Comments on: Donald Bloesch (1928-2010)

By: Lee Downs

Lee Downs — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:31:45 +0000

make that privileged

By: Lee Downs

Lee Downs — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:29:32 +0000

If I had not been priveleged to study under Dr. Bloesch for a year before transfering to an eminent east-coast theological seminary, I never would have learned how to be a pastor. He was that good in the classroom.

A fond recollection: as soon as he would dismiss our class, Dr. Bloesch would head for his office. It was always a race to see who could get there before he began typing the next chapter in one of his many books. None of us ever won–we could hear his clack-clack from down the hall!

It was Don Bloesch who assessed my aptitude and guided me to do and finish doctoral work in pastoral psychology. When I struggled and sought his advice, he never let me down.

God bless you, Donald, good and faithful servant of the Lord.

By: Myk Habets

Myk Habets — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:44:48 +0000

I came across Bloesch (but never learned to pronounce his name until recently) in my undergrad days by mistake as I was searching for a way to articulate a theology that was evangelical but not fundamentalist or banal. Bloesch fit the bill. There was always plenty to disagree with but O how he can write and the breadth of his purview! Finally, let’s not forget the very imporant role his wife Brenda played in his research. He said once that she did a lot of primary text reading and would summarise it for him so he didn’t have to read it. Wonderful! Bless you Donald…

By: Donald Bloesch (1928-2010) « Theommentary

Donald Bloesch (1928-2010) « Theommentary — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:13:13 +0000

[...] couple obituaries can be found here [...]

By: Jack Miller

Jack Miller — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:12:08 +0000

Donald Bloesch has been, for me, a theological treasure. I have turned to his “Essentials” many times over the years when I have been trying to sort out for myself a theological quandary. I have found no other source that I trust as much for his ability to lay out all the theologies through history — appreciating many — and yet holding to his own evangelical orthodoxy. I encourage anyone serious about theology to go to his work, and I predict that it will remain as one of the great contributions of our era. mourn his passing.

By: Bobby Grow

Bobby Grow — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 05:37:00 +0000

I have also benefited from Bloesch’s work. I was first introduced to him in Bible College (used his book: Jesus Christ: Savior & Lord as our primary text for our christology section). It’s unfortunate that he has left us; he will be missed.

I’ve also gone on and read a bit more of Bloesch; I have appreciated his appropriation of Barth almost as much, but not quite, as my favorite TF Torrance’s.

Thank you for sharing this; I’m afraid, at least in my experience, Bloesch is still under-appreciated by many Evangelicals. He seems to be in the “middle-land” some where between mainline and Evangelical/Reformed . . . probably why I like him so much :-).

By: Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010) – Justin Taylor

Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010) – Justin Taylor — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:50:46 +0000

[...] See also Fred Sanders’s helpful obituary of Professor [...]

By: Rev Dave

Rev Dave — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:01:40 +0000

To this student at Dubuque in the early half of this decade, Dr. Bloesch was a common sight in the library many days of the week as he continued his life’s work well into his ‘retirement.’

He will be missed.

By: Dale Coulter

Dale Coulter — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:30:29 +0000

Thanks for this tribute. I first read Bloesch’s Essentials in my undergrad and then went on to other works from there. He seemed most at home in the continental Reformed world of P. T. Forsyth, Barth, and the Torrance family (not a bad place to be).

I am reminded of what Bloesch said in The Future of Evangelical Christianity in 1983, that the most authentic kind of evangelicalism is a catholic evangelicalism and the purist form of catholicism is an evangelical catholicism.

There is indeed a generation that is passing from the scenes before our very eyes: Avery Dulles, Richard John Neuhaus, Clark Pinnock, Donald Bloesch (I could go on). It is very sobering.