A Uachtarain agus a mhuintir na hOllscoile,
It is a very real pleasure for me to present Professor Denys Alan Turner to you to have conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
Our friendship began 47 years ago when I returned flrom Louvain to UCD as a very junior lecturer in philosophy. Denys was completing a brilliant 1st cl. Hons. B.A. in philosophy and was about to embark on M.A. research in moral philosophy.
In these early years,, as indeed throughout his career, his interest in moral and political ideas was not purely theoretical. He was interested in how they impacted on Christian belief and political engagement. His reflections on the meaning of justice and on Marx’s theories of alienation and praxis impelled him to active involvement in public debates, demonstrations and protests against perceived oppression, injustice or even complacency. His activism included close involvement in the so-called Gentle Revolution in UCD in the 60’s.
Fortunately, perhaps, his more radical ideas and engagements in this youthful phase of his remarkable career did not always entirely win the day ! Otherwise, some of you distinguished young business graduates might be graduating today with Masters in Collective Farm Management or Gulag Administration. And God alone knows where I would be!
During the ten years Denys taught moral and political philosophy at UCD he completed a brilliant D.Phil for Oxford University, married his lovely wife Marie, and started a family parenting three cherished children, Ruth, Brendan and John.
Here in UCD he is warmly remembered as a dedicated and inspiring teacher. As he himself remarked :’ I have preferred to teach to primary sources, rather than through extended secondary bibliographies, believing it better to encourage students to get their minds into Plato’s than attempt to get Plato’s into theirs, the former strategy having the tendency to enlarge their minds the latter to cramp Plato’s.
Then the international phase of his outstanding academic career unfolded.Twenty years at the University of Bristol where he was Senior Lecturer and Head of Department. Headhunted to Birmingham University where he was Professor of Theology for 14 years. Then six years as Norris Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and Fellow of Peterhouse. And since 2005 Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale University.
Thus he has held distinguished professorial appointments at the very best universities in the world. And all the while has produced a remarkable output of research and publications combined with a wide range of significant administrative achievements.
In his early career, his main area of research and publication was in the relations between Christianity and political and social theory, particularly between Marxism and Christianity. More recently, he has engaged in significant research on the traditions of Western Christian mysticism particularly on problems of religious language and selfhood. This work has focussed on the links between the classical traditions of spirituality and mysticism and the social and political commitments of Christianity with particular reference to the nature of religious language and issues arising from the challenge of postmodernity.
His work has crystallised in a trilogy of important theological works of lasting significance. These are: Eros and Allegory (published in1995), The Darkness of God (also published in 1995) and the masterly Faith Reason and theExistence of God , an intellectual tour de force, published by Cambridge University Press in 2004, which argues there is no inconsistency between a conception of theology as mystical and a rational doctrine of God.
Apart from this trilogy there is a further impressive corpus of published work. It includes two earlier books On the Philosophy of Karl Marx ( published in1968) and Marxism and Christianity ( in 1983) as well as the more popular Faith Seeking ( in 2002). In addition we might mention 20 book chapters and a huge volume of peer-reviewed articles.
Throughout his career Denys’s contribution and commitment has not been purely and solely an academic one. His practical social concern is evidenced in his membership of the Council of St Mary’s Hospice Birmingham,HisChairmanship of the Executive Committee of the Catholic Institute for International Relations, Chairmanship of the Newman Fellowship Trust, and many more social and pastoral and bodies not to mention his frequent radio and television discussions.
Deny’s Turner is a remarkable UCD graduate who has gone on to be an exceptional academic while remaining a person of generous and effective social involvement. In honouring him today we are affirming the intrinsic value of the scholarship he exemplifies and the belief that UCD graduates, including those present here today, can go on to excel and inspire both professionally and personally in their lives.