Will Herberg: A Tribute

When classifying the varieties of a product (wine, cheese, book, cattle, soldier) in their orderly way, the French sometimes place one item under the designation, hors catégorie: outside of, beyond, any class or category; special, uniquely individual. We say a man is a lawyer, doctor, farmer, mechanic, or parson. In doing so we are telling something about this individual man but at the same time affirming that he is the same as many other men belonging to the class in which we have placed him. As we read these essays about Will Herberg, written by friends and colleagues who knew Will and his works for many years, that French phrase somehow swam into sight. Will Herberg was hors catégorie. After knowing him even briefly, you never found yourself saying or thinking, “He reminds me of X,” or “Isn’t he a lot like Y?” He wasn’t like anyone at all except Will Herberg.

For convenience you might say that Will Herberg was a theologian, a trade union official, a philosopher, an ex-revolutionary, a lecturer, a conservative, a scholar, a teacher, a liberal. For those who knew him, none of these standardized terms seems to get very far. “Philosopher” couldn’t prepare you for his relentless sense of fact that no abstractions ever diverted. Who would imagine that a profound Jewish theologian could be a no less profound Christian theologian? No respectable conservative could have such liberal views on labor. How could a contemporary scholar be a scholar of everything? Abstractions seemed too thin, too wide-meshed, when applied to Will Herberg; he couldn’t be caught in their net. Will was hors catégorie.

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When classifying the varieties of a product (wine, cheese, book, cattle, soldier) in their orderly way, the French sometimes place one item under the designation, hors catégorie: outside of, beyond, any class or category; special, uniquely individual. We say a man is a lawyer, doctor, farmer, mechanic, or parson. In doing so we are telling something about this individual man but at the same time affirming that he is the same as many other men belonging to the class in which we have placed him. As we read these essays about Will Herberg, written by friends and colleagues who knew Will and his works for many years, that French phrase somehow swam into sight. Will Herberg was hors catégorie. After knowing him even briefly, you never found yourself saying or thinking, “He reminds me of X,” or “Isn’t he a lot like Y?” He wasn’t like anyone at all except Will Herberg.

For convenience you might say that Will Herberg was a theologian, a trade union official, a philosopher, an ex-revolutionary, a lecturer, a conservative, a scholar, a teacher, a liberal. For those who knew him, none of these standardized terms seems to get very far. “Philosopher” couldn’t prepare you for his relentless sense of fact that no abstractions ever diverted. Who would imagine that a profound Jewish theologian could be a no less profound Christian theologian? No respectable conservative could have such liberal views on labor. How could a contemporary scholar be a scholar of everything? Abstractions seemed too thin, too wide-meshed, when applied to Will Herberg; he couldn’t be caught in their net. Will was hors catégorie.