Abstract

Over the course of a fifty-year scholarly career, Frank M. Oppenheim, SJ, has devotedly studied and encouraged others to study the American philosopher Josiah Royce. Early in my own study of Royce, I read and learned a great deal from Oppenheim’s book Reverence for the Relations of Life. I met Oppenheim at a 2007 conference at Harvard on Royce and William James, and he encouraged my continued study. Thus, I am honored to participate in this issue of The Pluralist celebrating Oppenheim’s thought and his study of Royce.In spite of all the efforts of Oppenheim and other scholars, Royce remains too little known.1 It is tempting to ask why a contemporary scholar would devote painstaking and devoted attention...