Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
James Martin, S.J.October 07, 2011

I have been both astonished and moved by the tremendous outpouring of emotion over the death of Steve Jobs, at age 56.  Mr. Jobs, as is known by anyone whose fingers ever touched a computer or held an iPhone, was a dazzlingly talented innovator who, as President Obama noted, will likely rank among the greatest of American inventors. 

Still, there have been many other gifted public figures—political leaders, business tycoons, philanthropists, researchers, scientists, writers, entertainers and inventors of other sorts—whose deaths did not touch such a chord.  Obituaries of Mr. Jobs have appeared in almost every newspaper, magazine and (of course) website; television news programs devoted hours to covering his legacy; Facebook was promptly filled with impromptu photos, collages and tributes; nearly everyone on Twitter had something to say; and the Apple store in New York City is taking on the look of a shrine. 

Some of these reactions may have to do with Mr. Jobs’ appeal to an age demographic that has grown up entirely in the digital age, an era that the Apple innovator helped to usher in. And some of the sadness is no doubt prompted by the age at which he died: 56 is still young, even to the young. 

But this is only part of the story.  As someone who has written on the saints, I found that the coverage of his death, and the way his life is being retold, seemed oddly familiar.  Why did people's reactions—photos of candles posted on Facebook pages; cartoons with Mr. Jobs speaking to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates; flowers laid before Apple stores--remind me of what happens following the death of a saint?  Why did the coverage in most venues seem, for want of a better word, worshipful? A few reasons suggest themselves, and a few intersections between the life of Mr. Jobs and the lives of the saints seem apparent.  And no, before we continue: I'm not suggesting that he was a saint.  But consider...

1.) He was a visionary.  Anyone who could create, almost singlehandedly, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, possessed what we commonly call great “vision.”  But of course this is the precise language used for the gifts of the mystics.  In the Christian tradition, people like St. Bernadette Soubirous, the 19th-century young woman who saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the town of Lourdes, are called “visionaries.”  Often, admirers of the visionary are drawn not only to the vision itself (in one case, a glimpse of the divine; in the other, the promise of instant communication); we are also drawn to the person himself or herself, who offers the possibility that mortals can “see” in new ways.  Christian mystics are granted visions of--depending on the saint--Jesus, God the Father or Mary: rare entrees into a world most of us cannot “access.”  They are revered for this privilege, marking them as one of the elect.  The one who sees calls to our desire to see more.

2.) He was the object of a cult.  By this I don’t mean the common definition of a “cult” (a group of crazies surrounding an even crazier leader).  Rather, the “cult” that surrounds the saint (and that is the term used) is simply a group of admirers who follow carefully the saint’s teachings, study his or life and meditate on his or her writings.  After Mr. Jobs’s death, I asked a friend who works for a large website to explain the seemingly outsized reactions, and he pointed to the devoted consumers who followed Apple’s latest rollouts, religiously, as it were.  This kind of “cult” is not too far from the lives of the saints, in which their every utterance and act is eagerly anticipated.  During their lifetimes, cults grew up around figures like Padre Pio, the 20th-century stigmatic from Italy, as well as more recent holy persons like Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.  Something in us responds to the charismatic figure; something in us wants to “follow” that person’s words, thoughts or, in the case of Mr. Jobs, his creations.

3.) He was unique.  The radical personality who bucks the system is a key feature of the lives of the saints, and is often deeply attractive to us, perhaps because it underlines the value of our individuality.  One of the most widely quoted of Mr. Jobs comments was an encouragement to reject “dogma.”  “Think Different,” was Apple’s famous motto. 

Ironically, many of the great Christian saints clung to dogma, which is not quite as restrictive as Mr. Jobs might have suspected.  Dogma, or a codified system of belief, can be not only liberating but an engine of individuality. Mother Teresa, for example, (now Blessed Teresa of Calcutta) left her old religious order and way of life to found a new one, the Missionaries of Charity, which served the “poorest of the poor” in Calcutta.  But first she had to win over her former religious superior, her bishop and the Vatican.  At first those in authority resisted, but she won them over by, in effect, inviting them to “think different.”  The most recently canonized American saint, Mother Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, faced opposition from her local bishop (who threatened ejecting her from her own religious order) before she was able to attain autonomy in 19th-century Indiana.  In their uniqueness, often won at a high price in the face of the “status quo,” the saints remind us of the inherent human dignity of the individual.  As the Catholic theologian Karl Rahner said, the saint shows us what it means to be a Christian in this particular way.  Or in this different way.

