Edward Le Roy Long, Jr. was the James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Ethics and Theology of Culture at Drew University. Drew Library's archival Edward Le Roy Long Jr. collection includes correspondence, photographs, syllabi, and other papers relating to his teaching career at Drew University.
Biography
Edward Le Roy Long, Jr., was born March 4, 1924 in Saratoga Springs, New York , and grew up in Younkers, New York. He graduated in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was an instructor in physics there for a short time before entering Union Theological Seminary in New York. He received the Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1945 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1951. He married Dorothy L. Whitney in 1947, and they had three sons: Roger, Charles, and Douglas. Dorothy passed away in 1980 and Long married Grace Darling Cumming in 1982.
He was a tutor-assistant in Christian ethics at Union Seminary in 1950-1951, and then became Minister to Students at Blacksburg , Virginia Presbyterian Church and part-time associate professor of philosophy and ethics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. In 1955 he became head of the department. In 1957 he left that position to join the department of religion at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1975, he left Oberlin to become the Eli Lilly Visiting Professor of Science, Theology, and Human Values at Purdue University.
He was a member of the faculty of Union Seminary in New York, and a lectured at numerous institutions, including the Institute for Religious and Social Studies in New York, Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, and Douglas College, Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, San Francisco Theological Seminary, St. Louis University, Lafayette College, University of Virginia, Swarthmore College, Maryville College, the United States Military Academy, St. Lawrence University, Rutgers University, the Methodist College North Carolina, and Gustavus Adolphus College. He was a member of numerous organizations, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the American Society of Political and Legal Philosophy, the American Academy of Religion, the Law and Society Association, and the American Society of Christian Ethics, and for the latter, served as both Vice President and President.
Long came to Drew University in 1976 as a Professor of Christian Ethics. In 1984 he was awarded the James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Ethics and Theology of Culture. In 1981, he received the Will Herberg Distinguished Professor Award for his contributions to Drew University . He retired from Drew in 1985, though he continued to teach as a professor emeritus for several years. He taught a variety of courses including: Christian Ethics, Historical Figures in Christian Ethics, Religion and Law, Theological and Related Diagnoses of Culture, The Reformed Tradition, Personhood, Community & Institutions, the Church's Role in Peacemaking.
He authored numerous articles and books, including The Christian Response to the Atomic Crisis (1950) , Science and Christian Faith (1950) , Religious Beliefs of American Scientists (1952) , Conscience and Compromise (1954) , A Survey of Christian Ethics (1967), War and Conscience in America (1968), Peace Thinking in a Warring World (1983), Academic Bonding and Social Concern: The History of the Society of Christian Ethics: 1959-1983 (1984), and Higher Education as a Moral Enterprise (1992). To Liberate and Redeem: Moral Reflections on the Biblical Narrative (1997), Patterns of Polity: Varieties of Church Governance (2001), Facing Terrorism: Responding as Christians (2004). He authored more than sixty articles, spanning the years from 1945 to 1993.
Courtesy of the Drew University Archives