Thomas C. Oden (1931-2016)

Thomas Clark Oden was an American Methodist theologian and religious author. He is often regarded as the father of the paleo (variant)-orthodox theological movement. He was Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology and Ethics at Drew University in New Jersey from 1980 until his retirement in 2004, He remained faculty emeritus until he died.

Thomas was born on 21st of October 1931 in Altus, Oklahoma. He was the son of an attorney and a music teacher. As a youth he considered two vocations - lawyer or Methodist minister.

Aged 10 the family moved to Oklahoma City, In 1945 they moved back to Atlus. In High school he began his vocation of writing and speaking.

Thomas married Edrita Pokorny on 10th August 1952. They had 3 children.

Degrees
BA from the University of Oklahoma 1953
BD from Southern Methodist University 1956
MA from Yale University 1958
Ph.D. from ‘’ ‘’ 1960

Thomas lectured at a number of universities - Yale, Southern Methodist, Heidelberg, Lomonosov and Pontifical Gregorian in Rome, plus Princeton Theological Seminary.

In his writings he became a supporter of paleo-orthodoxy - an approach which relies on the writings of the early church. In the early 1970s he was influenced by his Jewish colleague, Will Herberg, He discovered an ecumenical orthodoxy interpretation of the New Testament which is universal and accepted by most Christian faiths.

Thomas suggested that Christians need to *rely upon the wisdom of the historical/early church, rather than on modern scholarship and theology which he thought was tainted by political agendas. *

He said his mission was to prepare the third millennium for the *careful study and respectful following of the central tradition of classical Christianity. *

Thomas was active in the Confessing Movement in America. He served on the board of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

He had an Arminian theology which means he believes in the Christian Protestant doctrines of Jacobus Arminus (1560-1609)- the Dutch theologian. He wrote *The Transforming Power of Grace *

which according to Roger E. Olson ’ is one of the best expositions of Arminian theology '*
*
He wrote and edited many book, articles ,essays and speeches on a range of topics. He served as the architect and general editor of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scriptures(ACCS) which is a massive 30 volume series.
He was general editor of the Ancient Doctrine series and Ancient Christian devotionals. He was consulting editor of the Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity ( See ‘Works’ for list of books and Amazon notes on ACCS).

Thomas died , aged 85, on 8th December 2016. He is considered to be one of the most influential theologians of the late 20th/early 21st century.

He had* A Life time of Pioneering Theological Scholarship*.

Sources used
InterVasity press
Wikipedia