Thomas W. Ogletree

Thomas Ogletree, 1933-2023

Professor Ogletree has served as dean of Yale Divinity School (1990-1996) and the Theological School at Drew University (1981-90). He was director of graduate studies in religion at Vanderbilt University (1978-1981). He is the author of five books: The World Calling: The Church’s Witness in Politics and Society; Christian Faith and History: A Critical Comparison of Ernst Troeltsch and Karl Barth; The Death of God Controversy; The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics; and Hospitality to the Stranger: Dimensions of Moral Understanding. He is coauthor of From Hope to Liberation: Towards a New Marxist-Christian Dialogue and co-editor of Lifeboat Ethics: Moral Dilemmas of World Hunger. In addition, he has published thirty-five scholarly articles in journals, encyclopedias, and essay collections. He was editor of Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal and founding editor of The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. Since 1980, he has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Religious Ethics, with one term as associate editor. He is currently a trustee as well. An ordained United Methodist minister, he has served as pastor of congregations in Alabama, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. He was the founding pastor of the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was also one of the principal drafters of the current United Methodist Disciplinary statement on doctrinal standards. Under the auspices of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship from the Society for Values in Higher Education, he pursued postdoctoral studies at the Free University in West Berlin, and at the Center for Advanced Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He is a life member of Clare Hall at Cambridge University.

Read more

• Our world does not have enough Tom Ogletrees

Books

1. The World Calling: The Church’s Witness in Politics and Society, 2004
2. Hospitality to the Stranger: Dimensions of Moral Understanding, 1985
3. The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics: A Constructive Essay, 1983
4. Christian Faith and History: A Critical Comparison of Ernst Troeltsch and Karl Barth, 1965
5. The Death of God Controversy, 1966