-- St. Thomas More
.jpg)
Frank Mininni knew more about Friedrich Gogarten than anyone in America. Karl Barth called Gogarten our "dreadnought." This had something to do with Lutheran theologians and dialectical theology, or secular theology. Don't ask me what that means. I still don't know. I took the course because it was the only theology course open and I needed to meet the theology requirement.
A Navy friend of mine liked to recollect having a class with Henry Kissinger at Harvard. He went in one day and asked for an appointment to discuss his term paper with the professor. The secretary thumbed through the appointment book and then stopped, remembering something she needed to ask. Awkward pause. Are you a graduate student? No. I'm sorry. Professor Kissinger doesn't meet with undergraduates.
You could walk into Frank's office anytime he was around (for that matter the office of any Holy Cross professor). He didn't even have a secretary to guard the door. Mr. Mininni I don't understand this Gogarten guy. HELP. I understand, Jim. Gogarten's ideas are complex, and very difficult to translate. They make more sense in the orginal German.
(Jesus, Frank, I grew up with women who were native Gaelic speakers, fiercely anti-English, and deeply religious. They said the rosary daily and would tell you that every act of your life was a prayer. And you want me to learn German to understand somebody explaining religion in a world without religion? For heavens sake, Frank, as far as we're concerned English is a foreign language.)
Wasn't Gogarten a Nazi? Frank explained that Gogarten never joined the Nazi party.
None of that mattered. Frank was a rock star as far as I was concerned. He'd left the Jesuits to marry a gorgeous, tall blonde German woman named Erika. I timed my visits for the end of the day, hoping I'd be there when Erika dropped by to escort Frank home. One smile from her could carry a young man through an entire lonely, celibate week at Holy Cross.
