John W. de Gruchy
John W. de Gruchy is an Anti-Apartheid leader, Karl Barth Prize award recipient, former Robert Selby Taylor Professor of Christian Studies at University of Cape Town, and an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch.[1] He is also an alumnus of Chicago Theological Seminary.
John de Gruchy was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in March 1939. He studied at the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago, and at the University of South Africa. An ordained minister in the United Congregational Church, he served two congregations before joining the staff of the South African Council of Churches in 1968 where he was director of Communications and Studies. In 1973 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Cape Town where he eventually became the Robert Selby Taylor Professor of Christian Studies and, during the last few years of his tenure, the Director of the Graduate School in Humanities. He retired in 2003 and was appointed a Senior Research Scholar at UCT and an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch, and remains active in both institution engaged in research publishing, workshops and mentoring younger academics. De Gruchy has a doctorate in theology and another in the social sciences, along with several honorary doctorates (Rhodes, Chicago Theological Seminary, Stellenbosch, Toronto). In 2000 he was awarded the Karl Barth Prize by the Evangelical Church of the Union in Germany. He is an A NRF (National Research Foundation) A rated research scholar. He has lectured in many countries across the world, and has authored or edited more than thirty books on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the church in South Africa, contextual, public and Reformed theology, social history, Christianity and the arts, reconciliation and justice, and Christian humanism.
With his wife Isobel, a poet and painter, John is now a resident member of the Volmoed Community for Reconciliation and Healing near Hermanus where he writes, gives seminars and makes furniture. Amongst his recent books are Christianity, Art and Social Transformation; Reconciliation: Restoring Justice; Being Human: Confessions of a Christian Humanist: John Calvin: Christian Humanist & Evangelical Reformed, and Being Led into Mystery: Faith seeking answers in life and death. Amongst his most recent books are A Theological Odyssey which tells the story of his "life in writing," and Sawdust and Soul, written with William Everett, which brings together his interest in woodworking, furniture making, and spirituality. His books have been translated into German. Korean, Japanese and Swedish.