(The following is an expanded version of a memorial published in the Oct. 13, 2010, issue of PAW.)

Lew Mudge, Christian theologian, professor, and ethicist, died Sept. 11, 2009, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., at the age of 79.

He was Robert Leighton Stuart Professor of Theology emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, Calif., and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and devoted most of his professional life to ecumenical dialogue within the Christian church and interfaith discussions among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. He was regarded as one of the foremost ecumenical theologians and theological ethicists. His last book, The Gift of Responsibility: The Promise of Dialogue Among Christians, Jews and Muslims (2008) promotes interreligious dialogue among people of the three Abrahamic faiths to find a common ground for mutual understanding and collective action in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the ongoing strife in the Middle East.

From 1975 to 1987, Lew was dean of the seminary and professor of theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. On the faculty of Amherst College from 1962 to 1975, he served as minister to the college as well as professor and chair of the philosophy and religion department.   During this time he also was actively involved in the civil rights movement, leading students to the South for voter registration and joining Dr. Martin Luther King in the march in Selma, Ala. From 1965 to 1976, Lew and his family lived in the Emily Dickinson Homestead (now the Dickinson Museum), owned by Amherst College, where his wife, Jean McClure Mudge, served as resident-curator.

On a sabbatical leave from Amherst College in 1973-74, Lew studied contemporary philosophy with Paul Ricoeur at the Husserl Archive, Paris. Afterward, he wrote the introduction to selected works of Ricoeur’s Essays on Biblical Interpretation . Lew launched his professional career at the headquarters of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, where he served as secretary of the Department of Theology from 1957-1962. In the ecumenical movement, he was chair and drafter of many statements in support of church unity and greater interreligious understanding.

Lew was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1929, the son of the Rev. Lewis Seymour Mudge Sr. and Anne Evelyn Bolton. He was educated at The Haverford School and received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton summa cum laude . He served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian as an undergraduate. As a Rhodes scholar, he read theology at Oxford (1951-1954). He returned for a year of study at the Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1955. In 1961 he received a doctorate in religion from Princeton. He was twice a scholar at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton.

Lew loved to fly small airplanes and to sail his boat on San Francisco Bay. He was a talented amateur photographer, enjoyed classical music, and followed professional football and baseball.

In addition to Jean, his wife of 52 years, Lew is survived by their three children, Robert, William, and Anne, and four grandchildren.

Undergraduate Class of 1951
,
Graduate Class of 1961