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John Cornwell (writer)
Encyclopedia
John Cornwell is an English
journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge
. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope
; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned with the relationship between science
, ethics and the humanities. His most recent book, Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint, is a biography of Cardinal Newman.
, London, the son of Sidney Arthur Cornwell and Kathleen Egan Cornwell.
Raised as a Roman Catholic, Cornwell entered the junior seminary, Cotton College
, in 1953 intending to become a priest. He later wrote a memoir on his five years at Cotton. He continued to the senior seminary, Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield
, in 1958.
After leaving the seminary, in the 1960s Cornwell studied at Oxford and Cambridge, graduating in 1964 in English Language and Literature. While studying at Christ's College, Cambridge
as a post-graduate student, he abandoned Catholicism and became an agnostic. He married a Catholic woman, however, who brought up their children as Catholics, and eventually, twenty years after leaving the Catholic faith, he returned to it.
After leaving Cambridge, Cornwell taught in London schools, and at McMaster University
, Ontario. He also spent time working for The Observer in London, being responsible for the newspaper's foreign syndication service. His first two books were novels: The Spoiled Priest, and Seven Other Demons. Two decades later he published a third novel, Strange Gods. In 1973 he published a critical biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
, Coleridge, Poet and Revolutionary, 1772–1804.
, which was surrounded by conspiracy theories
. Though Cornwell sharply criticized Vatican prelates, he concluded that the Pope was not murdered but died of a pulmonary embolism
, possibly brought on by overwork and neglect.
In 1999, Cornwell published Hitler's Pope
, in which he accuses Pope Pius XII
of assisting in the legitimization of the Nazi regime
in Germany through the pursuit of a Reichskonkordat
in 1933 and of remaining silent during the Holocaust.
In 2004, Cornwell stated that Pius XII "had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by Germany. ... But even if his prevarications and silences were performed with the best of intentions, he had an obligation in the postwar period to explain those actions". He similarly stated in 2008 that Pius XII's "scope for action was severely limited", but that "[n]evertheless, due to his ineffectual and diplomatic language in respect of the Nazis and the Jews, I still believe that it was incumbent on him to explain his failure to speak out after the war. This he never did."
In his 2009 review of Roman Catholic priest-scholar Kevin P. Spicer's Hitler's Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism, he praises the book's admirable qualities but criticizes the work for its failure to distinguish between the small minority of "brown priests", those priests who unequivocally supported the Nazi regime, with those who whom he considers to be "fellow travellers", i.e. accepting the benefits that came with the Reichskonkordat
but who failed to condemn the Nazi regime at the same time. He cites Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) as being an example of a "fellow traveller" who was willing to accept the generosity of Hitler in the educational sphere (more schools, teachers and pupil places), so long as the Church withdrew from the social and political sphere, at the same time as Jews were being dismissed from universities and Jewish pupil places were being reduced. For this he considers Pacelli as effectively being in collusion with the Nazi cause, if not by intent. He further argues that Monsignor Kass
, who was involved in negotiations for the Reichskonkordat, and at that time the head of the Roman Catholic Centre Party
, persuaded his party members, with the acquiescence of Pacelli, in the summer of 1933 to enable Hitler to acquire dictatorial powers. He argues that the Catholic Centre Party vote was decisive in the adoption of dictatorial powers by Hitler and that the party's subsequent dissolution was at Pacelli's prompting.
In 2004, Cornwell followed up Hitler's Pope with Hitler's Scientists.
. James Carroll in The Washington Post
said the book "dissects the record of John Paul II's pontificate with an informed, dispassionate and fully convincing authority". Damian Thompson
in The Daily Telegraph
wrote that while, up to a point, the "early pages of The Pope in Winter are sympathetic", the book as a whole "is a hatchet job" and its "record of John Paul II's pontificate is often grotesquely biased".
during the Papal visit by Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland. Philosopher Anthony Kenny
in The Times Literary Supplement
wrote that "Newman's Unquiet Grave is a substantial achievement...John Cornwell has taken on the task of writing a biography of Newman to make his life intelligible to the largely secular public which in a few weeks will watch on television the ceremony of his beatification. He has followed a via media between the hagiography
of Meriol Trevor
and the mockery of Lytton Strachey
, and he has produced a Life which is readable, sympathetic and judicious... Altogether, he has succeeded in building up a vivid picture of Newman's personality."
. This is a public understanding of science, medicine and ethics project. In this capacity, since 1990, he has brought together some scientists, philosophers, ethicists, authors and journalists to debate and discuss a range of topics. He criticized "reductionist brain science" for "its failure even to mention, let alone give an account of, human imagination".
In two articles in 2006 and 2007, he criticized Richard Dawkins
and his book The God Delusion
for what he saw as an extremist tone and for alleged lapses in logic, imagination and understanding. Cornwell followed up these articles with his book Darwin's Angel
, published in 2007.
