Background

James Gregory Keller was born on June 27, 1900 in Oakland, California, United States, the son of James Keller and Margaret Selby. His father owned and operated a haberdashery shop. In 1910, at one of the religious instruction classes that Keller attended in preparation for his first communion, he was greatly influenced by the remark of a parish curate that of the boys present, one of them "may become a priest someday and do some good for the world. "

Education

By the time Keller was twelve, he had decided to become a priest, and he was accepted at St. Patrick's Minor Seminary (high school) in Menlo Park, California, in 1914. During the spring of 1918, his senior year, Keller's vocation was temporarily suspended when he left school to work in an uncle's candy store. However, by the summer he had decided to return to the seminary, and after catching up on his school work, he entered St. Patrick's Major Seminary in the fall. As a seminarian, Keller was impressed by talks delivered by members of the Maryknoll Missionary Society, which had been founded in 1911, and by the spring of 1921 he had decided to become a Maryknoll missioner. His bishop gave permission for the change, and the Maryknoll Society accepted his application; in 1921, Keller began his studies at the Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining, New York. In 1924 his Maryknoll superiors sent him to Catholic University to study for a master's degree in medieval history; he received his Bachelor of Sacred Theology from this institution in 1924 and his Master of Arts degree in 1925. On August 15, 1925, he was ordained a priest at his parish church in Oakland by Archbishop Edward J. Hanna of San Francisco.

Career

From 1925 to 1930 Keller was stationed at Maryknoll House in San Francisco, where he publicized Maryknoll activities, recruited candidates, and solicited funds: he was also managing editor of the society's magazine, The Field Afar. Although he never served in the foreign mission fields, he did visit some of these areas, such as China and Korea, in 1928 in the entourage of Auxiliary Bishop John J. Dunn, director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith of the archdiocese of New York.

In January 1931 he was transferred to New York City to open and direct a Maryknoll center; his activities included numerous speaking engagements promoting Maryknoll's work as well as fund-raising. In 1933, while organizing a benefit concert for the society at the Metropolitan Opera House, Keller beheld the light of a single match in the dark auditorium and was reminded of the ancient Chinese saying that was to become the motto of the future Christopher movement: "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. " In 1943, Keller, with the assistance of New York Times reporter Meyer Berger, wrote his first book, Men of Maryknoll, in which he presented the heroic accomplishments of his colleagues in the foreign missions. Two years later Keller founded the ecumenical Christopher movement and devoted the next quarter-century, until his retirement in 1969, to its development.

The term Christopher is derived from the Greek meaning "Christ-bearer, " which indicates the missionary orientation of the organization. The structure of the Christopher movement was simple. There were no membership lists, meetings, or dues because individual responsibility and action were the basic themes. In 1946 the publication of the four-page Christopher News Notes began. By the end of the year the circulation amounted to 45, 000 copies and kept increasing, reaching about 1 million in the early 1960's. In 1947, Keller launched a writing contest with a prize of $15, 000 for fiction and nonfiction works that were not antagonistic to "Christian principles. " In 1948 the first of Keller's some twenty-five books on Christopher topics, You Can Change the World, which embraced many of the themes and concepts in the News Notes, was published. A year later, Three Minutes a Day appeared; it contained daily meditations directed toward motivating people to be active rather than passive in dealing with modern world problems. The publisher of this book sent a copy to the Bell Syndicate, recommending it become the basis for a daily column; eventually three hundred dailies published such a column under the above title.

In 1954, Keller offered a one-minute program titled "Christopher Thoughts for the Day, " free to radio stations across the country, and in just under a decade 1, 900 stations were broadcasting it. Earlier, Keller had begun using motion pictures to circulate the Christopher message; the first film, You Can Change the World, was directed by Leo McCarey and featured such stars as Jack Benny, Eddie ("Rochester") Anderson, and Bing Crosby. By 1952 television programs were being developed, and by the beginning of the next decade some five hundred Christopher programs had been made and shown weekly on almost three hundred stations, reaching an estimated audience of approximately 3 million. Keller also initiated the Christopher Awards, presented each year for books, motion pictures, and television productions.

Although a Maryknoll missioner, Keller never worked in the foreign mission field. Instead he spent many of the years since his ordination raising funds for and speaking in behalf of the Maryknoll society, first in California and then in New York City. During the last thirty years of his life he turned his attention via the Christopher movement to motivating and stimulating "the individual" from all walks of life to use his or her talents to do good and thus combat evil. In a sense his mission field became all the people of the United States, and he was very successful reaching people and delivering his message of individual initiative and responsibility in promoting Christian principles and the "highest human good. " He did this in a world torn by the effects of World War II and the spread of Communism.

Achievements

• James Gregory Keller was known as the founder and leader of worldwide movement "The Christophers". He started Christopher News Notes, radio and television programs and a daily newspaper column. He produced many books to spread his Christopher message and in doing so served as a Christopher role model for all individuals in all fields of endeavor. His book "You Can Change the World", published in 1948, was a best seller in the United States.

Works

More photos

• book

  • One Moment Please! Christopher Daily Guides to Better Living

    (Each of us - no matter what his status - has within him, ...)

  • All God's children: What your schools can do for them

    (Clean solid book in clean unclipped dust jacket. Blue clo...)

  • Give Us This Day: A Christopher Thought for Each Day of the Year

    (Hardcover Book with dust jacekt)

  • Just for today;: A Christopher thought for every day of the year

    (precious)

  • Government is your business (Angelus books)
  • To light a candle. The autobiography of James Keller
  • The Priest and a World Vision
  • Careers that change your world;: Christopher guides for jobs that make the future
  • It's Your Day
  • Stop, Look and Live: A Story for Each Day of the Year to Bring Out the Power Within You

Views

Keller wanted "to make every person a missioner"; he advocated individual initiative and responsibility to upgrade human values in all fields of human activity, especially those areas that have maximum influence on the public: government, literature, education, labor-management relations, and entertainment. He argued that only 1 percent of human beings promoted evil in the world; he called for "another 1 percent" to promote good and positive activities.

Quotations: "Putting up with the weaknesses of old age is a novelty for me. But it is a good way to get ready for heaven. "

Connections

Father:

James Keller

Mother:

Margaret Selby

References

• Out To Change the World