Annenberg School mourns the passing of Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

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The Annenberg School for Communication mourns the loss Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, former Scholarly Director of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands Institutions of Democracy project and Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School, who died of lung cancer on May 13. Joining the faculty of Yale University in 1962, he served as Sterling Professor of History and Religious Studies. He was dean of the Yale Graduate School from 1975 to 1978. In a distinguished career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Pelikan served the academy as one of the world's leading scholars in the history of Christianity. He authored nearly 40 publications, including "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine" in five volumes (University of Chicago Press, 1971-1989); "The Riddle of Roman Catholicism" (Abingdon, 1959); and a multivolume English edition of Martin Luther's writings. He was also a bestselling author among general readers with books like "The Illustrated Jesus Through the Centuries" (1997), and "Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture" (1996). He was a former president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was appointed by Bill Clinton to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He was awarded more than 40 honorary degrees. In 1983 he delivered the Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities; in 1992-93 and 1993-94 he gave the Gifford lectures in Scotland. Pelikan edited the religion section of Encyclopedia Britannica, and in 1980 founded the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. In 2004, Dr. Pelikan received the Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences from the Library of Congress. The Kluge Prize, created in 2003, honors achievement in fields not covered by the Nobel Prizes. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center commented, "The academy has lost one of its most distinguished scholars. We are fortunate that, at the Ambassador's suggestion, he spent part of his post-retirement career teaching at the Annenberg School. As those who attended his lectures, read his work, or took his classes quickly realized, he was a Renaissance scholar and an exemplary person, the best of the best." Dr. Pelikan's obituary, published in the New York Times, can be found here.