In 2003, he praised Daniel Goldhagen
's controversial book, A Moral Reckoning
.
In 2009, he was appointed founding Director of the Rustat Conferences, also based at Jesus College, Cambridge
. The Rustat Conferences bring together academics with those from politics, business, the media and education to discuss the issues of the day in a roundtable format. The first two meetings in 2009 discussed the global Economic Crisis, and the Future of Democracy. The third Rustat Conferences meeting addressed Infrastructure and the Future of Society - infrastructure for energy security, cities of the future, and water.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted in the legitimization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany, through the pursuit of a...
; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned with the relationship between science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, ethics and the humanities. His most recent book, Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint, is a biography of Cardinal Newman.
Early life
John Cornwell was born in East HamEast Ham
East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross...
, London, the son of Sidney Arthur Cornwell and Kathleen Egan Cornwell.
Raised as a Roman Catholic, Cornwell entered the junior seminary, Cotton College
Cotton College
Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school AT in Cotton near Oakamoor, North Staffordshire, England, also known as Saint Wilfrid's College. It closed in 1987 and the site is now derelict....
, in 1953 intending to become a priest. He later wrote a memoir on his five years at Cotton. He continued to the senior seminary, Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
, in 1958.
After leaving the seminary, in the 1960s Cornwell studied at Oxford and Cambridge, graduating in 1964 in English Language and Literature. While studying at Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
as a post-graduate student, he abandoned Catholicism and became an agnostic. He married a Catholic woman, however, who brought up their children as Catholics, and eventually, twenty years after leaving the Catholic faith, he returned to it.
After leaving Cambridge, Cornwell taught in London schools, and at McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
, Ontario. He also spent time working for The Observer in London, being responsible for the newspaper's foreign syndication service. His first two books were novels: The Spoiled Priest, and Seven Other Demons. Two decades later he published a third novel, Strange Gods. In 1973 he published a critical biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, Coleridge, Poet and Revolutionary, 1772–1804.
A Thief in the Night
His 1989 book A Thief in the Night investigates the 1978 death of Pope John Paul IPope John Paul I
John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
, which was surrounded by conspiracy theories
Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories
Pope John Paul I died alone in September 1978 only a month after his election to the Papacy. The suddenness of the death, and the Vatican's difficulties with the ceremonial and legal death procedures have resulted in several conspiracy theories.-Rationale:Discrepancies in the Vatican's account of...
. Though Cornwell sharply criticized Vatican prelates, he concluded that the Pope was not murdered but died of a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
, possibly brought on by overwork and neglect.
Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted in the legitimization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany, through the pursuit of a...
, in which he accuses Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
of assisting in the legitimization of the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in Germany through the pursuit of a Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
in 1933 and of remaining silent during the Holocaust.
In 2004, Cornwell stated that Pius XII "had so little scope of action that it is impossible to judge the motives for his silence during the war, while Rome was under the heel of Mussolini and later occupied by Germany. ... But even if his prevarications and silences were performed with the best of intentions, he had an obligation in the postwar period to explain those actions". He similarly stated in 2008 that Pius XII's "scope for action was severely limited", but that "[n]evertheless, due to his ineffectual and diplomatic language in respect of the Nazis and the Jews, I still believe that it was incumbent on him to explain his failure to speak out after the war. This he never did."
In his 2009 review of Roman Catholic priest-scholar Kevin P. Spicer's Hitler's Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism, he praises the book's admirable qualities but criticizes the work for its failure to distinguish between the small minority of "brown priests", those priests who unequivocally supported the Nazi regime, with those who whom he considers to be "fellow travellers", i.e. accepting the benefits that came with the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
but who failed to condemn the Nazi regime at the same time. He cites Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) as being an example of a "fellow traveller" who was willing to accept the generosity of Hitler in the educational sphere (more schools, teachers and pupil places), so long as the Church withdrew from the social and political sphere, at the same time as Jews were being dismissed from universities and Jewish pupil places were being reduced. For this he considers Pacelli as effectively being in collusion with the Nazi cause, if not by intent. He further argues that Monsignor Kass
Ludwig Kaas
Ludwig Kaas was a German Roman Catholic priest and politician during the Weimar Republic.-Early career:Born in Trier, Kaas was ordained a priest in 1906 and studied history and Canon law in Trier and Rome. 1906 he completed a doctorate in theology and in 1909 he obtained a second doctorate in...
, who was involved in negotiations for the Reichskonkordat, and at that time the head of the Roman Catholic Centre Party
Centre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
, persuaded his party members, with the acquiescence of Pacelli, in the summer of 1933 to enable Hitler to acquire dictatorial powers. He argues that the Catholic Centre Party vote was decisive in the adoption of dictatorial powers by Hitler and that the party's subsequent dissolution was at Pacelli's prompting.
