BA, Pepperdine University, 1968;
MDiv, Concordia Theological Seminary, 1972; [The Surrendered Fort? or Our Lady of Sorrows in St. Louis?]
PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1981.
Dr. Robert A. Kelly is a native of Southern California who has been at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary since 1985 teaching Systematic Theology, Historical Theology, and Christian Ethics. Currently he is Professor of Systematic Theology and holds the Bishop William D. Huras Chair in Ecclesiology and Church History. When asked why teaching theology is important to him, Bob replied, "The question that has motivated me from the time I decided to go to seminary myself has been 'What would happen if Lutheran people lived as if they actually believed that we are justified by grace through faith?' This is the question that still drives me. What would happen? How would the world be changed by people who really and deeply believe that our standing before God, our place in the universe, is decided already by God's unconditional promise in the resurrection of the crucified Jesus? In my teaching I want, more than anything else, to communicate an understanding of radical grace. I want my students to join with me in becoming a community of theological deliberation, a community of convivial theologians who together through friendly and committed conversation explore the meaning of the Gospel for the lives of real people." That's a big challenge! Bob's classes are demanding, but there is often a surprise, a new insight that comes through engagement.
Outside the classroom Bob pursues a number of interests. He reads constantly in support of his teaching. In addition his interest in the use of computer technology in the humanities has led him to work on developing electronic editions of 19th century North American Lutheran texts of historic importance (See the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary Historic Text Archive for examples of his work in this area). His hobby is trains and he is the Vice President of the Waterloo Regional Model Railway Club, which is modeling the Sudbury Division of the Canadian Pacific in the 1970s.
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GJ - I went to seminary at Waterloo. I found it interesting that a Missouri Synod pastor backslid from Fuller training to the equivalent of ELCA in Canada. Notice too that they have a real PhD program at Fuller Seminary, not just a drive-by DMin.
A check on my vicarage congregation, which once was independent, shows that the membership went from 3,000 baptized--when I was there--to 2,000 today. In 1970, St. Peter's was the largest Lutheran church in Canada. Now it is "one of the largest in ELCiC." The interim pastor is a retired Anglican bishop! Interim pastors are often used when a congregation has had a major dust-up. St. Peter's advocates homosexual marriage, a fact that would have driven my vicarage supervisor insane with rage. I know, because he was utterly shaken that an openly gay seminarian visited his office and outted himself as gay. Apostasy does not pull back and give up on its own. Canadian Lutherans offer a foretaste of American Lutheran doctrine and practice, a few years from now.
The current state of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Kitchener, was unthinkable in 1972.
ELCiC has a female archbishop who does not seem to be married. See the posts above for more Canadian information.
