Renowned Pentecostal New Testament Scholar Gordon Fee Dead at 88
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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include information from Regent College.
Gordon D. Fee, ordained Assemblies of God minister and renowned theologian, author, New Testament scholar and professor, died in New York City on Oct. 25, 2022, at age 88.
Born May 23, 1934, in Ashland, Oregon, he was professor emeritus at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he taught for 16 years. His teaching career also included stints at colleges and seminaries including Wheaton College in Illinois (five years) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts (12 years).
Regent College released a statement announcing Fee’s death, calling him a “treasured colleague, teacher, friend, and pastor to many” as well as “one of the finest textual critics of the twentieth century and an expert on pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit.”
The son of an Assemblies of God pastor, Fee received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Seattle Pacific University and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He published several books and articles on New Testament textual criticism along with numerous other books, including one of his most famous works, “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth,” co-written with Douglas Stuart. He also wrote a significant book on the Holy Spirit, “God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul.”
Fee was also the second general editor of the “New International Commentary on the New Testament,” retiring from that position in 2012 after his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.
Fee’s daughter-in-law, Maria Fee, assistant professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, posted on Facebook that her father “decided it was time to talk with St. Paul face to face:”
Gordon Fee, celebrated scholar with a pastoral heart, decided it was time to talk with St. Paul face to face. Having…
Posted by Maria Fee on Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Fee’s son Benjamin Dover also posted a tribute to his father on Facebook, noting that Fee “lived his entire life acknowledging the immense grace given to him and sharing that grace with others. I’m proud that he was able to make a positive impact for women, for Pentecostals, for his students and for scholars. And his passing will be mourned for that. But I will mourn and miss the person he was.”
Academics and pastors from across the world are sharing their remembrances of Fee on social media. Rich Villodas, author and pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, was one of the first to share news of Fee’s death:
I learned that the Pentecostal New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee passed away yesterday. Gordon lived a few short minutes from New Life in Queens.
I’ll always remember a long conversation I had with him about the Holy Spirit.
So grateful for his witness to Jesus & scholarship. pic.twitter.com/dcr1orVu01
— Rich Villodas (@richvillodas) October 26, 2022
W. David O. Taylor, associate professor of theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, tweeted about Fee’s impact on his life and teaching:
“Let me hear you pray, let me hear you sing, and I’ll write your theology.”
That’s what the NT scholar Gordon Fee told us time after time in class @regentcollege. I now quote him time after time in my own classes—b/c it’s true.
Sing your heart out, Gordon. You deserve it. RIP.
— W. David O. Taylor (@wdavidotaylor) October 26, 2022
Fellow Pentecostal New Testament scholar Mark Chironna offered another heartfelt tribute:
One of the pioneers in Pentecostal Scholarship, Dr. Gordon Fee, has gone home to his reward. Our prayers are with his daughter Dr Cherith Fee Nordling, all her brothers, and the entire Fee clan. Gordon impacted my life from the 1970’s on. His passion was palpable. Memory Eternal.
— Mark Chironna (@markchironna) October 26, 2022
Fee’s wife, Maudine, died in 2014. He leaves behind four children: Mark (Robin), Cherith Fee Nordling (Robert), Brian (Maria) and Craig (Ellen); thirteen grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Plans are underway for a memorial service in New York City and another in Vancouver, British Columbia, next spring.
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