David Tracy

{{Short description|American Roman Catholic theologian and priest (1939–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = David Tracy | image =  | image_upright = | landscape =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name = David William Tracy | birth_date = {{birth date|1939|01|6}} | birth_place = Yonkers, New York, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|04|29|1939|01|06}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, US | module = {{Infobox clergy |child=yes | religion = Christianity (Roman Catholic) | church = Latin Church | ordained = 1963 (priest) | congregations = | offices_held = | relatives =John Emmet Tracy (nephew) }} | module2 = {{Infobox academic |child=yes | alma_mater = Pontifical Gregorian University | thesis_title = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = Public theology | doctoral_advisor = Bernard Lonergan{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|p=1}} | academic_advisors = | influences = {{flatlist| * Mircea Eliade{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|p=8}} * Karl Rahner{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|p=8}} * Paul Ricœur * Paul Tillich{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|p=8}} * Hans-Georg Gadamer{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|pp=i, 11}} * Bernard Lonergan{{sfn|Palfrey|2013|p=179}} }} | discipline = Theology | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = University of Chicago | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = {{hlist | Hermeneutics | theological method}} | notable_works = {{ubl | {{nowrap|''Blessed Rage for Order'' (1975)}} | {{nobr|''The Analogical Imagination'' (1981)}} | ''Plurality and Ambiguity'' (1987)}} | notable_ideas = | influenced =  }} | signature = | signature_alt = }} '''David William Tracy''' (January 6, 1939 – April 29, 2025) was an American Catholic theologian and priest. He was the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{cite web |date=May 5, 2020 |title=The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2020 |url=https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2020 |url-status=live |publisher=American Philosophical Society |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105072416/https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2020 |archive-date=November 5, 2022}}</ref> == Early life and education == David Tracy was born on January 6, 1939, to John Charles Tracy and Eileen Marie Tracy (née Rossell) in Yonkers, New York. He had two brothers, John Jr. and Arthur. His father was a union organizer who liked to read Henry Adams to his children.<ref name="Union">{{Cite news |last=Gabriel |first=Trip |date=2025-05-16 |title=David Tracy, 86, Theologian Who Rejected Rome's Supremacy, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/us/david-tracy-dead.html |access-date=2025-05-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Feeling an intense call to the priesthood as an adolescent, Tracy started attending the Cathedral School in 1952. The Cathedral School served as a high school and minor seminary for the Archdiocese of New York. In 1960, he left New York for Rome to study at the Gregorianum. His vocation to study theology was profoundly encouraged by the Second Vatican Council taking place at that time. He was ordained in Rome on December 18, 1963, and served in the diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1963. Tracy received his Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Gregorianum in 1964, after which he spent one year at a parish in Stamford, Connecticut. He has said that he had always wanted to work in a parish, but during his one year of doing so, he felt a strong call to the academic life. He returned to Rome and received his doctorate from the Gregorian University in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/david-tracy|title=David Tracy|date=August 18, 2014|website=The Gifford Lectures}}</ref> == Career == Tracy's first academic teaching appointment was a lectureship at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he began in 1967. In 1968, Tracy joined with Bernard McGinn and twenty other professors at CUA in rejecting Pope Paul VI's encyclical ''Humanae vitae''. He and the others were tried by CUA's faculty senate and summarily fired. They sued the university, were represented by American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, and ultimately won their case.<ref>{{cite journal |author=David Tracy |date=Autumn 2003 |title=Tribute to Bernard McGinn |journal=Criterion |volume=42 |pages=41–42}}</ref> In the midst of this trial, Jerald Brauer, then dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, convinced Tracy (as well as Bernard McGinn) to come to the University of Chicago. They were then the first two Catholic priests on that faculty.<ref name="America">{{Cite web |last=Keane |first=James T. |date=2025-06-03 |title=David Tracy Was More Than a Theologian |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2025/06/03/catholic-theologian-david-tracy-250831 |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=America |language=en}}</ref> In 1985, Tracy was named a Distinguished Service Professor there, and in 1987, a Distinguished Service Professor of Roman Catholic Studies. Tracy also held the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professorship in Roman Catholic Studies, which was established in 1984 by Roman Catholic priest, sociologist and novelist Andrew Greeley. He also served on Chicago's Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Methods and the Committee on Social Thought. He taught a range of courses beyond theology in collaboration with other University of Chicago faculty.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-10 |title=More Than a Theologian |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/david-tracy-theology-woodward-obit |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=Commonweal |language=en}}</ref> Tracy remained at the Divinity School until his retirement in 2006.<ref name="ChicagoTribune">{{cite web |title=David Tracy, influential Catholic theologian, dies |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/07/david-tracy-influential-catholic-theologian-who-examined-mystery-of-faith-dies/ |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> Tracy served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America from 1976 to 1977. In 1980, that organization awarded him the John Courtney Murray Award, the highest award of the society.