4.) He was human.  Apparently, Steve Jobs was not the easiest person to work with.  Nor was he always kind.  The New York Times noted his asperity when dealing with Apple’s competitor, Microsoft, “The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste,” he said. “They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products." Sometimes the saint is loved not simply for his closeness to God but for his patent humanity.  The saint has a temper, flies off the handle, loses his or her cool in pursuit of a great ideal.  St. Jerome, the first translator of the Bible into Latin, was famously irascible, once writing that one of his detractors "walked like a tortoise."  To take another example, St. Peter is beloved not only because he was a great apostle, but for his many flaws: denying Jesus three times before the crucifixion, among them.  Holiness makes its home in humanity.  That insight says, “They’re not perfect.  Maybe I could aspire to this level of achievement.”

5.) He gave us something we didn’t know we needed.  Saints offered their followers something new: an innovative way to follow God in a particular place and time.  Some saints show their admirers new ways to pray, or new modes to serve the poor or, more broadly, new ways to live out the Gospel.  The founders of the great religious orders all did this in one way or another.  They met a need that they were able to identify with more clarity than those around them.  Mr. Jobs, clearly, offered what consumers needed: Apple’s revenues show that.  And he did so, apparently, with no market research. The customer, he said, does not know what he needs.  Likewise, no one in the 14th century knew that the Catholic church needed a group of men and women entirely devoted to poverty, until St. Francis of Assisi stepped onto the world stage. 

6.) He was mysterious.  Like many of the saints, Steve Jobs showed a youthful precocity that would not only serve him well in later life but marked him as a remarkable individual at an early age.  The lives of the saints are filled with legendary stories of youthful promise: St. Nicholas of Myra, in the fourth century, is said to have stood up in the baptismal font while still an infant—and, in some retellings, preached a homily!  Such stories create an air of mystery surrounding the person. 

Later, Mr. Jobs kept the public at bay, offering only rare glimpses of his private life, particularly in later years.  This made his rare public appearances—for example, during the launch of a new Apple products—more exciting.  Many of the saints, though human, seem removed from us.  Their life of prayer, their inner life, always remains something of a mystery. 

7.) He was, in his own way, a spiritual man.  In the end, Mr. Jobs’ appeal may be closer to that of the saints than we might think.  “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me ... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me,” he said.  That quote could have come from many of the lives of the saints.  And in his Stanford University commencement speech in 2005, he spoke explicitly on a topic that even some religious leaders avoid today: death.  “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share.” Here is one clear intersection between the saint and Mr. Jobs: he spoke about spiritual matters. 

By no means—to quote St. Paul--am I suggesting that Steve Jobs was a saint.  De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, as they say, but a few who worked with him have spoken of his less-than-saintly actions. Yet for those scratch their heads at the online tributes, the lives of the saints can help explain the powerful appeal of this creative genius.  Likewise, the grief over Mr. Jobs’s passing may explain to those more familiar with iPhones than icons something about the appeal of the saints.

James Martin, SJ

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Beth Cioffoletti
12 years 5 months ago
And, he was true to who he was and what he was called to be - the cornerstone of all sainthood, I think.  This quote from his 2005 speech to the Stanford graduating class captures it:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
ANNALEE HULBURT
12 years 5 months ago
i don't know anyone who says De mortuis nihil nisi bonum...translation?
i'll translate for you too: iphone, ipad, ipod...little i's please ;) 
Jeffrey Pinyan
12 years 5 months ago
Lee, "De mortuis nihil nisi bonum" taken literally is "of the dead, nothing except (the) good." Idiomatically, it means "[speak] nothing but good things of the dead."
Vince Killoran
12 years 5 months ago
I don't write this often but I agree with Brett!  Jobs view of technology was pretty one dimensional.

I'm sorry to read of his death and I know people are lionizing him this week but I thought Jobs-a very smart guy-wasn't particularly thoughtful about the large social and political issues of the day. That's fine if he just kept to himself but he was a public figure. A driven individualist really. I wonder how he might have turned out if he had stuck with whatever philosophy or history course Reed College had required of him.

