Here is a list of three modern people who may be worth investigating. I strongly believe that all three of them are nonreturners (anagamis). Keep in mind my judgment is based upon insight, and a large amount of time spent with their writings.
Baron von Hügel
Friedrich von Hügel was born in Florence, Italy, in 1852, to Charles von Hügel, who was serving as Austrian ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and a Scottish mother, Elizabeth Farquharson, who was a convert to Roman Catholicism. Friedrich was educated privately, and moved with his family to England in 1867 when he was fifteen, where he remained for the rest of his life.
A self-taught biblical scholar, a linguist with a fluency in French, German and Italian as well as his adopted English, and a master of many subjects, he never held office in the Catholic Church, or an academic post, nor did he ever earn a university degree. However, he is often mentioned [...] as one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of his day.
Von Hügel remained an Austrian citizen until he found himself to be a "hostile alien" after England declared war with Austria in August 1914. He applied for naturalization and received it in December of the same year.
His scholarly concerns included the relationship of Christianity to history, ecumenism, mysticism, [and] the philosophy of religion. He was described as "the most wonderful personality... so saintly, truthful, sane and tolerant." In 1920, von Hügel received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford.
His tombstone in an English country churchyard bears the simple inscription: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?"
One of von Hügel's books,
Eternal Life, is available in full online
N. T. Wright
Tom Wright is a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a popular author on Christianity. He has written several things in the dialogue about the "historical Jesus," and he is known for defending the "conservative" interpretation of Jesus and Christianity against "liberal" theologians, who are often his friends and colleagues.
Tom Wright has some somewhat strange beliefs, in that he believes in the literal bodily resurrection of Christ, and in the eventual union of heaven and earth ("life after" life after death, he says). The reason why he resonates with me is that he has truly come to integrate the Church's dogmas, no matter how goofy they are, with his lifestyle and the way his whole self thinks and functions. He is truly an example of someone who has had his religion permeate every cell of himself, and who has been transformed by it.
Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges is an American journalist, author, and self-identified socialist. He has written several -excellent- books on the United States, on the nation's problems, and on the actions needed to remedy these problems.
Hedges was born into privilege, and originally followed his father by attending Harvard Divinity School, a home, he said, of "liberal Christianity." While there, Hedges worked for a time with inner city youth, and in one resonating incident, helped to -prosecute- several of the youth he was supposed to be helping.
This experience was important for Hedges because it clued him in on the hypocrisy of the "liberal Church," which supposedly cares for the poor and colored, but, which, in all honesty, is entirely alien to it.
Hedges later became a journalist, and after publishing a well-received book on war, went on to write what in my opinion are his more excellent books.
A theist, "but not according to fundamentalists," Hedges also finds an issue with atheist intellectuals like Richard Dawkins, who he claims can only ever engage with a "caricature" of Christianity, with people who literally believe in ridiculous things like the world being made in seven days.
