Comments on: In Memory of Professor Ray S. Anderson (1925-2009)

By: That’s Not Who I Married: Allowing Your Spouse the Freedom to Be

That’s Not Who I Married: Allowing Your Spouse the Freedom to Be — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:53:48 +0000

[...] I was in seminary my favorite professor Dr. Ray Anderson told all of us graduate students a story (most of us were not married at the time and didn’t [...]

By: Rev. Glenn W. Jolley, Ph.D.

Rev. Glenn W. Jolley, Ph.D. — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:26:52 +0000

My thoughts and memories of Ray Anderson take me back to Santa Barbara in the early and mid 1970s when I was a pastor of a small church where Ray agreed to teach a series of adult classes over a period of a school year. He blew our minds! “Who is this guy?” many in the congregation would ask; “He’s a farmer turned theologian.”, I’d say, “and you might want to pay careful attention and listen very carefully.” We did. And how many of us thought about our faith, about an incarnate Christ in our lives, about the meaning of the Church in our society, was forever transformed. In fact, I was always a bit jealous because his classes drew folks away from the Sunday services (let’s see….my sermons or Ray Anderson’s class?). What a powerful gift he was, and we hardly knew it back then. Funny how those things work; right there when some seemingly unremarkable thing is happening is just where the grace and miracle of God is occurring. Ray was a part of God’s grace to all those in our congregation who faithfully attended his classes.
Just today learning of his death, is a very reflective and sad day for me. And yet, my gratitude is renewed.

By: Dan Price

Dan Price — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:10:44 +0000

Ray Anderson combined a brilliant theological mind with a pastor’s heart. His keen reflections on Trinitarian anthropology will always be with me. He was also unafraid when it came to getting to know students. This might have made his life messy: like sticking one’s hand into the soil. But that is what we might expect from a farmer, turned pastor, turned theologian. Rest in peace, my dear mentor and friend.
Dan Price

By: Marty Reitzin

Marty Reitzin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:33:03 +0000

P.S. One more thing I came to know Jesus Christ at Bel Air out of a reform Jewish home…I have deep roots there. March 1, 1970 I came home to my Y’shua in the Fireside Room…

By: Marty Reitzin

Marty Reitzin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:31:26 +0000

BTW thanks Rhett for this great tribute…the emotion of my friendship just hit me as I read about his life…It’s strange I miss him now as I am writing this even though I have seen him for many years…God Bless,
Pastor Marty Reitzin
VCF Goleta

By: Marty Reitzin

Marty Reitzin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:27:59 +0000

I was privileged to have Ray as one of my professors at his very short stint at Westmont College. I think most of us had no idea what he was talking about most of the time, but he touched us and he listened to us and refused to be molded by a stagnant culture that was uptight and religious. I have a picture of the two us walking on campus and he wrote on the back, “intimacy is the intensification of otherness”…He now knows what he was talking about in a way that we can’t comprehend. Rest in His Big Arms My Brother…Love, Marty

By: rhettsmith

rhettsmith — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:23:48 +0000

Brian,

Hey, so glad you got to take that Bonhoeffer class…and his last class he ever taught. That was an amazing class, and he was an amazing man.

rhett

By: rhettsmith

rhettsmith — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:21:29 +0000

thanks Jenelle….he was awesome.

rhett

By: Brian Kiley

Brian Kiley — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:32:11 +0000

Great post, Rhett. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to take his Bonhoeffer class two summers ago, apparently it was the last Fuller class he taught. He was truly an amazing man, and it was great to read your memories of him.

By: Jenelle

Jenelle — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:58:48 +0000

our Fuller community feels Dr. Ray’s absence already. Beautiful tribute, Rhett.