William A. Christian Sr., the John A. Hoober Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, died of a stroke on Aug. 9 at his home in Hamden, Connecticut. He was 92 years old.
A specialist in the philosophy of religion, Professor Christian authored several renowned books on that topic: "Meaning and Truth in Religion," analyzing the logic of religious thinking; "An Interpretation of Whitehead's Metaphysics," on the work of British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead; and "Doctrines of Religious Communities: A Philosophical Study," about how religious doctrines interrelate. The latter was written when the scholar was in his 80s.
"What distinguished William Christian was a most conscientious integrity in his personal life as well as in his scholarly work," says Professor Christian's long-time colleague and friend Louis Dupre, the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of Religious Studies. "Having known him well for almost a quarter of a century, I have never heard him make an inconsiderate judgment. The same honesty transpires in his three major works about the philosophy of religion.
"With him disappears a scholar endowed with the high intellectual and moral virtues we tend to expect from the scholar, but which few among us academicians can pride ourselves of actually possessing," Professor Dupre adds.
Gene Outka, the Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics, notes that the late professor was "known for the precision and concision of his thought and prose style ... In his teaching and personal manner, no less than in his writings, he combined seriousness, rigor and grace. His colleagues and students respected and loved him."
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Professor Christian was educated at Davidson College, where he received an A.B. in 1927, and at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he earned a B.D. in 1930. He did graduate work at the University of Edinburgh, Oxford University and Chicago Theological Seminary before coming to Yale to earn his Ph.D. in 1942. His first teaching position was at Smith College, where he taught 1937-51. He was appointed to the Yale faculty as an associate professor in 1951, became a full professor in 1962 and was named to the Hoober chair in 1971. On his retirement in 1974, colleagues from Yale and other institutions in the United States, Canada, and England held a symposium in his honor.
He is survived by a sister, Edith Christian Powell of Austin, Texas; daughters Louise W. Christian of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and Edith C. Minear of Amherst, Massachusetts; son William A. Christian Jr. of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; and five grandchildren. His wife, Rena Grubb, predeceased him in 1985.