(born October 19, 1930 – died December 25, 2016) was a Jesuit priest, theologian, philosopher, educator, author, raconteur, and Professor Emeritus of Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Having reached the mandatory age, he retired from the Gregorian, returned to the Society's Oregon Province, and taught at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.

His interests in research, writing, and teaching never led him to an official administrative position at the Gregorian, but in the earlier years of his tenure there, the University lacked a formal organization for institutional development, and Navone began informal work along those lines.

Their work is compatible with and accessible to some of the most exciting developments in American social scientific and humanistic thinking at the present time and has immediate practical implications for homiletics, catechetics and apologetics.

[6] As of 2010, Navone has involved himself with teaching a course of Thomistic philosophy and theology for the Catholic Studies program of the History Department of Gonzaga University, where he serves as an adjunct professor.

Of Navone's twenty-three books, five have been associated with the development of narrative theology and the work of Bernard Lonergan, his teacher and eventual colleague at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Gesa E Thiessen [Theological Aesthetics: A Reader (London: SCM, 2004)] ranks Navone among 95 contributors to this field from the time of Justin Martyr in 165.

[8][9] Father Navone has been quoted in books and major media, which illuminates his career as a theologian as well as his love for people, the humanities, and nature.

From Time cover story "In Search of a Pope":[12] Father Navone, an American who teaches at the Jesuits' Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, says such perplexities "no longer can be solved by a one-man fiat.

The new Pope must avail himself of the wisdom of the church by calling a Vatican III to resolve the monumental doctrinal, disciplinary and moral problems."

From Time cover story "Who was Jesus"[13] Says Father John Navone of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome: "A kind of intellectualist bias has grown up: unless you are aware of the very latest academic theory about the Bible, you might as well not read it.

Father Navone as quoted in Life Magazine:[15] For the "Greg," as its students calls it, is the Church's Oxbridge, Sorbonne and Yale-Harvard, all combined in one.

Father Navone was featured in a 1989 Times article:[17] Under the guise of obedience to the US church – which is so tolerant of those who criticize basic items of faith –they (dissidents) can attack teaching from Rome, and still appear to be good Catholics.

As Father John Navone, of the Gregorian University of Rome says, this will have the effect of eliminating from theology all Vatican teaching that is not declared infallible.

"To do the opposite," says Father Navone, "to prize dissent and contradiction for their own sake, is often to author theology that is immediately appealing, but is likely to die on the vine.

Father Navone said the university may appear quieter today, in comparison to the ferment of 1970, because "many of the things that were once considered startling new changes have just become part of life here.

Navone, who is an American, said the findings (of the Pew survey) were meaningless without a clearer definition of religion, and he strongly contested the suggestion that Italian people were not spiritual.

He assailed what he called the "crackpots" in U.S. fundamentalist Protestantism, who he said were inciting war in the Middle East "because they think it will hasten the second coming of Christ.

"[20] Shortly after the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the Papacy, Barry James interviewed Father Navone and submitted the article containing the following quotation to The Australian:[21] A longtime Jesuit theologian in Rome said today Pope Benedict XVI will be a clear doctrinal teacher who will attempt to reaffirm the Roman Catholic Church's roots in Europe and end what he called the "dumbing down" of Christian faith.

Reverend Navone said the choice of the Pope's name taps deep into the roots of European culture and probably was intended to refer to Saint Benedict of Nursia, the 6th-century founder of the Benedictine Order, which preserved Christian civilization and writing through the Dark Ages."

The new pope, who warned about the "dictatorship of relativism" in a homily before entering the conclave, "is going to clarify the meaning of Christianity and Catholicism," for teachers in Catholic universities.

Reverend Navone said German thought brought a profound theological tradition to the Church, but that the pope "has probably the best sense of history and culture" of all the cardinals.

Navone and others suggest that the planned visit to Cuba may accelerate the pace of change in that country, just as the ties with Libya may allow the diplomatically isolated Gadhafi means to re-establish dialogue with Europe and the U.S.[22] "It was at St. Michael's here in Spokane, with its superb instructors, that I began to study philosophy and learned about what I call ‘The Life of the Mind.’"[23] 1966 History and Faith in the Thought of Dr. Alan Richardson (London: SCM), 161 pages.

