Jaroslav J. Pelikan (1966-1967)

Jaroslav J. Pelikan was Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School, where he worked on the history of Christianity and Christian theology. He studied at Concordia Seminary and received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1946. After teaching at Valparaiso University, Concordia Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago, he arrived at Yale in 1962, where he stayed until his retirement in 1996. At Yale, he became the Sterling Professor of History in 1972. After retirement, Pelikan held chairs at Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. He authored a number of books, including The Vindication of Tradition (1984), and the five-volume Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Pelikan was the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences and the Jefferson Award of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1983. Under Bill Clinton, he served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He died in 2006.