Harvard's Krister Stendhal Died, Liberal to the Close
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (06/10/08)
Harvard Divinity School’s Krister Stendahl died on April 15, 2008. He was the former Dean and Mellon Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard. He died at 86.
When I first entered his classroom in 1961, I saw a Lutheran pastor with clerical collar standing in front of the students. He was thin and dramatic. He was humorous and quick with a smile. Later on I spied him traveling around campus and Cambridge avenues on his treasured bicycle. It was a favorite transport mode.
Stendahl became a kind of saint to HDS, no doubt because of the long time he was attached to the mystic of that archliberal seminary. After all, it had to be liberal for when I asked my Greek professor his definition of God, he replied; “She’s green.” That was it. End of discussion.
Stendahl’s colleagues were of that genre.
As an evangelical, I learned early on to keep my mouth shut. What I believed and testified to was anathema at HDS. Unitarianism was posh and in power. It is more so there today.
Therefore, when the present issue of the Harvard Divinity Bulletin published “A Look Back” regarding this professor, I could not help but wonder seriously about the sincerity of his words printed from a sermon he delivered in 1984.
Stendahl stated: “That is why Harvard Divinity School’s biblical departments have such a great gift to give to us all. For here we sure are strong in demonstrating the diversity of the various theologies within the Bible.”
How incorrect could he be?
HDS was not known for its “demonstrating the diversity of the various theologies within the Bible.” It was and is known for its utter and unapologetic bias toward liberal theology in every aspect of the school’s teaching and lifestyle.
The evangelical, theologically conservative position does not stand a chance in the “diversity of the various theologies.” It simply does not.
And Stendahl knew that in 1984 and the HDS staff knows that this very day. That includes the editor of the Harvard Divinity Bulletin who permitted that misstatement to be printed in the Spring 2008 issue.
HDS represents to the nth degree the political correctness of North America. That political correctness has become the continent’s rabid fundamentalism. The liberal religion is mean. It is close-minded. It is hyper. It is so extremely prejudiced that it can rise up in blind rage when a conservative theologian seeks a balanced standing alongside liberal theologians.
With his liberalism being taught to countless students since he started in 1954 at HDS, I wonder where Stendahl is today, now that he has left the Earth.
Could it have been that in his “diversity of the various theologies within the Bible” he came upon the broken heart needed to discover Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father?
Could it be that this professor put down his hubris long enough to repent of his sins, confess his wrongs to the only Redeemer in all human history?
Could it be that Stendahl called out for Christ’s mercy and grace, experiencing personal salvation according to the Bible’s gospel message?
Somehow I doubt that any of the above took place. And that is a deep, genuine sadness in my own heart for I truly was fascinated by Stendahl in some unique kind of fashion.
There was a magnetism about him that was delightfully attractive. But at the base of it all was the usual dead theological liberalism that does nothing but push eternal souls further away from Christ.
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