Catholicism as Cultural History: The Enduring Legacy of John O'Malley, S.J.

Catholicism as Cultural History:The Enduring Legacy of John O'Malley, S.J. Alex Gruber (bio) and Gabrielle Bibeau (bio) On Saturday, February 3, 2024, colleagues and students of the late Father John O'Malley, S.J. (1927–2022), gathered at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus with scholars affected by and interested in the historian's life and his life's work: covering Catholicism in the early modern era as a legitimate and multifaceted cultural phenomenon to be studied as such. Carlos Eire, professor of history and religious studies at Yale University and a former student of O'Malley, opened the conference with the keynote "Catholicism and All That: John O'Malley, Consummate Historian." Eire praised O'Malley's commitment to making the past approachable and understandable to laity (both non-clerics and non-scholars). O'Malley built such bridges as part of his ministry and vocation as a historian. Eire also highlighted O'Malley's distinct focus on style as a window into assumptions and a crucial factor in the formation of values. Finally, O'Malley's work demonstrated the need for humility: we must be willing to abandon assumptions to address latent questions in our sources, encounter the other on the other's terms, and balance the hermeneutic of suspicion with that of compassion. After Eire's keynote, Jim McCartin, associate professor of theology at Fordham, introduced the first panel of the afternoon, comprising Pamela Jones, professor emerita of art history at the University of Massachusetts Boston; Mary Dunn, professor of theological studies at St. Louis University; and Thomas Worcester, S.J., professor of history at Fordham. In "John O'Malley's Legacy in the Field of Art History," Jones guided the audience through a series of works on early modern Western art to which End Page 381 O'Malley's scholarly interests and style were significant. O'Malley was continually guided by the question "What was early modern Catholicism like?"—not only in its dogma, but also in its portrayal of and appeal to the senses. That question led him to his own voluminous output and invited and empowered art historians like Jones to pursue the same question with their own foci. After Jones, Dunn gave a presentation titled "Somewhere between Sacraments and Sensuality: John O'Malley and the Art of Translating the Catholic Past." Dunn returned to the Jesuit's emphasis on style: words create the possibility for receiving a reality. Phrases like "early modern Catholicism" reveal this stance and O'Malley's understanding of Catholicism as cultural history that takes shape through and leaves an imprint on culture. O'Malley demonstrated the revision and adjustment of concepts of the past when studying and translating it. As he expressed in his memoir, O'Malley believed such translation was vital, as history "serves as our corporate memory, and memory is what constitutes identity." In "Jesuit History as Cultural History," Worcester explained that up to the late 1970s, O'Malley's work focused on the Renaissance in Rome, especially its culture, including its rhetorical styles. Beginning in the 1980s, however, O'Malley added a focus on Jesuit history, mainly in its first decades after the founding of the order in 1540. O'Malley analyzed the culture that was shaped and developed by the Jesuits, in Italy and far beyond. He also argued that the term "Counter Reformation" was inadequate to the many things that preoccupied Jesuits, who were often more bridge builders across cultures than zealous opponents of anyone. The second panel of the afternoon focused on the theme "Languages of Dialogue and Inclusion" in John O'Malley's work. Mary Ann Hinsdale, I.H.M., associate professor of theology at Boston College, started the panel off with her presentation "John O'Malley and the Next-Gen," which centered on O'Malley's attention to the Church's evolving rhetorical style. From the panegyric style of early modern sermons to the dialogical and epideictic documents of Vatican II, O'Malley argued the Church's changing rhetoric pointed to an increasing willingness to engage with modernity. Hinsdale then reflected on the contemplative and conversational style of the Synod on Synodality as it responds to what are, in her...