Clebsch, William Anthony

(July 27, 1923-June 12, 1984). Church historian. He was born in Clarksville, Tennessee. Clebsch received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee in 1946 and his B.D. in the same year from the Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon on July 26, 1946, and priest on Sept. 28, 1947. From 1946 until 1949, Clebsch was Episcopal chaplain and lecturer in religion at Michigan State University. From 1949 until 1956, he was instructor and then assistant professor of church history at the Virginia Theological Seminary. He received his Th.D. from Union Theological Seminary, New York, in 1957, and then studied at Clare College, Cambridge University. From 1956 until 1964, Clebsch taught church history at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. From 1964 until 1984, he taught religion and humanities at Sanford University. In 1980 Clebsch was named the George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Sanford. Among his many publications are: with C. R. Jaekle, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective (1964); Clebsch also wrote England's Earliest Protestants, 1520-1535 (1964), From Sacred to Profane America: The Role of Religion in American History (1968), Christian Interpretations of the Civil War (1969), American Religious Thought: A History (1973), and Christianity in European History (1979). Clebsch was involved in numerous academic organizations and projects. He renounced the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church and was deposed on Jan. 7, 1969. Clebsch died in Sanford, California.