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Distinguished Christian historian, Yale professor emeritus to speak at St. Olaf commencement

By Amy Gage
May 23, 2003

Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and a well-known author and distinguished theological scholar, will be commencement speaker at St. Olaf College in May 2003. Commencement ceremonies will be held Sunday, May 25, at 2:30 p.m. on Manitou Field, weather permitting.

Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan
Pelikan
Pelikan, 79, has strong personal and professional ties to St. Olaf, including an honorary degree he was awarded by the college in 1972. His elder son, Marty Pelikan '80, is a longtime staff member at St. Olaf, currently serving as director of national programming and new ventures at WCAL (Classical 89.3), the college's public radio service. His second son, Michael, is a 1979 graduate of the college, and his grandson Matt Pelikan, Marty's son, will graduate from St. Olaf this spring.

"Unto the Third and Fourth Generations" is the working title of Dr. Pelikan's commencement address.

Among the world's leading scholars in the history of Christianity, Pelikan has authored more than 30 books, including the five-volume The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (1971-89). He taught at Yale from 1962 until his retirement in 1996 and was dean of the university's graduate school from 1973 to 1978. Pelikan also has held faculty positions at Valparaiso University, Concordia Seminary and the University of Chicago.

He is the John W. Kluge Scholar at the Library of Congress and immediate past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pelikan also is a distinguished visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication in Philadelphia. "He's been teaching ever since his retirement," Marty Pelikan notes.

Known in the popular press for works such as Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture and Mary Through the Centuries, Pelikan currently is finishing the ambitious Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, which he is co-editing with Valerie Hotchkiss. The five-volume work, to be published in April by Yale University Press, assembles the principal statements of faith of the Christian church, from biblical times to the present and from all over the globe, and places them in their historical and theological context.

Born in 1923 in Akron, Ohio, Pelikan distinguished himself from the beginning of his academic career. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago at age 22 in December 1946, six months after he was married and ordained as a Lutheran minister. Pelikan graduated from Concordia (Junior) College at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1942 and from Concordia Seminary at St. Louis in 1946, the same year he earned his doctoral degree. He has been awarded honorary degrees from 40 seminaries, colleges and universities around the world, including the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the University of Hamburg, Tulane University and Southern Methodist University.

He has earned more than a dozen awards and medals, including the Shaw Medal from Boston College in 1984, and held offices in the American Society of Church History, the American Philosophical Society, the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S.-Czechoslovak Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, among other professional organizations.

For y ears an avid sailor, Pelikan also enjoys football games (especially at Yale), walking in the woods, weekly performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and music events the world over. "He has quite a way with barbecued ribs," Marty Pelikan says, "and can turn out an incredible omelette."

Dr. Pelikan has been married to Sylvia Burica Pelikan for 56 years. They have three grown children, including a daughter, Miriam, and reside in Hamden, Conn.

St. Olaf College, a national leader among liberal arts institutions, fosters the development of mind, body and spirit. It is a residential college in Northfield, Minn., and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college provides personalized instruction and diverse learning environments, with nearly two-thirds of its students participating in international studies.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.