2 of 3

Years after his tenure as academic dean, Kantzer may have been re-evaluating his choice to work with organizations instead of writing theological texts. He asked Woodbridge, "Did I make the right decision?"

"When he asked, he was not trying to gather sympathy," Woodbridge said. "He had to weigh the fact that he was brilliant but was not able to be an evangelical academic. Instead, he chose to build up important evangelical organizations."

In 1977, Kantzer accepted the editorship of Christianity Today in response to a request from Billy Graham. "I remember reading articles by him, and I remember hearing him lecture and speak before he probably knew who I was," said Graham in a 2000 tribute to Kantzer. "He is certainly one of the great theologians of this century. It was my privilege on behalf of the board to call him and ask him if he would be editor of Christianity Today."

As at Trinity, Kantzer stepped into Christianity Today at a time when important decisions had to be made and strong leadership was needed. "I never considered myself as primarily an editor," he said in the 1996 interview with CT. "I always considered myself as a theologian who was editing in order to do a job that needed to be done."

CT Corporate Editor Harold Myra said, "Ken took the editorial helm of Christianity Today at a crucial moment, bringing scholarship, pastoral wisdom, and passion for the evangelical cause. Later, he served as dean of the CT Institute and for many years gave us regular, highly valued counsel."

Kantzer said in 1996 that when he took over, the financial gifts supporting the then primarily academic publication were soon to run out. "The magazine had to be given more popular appeal if it were to survive," he said. "At the same time, I tried to keep the magazine theologically on track, to keep a focus on the evangelical world-and-life view, and to interact with movements and trends both inside and beyond evangelicalism. I think to a large extent that has been the motivating focus with CT ever since."

Because Carol Thiessen's uncle had hired Kantzer at Wheaton years before, Kantzer said that her "theology must be okay" and he hired her as a CT copy editor in 1979. She stayed at the magazine for more than 20 years.

As editor of the magazine, Kantzer would often take home stacks of manuscripts to read, Thiessen said. But few returned to the office. "We really didn't know where they all could have gone to," Thiessen said. In fact, a CT contributor was at one point even commissioned to "poke around the Kantzer household for manuscripts."

"He was the quintessential absent-minded professor," she said. "He couldn't always remember names, but there was never one doubt that he cared about each person."

Kantzer left the editor's role at Christianity Today in 1982 but continued to serve as a consulting editor. He also served on the boards of many institutions, including Columbia Bible College and John Brown University. He wrote countless articles for magazines and several chapters for theological volumes. He taught at King's College, Gordon College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Fuller Summer School of Theology. At Trinity, he served as chancellor, director of the Ph.D. program, and officially retired as a professor in 1991.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

June (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46