Ethics professor recognized as faculty of the year
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06/15/11
Glen H. Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, received the 2011 Weyerhaeuser Award at Fuller’s 62nd commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 11, at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena.
Chair of Fuller's Board of Trustees David Beré presented the peer-selected award, also known to the Fuller community as “faculty of the year,” to Dr. Stassen, honoring him as a “passionate innovator in the field of Christian faith-based peacemaking” who weaves together deep faith commitment, theological sophistication, and knowledge of political theory.
"Glen Stassen has proven himself to be a master teacher who cares deeply and personally about the theological and ethical formation of his students," said School of Theology Dean Howard Loewen. "Through his teaching, scholarship and publications he has become one of the outstanding Christian ethicists of his generation. We are honored to have him on the Fuller faculty."
Stassen joined Fuller Seminary’s theology faculty in 1997, bringing 34 years of teaching experience at institutions that included Duke University. With an undergraduate degree in nuclear physics, he studied systematic and historical theology, Christian ethics, and political philosophy at the graduate level. Stassen’s primary research and teaching interests are theological ethics, incarnational discipleship, peacemaking, and social justice. His numerous publications include
Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm of Ethics of Peace and War, and
Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, which received
Christianity Today’s Award for Best Book of 2004 in Theology and Ethics.
In his presentation of the Weyerhaeuser Award, Beré stated that Stassen is highly respected by his colleagues for his “foundational work in just peacemaking,” which draws on his “sound scholarship and biblical understanding.”
In 1999, Stassen was recognized for his excellence in teaching with Fuller’s All Seminary Council Faculty Award for Outstanding Community Service to Students. Beré called him a “gifted teacher who brings the subject matter alive” for students, and who makes the study of ethics “understandable and relevant.”
Commenting on his award, Stassen said, “I am so super grateful to be part of this wonderful Fuller community and this wonderful Fuller faculty.” He humbly added, “This award is a huge encouragement from my community to try to do what I think I’m called to do.”
The award was established by a former Fuller trustee, C. Davis Weyerhaeuser, and rotates each year to focus on faculty from one of the three different schools—theology, psychology, and intercultural studies—in the seminary.