| SVU |
CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
Eminent SVU Historian Passes Away
A long-time SVU member, History Professor Emeritus Jaroslav Pelikan, a world-renowned scholar of the history of Christianity and of medieval intellectual history, died on May 13, 2006 of lung cancer at his home in Hamden. He was 82 years old.
He was born in Akron, Ohio on December 17, 1923, and joined the Yale faculty in 1962 and served as dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1978. A Sterling professor emeritus, Pelikan was a former president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994-1997) and served on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities from 1993 to 2000, after being appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Jaroslav Pelikan was the author of more than 30 books, including the five-volume work The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (1971-1989), The Riddle of Roman Catholicism (1955) and Credo: Historical and Theological Introduction to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (1994). He translated and edited the English edition of the works of Martin Luther in 22 volumes (1955-1971). He was also a best-selling author among general readers with books like The Illustrated Jesus Through the Centuries (1997), and Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture (1996).
While other historians of religion focused mostly on an era or an aspect of it, Dr. Pelikan ventured to become an authority on the gamut of Christian history. His body of work threw light on the Reformation and Medieval philosophy, Saint Augustine and Kierkegaard even as he widened church scholarship to embrace the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
He was honored with numerous awards during his career, including an invitation in 1983 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver the 12th annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. In 2004, Pelikan and French philosopher Paul Ricoeur shared the $1 million Kluge prize honoring scholars in disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes. At the age of 80, he was chosen by the Annenberg Foundation to be the scholarly director for the "Institutions of Democracy" project.
SVU honored Prof. Pelikan, who was its member from the very beginning, by electing him "SVU Fellow," the highest recognition the Society can render for member's academic achievements. It should be noted that Pelikan was offered SVU Presidency at one time but he declined because of his busy schedule, having been just named Dean of Graduate School at Yale.
Prof. Pelikan's death is a great loss to all his friends and to SVU, as a whole. God Bless His Soul!
MR
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