The final “Beliefs”
Don’t miss the final installment of Peter Steinfels’s New York Times column on religion, which wraps up twenty years of “Beliefs.”
At his “Spiritual Politics” blog, Mark Silk offers a tribute and a farewell — “As an arbiter of the passing religious scene, ‘Beliefs’ was without peer. I’ll miss it.” But Peter’s column suggests there will be much to look forward to:
Assuring that well-founded traditional stances obtained a public hearing free of stereotypes and snap judgments was certainly a satisfying role, but also an uncomfortable one. Because I sometimes agreed with those stances and sometimes did not, I often longed to be more direct.
…It is partly to regain such freedom that, having left the regular staff of the paper in 1997, I have decided to bring Beliefs to a close. I look forward to being less limited to “900-word thoughts” and to being more personal, more direct and, when needs be, more political.
A happy prospect for 2010!
I look forward to the Peter who can be his authentic self. I sensed that person in his fine book: “A People Adrift.” I believe that Peggy became a person with more freedom after her exit as editor. It is amazing how we are restricted by our institutions.
No greater freedom than the freedom from “noblesse oblige.”
I always looked forward to Peter’s column every other Saturday. I shall miss it very much. To be honest I picked up not a few homily ideas from his pieces. Peter–keep writing. We need you!
Peter’s column has been a wonderful presence in the Times over the years–while I obviously learn so much from what he says about Catholicism, I’ve learned even more from his writings on other religions. I will miss his columns greatly–but I can’t wait to see what he does and says next!
Peter’s column was good but he was better and I had had the feeling that he felt confined by requirements imposed by the editorial policy of the NYT. I look forward to his next move.
I will miss Peter’s “Beliefs” appearances, but do look forward to hearing what he has on his mind without the constraints that went with the role of “Beliefs” columnist. I wasn’t at all surprised at the content of his last column. I hope he enjoys his new freedom and is back in print soon.
Peter Steinfels deserves special thanks for calling attention to facts that didn’t neatly fit the world-view of the NYT. A column summarizing the provocative arguments of a recent book about the Christian right is an especially good example of his ability to present a thesis, not necessarily his own, “sine ira ac studio,” without anger or bias.
These are the arguments I’m grateful he brought to a wider audience:
“Many Christian-right organizations have helped create a more participatory democracy by successfully mobilizing conservative evangelicals, one of the most politically alienated constituencies in 20th-century America…
“The vast majority of Christian-right leaders have long labored to inculcate deliberative norms in their rank-and-file activists — especially the practice of civility and respect; the cultivation of dialogue by listening and asking questions; the rejection of appeals to theology; and the practice of careful moral reasoning.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/us/25beliefs.html