David William Cain (November 5, 1941 - July 31, 2021) was a professor emeritus of religion at the

University of Mary Washington University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Established in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg, the institution later became known as Fredericksbu ...

and past president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society of North America. He chaired plenary sessions on and authored books about

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

. He lectured in

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Ch ...

and edited, compiled, and preserved the work of the late Harvard theologian Arthur Chute McGill, three volumes of which are available in new editions. He was also an ordained minister of the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran t ...

. On July 31, 2021, David William Cain died at the age of 79 after a lengthy illness.

Early life

David Cain was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, on November 5, 1941, to William and Lura (Howe) Cain. He received his A.B. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. After a year of study at King’s College in London on a Fulbright scholarship, Cain attended Yale Divinity School where he completed a master of divinity degree. While at Yale, Cain met and married his wife Marlyne. The couple returned to Princeton where he completed his M.A. and Ph.D in systematic theology.

Career

In 1970, joining the faculty of what was then Mary Washington College, David Cain became a founding member of the Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion. His career spanned 44 years until his retirement as Distinguished Professor of Religion in 2014. Cain received the Grellet C Simpson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Publications

*David Cain. (1997) ''An Evocation of Kierkegaard/En Fremkaldelse af Kierkegaard''. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel. *David Cain (1978) ''Reckoning with Kierkegaard: Christian Faith and Dramatic Literature.'' Princeton University: University Microfilms International. ASIN: B0006WO4S6 *David W. Cain. (1986). ''Freedom : the Condition of Faith.'' Fredericksburg, Va.: Thomas Jefferson Institute for the Study of Religious Freedom. *David Cain (Editor) (2007) "Sermons Of Arthur C. McGill: Theological Fascinations ''Volume One''" Cascade Books: A Division of Wipf & Stock Publishers. . ''An Evocation of Kierkegaard'' is an illustrated book about the world of

. It is not a biography, rather a book about Kierkegaard in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and the rest of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. The book is a result of Cain's Kierkegaard pilgrimage in 1984. David Cain himself called his book a "coffee-table Kierkegaard" and it offers a contemporary view of Kierkegaard's Copenhagen.

References

External links

Review of An Evocation of Kierkegaard
by

Peter Tudvad Peter Tudvad (born 27 April 1966 in Holme, Aarhus, Holme south of Århus) is a Danish Søren Kierkegaard scholar, author, philosopher and social critic, formerly at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Center and at the University of Copenhagen; he left ...

. 1941 births Living people Educators from St. Louis People from Fredericksburg, Virginia University of Mary Washington faculty United Church of Christ ministers American Christian theologians Kierkegaard scholars {{US-theologian-stub