United Methodist theologian J. Robert Nelson dies July 16, 2004
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The Rev. J. Robert Nelson |
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NASHVILLE, Tenn.
(UMNS)-- The Rev. J. Robert Nelson, 83, a renowned United Methodist
ecumenist, theologian and bioethicist, died of cancer July 6 in Houston. Nelson’s
began his ecumenical career in 1948 with a groundbreaking dissertation
on the doctrine of the nature of the Protestant church, written after he
studied theology at the University of Zurich under the personal
tutelage of Emil Brunner. That
same year, he attended the First Assembly of the World Council of
Churches at Amsterdam, and by 1998, was one of a few individuals who had
attended all of the council’s assemblies. In
the mid-‘50s, he worked in Geneva, Switzerland, as head of the
Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches. His work
through the council was credited with enhancing relationships between
the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. After
three years as dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn.,
Nelson tendered his resignation in 1960, rather than acquiesce to the
dismissal of his black student James Lawson for participating in
civil-rights demonstrations. Lawson, now a retired United Methodist
clergyman living in California, told The Boston Globe that Nelson had
“handled the crisis with poise, Christian strength and character.” Nelson
became professor of systematic theology at Boston University School of
Theology in 1965, serving as dean in 1972-74. After his retirement from
Boston in 1985, he assumed a new career as director of the Institute on
Religion in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, where he taught
seminars and organized international conferences on genetics, religion
and ethics. Nelson
also served as adjunct professor at Baylor College of Medicine, was a
member of Houston Philosophical Society, and was associate editor of
Human Gene Therapy. His active service ended in 1991, when an unknown
assailant shot him in the head. He
served as a consultant to the President’s Commission for the Study of
Ethical Problems in Biomedical and Behaviorial Research in the mid-‘80s.
He was the author of several books, including Human Life: Biblical
Perspective on Bioethics and Science and Our Troubled Conscience. In
addition to degrees from De Pauw University, Yale University and the
University of Zurich, he received honorary degrees from Catholic,
Orthodox and United Methodist universities, and was the first
non-Catholic in 400 years to teach at the Pontifical Gregorian
University. Nelson
is survived by his wife, Patricia Mercer Nelson; two sons, Eric,
Berwyn, Pa., and William, Los Angeles, and two grandchildren. The
family is establishing a lectureship program in his honor, and asks
that any memorial contributions to endow the Nelson Lectures on
Interfaith and Ecumenical Solutions for Peace be made through St. Paul’s
United Methodist Church, 5501 S. Main Street, Houston, Texas 77004. A
July 17 memorial services was planned at the church.
News media contact Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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