In 2004, Cornwell followed up Hitler's Pope with Hitler's Scientists.
A Pontiff in Winter
In 2004, Cornwell also published A Pontiff in Winter, a work critical of Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
. James Carroll in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
said the book "dissects the record of John Paul II's pontificate with an informed, dispassionate and fully convincing authority". Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson is a British journalist, author and blogger.Thompson was educated at Presentation College, Reading, and read history at Mansfield College, Oxford University. He received his Ph.D in the sociology of religion from the London School of Economics for a thesis on the management of...
in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
wrote that while, up to a point, the "early pages of The Pope in Winter are sympathetic", the book as a whole "is a hatchet job" and its "record of John Paul II's pontificate is often grotesquely biased".
Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint
Published in 2010 by Continuum, this biography of Cardinal John Henry Newman coincided with renewed interest in the 19th century theologian and religious leader as a result of the his beatificationBeatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
during the Papal visit by Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland. Philosopher Anthony Kenny
Anthony Kenny
Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny FBA is an English philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of religion...
in The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
wrote that "Newman's Unquiet Grave is a substantial achievement...John Cornwell has taken on the task of writing a biography of Newman to make his life intelligible to the largely secular public which in a few weeks will watch on television the ceremony of his beatification. He has followed a via media between the hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
of Meriol Trevor
Meriol Trevor
Meriol Trevor was one of the most prolific Roman Catholic women writers of the twentieth century. She was educated at Perse Girls' School, Cambridge, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, taking her degree in 1942. During World War II she worked in a day nursery and later as the steerer of a cargo barge...
and the mockery of Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
, and he has produced a Life which is readable, sympathetic and judicious... Altogether, he has succeeded in building up a vivid picture of Newman's personality."
Science, Ethics and Humanities
Cornwell is also Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, CambridgeJesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
. This is a public understanding of science, medicine and ethics project. In this capacity, since 1990, he has brought together some scientists, philosophers, ethicists, authors and journalists to debate and discuss a range of topics. He criticized "reductionist brain science" for "its failure even to mention, let alone give an account of, human imagination".
In two articles in 2006 and 2007, he criticized Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
and his book The God Delusion
The God Delusion
The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and inaugural holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that...
for what he saw as an extremist tone and for alleged lapses in logic, imagination and understanding. Cornwell followed up these articles with his book Darwin's Angel
Darwin's Angel
Darwin's Angel is one of many books published in response to Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. It was written by John Cornwell and subtitled An Angelic Riposte to The God Delusion....
, published in 2007.
In 2003, he praised Daniel Goldhagen
Daniel Goldhagen
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is an American author and former Associate Professor of Political Science and Social Studies at Harvard University. Goldhagen reached international attention and broad criticism as the author of two controversial books about the Holocaust, Hitler's Willing Executioners and...
's controversial book, A Moral Reckoning
A Moral Reckoning
A Moral Reckoning, by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, who also authored Hitler's Willing Executioners, is a 2003 American non-fiction book examining the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the Holocaust...
.
In 2009, he was appointed founding Director of the Rustat Conferences, also based at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
. The Rustat Conferences bring together academics with those from politics, business, the media and education to discuss the issues of the day in a roundtable format. The first two meetings in 2009 discussed the global Economic Crisis, and the Future of Democracy. The third Rustat Conferences meeting addressed Infrastructure and the Future of Society - infrastructure for energy security, cities of the future, and water.
Works
- The Spoiled Priest (1969)
- Seven Other Demons (1971)
- Coleridge, Poet and Revolutionary, 1772–1804: A Critical Biography (1973)
- Earth to Earth: A True Story of the Lives and Violent Deaths of a Devon Farming Family (1982)
- A Thief in the Night: The Mysterious Death of Pope John Paul I (1989)
- Powers of Darkness, Powers of Light (1991)
- Strange Gods (1993)
- Nature's Imagination: The Frontiers of Scientific Vision (editor) (1995)
- The Power to Harm: Mind, Medicine, and Murder on Trial (1996)
- Consciousness and Human Identity (editor) (1998)
- Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XIIHitler's PopeHitler's Pope is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted in the legitimization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany, through the pursuit of a...
(1999) - Breaking Faith: The Pope, the People and the Fate of Catholicism ((2001)
- Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact (2004)
- Explanations: Styles of Explanation in Science (editor) (2004)
- A Pontiff in Winter (2004)
- Seminary Boy (2006)
- Darwin's AngelDarwin's AngelDarwin's Angel is one of many books published in response to Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. It was written by John Cornwell and subtitled An Angelic Riposte to The God Delusion....
(2007) - Philosophers and God: At the Frontiers of Faith and Reason (co-editor with Michael McGhee) (2009)
- Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint (2010)
External links
- Rustat Conferences of which Cornwell is the Director