HIU Community Mourns the Passing of Former Professor Clifford J. Green

The HIU community was saddened to learn of the passing in April of former professor Clifford J. Green, an internationally known scholar of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was 91.

Dr. Green was Professor of Theology at Hartford Seminary from 1981 until the late 1990s. During most of that time, he was the founding President of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section, and then served as Executive Director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition, a 17-volume publication to which Dr. Lisa Dahill contributed as a translator.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was an anti-Nazi German Protestant theologian and pastor during the Third Reich, killed for his role in the conspiracy against Hitler.  His writings on prayer, community, and discipleship are classics of 20th century Christian spirituality; and his reflections on non-violence, resistance, this-worldliness, and discernment of God’s will in contexts of ambiguity and risk, along with his attempts to push the church into public inter-religious and inter-cultural collaboration around questions of justice and peace, make him an icon for many of diverse religious traditions.

Dr. Dahill notes that Dr. Green's role in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works in English project was pivotal, making all of Bonhoeffer’s writings accessible in English along with detailed editorial notes and historical/theological contextualization.  

“Clifford [Green] was a legend in Bonhoeffer circles for decades and mentored several generations of scholars," she said "We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for his tireless scholarly and collegial effort and leadership.” 

Born in Sydney, Australia, Dr. Green studied there before moving to the U.S. for his doctorate at Union Theological Seminary. Ordained as a Lutheran minister, he taught at Wellesley College and Goucher College before coming to Hartford Seminary.

A tribute by the Bonhoeffer Society said, "Clifford devoted several decades to ensuring that the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works translation project was well-funded, well-directed, and of the highest academic standard."

The tribute continued, "In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, Clifford’s seminal work, Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality (1999) broke new ground in interpreting Bonhoeffer’s theological writings through the lens of theological anthropology, yielding new insights to works such as Act and Being and the late prison writings. His other books include Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom (1989) and Church, Cities, and Human Community: Urban Ministry in the United States (1996)."

In 2014, Dr. Green received an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen to recognize his "lifelong services to Bonhoeffer studies."