Webber, Robert 1933-2007 (Robert Eugene Webber)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 27, 1933, in Stouchburg, PA; died of pancreatic cancer, April 27, 2007, in Sawyer, MI. Educator and author. Webber was a longtime theology professor at Wheaton College and was the founder of the Institute of Worship Studies. A child of missionaries who spent the first six years of his life in the Congo with his parents, he earned his B.A. from Bob Jones University in 1956. His B.D. was completed at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in 1959, a Th.M. from Covenant Theological Seminary in 1960, and a Th.D. from Concordia Theological Seminary in 1969. Before coming to Wheaton College, he taught religion at Covenant College in the early 1960s and church history at Covenant Theological Seminary from 1965 to 1968. He joined Wheaton as an associate professor and was professor of theology from 1980 until his retirement in 2000. He continued to work after that, however, at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he was professor of ministry and director of worship and spirituality. An immensely popular teacher at Wheaton College, he was generous with his time for his students, who enjoyed his enthusiasm for the subjects he taught. Not long before leaving Wheaton, Webber founded the Institute for Worship Studies in 1998, a graduate-level school in Orange Park, Florida, that has since been renamed in his honor. Webber was the author of over a dozen titles, including Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity (1978), Secular Humanism: Threat and Challenge (1982), What Christians Believe (1989), and Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (1999).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, May 4, 2007, Section 3, p. 8.