Leland White was in Medical University of South Carolina hospital in Charleston on September 11 when terrorists demolished the World Trade Center, ending and altering the lives of uncounted fellow humans. His sister, Winifred, called the hospital room to ask whether we knew what was going on in the world. The television coverage soon made that all too clear – humanity was under attack. Crimes against humanity seem all too common at this tragic moment in history. Leland was soon to leave the world that he had worked hard to understand and improve. He died on September 27 from an unrelenting cancer. We today live with a similar cancer in the human psyche that appears to defy remedies.

In the 1880’s, Russian physician Leon Pinsker lamented that Europeans were afflicted with an incurable disease, Judaeophobia. The fear of people who are different, who remain true to who they are, seems to underlie much of the endemic that affects us all. Leland White’s own identity was a factor that he worked with throughout his life, as a Catholic Southerner well acquainted with discrimination within his own church and toward it. He felt the effects of his Church’s injustices while he worked unceasingly to alleviate its poison by promoting critical religious thought in Catholic seminaries, colleges, and universities. He found that hate is not a stranger among Catholics, nor Judaeophobia, racism, sexism, or homophobia. All have a place in the history and present reality of the Catholic Church. Cures are elusive at best. If we harbor all these within our own Church, how can we expect other religious communities to be free of them?

Leland’s chosen academic specialization was Religion and Culture. His doctoral dissertation examined the theologies of Karl Barth and Bernard Lonergan using a dramatistic model of Kenneth Burke to compare these leaders of Catholic and Protestant thought in the twentieth century. By disposition, Leland sought to transcend boundaries that contained people in rigid modes of thinking and living. By endowment, he brought major insight to bear on what it means to be a Catholic theologian and citizen in the twenty-first century. By dedication he made a difference in more lives than he ever imagined.

He pursued his seminary education at the Gregorian University in Rome during the years of the Second Vatican Council, a time of dynamic growth within the Church. Graduated with a licentiate in Theology and ordained a priest in 1965, he returned to his home diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, imbued with the ardent desire to help instill the new ecumenical thinking among his fellow South Carolinians. After two years of pastoral ministry in St. Joseph’s parish in Columbia, SC, Leland gained an appointment to teach theology in Sulpician seminaries, first in Seattle, Washington, then in Detroit, Michigan, where he met the current Archbishop of Seattle, Alex Brunett whose testimonial accompanies the introduction to this commemorative issue of Biblical Theology Bulletin. Thereafter, Leland pursued doctoral studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina under a faculty he never ceased to admire. During those years of doctoral study Leland spent a year at the Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Research in Jerusalem, where I met him in 1972.

Leland was drawn to study in Israel by his sobering experience visiting the Nazi death camp at Dachau. He often expressed a shaken realization of the human violence and hatred that such camps fostered. He wanted to understand Jews better, to grasp what it means to cherish an identity that renders one victim despite a shared humanity and major societal contributions. When he returned from Israel to finish his dissertation, he had undertaken a new commitment that brought  new sensitivities and warmth to his life. He was true to his commitment for the remainder of his life.

As I sort through the many books, articles, course syllabi, and papers that Leland wrote throughout his life, I am struck by the dedication he manifested toward penetrating misunderstandings that seem to have valence even among practitioners of religion and politics. Leland readily saw the correlation between religion and politics. He acted on this awareness in a number of ways. First, he kept informed on politics throughout his life, initially thanks to his father, a union organizer, who schooled him from his youth in the workings of civil society. Later, while Professor of Theology and Religious Studies in New York, he pursued a law degree and was admitted to the Bar in both New Jersey and South Carolina. Toward the end of his life, he became closely involved with civil society through work with the New Jersey Law Revision Commission as well as with political action in South Carolina, where he became a dynamic member of the Executive Council of the Charleston County Democratic Party. In effect, Leland was a man of action as well as of thought and commitment. He was a true son of his family, of his Church, of his homeland, and of both his legal and theological professions.

As editor of Biblical Theology Bulletin since 1984, Leland pursued quality and integrity as he did in all aspects of his life and teaching. He brought the editorial office of BTB to St. John’s University where he labored to consolidate subscriptions and manage editorial services with the assistance of undergraduate students. When the editorial offices moved to Seton Hall University, he continued to provide leadership in the critique and selection of articles, helping to set the direction for the vision and values of this journal. His death leaves both a great legacy and a troubling loss.

The present issue of BTB is dedicated to the memory of our lost colleague and champion. Five dedicated scholars have chosen to produce articles in his memory, honoring the man and the scholar with a tribute from both mind and heart. They will speak for themselves in a language that he best appreciated, critical scholarship. Leland was committed to critical scholarship because he believed that it serves as the means for dispelling the limits placed upon people of religion by unexamined loyalty to a culture that has led to misunderstanding, distrust, hate, and violence. But, critical scholarship is an effective means only when religionists dedicate themselves to honest inquiry to displace misguided loyalty. To be truly loyal means to honor our traditions by taking seriously the commitment to correct them when they are wrong and to advance them when they show promise of growth.
Leland White leaves us with a serious legacy. His life should remain a challenge to all who write and read these pages.

David M. Bossman
Editor