more than an allegory, thus relieving your religion of the many biblical warnings against it...
Problem with that is; whenever you guys claim these things are an allegory, you don't seem to have a clue as to what they then do allude to...
Glad to read that...
Then you're not paying attention. The whole month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of JESUS.
If you oversimplify it, yes. But every Catholic is foremost baptized In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, just as the Son commanded us to do (Matthew 28: 19).
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