Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
One of six children, Fr. Richard Butler was bom in Salem, Massachusetts in 1918. He attended prep schools before going on to undergraduate studies at Notre Dame University and the Catholic University of America. Upon entering the Dominican Order in 1942, the author studied philosophy and theology at the Domincan House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois. He was ordained in 1949. That year, Father Butler began two years of study at the Angelicum in Rome, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1952. Fr. Butler's most active years were spent in teaching and campus ministry, particularly through various Newman Centers; from 1962-1964 he served as NatiLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
One of six children, Fr. Richard Butler was bom in Salem, Massachusetts in 1918. He attended prep schools before going on to undergraduate studies at Notre Dame University and the Catholic University of America. Upon entering the Dominican Order in 1942, the author studied philosophy and theology at the Domincan House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois. He was ordained in 1949. That year, Father Butler began two years of study at the Angelicum in Rome, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1952. Fr. Butler's most active years were spent in teaching and campus ministry, particularly through various Newman Centers; from 1962-1964 he served as National Chaplain of the Newman Apostolate. In 1974-1975, during a "sabbatical," he taught at the University of Dallas' Rome campus. Fr. Butler received numerous awards over the years, including the Notre Dame Man of the Year award. In 1965 Fr. Butler had been appointed consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Unbelievers. In 1976, in response to a growing need, Fr. Butler undertook to oversee the revision and republication of the Dominican Order's Challenge of Christ high school religion series. Vocational work was always of great interest to Father, and he wrote material for his order on this subject, as well as making a special study of vocational theology. A regular speaker on college campuses, as well as a contributor to several magazines, including Commonweal and The Critic, Father Butler also authored The Mind of Santayana (Regnery, 1955) and The Life and World of George Santayana (Regnery, 1960). In these books he explored the thought of this baptized "confused skeptic" whom he had known as a personal friend. Santayana had spent his life standing "at the church door"—an agnostic situation which Fr. Butler felt was shared by many 20th-century men. In Fr. Butler's last book, Witness to Change: A Cultural Memoir, he recounted and offered a critical analysis of developments that he had seen in the Church and in society during the years from 1925 to 1975. Fr. Butler went to his reward in 1988 after suffering a cardiac arrest while visiting his family in Massachusetts. His grave is located in the Dominican plot at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.
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