Unifying Themes in the Oeuvre of John M. Headley 英文参考文献.docVIP

Religions 2012, 3, 1094–1102; doi:10.3390/rel3041094 OPEN ACCESS religions ISSN 2077-1444 /journal/religions Article Unifying Themes in the Oeuvre of John M. Headley James M. Weiss Capstone Program and Theology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA; E-Mail: james.weiss@; Tel.: +1-617-552-3897 Received: 29 October 2012; in revised form: 3 November 2012 / Accepted: 6 November 2012 / Published: 20 November 2012 Abstract: The great variety of historical figures and themes found in the published works of John Headley since 1963 reveal a unity of themes and values. The numerous persons whom Headley studied all envisioned a humane universal order even as they moved from theoretical reflection to actual political implementation. His more recent work holds up the European legacy of human rights, democracy, and freedom that have become a Western gift and challenge to non-Western cultures. Keywords: Headley; Europeanization; empire; Renaissance humanism; cartography; Spanish Empire; globalization Voltaire famously pronounced that history is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead. In this essay, I propose an historical interpretation of the work of John Headley, so you might say I am playing a pack of tricks on the living—but lest you misunderstand my intent, John, I wish you a hearty “Vivas, floreas, crescas.” So let us begin with a little riddle: what do an English Chancellor and an Imperial Chancellor have in common? Or, what do the reformer Luther and the counter-reformer archbishop of Milan have in common? The answer, of course, is that John Headley published books on all of them . . . and more. Yet John once fretted to me that he feared his work showed a dilettante’s restlessness: he worried that he had moved from one subject to another without consistent focus. His comment marked a rare lapse in an otherwise judicious mind, for John’s work shows a deep unity of theme