1 week Ago By Bob Goldsborough
Walter Elwell brought a keen mind, a humble heart and a magnanimous spirit to his teaching and his research during his 28 years as a Bible and theology professor at Wheaton College in Wheaton, and he also established himself in his research as a prolific editor of standard reference works about the Bible. “He knew about everything — I just can’t express the reach of his mind,” said retired Wheaton College professor of evangelism Jerry Root. “I think he was Wheaton’s greatest theologian.
And he would take people under his wing, and bring them along and encourage them.” Elwell, 87, died of natural causes March 4 at the Promise House assisted living program at the Hiawatha Care Center in Hiawatha, Iowa, said his son Andy. Elwell, who recently had been in decline after suffering a broken hip, had been a resident of downstate Princeton and previously had lived in Wheaton.
Born and raised in Miami, Elwell graduated from Miami Senior High School and then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wheaton College in 1959 and 1961, respectively. He then attended the University of Chicago for doctoral studies before leaving in 1964 to teach at Belhaven University in Mississippi. While teaching at Belhaven, Elwell took a hiatus to resume doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1968, earning his Ph.
D. in 1970. He then taught at Belhaven for five more years before signing on as a professor at Wheaton College in 1975.
Elwell taught graduate students at Wheaton and specialized in Christology, which is the branch of theology concerning Jesus Christ. David Sveen, a graduate student of Elwell’s in the early 1990s, recalled Elwell as a brilliant man who “had nothing to be humble about, but he was truly humble.” “He was kind, he was good to students and he always listened — even when a student would challenge him and he knew the student was not quite accurate in his assessment,” said Sveen, who now teaches at Wheaton as a visiting assistant professor of Christian formation and ministry.
“Walter would say, ‘Let’s go ahead and look at this,’ and he would never humiliate someone even though he knew (a subject) better than anyone else.” In his classroom, Sveen said, Elwell “could almost act the part and make this ancient text come alive, as if it happened yesterday.” “Think about how difficult that is as a teacher, to take something that happened 2,000 years ago and make it come alive,” Sveen said.
“He was an excellent educator.” Throughout his career, Elwell edited numerous theological dictionaries and Bible encyclopedias, both for the Baker Publishing Group and for Carol Stream-based Christian publisher Tyndale House. Robert Morrison, a former student both in undergraduate and graduate classes, recalled being tapped by Elwell to help edit a two-volume Bible dictionary.
“After I started working on my Ph.D., he asked if I wanted to come back and work with him on (a) reference (book),” said Morrison, now based in Massachusetts.
“To me, he had a very rare combination of ...
intellectual brilliance and mastery but also human kindness and compassion.” Calling Elwell a “great encourager,” Root noted that Elwell helped launch many authors. “He’d do these big books like the ‘Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible,’ and he would go find some young, up-and-coming guy and get his start in writing (in that book),” Root said.
“I got my first start with Walter. He was always helping people get out of the gates.” Root characterized Elwell as being “magnanimous” in his willingness to support the hiring of academics at the college with theological views different from his own.
“He said that in order to cultivate critical thinking, we need someone from everything under the umbrella,” Root said. “And he also used to say, ‘All theology is approximation and then is followed up with better and better approximations.’ What he said was that theology is not God, but rather theology is our best thought about God, and nobody can get their mind completely around the infinite.
That expressed at the core what drove him theologically.” Root also recalled being part of a regular lunch discussion with Elwell for nearly a decade. “I feel like I learned more about how to think theologically and about life while sitting at his table,” Root said.
“He was the greatest of my unofficial teachers. He had a heart and a kindness to match his intelligence.” Walter Elwell taught Bible and theology for 28 years at Wheaton College in Wheaton, and he also authored and edited numerous theological reference books.
(Tim Elwell) Elwell also served as the book editor for Christianity Today magazine for several years. After the Iron Curtain fell, Elwell took part in a program where he helped teach Christian pastors from post-Communist Eastern Europe who would visit Wheaton’s campus for six weeks each summer. The program, which began in the mid-1990s, was started by Sveen, the late Wheaton College physical education professor Donald Church, and a Wheaton alumnus, Kurt Tillman, who at that time was a schoolteacher.
“Anyone who knew Walter knew about his incredible intellect, how he read everything, had a photographic memory and was a genius at editing Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias,” Tillman said. “But he was so kind and giving, and these Eastern Europeans would come over and they were blown away by the fact that this gentleman, whose name they knew because he had written and edited so many works that they had read, would just pour into them. And he also traveled to post-Communist Europe to teach, to mentor and to encourage.
” Another son, Tim, noted that his father spoke nine languages and read two more that are no longer spoken, and that he taught ancient Greek at the highest level. Tim Elwell also recalled his father’s participation in educational programs in Israel and the Holy Land to teach about the Apostle Paul’s journeys. Sveen said he was struck by Elwell’s innate curiosity about the world.
“As brilliant as he was, he was always trying to make sense of the world and learn,” Sveen said. “That’s one of the things I learned from him.” After retiring from Wheaton in 2003, Elwell moved to downstate Princeton.
During retirement, he enjoyed stamp collecting, tinkering with motorcycles and collecting hats, World War II items and Civil War-era weapons, his son said. A first marriage to Louan Elwell ended in divorce. Elwell’s second wife, Barbara, died in 2021.
In addition to his sons, Elwell is survived by three stepdaughters, Diane Smith, Laurel Langholz and Lisa Wolter; a stepson, Scott Dismeier; 13 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and a sister, Patricia Elwell. Services were held. Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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