James V. Schall
Fr. James V. Schall, SJ was Professor of Political Philosophy at Georgetown University.
He was born in Pocahontas, Iowa, January 20, 1928. Educated in public schools in Iowa, he graduated in 1945 from Knoxville, Iowa High, and then attended University of Santa Clara. He earned an MA in Philosophy from Gonzaga University in 1945.
After time in the U.S. Army (1946-47), he joined the Society of Jesus (California Province) in 1948. He received a PhD in Political Theory from Georgetown University in 1960, and an MST from University of Santa Clara four years later. Fr. Schall was a member of the Faculty of Institute of Social Sciences, Gregorian University, Rome, from 1964-77, and a member of the Government Department, University of San Francisco, from 1968-77. He has been a member of the Government Department at Georgetown University since 1977.
Fr. Schall has written hundreds of essays on political, theological, literary, and philosophical issues in such journals as The Review of Politics, Social Survey (Melbourne), Studies (Dublin), The Thomist, Divus Thomas (Piacenza), Divinitas (Rome), The Commonweal, Thought, Modern Age, Faith and Reason, The Way (London), The New Oxford Review, University Bookman, Worldview, and many others. He contributes regularly to Crisis and Homiletic & Pastoral Review.
He iss the author of numerous books on social issues, spirituality, culture, and literature.
“Why read? Because we are given more than we are.”
“I often think . . . that the bookstores that will save civilization are not online, nor on campuses, nor named Borders, Barnes & Noble, Dalton, or Crown. They are the used bookstores, in which, for a couple of hundred dollars, one can still find, with some diligence, the essential books of our culture, from the Bible and Shakespeare to Plato, Augustine, and Pascal.”
“No one will seek the highest [things] if he believes that there is no truth, that nothing is his fault, and that government will guarantee his wants.”