Occupation TheologianAuthor Role Author Name Paul Buren | Nationality American | |
Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada Books A theology of the Jewish C, According to the scriptures, Christ in our place, The secular meaning, The edges of language | ||
Paul Matthews van Buren (April 20, 1924–1998) was a Christian theologian and author. An ordained Episcopal priest, he was a Professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia for 22 years. He was a Director [NYT obituary says "Associate" ] of the Center of Ethics and Religious Pluralism at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
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He died of cancer on June 18, 1998 at age 74.
Early life
Van Buren was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. During World War II, he had served in the United States Coast Guard.
Van Buren attended Harvard College, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in government, in 1948. He then attended the Episcopal Theological School, and received a bachelor's in sacred theology in 1951. It was after this that he was ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Massachusetts. He received a Th.D. in theology in 1957 from the University of Basel in Switzerland studying under Karl Barth. A professor at Temple University, he was considered a leader of the "Death of God" school or movement, although he himself rejected that name for the movement as a "journalistic invention," and considered himself an exponent of "Secular Christianity."
Works
Below is an incomplete list of his works: