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John Lawrence McKenzie (October 9, 1910 – March 2, 1991) was born on October 9, 1910, in Brazil, Indiana, the first of the six children of Myra (Daly) and Harry McKenzie. John McKenzie became the premier Catholic Biblical scholar of the mid-twentieth century; indeed, John Courtney Murray, SJ, wrote that John McKenzie was “the best Catholic theologian he knew of in the United States.” 〔Murray, John Courtney SJ,(1975). ''No Famine in the Land: Studies in Honor of John L. McKenzie'' (1975), Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, page 4.〕 John McKenzie was interested in the Jesuits from an early age. At some significant sacrifice to his family, he was enrolled in a Jesuit boarding high school in St. Mary’s, Kansas, where he came first in his class three out of his four years there. After graduating in 1928, he entered the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in 1939. He was supposed to study theology in Rome, but the onset of World War II made that impossible. Consequently, he and others were required to study instead at the Weston School of Theology in Massachusetts (now the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry). He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Weston. John McKenzie taught for nineteen years at the Jesuit Theologate in West Baden, Indiana, before transferring to Loyola University Chicago. He left Loyola to become the first Catholic Faculty member at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Following this, he taught at the University of Notre Dame, at Seton Hall University, and at DePaul University. He was self-taught in ten languages. His scholarly and popular writings were voluminous. He was much sought after as a lecturer as well. In the English-speaking world, his 900,000-word ''Dictionary of the Bible'' remains the most frequently used single-volume biblical dictionary available. At the time of its publication in 1956, a review in the periodical, ''The Thomist'', called his book, ''The Two-Edged Sword'', “the most significant Catholic interpretation of the Old Testament ever written in English.”〔Book Review (1967). ''The Thomist Review'' Vol. 20, p. 355〕 It remains in print to this day and continues to be considered, by scholars and non-scholars alike, a masterful reflection on the Old Testament. The ''New York Times'' obituary announcing his death said, “Rev. John L. McKenzie was a pioneering and outspoken Roman Catholic biblical scholar, (who) through scholarly and popular writings, helped bring about the general acceptance by Catholic scholars and Church authorities of the scientific techniques of investigating Scripture, which had been highly suspect in Catholic circles when he began his career.”〔Obituary. ''New York Times'', March 6, 1991〕 In 1965 and 1966 alone, besides the above-noted ''Dictionary of the Bible'', he published ''The Power and the Wisdom'', an interpretation of the New Testament; ''Authority in the Church'', a book arguing that service—''diakonia''—rather than secular models of government—domination—should define the Church's understanding and use of authority; a seminal essay on natural law in the New Testament, as well as eleven other articles and nineteen book reviews of scholarly works. He is the author of a number of articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica (14th edition): ''Adam and Eve'', ''Hexateuch'', ''Israel'', ''Mizpah'', ''Pentateuch'', ''Zephania'', and ''Zion''. From approximately 1954 to 1974 he was considered the dean of Catholic Biblical scholars. During this period, he was elected President of the Catholic Biblical Association and became the first Catholic ever elected President of the Society of Biblical Literature. It should also be noted that during this period he was also President of probably the largest Anti-Vietnam War organization, ''Clergy and Laity Concerned'', whose founding members also included the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Rabbi Abraham Heschel, and Reverend William Sloane Coffin. This involvement was the direct result of his being an outspoken and supremely articulate Christian pacifist. In 1971, he transferred as a priest from the Society of Jesus to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. John L. McKenzie’s correspondence was as extensive as his scholarly writings. Although it may be something of an exaggeration, it was said that he never left unanswered a letter written to him, whether complimentary or critical. The exaggeration is probably rooted in two facts: He did give yeoman’s service in trying to respond to those who wrote to him, and he firmly believed that the academic owed a debt—-in justice and in love—-a debt that required the scholar to share the fruits of his or her work with the everyday person whose work afforded the scholar the leisure, as well as the food, electricity, books, etc. needed to pursue a cognitive discipline in depth. He once wrote: ”I think my colleagues in theology and exegesis are open to the charge that they have become mandarins, who speak only to other mandarins about topics which are of interest only to mandarins in a style of discourse which is gibberish to any except mandarins, and one sometimes wonders about them too. Scholarship is and ought to be a form of public service and not an expensive enterprise dedicated to the production of a few more mandarins who can spend a leisurely life in the production of other mandarins”. The pointedness of this statement and the self-discipline with which John L. McKenzie responded to those who corresponded with him, as well as his commitment to write not only scholarly theological books and essays, but also to publish the results of his intellectual labors in popular, non-academic prose, all arose directly from an empathic mission that lay deep within him as a human being, a Christian, and a scholar. The mission: to spread the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ to help free people intellectually, morally, spiritually, and socially to search for truth and to adhere to it once found. For, as he saw it, the task of Christianity, of scholarship, of humanity in general, and of the individual human being is de-conditioning—freeing one’s mind and oneself, and freeing others, from nurtured untruth in which a personal investment has been made. His was a life of compassion, sharing with others the bread of truth which he had purchased at great price; sharing, because he had taken to heart so deeply the idea that as human beings we are made with the desire to know, that the object of that desire is truth, and that the truth shall set us free to be what we should be. Testimonials to the exceptional quality of Rev. John L. McKenzie’s intellect and the superlative character of his scholarship abound. But one in particular deserves to be singled out perhaps, because of who gave it and the place she hold in the history of twentieth-century Catholicism, indeed, the place she holds in twentieth-century Christianity and humanity—Dorothy Day. On the morning of April 14, 1968, she writes in her diary: “Up at 5:00 and reading The Power and The Wisdom. I thank God for sending me men with such insight as Fr. McKenzie.”〔''The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day'', Image Books, 2008, p. 431.〕 John L. McKenzie concluded his human, priestly, and scholarly life on earth in Claremont, California, assisting as a priest at Our Lady of Assumption Parish, and serving as counselor and friend to scholars and non-scholars—from every point on the compass—who thought that he could be of help to them. He was born to Eternal Life on March 2, 1991. ==Works== ''Dictionary of the Bible'', John L. McKenzie, Touchstone Press, ISBN 978-0684819136 ''The Two-Edged Sword: An Interpretation of the Old Testament'' John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-049-8 ''The Civilization of Christianity'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-043-6 ''Authority in the Church'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-148-8 ''A Theology of the Old Testament'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-273-7 ''The Power and the Wisdom: An Interpretation of the New Testament'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-048-1 ''The Old Testament Without Illusions'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-044-3 ''The New Testament Without Illusion'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-272-0 ''Mastering the Meaning of the Bible'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-146-4 ''Myths and Realities: Studies in Biblical Theology'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-050-4 ''Source: What the Bible Says About the Problems of Contemporary Life'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-274-4 ''How Relevant is the Bible? And Other Commentaries on Scripture'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-047-4 ''Did I Say That? A Theologian Confronts the Hard Questions'' John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-046-7 ''Light on the Epistles: A Reader's Guide'', John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-045-0 ''Light on the Gospels A Reader's Guide'' John L. McKenzie ISBN 978-1-60608-147-1 ''Second Isaiah'', John L.McKenzie, Anchor Bible, Vol.20. Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0385053907 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John L. McKenzie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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