Peter Steinfels

Last updated

Peter F. Steinfels (born 1941) is an American journalist and educator best known for his writings on religious topics.

Contents

A native of Chicago, Illinois, and a lifelong Roman Catholic, Steinfels earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and joined the staff of the journal Commonweal in 1964. He served as a visiting professor at Notre Dame in 1994–95 and then as visiting professor at Georgetown University from 1997 to 2001. From 1990 to 2010, he wrote a column called "Beliefs" for the religion section of The New York Times . [1]

He has also been a professor at Fordham University and co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. Steinfels has written several books, including The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics ( ISBN   0-671-41384-8) and A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America ( ISBN   0-684-83663-7).

He has argued in favor of the ordination of women as priests and deacons, and has suggested that this could eventually lead to the creation of female cardinals. [2]

In 2003, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics. [3]

Family

He is married to Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, a writer and former editor of Commonweal . They have two children, Gabrielle Steinfels and John Melville Steinfels.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Joseph Bonaparte</span> American lawyer (1851–1921)

Charles Joseph Bonaparte was an American lawyer and political activist for progressive and liberal causes. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he served in the cabinet of the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. He was a descendant of the House of Bonaparte: his grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Bernardin</span> Catholic cardinal (1928–1996)

Joseph Louis Bernardin was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cincinnati from 1972 until 1982, and as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996 from pancreatic cancer. Bernardin was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983 by Pope John Paul II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Francis O'Hara</span> American prelate

John Francis O'Hara was an American member of the Congregation of Holy Cross and prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as president of the University of Notre Dame (1934–1939) and as the Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1951 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth R. Miller</span> American biologist

Kenneth Raymond Miller is an American cell biologist, molecular biologist, and Professor Emeritus of Biology at Brown University. Miller's primary research focus is the structure and function of cell membranes, especially chloroplast thylakoid membranes. Miller is a co-author of a major introductory college and high school biology textbook published by Prentice Hall since 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avery Dulles</span> American Jesuit priest (1918–2008)

Avery Robert Dulles was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988, and as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 to 2008. He was also an internationally known author and lecturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad S. Gregory</span> American academic (born 1963)

Brad Stephan Gregory holds the Dorothy G. Griffin Collegiate Chair in European History at the University of Notre Dame. After spending the spring 2002 semester as a visiting scholar with the Erasmus Institute at Our Lady's University, Gregory came to Notre Dame in 2003 after teaching at Stanford University, where he received early tenure in 2001. He became a full professor of history at Notre Dame in 2012. Gregory formerly served as the director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies, which was founded in 2008, from 2013 to 2019. Together with Randall C. Zachman, Gregory also serves as the North American editor of the Archive for Reformation History.

<i>Commonweal</i> (magazine) Liberal American Catholic journal of opinion

Commonweal is a liberal Catholic journal of opinion, edited and managed by lay people, headquartered in New York City. It is the oldest independent Catholic journal of opinion in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard McBrien</span> American Catholic priest (1936–2015)

Richard Peter McBrien was a Catholic priest, theologian, and writer who was the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame near South Bend, Indiana, U.S. He authored twenty-five books, including the very popular Catholicism, a reference text on the Church after the Second Vatican Council.

Ernan McMullin was an Irish philosopher who last served as the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He was an internationally respected philosopher of science who has written and lectured extensively on subjects ranging from the relationship between cosmology and theology, to the role of values in understanding science, to the impact of Darwinism on Western religious thought. He is the only person to ever hold the presidency of four of the major US philosophical associations. He was an expert on the life of Galileo.

John Cyrus Cort (1913–2006) was an American Catholic socialist writer and activist. He was the co-chair of the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America.

George Gilmary Higgins was an American labor activist and Catholic clergyman known as the "labor priest". He was a major force in the Catholic Church's support for Cesar Chavez and his union movement.

Richard A. McCormick was a leading liberal Catholic moral theologian who reshaped Catholic thought in the United States. He wrote many journal articles on Catholic social teachings and moral theory. He was an expert in Catholic medical ethics and for many years wrote the "Notes on Moral Theology" column in Theological Studies. He was "particularly articulate" among the five moral theologians who in 1964 at the Kennedy Compound crafted a political position for the Kennedy clan that would permit abortion in law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice F. Egan</span> American diplomat

Maurice Francis Egan was an American writer and diplomat. He was a prolific writer and had a long and successful career as a Catholic journalist, literary critic, and novelist. He was a professor of English at two universities, and served as United States Minister in Copenhagen.

The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society. The award is given to an American Catholic or group of Catholics "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity." First awarded in 1883, it is the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John T. Noonan Jr.</span> American judge (1926–2017)

John Thomas Noonan Jr. was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Harrison (historian)</span> Australian historian and philosopher

Peter D. Harrison is Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy at the University of Queensland and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Australia.

Robert Anthony Orsi is a scholar of American history and Catholic studies who is the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair professor at Northwestern University.

Joseph Bryan Hehir is an American Catholic priest, philosopher, and theologian in the United States. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984.

The University of Notre Dame's annual commencement exercises are held each May, currently in the Notre Dame Stadium. The exercises award undergraduate and graduate degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas E. Walsh</span> Irish-Canadian Catholic priest

The Rev. Thomas E. Walsh, C.S.C. was an Irish-Canadian Catholic priest, and seventh President of the University of Notre Dame from 1881 to 1893. He was born one of nine in Lacolle, Quebec, son of Thomas Walsh and Winifred McDermott. He was educated at the College de Saint-Laurent, where he caught the attention of Rev. Edward Sorin, who saw his potential. He finished his studies there in 1872 and entered the Novitiate. Sorin sent him to study at College de Ste. Croix in Neuilly, close to Paris, where he spent three years. He was recalled to Notre Dame in 1876 in order to improve enrollment. He was ordained a priest on August 29, 1877, by Bishop Joseph Dwenger of Fort Wayne and then assumed the role of dean of students. After the great fire of 1879, Walsh was in charge of rescheduling classes and professors in the newly reopened college, and his administrative ability led Sorin and William Corby to pick him as next president in 1881. He died of kidney disease at the age of 40.

References