For generations of students and colleagues of Lawrence S. Cunningham, the news of his death on Feb. 20 in South Bend, Ind., at the age of 89 was a moment of mourning but also a chance to remember an influential teacher and writer of theology whose work in and out of the classroom enriched the church in the United States in innumerable ways. “Larry,” as he was known, was a professor at Florida State University for 21 years and at the University of Notre Dame for 25 more. He was also a frequent contributor to academic and popular journals throughout his career.
Born in 1935, Cunningham was raised in Florida; he attended St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester, N.Y., from which he received his bachelor’s degree (he later said he decided “I would make a better academic than a priest”), then earned a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He received a master’s degree in literature and his doctorate in humanities at Florida State University in 1967, and then served as a professor there for the next 21 years.
In 1987, he moved to the University of Notre Dame, where he taught until his retirement in 2012. He was the chair of the theology department from 1992 to 1997 and was honored in 2008 with the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Though trained in systematic theology, Cunningham also became a recognized authority on spirituality and prayer as well as hagiography—one of his best-known books was The Meaning of Saints.
Kenneth L. Woodward, the longtime religion editor of Newsweek, told America by email that The Meaning of Saints “was the first I picked up when preparing to write my own book, Making Saints; reading it helped me think through how to approach my subject. Larry saw spiritual formation as a dimension of his classroom teaching and, in this respect, his being a layman rather than a cleric was a great boon to his students and to the university community.”
Cunningham wrote or edited more than 25 other books over the course of his career, including Catholic Prayer, John Henry Newman: Heart Speaks to Heart, Mother of God, Things Seen and Unseen and Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master. He was also a longtime contributor to Commonweal (for years writing their “Religion Booknotes” column) and to America, where his first contribution came in 1974. His last, a review of Paul Moses’ The Saint and the Sultan, appeared in 2009. Two of his articles for America were mentioned by current editors as exemplary: a 1997 essay on praying with the Psalms and a 2004 essay on praying with the saints. The latter was reprinted in a book on traditional devotions by James Martin, S.J., Awake My Soul, later that year.
“To readers of journals like America and Commonweal, ‘Lawrence Cunningham’ was a well-known byline long before he arrived at Notre Dame University in 1987, after teaching for two decades at Florida State,” Woodward wrote. “By bent and background, Larry’s interest was in good writing as well as theology well done, and it showed in the way he wrote as well as what he wrote.”
After his retirement in 2012 (so as to “putter in the garden, watch birds desultorily, write, listen to the radio, haunt art museums, visit our daughters, and follow Notre Dame sports”), Cunningham remained a presence in the Notre Dame community for another decade as the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology Emeritus. “Larry graced our campus for more than 35 years and was a dedicated administrator, a beloved teacher, a cherished colleague, and a most generous citizen of the University,” John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the former president of Notre Dame, said in an obituary. “We will always be grateful for his service, which helped shape what Notre Dame is today. Our prayers are with his wife, Cecilia, their family and his many, many friends. May God grant him eternal rest.”
In May 2011, the University of Portland honored Larry Cunningham with the Christus Magister Medal (he also received honorary degrees from Bellarmine University, Neumann College and Saint Anselm College), that school’s highest honor. The citation accompanying the award noted, “If the primary task of a committed Catholic life is to share the genius of the Word, so that many more hearts might be opened and souls saved, then Lawrence Cunningham has served well and faithfully.”
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Our poetry selection for this week is “Little Skate,” by Lynne Viti. Readers can view all of America’s published poems here.
Members of the Catholic Book Club: We are taking a hiatus while we retool the Catholic Book Club and pick a new selection.
In this space every week, America features reviews of and literary commentary on one particular writer or group of writers (both new and old; our archives span more than a century), as well as poetry and other offerings from America Media. We hope this will give us a chance to provide you with more in-depth coverage of our literary offerings. It also allows us to alert digital subscribers to some of our online content that doesn’t make it into our newsletters.
Other Catholic Book Club columns:
The spiritual depths of Toni Morrison
Doris Grumbach, L.G.B.T. pioneer and fearless literary critic
What’s all the fuss about Teilhard de Chardin?
Moira Walsh and the art of a brutal movie review
Father Hootie McCown: Flannery O’Connor’s Jesuit bestie and spiritual advisor
Happy reading!
James T. Keane