1963 "The Patriarchs of Faith, Hope, Love," April 1963 "In Our Image and Likeness," November 1964 "The Parable of the Banquet," November 1965 "Leading Ideas in St. John's Gospel," November 1965 "We Have Seen His Glory," December 1968 "The Glory and Humiliation of Christ: Luke's Diptych Development, Feb 1968 "The Fatherhood of God in Luke," December 1970 "The Lucan Banquet Community," December 1971 "Time," October 1972 "The Journey Theme in Luke-Acts," February 1972 "The Apocalyptic Theology of History," March 1972 "Characteristics of Apocalyptic," April 1973 "Biblical Conflict with Magic and Sorcery," February 1973 "Speeches in Acts," March 1975 "Dreams in the Bible, November 1999 "Spiritual Journey in the New Testament," May/June 1999 "The Mountain of God," July/August 2000 "The Ungracious Refuser of Festivities," May/June 2000 "Garden and Wilderness Metaphors," September/October 2000 "The Fullness and Abundance of God," November/December 2001 "Famine, Hunger, and Thirst in the Bible," May/June 2001 "Spiritual Pedagogy in the Gospel of Mark," July/August 2002 "The Compassion of Jesus in John," March 2002 "The Compassion of Jesus in the Synoptics," July 2002 "Death, Satan and Sin," November 2003 "Preeminence Among Biblical Siblings," March 2004 "Luke-Acts and the Roman Empire," July/August 2004 "The Messianic Banquet of Wisdom," September/October 2005 "Shepherding in the Hebrew Bible," March 2006 "The Way and the Journey in Luke-Acts," March 2006 "Luke's Banquet Theme: Five Aspects," July/August 2007 "Scriptures for Remembering," May/June 2008 "Write a Gospel," January 1971 Idols of the Tribe, LXXI, July 1974 The Theology of Failure, LXXIV/5, February 1975 The Social Responsibility of Christians, LXXV/10, July 1976 Christian minimalism vs. ideological maximalism, LXXVI/7, April 1976 1980 The graves of craving and self-fulfillment, LXXXI/2, November 1986 What is "love"?, LXXXVI/6, March 1986 1987 Communicating Christ as a friend, LXXXVIII/1, October 1988 Saints for all seasons, LXXXVIII/5, February 1988 Salvation without God?

), 90/11, November 1989 Spiritual Amnesia: Identity Crisis, 91/2, February 1989 Attention Given 91/3, March 1989 Home, homelessness and homecoming 91/9, September 1990 No escape from finitude, 92/2, February 1990 No escape from finitude, 92/3, March 1998 Saint Francis and Bonaventure's vision, 100/10, October 1974 The Italian Devils of Anglo-Saxon Literature, February 1974 The Myth and Dream of Paradise, November 1984 The Sense of an Ending, January 1984 Mark's Story of the Death of Jesus, March 1987 Three Versions of Life: the pastoral, tragic and melodramatic, September 1991 The Greatest Christian Hero, Philosopher and Poet: Dawson's Italian Trinity, June 1992 Columbus was not Eichmann, March 1992 Icons and Glory, May 1993 Scripture for Christian Conversion, January 1993 Opera: The Creative Expression of Italy, September 1994 Pre-Renaissance Tuscan and Franciscan Humanism, May 1994 Siena Icon of the Common Good: Lorenzetti and Lonergan, October 1996 American Art Cultural Crisis, April 1999 Italy in the High Middle Ages ll50 - 1309, May 2003 No tradition, no civilization, February 2004 Divine and Human Hospitality, May 2006 Are There Any Catholic Theologians?.

(Oct. 27) 1960 Canada's Immigration Problems (April 23) 1962 Teenagers and the Unknown God (June 30) 1964 Noonday Land (Jan. 11) 1972 Italian Politics: More Parties than People?

(June 3) 1973 How Italian View Religion (April 23) 1989 Italy's Re-Renaissance (Dec. 1989) 1991 Fortress Europe Faces Immigrants (Dec. 7) 1988 The Real Self in Communion (Sept. 2/7) 1989 The Gospel Norm of True Love (July/Aug.

(May) 1976 The Gospel Truth as Re-Enactment (July–August XLIII/3) 1976 Personal Transformation Through the Communication of the Christ-Self (Summer 15/2) 1976 Salvation is Healing Through Enlightenment (Autumn XLV) 1976 Christotherapy: Healing Through Enlightenment (LXI/ 1) 2001 Beauty as an approach to God (March–April, 33/2) 2002 The Resurrection (March–April, 34/2) 2003 Patriarchs of Faith, Hope and Love (Jan.- Feb., 35/1) 2003 Grief and Grieving (May–June, 35/3) 2004 The Passion and Death of Jesus in John's Gospel (March–April, 36/2 1965 "Letter from Ireland," March 1966 "Memories make the future," December 1962 "The Humanity of Christ in St. Mark," July 1963 "Jeremiah: Man of God," March 1965 "God's Gifts to Our Old Testament Fathers," May 1975 "The Search for the Self: The Christ-self and the Christ-figures," 34/1, Jan. 1976 "Openness Communicating the Vision of God," 35/4, July 1979 "Write a Gospel," 38/5, Sept. 1980 "Four Gospels: Four Stages of Christian Maturation,"39/4, July 1981 "Bipolarities in Conversion," 40/3, May/June 1982 "Conversion Expressed in Dialogue and Story," 41/5, Sept./Oct.

13–16, March/April 1989 "Who the Devil Is" June 1992 "Italy: Getting Ahead in Life By the Coloratura Principle" May 21 1994 "The Geography of Nowhere Has a Chianti Counterpart" March 8 1988 "The Question-Raising Word of God", pp. 40–43.

1984 Ricordo di amore condiviso e raccontato (settembre- ottobre XXV/5) 1985 Teologia narrativa: una rassegna delle sue applicazioni (sett-ott.