Avery Dulles

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**Avery Cardinal Dulles**
Church positions

See	not applicable
Title	Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, Fordham University
Period in office	1988–present
Previous post	Professor of Systematic Theology, Catholic University of America
Created cardinal	21 February 2001
Rank	Cardinal Deacon of SS. Nome di Gesù e Maria in Via Lata
Personal
Date of birth	24 August, 1918
Place of birth	New York

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. (born August 24, 1918) is currently the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, a position he has held since 1988. He is an internationally known author and lecturer. Dulles was raised Presbyterian but became agnostic. He converted to Catholicism in 1940, became a Jesuit in 1956, and was elevated to cardinal in 2001. He is one of the few cardinals that is not also a bishop. He is the son of John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959

1 Biography
2 Publications
3 External links
4 References

Biography

He was born in Auburn, New York, the son of future U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (for whom Dulles Airport is named) and Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. His uncle was Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles. Both his great-grandfather John W. Foster and great-uncle Robert Lansing also served as U.S. Secretary of State. The younger Dulles received his primary school education in New York City and attended secondary schools in Switzerland and New England. Dulles was raised a Presbyterian but had become an agnostic by the time he began college at Harvard in 1936. ^[1] His religious doubts were diminished during a personally profound moment when he stepped out into a rainy day and saw a tree beginning to flower along the Charles River; after that moment he never again "doubted the existence of an all-good and omnipotent God". ^[2] He noted how his theism turned toward conversion to Catholicism: "The more I examined, the more I was impressed with the consistency and sublimity of Catholic doctrine." ^[3] He converted to Catholicism in 1940. ^[4] After graduating from Harvard College in 1940, he spent a year and a half in Harvard Law School, where he also founded the St. Benedict Center (which would become well-known due to the controversial Fr. Leonard Feeney S.J.), before serving in the United States Navy, emerging with the rank of Lieutenant. For his liaison work with the French Navy, he was awarded the French Croix de guerre. Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Avery Dulles entered the Society of Jesus, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956. After a year in Germany, he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was awarded the doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1960. Although Jesuits do not normally accept promotion within the Church hierarchy, Dulles was created a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome on February 21, 2001 by Pope John Paul II. At the time of his elevation to Cardinal, he was not a bishop as is normally the case, but still only a priest. However, he successfully petitioned the Pope for a dispensation from episcopal consecration due to advanced age, so unlike almost every other cardinal Dulles is not a bishop. As cardinals are ceremonially pastors of churches in the diocese of Rome, his titular assignment is Cardinal-Deacon of SS. Nome di Gesù e Maria in Via Lata (the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary). Because he reached 80 before becoming cardinal, he was not eligible to participate in a conclave.

Styles of Avery Cardinal Dulles

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	N/A

Cardinal Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974 and that of The Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988. He has been a visiting professor at: The Gregorian University (Rome), Weston School of Theology, Union Theological Seminary (New York), Princeton Theological Seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Boston College, Campion Hall, Oxford, the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic University at Leuven, Yale University, and St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie. Cardinal Dulles is the author of over 700 articles on theological topics, and has published twenty-two books. Past President of both the Roman Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society and Professor Emeritus at The Catholic University of America, Cardinal Dulles has served on the International Theological Commission and as a member of the United States Lutheran/Roman Catholic Dialogue. He is presently a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. He has an impressive collection of awards, including Phi Beta Kappa, the Croix de Guerre, the Cardinal Spellman Award for distinguished achievement in theology, the Boston College Presidential Bicentennial Award, the Christus Magister Medal from the University of Portland (Oregon), the Religious Education Forum Award from the National Catholic Educational Association, America magazine's Campion Award, the F. Sadlier Dinger Award for contributions to the catechetical ministry of the Church, the Cardinal Gibbons Award from The Catholic University of America, the John Carroll Society Medal, the Jerome Award from the Roman Catholic Library Association of America, Fordhams Founders Award, Gaudium Award from the Breukelein Institute, and thirty-three honorary doctorates. Cardinal Dulles still teaches and lectures regularly at Fordham University.

Publications

Revelation and the Quest for Unity (1968)
Models of the Church (1974)
Models of Revelation (1983)
The Catholicity of the Church (1985)
The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System (1992)
The Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith (1994)
The Splendor of Faith: The Theological Vision of Pope John Paul II (1999; revised in 2003 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the papal election)
The New World of Faith (2000)
Newman (2002).
The fiftieth anniversary edition of his book, A Testimonial to Grace, was republished in 1996 by the original publishers, Sheed and Ward, with an afterword containing his reflections on the past fifty years.
Second Vatican Council