LEWIS SMEDES, 81, THEOLOGIAN ; PROFESSOR WROTE ABOUT FORGIVENESS: [Broward Metro Edition]

Abstract

A professor emeritus of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., where he taught and wrote for 27 years, Mr. [Lewis B. Smedes] was known for thought-provoking ideas on issues ranging from forgiveness to human sexuality. At times, he broke the mold within evangelical Christianity, the faith that nurtured and formed him throughout his life, as when he allowed for a more nuanced understanding of homosexual relationships rather than uncompromising condemnation.

Lewis B. Smedes, a pioneer in forgiveness research and author of more than 15 books, died Thursday at Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, Calif., after a fall Tuesday while putting up Christmas lights at his home. He was 81.

A professor emeritus of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., where he taught and wrote for 27 years, Mr. Smedes was known for thought-provoking ideas on issues ranging from forgiveness to human sexuality. At times, he broke the mold within evangelical Christianity, the faith that nurtured and formed him throughout his life, as when he allowed for a more nuanced understanding of homosexual relationships rather than uncompromising condemnation.

But it was his insights into forgiveness as not simply a godly virtue but a human necessity for getting on with one's life that propelled Mr. Smedes from the academic cloister to the public marketplace.

He said a misconception about forgiveness is an aggrieved individual must wait for an apology. To wait, he said, is to leave your peace and happiness in the hands of the person who injured you in the first place.

He rejected the idea that unconditional forgiveness -- even when the offender fails to apologize -- amounts to self-centeredness by the victim and cheapens the value of forgiveness.

"They call it American egoism," he said last year in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I think they're all wet. They see it as cheap forgiveness. I don't think it's ever cheap. It's costly."

Its costliness would come as the aggrieved party worked through four stages, described Friday by book editor Roy Carlisle as: We hurt. We hate. We heal ourselves. We come together.

Carlisle edited Mr. Smedes' 1985 Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurt We Don't Deserve, which he said sold more than 500,000 copies.

Jon Pott, executive editor at William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids, Mich., which published Mr. Smedes' Sex for Christians in 1976, said the author had the rigorous mind of a theologian and the heart of a pastor.

"It was not only a matter of being able to bring theology to bear meaningfully to the most important human concerns -- the kind of things that keep us awake -- but his sensitivity to the complexity of human life didn't allow him to settle for easy theological answers," Pott said. "He wrestled with God, and he wrestled with human problems."

Besides his wife, Doris, and children, Catherine, Charles and John, he is survived by two grandchildren.