Crystal Watson
12 years 5 months ago
I posted something about him on my own blog when I read that he had died, I guess because I did feel a certain connection to him.  I don't have an iPod or iPhone, but all my computers have been macs and I've appreciated their quality. I also recognize some of his ealy experiences -  growing up in northern California, dropping out of college, studying Buddhism, his interest in art, LSD, his messed up relationships.  He did well not because he had a wealthy family or because he went to the top  schools or because  he always made the best choisces, but because he refused to give up on doing what he loved.
SR DONNA FANNON MHSH
12 years 5 months ago
Thank you for this insightful article.  A good illustration of seeing through the secular into the mysterious.
ANNALEE HULBURT
12 years 5 months ago
Thanks for the translation, Jeffrey.

I was just extrapolating his influence further, based on David's comment about Jobs puttting a human face on computers.  Would all these tech driven human rights revolutions occurred without the necessary communication platforms, that derived from Jobs inventions???  whoa...that's a lot of action...just something to think about....
Joseph Curtin
12 years 5 months ago
I don't know much about Steve Jobs, but I do know something about Apple.
In the 1980s, Apple computers were faster than ''PCs'', thanks to Motorola CPUs, and were a boon to the graphics industry. However, In the 1990s, as more and more software was developed for the generic ''PC'' which ran on Windows, and as Intel increased the speed of its CPUs, the technical gap between Apple products and the generic ''PC'' disappeared.
At computer shows, where I bought my first PC systems, I could put together a great system for one-third the price of an Apple product. As you entered the computer shows, you would usually see a sign that said ''NO MAC'', not because they had a prejudice against Apple products, but because there was no interest in Apple products among the penny-wise techies who attended those shows.
At one of my places of employment, I watched as dozens of Apple systems were replaced by generic ''PCs'', because the cost of Apple products was outlandish.
Finally, Apple had to give in to the ''PC'' world, and abandoned Motorola and embraced Intel. In order to boost its market share, it even had to ensure that Windows could run on the MAC operating system.
I have never owned an Apple product, preferring instead generic and inexpensive alternatives. I don't even know who built the PC I am currently running - all I know is that it is a ''generic PC clone'' which will run on Intel or AMD CPUs, is more than fast enough for my needs, has enough memory, and only cost a few hundre dollars.
Apple wisely changed its name from Apple Computer to plain old Apple, perhaps seeing that its future was not in computers, but in gadgets that people don't realize they need.
There are many people who swear by Apple, but I have never been able to figure out why. There seems to be no logical reason.
BARBARA LEE
12 years 5 months ago
One thing we have learned since Vatican II is that a person need not be officially canonized by the Church to be good, visionary, a role model, a benefactor to many, an inspiration. 
C Walter Mattingly
12 years 5 months ago
It is very interesting to see how Jobs is one US billionaire that the liberal left and conservative right have openly praised. Aside from him being hip, techies are directly familiar with the product innovations he has led at Apple: iPods, iPhones, tablets, computers, etc. Fact is, billionaires such as Jobs and Gates have contributed far more to the economy than they have received in jobs (no pun intended) created and the wealth and competitiveness of the nation. Yet all the qualities enumerated by Fr Martin above would apply equally well to Sam Walton, the difference being that it is estimated Walton's low-margined, high-volume retailing lowered the cost of groceries and consumables 10% for lower income Americans who really need to stretch their food and retail dollars, whereas Jobs, whose Apple products are dear, directed his efforts more toward yuppies and the upper income segments.

True, there are surly billionaires such as Rupert Murdock and downright criminals convicted of felonies who make their money undermining the currency of nations such as George Soros, but the US is on the whole lucky to have these top .0001% earners who have generated jobs and wealth for the country. And in Jobs, the young in particular recognize this value. 

In addition and of particular interest to Catholics such as the Jesuits who have as a carism Catholic education, Jobs, much more so than most here at America in recent times, was an outspoken supporter of school vouchers for inner city children suffering from chronically failing public schools. 
Denise Morency Gannon
12 years 5 months ago
To live with the saints in heaven: that's eternal glory. 
To live with the saints on earth: that's another story.  

Just had to find the mirth within the story. 

The latest from america

Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, coordinator of military chaplains for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is pictured in a 2018 photo.
When reflecting on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord while living in a state of military invasion and active war, “everything becomes more authentic,” and “God ceases to be just a concept,” says Andriy Zelinskyy, S.J. “He really becomes a source of life and all hope for you and for
PreachMarch 17, 2024
One study showed Catholics donated the least amount of money of all denominations surveyed.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 15, 2024
Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera and Teresa Morris Kettlekamp will lead the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Gerard O’ConnellMarch 15, 2024
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that exemptions that allow religious organizations to avoid paying Wisconsin’s unemployment tax don’t apply to a Catholic charitable organization.