Noted Theologian and Former DePauw Prof. Edward Farley Dies at Age 85

January 1, 2015

William Edward Farley, Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Theology, emeritus, at Vanderbilt Divinity School and a former member of the DePauw University faculty, died on December 27, 2014 at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee. Dr. Farley, who suffered from congestive heart failure, was 85 years old.

Vanderbilt notes that the professor, an ordained Presbyterian minister, was "a distinguished scholar and prolific writer on constructive systematic theology" and taught at the university for nearly three decades.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Edward Farley earned degrees from Centre College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary before enrolling at Union Theological Seminary. He earned a doctorate in philosophical theology in 1957 from Columbia University. He did other graduate work at the University of Basel in Switzerland and at the University of Freiburg.

Farley came to DePauw as an instructor of philosophy and religion in 1957 and was an assistant professor in that department from 1959-63. He then taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary before coming to Vanderbilt in 1969 and authored a dozen books. DePauw awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1985.

"Farley remains the only theologian to have been awarded Vanderbilt’s prestigious Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research, which he received in 1991," notes the university's announcement. "In addition, he is widely viewed as the architect for a major curriculum redesign at the Divinity School during the 1980s." In 1994, Farley was named a Lifetime Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University. (at left: Prof. Farley at work at DePauw in 1960)

He was also a talented musician noted for his singing and performances on trombone and piano.

"With quiet wisdom, Ed had a compelling theological mind that was creative and expansive,” said Emilie M. Townes, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society. “From his early writings in Ecclesial Man and Ecclesial Reflection to his later work in Good and Evil and Divine Empathy, Ed penned probing and challenging theology that was philosophical, systematic and practical. Few theologians had such a command of theological reflection. His generous spirit of inquiry allowed him to rethink his positions and provided a model for thoughtful theological reflection."

Adds Douglas Knight, Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Hebrew Bible and professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt, "Ed Farley was a scholar of exceptional intellectual range -- by all accounts one of the leading theologians of the past half century. He engaged a variety of topics with characteristic thoroughness and profundity: philosophical theology, phenomenology, theological method, good and evil, the nature of God, the human condition, symbolism, aesthetics, pedagogy and ministry. His intellectual autobiography published just a few months before his death, Thinking about Things and Other Frivolities, provides remarkable insight into a scholar thoroughly engaged in life.”