Avery Dulles’s Journey of Faith

Abstract

This chapter discusses Avery Dulles's journey of faith. Dulles's early childhood was spent within the confines of his religious family environment. After graduation from Choate Preparatory School in Connecticut, his desire to study history and literature led him to Harvard College. It was while an undergraduate student at Harvard that Dulles began the search, which would eventually lead him to rediscover faith. On November 26, 1940, he was conditionally baptized in the Catholic Church, which was the practice at the time. In the late 1950s, Dulles spent his tertianship in Germany, where he was introduced to various theologians who were working in ecumenism. Once he accepted the Catholic faith, he never wavered in his commitment to it, and it sustained him throughout his life, especially in the many physical deprivations he endured in the months before he died.