Richard John Mouw (born 1940) is an American

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He held the position of President at

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an Evangelical seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller has a student body of approximately 2,300 students from 90 countries and ...

for 20 years (1993–2013), and continues to hold the post of Professor of Faith and Public Life.

Education and career

Mouw was born on April 22, 1940. He received the BA from

Houghton College Houghton University is a Private university, private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York, United States. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.Western Theological Seminary Western Theological Seminary (WTS) is a private seminary located in Holland, Michigan. Established in 1866, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States ...

. He was awarded the MA from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

, and his PhD from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Mouw was Professor of Christian philosophy at

Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reforme ...

for seventeen years. He has also served as a visiting professor to the Free University of Amsterdam. He was appointed Professor of

Christian Philosophy Christian philosophy includes all philosophy carried out by Christians, or in relation to the religion of Christianity. Christian philosophy emerged with the aim of reconciling science and faith, starting from natural rational explanations wit ...

and

Ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

in 1985. In 1993 he was elected president of Fuller Theological Seminary, retiring after the 2012–2013 academic year after 20 years of service. In 2020, Mouw retired from Fuller and returned to

, becoming a senior research fellow at the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics. In 2007, Mouw, who sees

Abraham Kuyper Abraham Kuyper ( , ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist pastor and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upo ...

as a personal hero, was awarded the

Prize for Excellence in

Reformed Theology Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

and Public Life at

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

by the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology.

Views

Dialogue with Catholics

In 2009, he signed a public statement encouraging all Christians to "read, wrestle with, and respond to

Caritas in Veritate Caritas may refer to: * The Latin term for charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practi ...

", the social encyclical by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

. He participated in an interfaith dialogue with Donald Senior, President of

Catholic Theological Union Catholic Theological Union (CTU) is a Catholic graduate school of theology in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was formed in Hyde Park as a union of schools from three Catholic religious institutes and has since been sponsored by 23 institu ...

and Professor of New Testament Studies, at the Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 2011, which can be viewed o
Vimeo

Dialogue with Mormons

In November 2004, Mouw offered introductory remarks at a speaking event where Christian evangelist and

apologist Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their fa ...

Ravi Zacharias Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (26 March 194619 May 2020) was an Indian-born Canadian and American Christianity, Christian Evangelicalism, evangelical Pastor, minister and Christian apologetics, Christian apologist who founded Ravi Zacha ...

was the featured speaker, at the

Salt Lake Tabernacle The Salt Lake Tabernacle, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, in the U.S. state of Utah. The Tabernacle was built from 1863 to 1875 to house meetings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

Temple Square Temple Square is a complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. The usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities that are immediate ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. In his remarks, he apologized to Mormons for the way in which many

Evangelicals Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian g ...

have treated the

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

faith. "Let me state it clearly," Mouw said. "We evangelicals have sinned against you ormons" Since his formal apology to Mormons, he has been criticized by some in the evangelical community for saying that detractors of Mormonism are guilty of "shading the truth". He has reported that he continues to "get hate mail yet on that." In an article in the May 2016 issue of ''

First Things ''First Things'' (''FT'') is a journal aimed at "advanc nga religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society", focusing on theology, liturgy, history of religion, church history, culture, education, society, politics, literat ...

'', he argued that Mormons were progressively de-emphasising the unorthodox aspects of their theology and moving closer to the Christian theological mainstream. Multiple Mormon commentators have expressed appreciation for Mouw's efforts to understand their faith to a greater extent.

Writings

* ''Political Evangelism'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1973). * ''Politics and the Biblical Drama'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1976). * ''Called to Holy Worldliness'' (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980). * ''Objections to Christianity'' (Grand Rapids: Bible Way, 1981). * ''When The Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1983). * ''Distorted Truth: What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Battle for the Mind'' (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989). * ''Stained Glass: Worldviews and Social Science'', ed. with Paul A. Marshall and Sander Griffioen (Lanham: University Press of America, 1989). * ''The God Who Commands'' (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1990). * ''Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World'' (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1992). * ''Pluralisms and Horizons: An Essay in Christian Public Philosophy'', with Sander Griffioen (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1993). * ''Consulting the Faithful: What Christian Intellectuals Can Learn from Popular Religion'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1994). * ''The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage'' (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000). * ''He Shines in all that's Fair: Culture and Common Grace'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2001). * ''Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology'', with Mark A. Noll (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2004). * ''Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport: Making Connections in Today's World'' (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004). * ''Praying at Burger King'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2007). *''Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals'' (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2012). * "Foreword" in ''The New Mormon Challenge'', Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser and Paul Owen, eds. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 11–13.

References

External links

Richard J. Mouw at Fuller Theological Seminary

Richard J. Mouw Resources at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Henry Center for Theological Understanding
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mouw, Richard 1940 births Living people American Calvinist and Reformed theologians Calvin University faculty Calvinist and Reformed philosophers University of Alberta alumni American people of Dutch descent Place of birth missing (living people) Seminary presidents Fuller Theological Seminary faculty University of Chicago alumni 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Theistic evolutionists Houghton University alumni