Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Peter J. Gomes, American preacher, theologian and author, professor at Harvard Divinity School, died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack he was , 69.

Rev. Peter John Gomes  was an American preacher and theologian, and a professor at Harvard University's Divinity School died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack he was , 69..

(May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011)

Biography

Born May 22, 1942 in Plymouth, Massachusetts from a Cape Verdean father and a native Bostonian mother, the Reverend Professor Peter John Gomes, despite his upbringing in a Baptist tradition, was, according to his own testimony on the Colbert Report, baptized a Catholic.[1]
Gomes graduated from Bates College in 1965 and from Harvard Divinity School in 1968. After a short tenure at Tuskeegee, he returned to Harvard and to the Memorial Church where he served until his death in 2011.
Widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished preachers, Professor Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout America and the British Isles. In 2009 he represented Harvard University as lecturer to The University of Cambridge, England, on the occasion of its 800th anniversary; in 2007 he was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to membership in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem; in 2000 he delivered The University Sermon before The University of Cambridge, England, and The Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral, England; and he presented The Beecher Lectures on Preaching, in Yale Divinity School.
Named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life, Professor Gomes participated in the presidential inaugurations of [[Ronald Reagan[[ and of George Herbert Walker Bush. His New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, (1996); and Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (1998), were published by William Morrow and Company, Inc. The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need was published in 2002 by HarperOne, which published Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living in 2003, and in 2007, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News? His most recent book, in 2008, is A Word to the Wise, and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard; and he published ten other volumes of sermons as well as numerous articles and papers.[2]
Gomes's great strength was his preaching style; his accent--combining British RP (Received Pronunciation), family intonations, the tradition of Southern Baptist preaching, and the educated diction of Harvard--his wit, and his mastery of alliteration and parallelism were noteable characteristics of his hermeneutic style, [3]
Gomes was ordained as an American Baptist minister by the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1968. Gomes remained a member of First Baptist and occasionally preached there until his death.[4]
Gomes served as trustee of The National Cathedral School, Washington, DC, as Harvard University trustee of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and trustee of The Roxbury Latin School and of Bates College; and he was a member of The Massachusetts Historical Society, The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and a sometime Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, London, England. Former acting director of The W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University, he was past president of The Signet Society, Harvard’s oldest literary society; and former trustee of Bates College, Wellesley College and of The Public Broadcasting Service; and he was past president and trustee of The Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts.[5]
A DNA test showed that Gomes is related to the Fulani, Tikar, and Hausa peoples of West Africa. Gomes is also descended from Portuguese Jews through his paternal grandfather who was born in the Cape Verde Islands.[6]

Career affiliations

Peter Gomes served from 1970 to 2011 as Pusey Minister in the nondenominational Memorial Church of Harvard University and as one of Harvard's official interfaith chaplains at the University.[7] He taught diverse courses throughout his Harvard career in both the undergraduate College and at the Harvard Divinity School.
From 1974 Gomes held the chair of Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. At Harvard, Gomes served as faculty adviser of the Harvard Ichthus and taught the popular course Religion 1513: "History of Harvard and Its Presidents".[8]
Gomes was also a visiting professor at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Profiled by Robert Boynton in The New Yorker, and interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes was included in the premiere issue of Talk magazine as part of its feature article, ‘The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up.’[9]

Theology, theography, social advocacy and politics

Gomes was a leading expert on early American (US) religion. Regarding ancient texts, Gomes frequently maintained that "one can read into the Bible almost any interpretation of morality...for its passages had been used to defend slavery and the liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral," as paraphrased by the New York Times.[10]
Widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished preachers,[who?] Professor Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout the United States and Great Britain. His New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and Sermons, the Book of Wisdom for Daily Living, were published by William Morrow & Company. The Right Reverend Lord Robert Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, England, ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Communion said of Gomes's The Good Book it "offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style" which is also "lively"; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. called it "Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people".[11]
Gomes published in total ten volumes of sermons, as well as numerous articles and papers. He was well-known for his sermons, particularly for one he delivered in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a sermon poignantly referenced by Governor Deval Patrick at Gomes's memorial service on April 6, 2011. .[12]
His most recent work, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, included extensive commentary and observation on the interrelations of Church and State throughout history and particularly in recent US history. On September 15, 2008 he appeared on The Colbert Report to promote his book. During this interview, he also stated that he was baptized a Catholic.
In 1991, Gomes publicly revealed that he was gay,[13] and from that time became an advocate for wider acceptance of homosexuality in American society. In the case of his own sexual practices, he stated that he remained celibate. "I now have an unambiguous vocation — a mission — to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia,” he declared. “I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays."[14] Same-sex marriage advocate Evan Wolfson described Gomes as an integral contributor to the cause of marriage equality.[15]
An almost lifelong Republican, Gomes offered prayers at the inaugurals of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. However, in August 2006 he moved his registration to the Democratic Party (United States), supporting the gubernatorial candidacy of Deval Patrick, a student Gomes had interviewed during his time at Harvard and later the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts.

Late career and death

In January 2010, Rev. Gomes announced he was planning to retire from Harvard in 2012.[16] He suffered a stroke on December 10, 2010 and was hospitalized.[17][18] He hoped to return to the pulpit of Harvard's Memorial Church, possibly even in time to give the Easter 2011 sermon.[19] He died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack on February 28, 2011 at the age of 68.[20][21] Speakers at his memorial service, at the Memorial Church on April 6, 2011, included Derek C. Bok, a former president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, president of the University, and Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts. [22]
Harvard University announced on its website that it had named Wendel W. Meyer, who had originally served as associate minister for administration in December 2010, as the acting Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, while the University searches for a qualified minister and academic to succeed Reverend Gomes.

Honors and tributes

  • 2008 Gomes and his family were featured by Henry Louis Gates on the PBS documentary African American Lives 2.
  • Academic tenures and honorary degrees: member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the Faculty of Divinity of Harvard University, Professor Gomes held degrees from Bates College (A.B., 1965), and from the Harvard Divinity School (S.T.B., 1968); and thirty-nine honorary degrees: New England College, Waynesburg College, Gordon College, Knox College, The University of the South, Duke University, The University of Nebraska, Wooster College, Bates College, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Trinity College, Bowdoin College, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Colby College, Olivet College, Mount Holyoke College, Furman University, Baker University, Mount Ida College, Willamette University, The State University of New York at Geneseo, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Ursinus College, Wagner College, Lesley University, Williams College, Virginia Theological Seminary, Morris College, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hamilton College, Union College, Tuskegee University, Lasell College, The General Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, Lafayette College, Augustana College, Westfield College, Washington and Jefferson College, and St. Lawrence University. In 2010, he gave The Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church, and Culture; Harvard University in 2010 elected him Honorary President of the Alpha-Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa; and in 2009, he gave The Lowell Lectures of Massachusetts. He was an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, The University of Cambridge, England, where The Gomes Lectureship is established in his name.[23]

Publications


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