Ralph McInerny

Ralph Matthew McInerny
Born	February 24, 1929(1929-02-24) Minneapolis, Minnesota
Died	January 29, 2010(2010-01-29) (aged 80) Mishawaka, Indiana
Occupation	religious scholar, author
Nationality	United States

Ralph Matthew McInerny (February 24, 1929 – January 29, 2010) was a Roman Catholic, American, philosopher, University professor, and prolific author, including fiction of which some appeared under the pseudonyms of Harry Austin, Matthew FitzRalph, Ernan Mackey, Edward Mackin, and Monica Quill, and mysteries of which his best known is the Father Dowling Mysteries. He died of esophageal cancer on January 29, 2010.

Academic Career

McInerny wrote his PhD dissertation entitled The Existential Dialectic of Soren Kierkegaard under Professor Charles de Coninck at Laval University (Quebec). He was Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Jacques Maritain Center, and Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame until his retirement in June, 2009. He served as President of the Metaphysical Society of America in 1993.

Fiction

Father Dowling

• Her Death of Cold (1977)
• Bishop as Pawn (1978)
• The Seventh Station (1977)
• Lying Three (1979)
• The Second Vespers (1980)
• Thicker Than Water (1981)
• A Loss of Patients (1982)
• The Grass Widow (1983)
• Getting a Way with Murder (1984)
• Rest in Pieces (1985)
• The Basket Case (1987)
• Slight of Body (1989; aka Abracadaver)
• Four on the Floor (1989)
• Judas Priest (1991)
• Desert Sinner (1992)
• Seed of Doubt (1993)
• A Cardinal Offense (1994)
• The Tears of Things (1996)
• Grave Undertakings (2000)
• Triple Pursuit (2001)
• Prodigal Father (2002)
• Last Things (2003)
• Requiem for a Realtor (2004)
• Blood Ties (2005)
• The Prudence of Flesh (2006)
• The Widow's Mate (2007)
• Ash Wednesday (2008)
• The Wisdom of Father Dowling (2009)
• Stained Glass (2009)

Sister Mary Teresa (all as by Monica Quill)

• Not a Blessed Thing (1981)
• Let Us Pray (1982)
• And Then There Was Nun (1984)
• Nun of the Above (1985)
• Sine Qua Nun (1986)
• The Veil of Ignorance (1988)
• Sister Hood (1991)
• Nun Plussed (1993)
• Half Past Nun (1997)
• Death Takes the Veil (2001)

Andrew Broom

• Cause and Effect (1987)
• Body and Soil (1989)
• Savings and Loam (1990)
• Mom and Dead (1994)
• Law and Ardor (1995)
• Heirs and Parents (2000)

Notre Dame

• On This Rockne (1997)
• Lack of the Irish (1998)
• Irish Tenure (1999)
• The Book of Kills (2000)
• Emerald Aisle (2001)
• Celt and Pepper (2002)
• Irish Coffee (2003)
• Green Thumb (2004)
• Irish Gilt (2005)
• The Letter Killeth (2006)
• Irish Alibi (2007)
• The Green Revolution (2008)
• Sham Rock (2010)

Egidio Manfredi

• Still Life (2000)
• Sub Rosa (2001)

Rosary Chronicles

• The Third Revelation (2009)
• Relic of Time (2009)

Other novels

• Jolly Rogerson (1967)
• A Narrow Time (1969)
• The Priest (1973)
• The Gate of Heaven (1975)
• Rogerson at Bay (1976)
• Romanesque (1977)
• Spinnaker (1978)
• Quick as a Dodo (1978)
• The Noonday Devil (1985)
• Leave of Absence (1986)
• Frigor Mortis (1989)
• The Nominative Case (as by Edward Mackin) (1990)
• Easeful Death (1991)
• The Search Committee (1991)
• Infra Dig (1992)
• The Red Hat (1998)
• As Good As Dead (2002)
• The Ablative Case (2003)
• Slattery (2004)

Collections

• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (with G. K. Chesterton and John Mortimer) (1992)
• Good Knights (2009)

Poetry

• The Soul of Wit: Some Poems (2005)

Anthologies edited

• Murder Most Divine (with Martin Harry Greenberg) (2000)
• Murder Most Catholic (with Martin Harry Greenberg) (2002)
• Great Mystery Series: 11 of the Best Mystery Short Stories from Alfred Hitchcock's And Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazines (with Lawrence Block and Mary Higgins Clark) (2000)

Non-Fiction

Philosophy and Theology

• New Themes in Christian Philosophy (1969)
• Thomism in an Age of Renewal (1969)
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1977)
• Miracles: A Catholic View (1986)
• Art and Prudence: Studies in the Thought of Jacques Maritain (1988)
• A First Glance at St. Thomas Aquinas: A Handbook for Peeping Thomists (1990)
• Aquinas on Human Action: A Theory of Practice (1992)
• The Question of Christian Ethics, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1993)
• Aquinas Against the Averroists: On There Being Only One Intellect (1993)
• An Uncertain Legacy: Essays on the Pursuit of Liberty (edited by Edward B. McLean; includes an essay, "Medieval: The Grand Synthesis", by McInerny) (1997)
• Ethica Thomistica: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1997)
• What Went Wrong with Vatican II?: The Catholic Crisis Explained (1998)
• Aquinas and Analogy, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (1999)
• Praeambula Fidei, Washington: Catholic University of America Press (2006)
• Dante and the Blessed Virgin (2010)

Biography

• The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain: A Spiritual Life (2003)
• I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes (2006)
• Some Catholic Writers (2006)
• The Defamation of Pope Pius XII (2001)

Instruction

• Let's Write a Novel (1993)
• Let's Write Short Stories (1993)
• Let's Read Latin: Introduction to the Language of the Church (1995)
• Characters in Search of Their Author: The Gifford Lectures, 1999–2000 (delivered at the University of Glasgow) (2001)

External links

• Works by or about Ralph McInerny in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• McInerny Center for Thomistic Studies
• Ralph McInerny - Daily Telegraph obituary
• The University of Notre Dame, Jacques Maritain Center - Obituary by John O'Callaghan
• Biography and summary of Gifford Lectures, "Characters in Search of Their Author" (University of Glasgow, 1999–2000), by Dr Brannon Hancock