The Yale philosophy department has all sorts—logical positivists and metaphysicians (e.g., Carl Hempel and Paul Weiss), Agnostic F.S.C. Northrop, Physicist Henry Margenau, Idealist Theodore Greene. Last week, Yale added the final diversity—a Thomist, and the only Jesuit professor at any big non-Catholic university in the U.S.
The man Yale picked for next year is the Rev. John Courtney Murray, 46, a tall (6 ft. 4 in.), cucumber-cool intellectual who teaches theology at Woodstock (Md.) College, but is famed far beyond. Father Murray is a towering figure among U.S. Catholic scholars. A polite and learned defender of the faith, he edits the erudite quarterly, Theological Studies (he will continue to do so at Yale), and is the spearhead of a bold attempt to reconcile traditional Catholic church-state doctrine with U.S. practice.
The son of a New York lawyer, Murray always wanted to be a priest. His taste for study led him to the Jesuits. After taking an M.A. at Boston College, he taught for three years in the Philippines, then went to Rome for a doctorate at Gregorian University. In 1937 he joined the faculty of Woodstock.
He will find Yale quite a change after 14 years at Woodstock. There he taught in Latin, and by the time his students came to him they had already traveled far—two years of classical studies, three years of philosophy, three more of teaching in Jesuit colleges all over the world.
Father Murray looks forward to introducing Yalemen to Thomism: "I want to show it is a rational philosophy, that it's acceptable intellectually, not only because great intellectuals of previous ages have accepted it, but in itself as a mode and body of thought. If I can't make my students see it, that's the end." The betting at Woodstock is that Murray will make them see it.