<ref name="America"/> In 1982, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref name="America"/> In 1999–2000, Tracy gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh. The title of his lectures was ''This Side of God''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-28 |title=Professor David Tracy: This Side of God |url=https://cahss.ed.ac.uk/news-events/lectures/gifford-lectures/archive/archive-1999-2000/prof-tracy |access-date=2025-06-04 |publisher=University of Edinburgh |language=en}}</ref> The Gifford Lectures are widely considered to be the highest honor for those working in theology and religious studies{{According to whom|date=June 2023}}. On September 29, 2016, he gave "Gregory of Nyssa: An Infinite, Incomprehensible, Infinitely Loving God" as the 2016 Costan Lecture at Georgetown University, as part of a lecture series on early Christianity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-16 |title=The Costan Lecture 2016 – David Tracy |url=https://theology.georgetown.edu/news-story/costan-lecture-2016-david-tracy/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |department=Department of Theology and Religious Studies |publisher=Georgetown University |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2018, Tracy contributed an essay to the catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition ''Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination''. Tracy was described by Andrew Bolton, the curator of the exhibition, as "the J. D. Salinger of the theological world".<ref>{{cite news |date=May 3, 2018 |author=Jason Horowitz |title=How the Met Got the Vatican's Vestments |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/fashion/heavenly-bodies-met-gala-vatican.html |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511220049/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/fashion/heavenly-bodies-met-gala-vatican.html |archive-date=May 11, 2018}}</ref> == Writings == * ''The Achievement of Bernard Lonergan'' (1970)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sanks |first=T. Howland |year=1993 |title=David Tracy's Theological Project: An Overview and Some Implications |journal=Theological Studies |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=698–727}}</ref> * ''Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology'' (1975)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shea |first=William M. |year=1976 |title=Tracy's Blessed Rage for Order: A Review Article |journal=The Thomist |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=665–683 |doi=10.1353/tho.1976.0006}}</ref> * ''Toward Vatican III: The Work that Needs To Be Done'', with Hans Küng and Johann Baptist Metz (1978)<ref name="America"/> * ''The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism'' (1981)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Badham |first=Paul |year=1983 |title=Review of The Analogical Imagination |journal=Religious Studies |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=552–553 |doi=10.1017/S0034412500015705}}</ref> * ''Talking About God: Doing Theology in the Context of Modern Pluralism'', with John Cobb (1983)<ref name="America"/> * ''Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible'', with Robert Grant (1984)<ref name="America"/> * ''A Catholic Vision'', with Stephen Happel (1984) * ''Plurality and Ambiguity'' (1987) * ''Dialogue with the Other: The Inter-religious Dialogue'' (1990) * ''On Naming the Present: God, Hermeneutics, and Church'' (1994) * ''Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time: Selected Essays, Volume 1'' (2020) * ''Filaments: Theological Profiles: Selected Essays, Volume 2'' (2020)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jackson |first=J. Scott |date=May 19, 2021 |title=David Tracy and the absolute infinite |journal=The Christian Century |url=https://www.christiancentury.org/books/david-tracy-and-absolute-infinite}}</ref> == Personal life == Tracy died in Chicago on April 29, 2025, at the age of 86.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.donnellanfuneralhome.com/obituaries/David-W-Tracy?obId=42364488#/obituaryInfo |title=Official Obituary of David W. Tracy |publisher=Donnellan Funeral Home & Cremation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-06 |title=David Tracy, Influential Theologian and Beloved UChicago Professor, 1939–2025 |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/david-tracy-influential-theologian-and-beloved-uchicago-professor-1939-2025 |access-date=2025-05-16 |publisher=University of Chicago |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Union"/> His nephew is American-Canadian actor John Emmet Tracy.<ref name="ChicagoTribune"/> == References == === Footnotes === {{Reflist}} === Bibliography === {{refbegin|indent=yes}} * {{cite thesis |last=Palfrey |first=Barnabas |year=2013 |title=Theology as Dialogue and Fragment: Saying God with David Tracy |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:112f83cb-3d10-43b5-acc4-e23ba2a4df8a |degree=doctoral |location=Oxford |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=December 22, 2022 }} {{refend}} == External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20121104012912/http://divinity.uchicago.edu/faculty/tracy.shtml David Tracy's Faculty Profile at the University of Chicago Divinity School] * {{BCEWT|id=tracy|title=David Tracy}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20021202002805/http://www.crosscurrents.org/Tracyspring2002.htm This Side of God: A Conversation with David Tracy] {{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef|before=Charles Taylor}} {{s-ttl|title=Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh|years=1999–2000}} {{s-aft|after=The Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve}} {{s-ach|aw}} {{s-bef|before=Bernard Cooke}} {{s-ttl|title=John Courtney Murray Award|years=1980}} {{s-aft|after=Gerard S. Sloyan}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Tracy, David}} Category:1939 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic theologians Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American Roman Catholic priests Category:21st-century American Roman Catholic theologians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American religious writers Category:American Roman Catholic writers Category:Catholics from Illinois Category:Catholics from New York (state) Category:Catholic University of America faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:People from Yonkers, New York Category:Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Category:Presidents of the Catholic Theological Society of America Category:Public theologians Category:University of Chicago Divinity School faculty Category:Writers from New York (state)