EUGENE KLAAREN

Eugene Klaaren, former associate professor of religion, passed away Oct. 17, 2015, at the age of 78. Gene taught at Wesleyan from 1968 until he retired in 2006.

His courses introduced students to central Christian thinkers in the history of theology and philosophy, from Martin Luther to Søren Kierkegaard, John Calvin to David Hume and Jonathan Edwards, and Friedrich Schleiermacher to Friedrich Nietzsche. Over the years he broadened his academic interests, regularly visiting Africa to study indigenous African religions as well as Christian theological formations that combined political action and religious belief and practice. But his great passion was in showing the forms of belief that sustained secularity and the vitality of the theological discipline from the early modern through the postmodern age. This dynamic intertwining of secular sciences and the religious imagination is captured in the title of Gene’s highly regarded book, Religious Origins of Modern Science: Belief in Creation in Seventeenth Century Thought.

Klaaren’s friend, Rick Elphick, Professor of History, Emeritus, who co-taught with him and worked with him in numerous academic settings, says: “Gene was a profoundly thoughtful teacher. He had a near-encyclopedic command of many literatures. When asked a question in the classroom, a seminar, or after a lecture, he would fall silent for 30 seconds and then come forth with an answer masterfully weaving insights from far-flung regions of his inner archive.”

He leaves his wife of 54 years, the Rev. Mary Decker Klaaren, two sons, a daughter, two sisters, a brother, seven grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.