david c steinmetz is amos ragan kearns distinguished professor emeritus of the history of christianity at duke divinity school he was elected fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences in 2006david c steinmetz born on june 12 1936 in columbus ohio is an american historian of late medieval and early modern christianity1 he received his ba in english from wheaton college in illinois 1958 his bd from drew university 1961 and his thd from harvard university 1967 in 1961 he was ordained an elder in the methodist church before coming to duke university where he spent most of his academic career he taught for five years 19661971 at lancaster theological seminary he later served as a visiting professor at harvard 1977 notre dame 1993 1997 2005 2008 and emory 2010 universitiesin 1959 steinmetz married virginia ruth verploegh an english teacher from chicago whom he met at wheaton virginia earned her ma in english at temple university and her phd at duke university she taught for several years at meredith college in raleigh north carolina before she was appointed as dukes first director of graduate student career services the couple have two children claire elise and matthew eliotsteinmetz taught courses at duke in four departments the historical division of the divinity school the joint program in graduate religion the center for medieval and renaissance studies and the department of german in 1985 he was elected president of the american society of church history in 1986 he was chosen as the first president of the american friends of the herzog august bibliothek in germanyin addition to his reputation as a productive scholar steinmetz was known as a lively and entertaining lecturer who could win over students disinclined to take history seriously no one was therefore surprised when he won a teaching prize in 1986 and was named the duke university scholarteacher of the year his prose style written and spoken was admired by critics for its clarity its elegance and its dry humorsteinmetz was an intellectual historian and a specialist in the history of christian thought in late medieval and early modern europe his earliest works explored the reception of the teaching of st augustine in the later middle ages determining if possible the intellectual influence such late medieval augustinianism might have exercised on martin lutherluthers early thought was often articulated in biblical commentaries and lectures this fact led steinmetz to take a fresh look at the history of biblical interpretation typically historians were satisfied if they tried to analyze luthers hermeneutical theory rather than his exegesis but steinmetz was dissatisfied with what he regarded as an exclusive interest in hermeneutics and concluded that such an approach while useful was woefully inadequatewhat historians needed was something more than a critical review of interpretive theory what they needed was a wholesale immersion of their minds in the exegesis itself steinmetz argued that exegesis could not be understood properly in isolation from its own larger context unless historians developed a comparative approach to their texts reading as many commentaries as possible on each biblical passage they would never understand what biblical exegesis could tell them about the intellectual world they were studyingsteinmetz shifted the focus of his studies from luthers early theology to the theology and exegesis of luthers younger contemporary john calvin using as many as 60 early modern commentaries on pauls letter to the romans steinmetz looked at calvins theological development through the lens of medieval and early modern interpretations of paul by placing calvins exegesis in its proper context he could now tell calvins ordinary comments broadly shared by his contemporaries from his original insightsthe late heiko oberman characterized steinmetzs study of calvin as an exquisite contribution to calvin scholarship that succeeds in tracing the precise profile of calvin as biblical interpreter barbara pitkin called his calvin scholarship a collection of pathbreaking studies that set investigation into calvins biblical interpretation on a new footing2in 1996 steinmetz was honored by his students with a festschrift biblical interpretation in the era of the reformation and in 2006 was elected a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences in 2008 he and his wife endowed the annual steinmetz lectures in historical theology shortly thereafter 2009 he retired as the kearns distinguished professor emeritus and was awarded the distinguished career award of the american society of church history 2010 at the same time 2010 emory university offered him a visiting post as the mcdonald distinguished professor of history a gift that enabled him to lay the intellectual foundations for his next book the catholic calvin