Roger L. Shinn Papers, 1920-2010, bulk 1960-2000

Roger L. Shinn (1917-2013) was an educator, administrator and author who championed the ecumenical movement and social activism in Protestant churches. At Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Shinn studied with giants of 20th-century religious thought, including Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich. He later served as the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union.

The Reverend Dr. Roger Lincoln Shinn was born in Germantown, Ohio on January 6, 1917, son of the Reverend Henderson L. V. Shinn and Carrie Margaret Shinn. He obtained his B.A. from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio in 1938, his Master of Divinity (at that time Bachelors of Divinity, summa cum laude) from Union Theological Seminary in 1941, a doctorate from Columbia University in 1949, and was ordained with the Evangelical and Reform Church (now United Church of Christ) and the Northwest Ohio Synod in the years following World War II.

Shinn went on to hold academic posts instructing in the philosophy of religion at Heidelberg and Vanderbilt University before returning to teach at Union. While at Union he also co-taught courses at New York University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and also served Union in an administrative capacity as Dean of Instruction and Acting President. Shinn served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945, in which he participated in the Battle of the Bulge, was imprisoned by the German army and subsequently won a Silver Star medal for gallantry in action.

Shinn provided leadership with the United Church of Christ, the World Council of Churches, the American Theological Society, and the National Council of Churches, and consulted for a number of civic bodies, including the Religious Advisory Council to the President's Committee on Government Contracts from 1959- 1961 (appointed by President Eisenhower), the Special Commission on Ethical Standards in Public Service from 1969-1970, and the National Institute of Health. In all of these arenas, Shinn's investments in theological thought drew heavily on an ethics of social responsibility within the moderate Protestant community.

Shinn had a deep involvement with social activism in the Protestant churches in the 1950s-1960s, and for his leadership in crafting the Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ, a denomination which formed out of the merging of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. The revised Statement of Faith continues to draw on Shinn's guiding principles, which encouraged the church to espouse a "joyful testimony" of faith in God over an authoritative testament to orthodoxy.

Even in retirement, Shinn continued to teach at the Pacific School of Religion, Drew University, Vanderbilt University, Vancouver School of Theology and Princeton Theological Seminary, and went on to engage in a number of ecumenical organizations and speaking opportunities. His academic pursuits led to honorary degrees from Mission House Theological Seminary in 1960, Franklin Marsha UC in 1960, Heidelberg in 1963, Drury College in 1984 and Blackburn University in 1985.

Reverend Shinn died on May 13, 2013 in Southbury, Connecticut at 96 years of age. He was survived by his wife, Katharine Cole Shinn, his partner of 69 years with whom he had been classmates at Heidelberg, their daughters Carol and Marybeth, his sister Ruth, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.