THE SewaneeNEWs Published for the Alumni and Friends of The University of the South John Booty Retires: Priest, On the Threshold Professor, Scholar, of History: Dean One Man's View by Margot Patterson A thoughtful, slow-speaking man whose from the East erudition is reflected both in his scholarship and in the richly meditative texture of his much- admired sermons and homilies, John Booty by Priscilla Carter Fort retires from teaching this semester, having served as priest, professor, and former dean of / am still under the spell of Sewanee, and will never The School of Theology. get over it. I take strength from these memories. May Booty came to in 1982. founder Sewanee As of your Christmas be a peaceful one . may all your the Anglican Studies program, he is credited dreams come true. May the state of Tennessee and the with adding an important new dimension to The whole United States realize that we are on the School of Theology curriculum.The program threshold of a new historical era in which the greatest provides a grounding in Anglican theology and enemies of Man—war, hatred, evil, jealousy, history for ministers from other denominations stupidity—can he overcome. This is a Christmas I wishing to become Episcopal priests. never thought would come. It has. "The Anglican Studies program and John -Reflections of Wolf-Rudiger Kohler, Booty's presence here have made Sewanee a Dresden, East Germany, Christmas 1989 center for the study and critical reflection of Anglicanism," says Donald Armentrout, In the fall of 1988 East German native Wolf- associate dean for academic affairs at the Rudiger Kohler came to Sewanee as a visiting seminary. "Anglicanism has been going through professor in the German department. A teacher an identity crisis for a number of years. John begun work on a history of Virginia Theological of English at the Technical University in Dres- Booty has helped make us see what is special Seminary, and he and Stephen Sykes, who have den, East Germany, Kohler observed American about Anglicanism, what its contributions are." collaborated before, are planning a new book university life firsthand for that semester and Professor Booty is acknowledged on both together. discovered a few surprises. In an interview sides of the Atlantic as one of the pre-eminent Clearly looking ahead to the future. Booty during that visit, he admitted that Americans scholars in the field of Anglican theology and took time to talk about some of the past projects were not the ruthless tycoons or loudmouths church history. He holds a B.D. from Virginia that have been important in his career as well as portrayed in American movies and television Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from his role as official historiographer of the Episco- and noted that our standard of living was sub- Princeton and has been the recipient of pal Church. The appointment, made in 1988, fills stantially higher than his. "A professor at numerous grants and awards, including a a position that had been vacant since the 1950s. Sewanee makes in one year what I would make Fulbright Fellowship and a fellowship from the As historiographer. Booty looks forward to in six, " he commented. And, in reference to his National Endowment for the Humanities. This helping the church look at the issues it faces own country, he gave us a few hints that change April the University will honor him with the from a historical point of view. Booty points to was in the wind, change that a year later would publication of This Sacred History: Anglican the ordination of women as a case in point. jar the entire communist bloc into the twentieth Reflections for John Booty. Edited by Armentrout, Histories of the Episcopal Church have largely century. the book includes essays by Stephen Sykes, been written by and for men, but if you dig "East Germany is undergoing fundamental Richard Norris, Marion Hatchett, Fredrica through the sources to study the history of changes, but slowly," Kohler said at that time, Thomsett, and other scholars writing on the rich women in the church, it appears that women attributing the thaw in the ways of the old guard diversity of the Anglican tradition, all of whom have played a far more vital role in the govern- to the people's increasing exposure to life in the testify to the ways in which the teaching and ment of the church than had previously been writing of John Booty have shaped them. suggested. For instance, he says, you find evi- According to Reinhard Zachau, professor of ' In June, Booty and and his wife will move to dence of women who have exercised ministries German language and : terature and a native of Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, where their through the diaconate, through the religious Lubeck, West Germany, television has long been son is building them a house near the lake orders, and even women who have exercised reaching across the physical and ideological featured in ihe movie On Golden Pond. "It's a episcopal powers. It is also true, he adds, that barriers imposed by Soviet-influenced regimes. beautiful place," Booty says, "and a wonderful this historical work would reveal how deeply "The government could ban magazines, New England town." rooted patriarchalism has been in the church. newspapers, and books not suitable to their Though retiring from full-time teaching, "The historian's task is not to solve the prob- party line," says Zachau. "But they were not Booty will hardly be idle. Next year, he will lem but to ensure people look at the historical abb io block or censoi teach one day a week at the Episcopal Divinity continued on page 2 continued on page 27 School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has because they're already so soaked in their own alienation into relationship with each other." they can't get frompagel Anglican about Anglican interpretation of repentance that Johll BOOty continued What is specifically basis of spirituality? record so we're not just reacting on the been putting together ar within Anglican spirituality a tre- Recently, Booty has "1 think about "There is the current conflict," Booty says. works for the Classics for the God we worship in edition of John Donne's of the mendous respect great turmoil over the introduction series put out by The the who works with his people in of Western Spirituality like to turn adoration, a God Book Common Prayer in 1979. 1 new of Booty says. "God works Paulist Press. rebellions in many different ways," students back to 1549 and the out the transition from Jack Donne, my scripture but through nature, 'To work Anglia over not only through England in the West Country and who wrote the love poems through experience, y Prayer. What this aspiring the first Boo* of Common and who was an | Generally speaking, be cognizant of how major | Donne, teaches us is to 5 courtier, to John used to there's a positive change affects people who have become the dean of St. Paul's attitude toward nature \ are. We have to be sensitive things the way they Cathedral who preached | people so we don't see an to that—not just thrust something on these magnificent sermons, unbridgeable chasm without preparing them. intriguing to me," says I and is can leant from history between God "One of the things we Booty. "One of the things j nature. For can have great differences without human conclude is that we i I've been able to don't see that we're coming instance, we having the sinking feeling is that John Donne is there totally of the church human nature as apart," he adds. "The history in Jack Donne and Jack destructive. Diversity can depraved, as some denies that diversity is Donne is there in John do. enriching experience Christian traditions be and often is a very Donne. It produces a There's also a sense of within the church." spirituality that is vital and creation in he is proudest of his God's As a scholar. Booty says almost modern. I don't see interdependence. As work on the 16th-century church, particularly terms of theological Jewel. Richard Hooker said, his books on Richard Hooker and John doctrine but in terms of comes closest to There is nothing in the But the book that, in his words, lives lived and reflections he wrote world that can say, "I hitting his own nerve center is a book the world around us Know, need thee not," ' or as on spirituality entitled The Christ We which people of great John Donne said, 'No published in 1987. perception convey to us." This wind these days, as the man is an island.' Spirituality is in the Historians are frequently asked not only to sense of interdependent j very strong is common during periods of historian says interpret the past but also to read the future. element in Anglican spirituality. great change when people are led to examine the Colorado where he emphasize has to Booty recently returned from "The second thing 1 might meaning of their lives. This "affluence of spiritu- Church believe that lectured on the topic "Is the Episcopal great do with Jesus Christ. We strongly ality" is not Christian per se—witness the such a Dying?" —a title that was given to him and meditation or through word and scripture we come into interest in yoga or transcendental the feelings of those Christ that we can speak which he says expresses Booty describes relationship with Jesus New Age psychologies. differences within the church participation with God.