Today I was honored and humbled to give this eulogy for Joseph Prabhu, a distinguished scholar and a highly respected leader in the interfaith peace movement. I shared these words of remembrance at the Holy Family Catholic Church in South Pasadena, where Joseph's memorial service took place. If you couldn't make it and would like to share memories of our beloved friend in Christ, there will be a Zoom memorial:
I want to thank Joseph’s family for inviting me to speak about this dear friend whom I came to know through the Parliament of the World’s Religion—an organization that he served both locally and at the international level. I’ve worked closely with Joseph over the years on interfaith peacemaking and was impressed by his deep commitment to social justice as well as to the life of the mind. He and I spent many joyful hours taking walks in Huntington Gardens and I was privileged to be at his bedside during his final days. He asked me to read from the psalms, as he had done for his friend Bill Lesher during his final days. Despite brain surgery, and shortness of breath, Joseph told wonderful stories about his amazing life. He spoke of his friends, his family, and his ideas about religion and politics. As his beloved nephew Jaideep Prabhu said, Joseph was an Olympic class talker. I would add, he was also an Olympic class thinker.
Born and raised in India and educated in Germany, Britain as well as in the United States, Joseph was an internationally known scholar, professor, and activist. He took his work but not himself seriously. He had a great sense of humor and loved to tease so I’d like to share an anecdote he told me during his final days. Joseph was giving a lecture in Belgium and decided to visit his high school principal, a Jesuit priest named Father Hincq , who was living in Brussels.
Father Hincq was gracious and showed Joseph his year books and talked about Joseph’s classmates. As Joseph was about to leave, he decided to tease his former teacher by saying, "Do you remember how you once spanked me?" Father Hincq replied with a smile, "Not once, Joseph, twice."
Joseph also like to tell irreverent stories about being Mother Teresa's
altar boy. It gets blazingly hot in Calcutta and Joseph fainted during a
worship service. As he regained
consciousness, he felt a slap on the face and heard Mother Teresa say, “What
are you doing, boy. Wake up!”
Despite these awkward moments, Joseph remained committed to Catholicism all
his life, although for many years he attended All Saints Episcopal Church
because of its work around social justice and peace. Joseph was profoundly influenced by Raimon Panikkar,
a theologian who distilled the best of Christian and Hindu religious ideas.
Like Panikkar, Joseph remained deeply Catholic while finding inspiration and
value in all faiths.
Joseph was a brilliant
lecturer who taught at more than seventy universities
either as visiting professor or as guest lecturer in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe
and the United States, including at the universities of California, Berkeley
and Chicago. For fun, I looked up what students at Cal State LA said
about him, and I think he would appreciate this telling comment by one of his
students: “I must say I found some of Prof.
Prabhu’s lectures slanted. Do not take everything he says as fact. He is crazy liberal,
and it shows. Considering that I am conservative, we clashed. I still got an
A.”
Another
student warned: “Do not take his class of you don’t like to think for
yourself... Prof. Prabhu really makes you think about what you think you
already know.”
I can’t imagine
a better recommendation for someone who taught in the Socratic mode. When Joseph
retired, his colleagues gave him a gift he was proud to show off: a mug with
the French painter David’s famous depiction of Socrates discussing the
immortality of the soul with his students after he had drunk the hemlock. Only
instead of Socrates’ face, the mug had Joseph’s!
Joseph’s
colleagues honored him in another way, by creating the Joseph Prabhu Memorial Lectures
for Peace and Justice. This was appropriate since Joseph was passionately committed
to human rights, Gandhian nonviolence, and what John Cobb called
“eco-civilization.” In an article published in Today’s American
Catholic in April 2021, Joseph wrote: “The
interconnected challenges posed by climate change, economic inequality, racism,
sexism, and militarism—to mention just the most pressing problems—demand our
intelligent and thoughtful consideration and action.” In this essay, one of his
last published works, Joseph lifted up two of his heroes: the German theologian
Hans Kung and Pope Francis. https://www.todaysamericancatholic.org/2021/04/dreaming-with-hans-kung/
Besides being an activist, teacher and public intellectual,
Joseph was deeply devoted to his family and to his wife Betty. I was very moved
to see the tenderness between Joseph and Betty when he was recovering from
brain surgery. During this time, he often spoke with pride and affection about
his daughter Tara. Joseph raised her as a single father, and it wasn’t easy.
But Betty confided to me with great feeling, “Tara was God’s gift to Joseph.”
I’m sure Joseph would agree. And I’m sure that you all would agree that Joseph
was God’s gift to us and to the world. He has left behind a legacy and an
example that will inspire and challenge us and generations to come.
Video I made for Joseph's final birthday in March 2021:
Videos of lectures by Joseph Prabhu:
"Culture of Peace": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaEqEvJBSgM
"The tasks of religion in an emergent new axial age": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsPD9XGRoNo
Testimonials by friends of Joseph Prabhu
"Joseph Prabhu's Anatomy of Wisdom," an essay by Ruth Sharone: http://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2016/12/10/joseph-prahbus-anatomy-of-wisdom
Thank you, Anthony, for your insightful eulogy. Today's online memorial was equally multifaceted and revelatory.
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