Union Theological Seminary (New York) - Former Theologians and Faculty

Former Theologians and Faculty

• William Greenough Thayer Shedd — professor of sacred literature (1863–1874) and of systematic theology (1874–1890).
• Charles Augustus Briggs – professor of Hebrew and cognate languages (1874–1891) and of Biblical theology (1891–1904); an important early leader of the Modernist movement.
• Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) – professor of Applied Christianity – Christian social ethics, author of the influential The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941), and the Serenity Prayer (popularized through the Twelve-step program).
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965) – German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher.
• James Cone, Black liberation theologian
• John Macquarrie – professor of Systematic Theology 1962–70, afterwards Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford and Canon Residentiary of Christ Church, Oxford 1970–1986.
• Robert Pollack – professor of Science and Religion
• Raymond E. Brown (1928–1998) – One of America's preeminent New Testament scholars and member of Pontificial Bible Commission was professor in UTS for 23 years.
• Edward Robinson, Biblical scholar and discoverer of Robinson's Arch and Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem.
• Henry Sloane Coffin, President of Union, and a leading theological liberal. Coffin also obtained his Bachelor of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in 1900. He declined an offer to become president of Union Theological Seminary in 1916. In 1926, offered the presidency (a second time) of Union, he accepted and retained the post until 1945.
• Dorothee Soelle Socially engaged German theologian
• Harry Emerson Fosdick – First minister of Riverside Church and professor of homiletics
• Harry F. Ward, chairman of the ACLU and professor of ethics
• Walter Wink- Biblical scholar and activist
• Roger Haight, theologian banned from teaching by the Holy Office.
• Harrison S. Elliot (1882-1951), author, leader in the Y.M.C.A., Religious Education Association, and Union Theological Seminary.