Kenneth Kantzer

Kenneth S. Kantzer (March 29, 1917 – June 20, 2002) was an American theologian and educator in the evangelical Christian tradition.

Life and career

Kantzer, who earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from Harvard University (1950), was a professor of biblical and systematic theology and academic dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) from 1960-1978. There he helped to grow TEDS from a small denominational seminary to a major evangelical Christian graduate school with a national and international reputation.

In 1968 he also served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. From 1977-1982 he was editor of Christianity Today, and, from 1982 to 1984, was president of Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He later returned to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and helped found its Ph.D. program.

Kantzer was known as a defender of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, attempting to articulate this doctrine in such a way as to avoid the rigidity of fundamentalist Christianity while answering the objections of Christian liberalism.

Through his teaching and his leadership at TEDS and his work at Christianity Today, Kantzer made a significant contribution to the growth of evangelicalism for more than forty years.

Published Works

• Evangelical Roots: A Tribute to Wilber Smith (1978) ed. by Kenneth S. Kantzer
• Perspectives on evangelical theology : papers from the thirtieth annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (1979) edited by Kenneth S. Kantzer and S. Gundry.
• Applying the Scriptures (International Council on Biblical Inerrancy Summit) (1986).
• Evangelical Affirmations (1990) edited by Kenneth S. Kantzer and Carl F.H. Henry
• Doing theology in today’s world : Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer (1991) ed. by John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey.
• Kenneth Kantzer, "The Carl Henry That Might have Been" Christianity Today
• "Kenneth Kantzer Reflects on His History with the Magazine and the Evangelical Movement" Christianity Today
• Kenneth Kantzer, "Evangelicals and Inerrancy"
• "John Calvin’s Theory of the Knowledge of God and the Word of God" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard, 1950)

Bibliography

• Influential Teacher and Leader Kenneth Kantzer Dies - Christianity Today Magazine.
• The Legacy of Kenneth Kantzer