Reverend or Father John A. O'Brien (1893–1980), whose full name was John Anthony O'Brien, was an influential progressive American Catholic scholar, pamphleteer and writer.

Early life

O'Brien was born on 20 January 1893 in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Ill ...

. He was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Peoria by Bishop Edmund M. Dunne. He served as chaplain for the Catholic students at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

and earned a Ph.D. in psychology there. He started the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois.

Career

In total, O'Brien published over forty books. Among them were ''The White Harvest'' (1927) and ''Catholics and Scholarship'' (1938), influential collections of essays by participants at symposia he organized. In 1938 he published a book about Catholicism directed at non-Catholics called ''The Faith of Millions'', which became a best-seller. Also among his most popular publications were the five books in a series called ''The Road to Damascus'', published between 1949 and 1956, in which seventy-eight prominent converts to Catholicism gave accounts of what had led them to the Church. The contributors included

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

, Clare Booth Luce,

Avery Dulles Avery Robert Dulles ( ; August 24, 1918 – December 12, 2008) was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of Amer ...

Dorothy Day Dorothy Day, Oblate#Secular oblates, OblSB (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and Anarchism, anarchist who, after a bohemianism, bohemian youth, became a Catholic Church, Catholic without aba ...

Raïssa Maritain Raïssa Maritain (née Oumansoff) (September 12, 1883 in Rostov-on-Don – November 4, 1960 in Paris) was a French poet and philosopher. She was the wife of Jacques Maritain, with whom she worked and whose companion she was for more than half a ...

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, Christian mysticism, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. He was a monk in the Trapp ...

Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an ...

and

Leonard Cheshire Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, (7 September 1917 – 31 July 1992) was a British Royal Air Force pilot, officer and philanthropist. Cheshire fought in the Second World War. Among the decorations Cheshire received as a pilot w ...

. O'Brien remained at the University of Illinois for twenty-two years. In 1939, he spent a year at Oxford University and published ''Thunder from the Left'', a critique of communism. For the rest of his life he taught at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

and wrote. His work often focused on the compatibility of science and Catholicism. He published two books on

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

, ''Evolution and Religion'' (1932) and ''God and Evolution'' (1961).

Birth control

An interest in birth control arose among Catholics in America as a result of the challenge to the family economy posed by the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

in the 1930s and the approval of artificial contraception by Jewish and Anglican authorities. O'Brien made an attempt that was progressive at the time to move the issue of birth control away from religion and into the realm of science. In his book ''Natural Birth Control'' (1938), he presented the " rhythm method" as the ideal non-artificial birth control for Catholics. O'Brien's psychological approach was influenced by the thought of the German Catholic ethicist

Dietrich von Hildebrand Dietrich Richard Alfred von Hildebrand (; 12 October 1889 – 26 January 1977) was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and religious writer. Hildebrand was called "the twentieth-century Doctor of the Church" by Pope Pius XII. He was a leadi ...

, who argued in his 1928 book ''In Defence of Purity'' that, besides its procreative aspect, marital sexuality plays a vital role in enhancing the unique interpersonal union that gives marriage its greater meaning. O'Brien's views, however, clashed with those of conservatives in the Catholic Church, who promoted total abstinence as exemplified by the encyclical

Casti connubii ''Casti connubii'' (Latin: "of chaste wedlock") is a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius XI on 31 December 1930 in response to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion. It stressed the sanctity of marriage, prohibited Catholics ...

(1930), which restated the objection to artificial conception.

Awards and Death

In 1973, the University of Notre Dame awarded him the

Laetare Medal The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society. The award is given to an American Catholic or group of Catholics "whose genius has ennobled the ar ...

, a degree Notre Dame bestows on American Catholics for outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society. He died on 18 April 1980 in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...

, after a long illness.

References

External links

Works of John A. O'Brien
{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, John A. American Christian writers 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Religious views on birth control