About the reporter Lauren Crowley is the web editor for the Wilson Center. Cardinals Rev. Avery Dulles, the first American theologian named to the College of Cardinals, was a fellow at the Wilson Center in 1977. He was invited to the Center by then director James H. Billington and spent his time working on Models of Revelation , one of 21 books that he has written. Dulles shared some of his memories from his time at the Center as well as his thoughts on his recent appointment with the Center's web editor. Most of the scholars were working on questions related to international affairs, but I found it interesting to meet with them because I have some backround in that area even though my own project was strictly theological.
Dulles indeed has a background in international affairs, descending from a long line of statesmen.
During the Eisenhower administration, his father, John Foster Dulles, served as secretary of state while his uncle, Allen W. Dulles, was the CIA director. His great-grandfather had also been a secretary of state, as had Robert Lansing, a great uncle. But Dulles chose a different path. I suppose I didn't want to compete with them, but I knew my interests weren't in the same direction. A self-professed agnostic in 1936, Dulles entered Harvard, studying medieval art, philosophy, and theology.