David Ewert: Teacher for the Church
One of Canadian Mennonite Brethren's leading Bible scholars, David Ewert, passed away after a brief illness on April 23. He was 87. He was living in Abbotsford, B.C., in retirement.
An immigrant who came to this country as a child with his Mennonite parents, he quickly displayed great natural ability and love for the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures, and went on to become a teacher in at least five Mennonite Brethren institutions in both Canada and the United States. He also taught summer and inter-session courses at schools as widely separated as Regent College, ACTS at Trinity Western University, Tyndale Seminary and Union Biblical Seminary in India. At various times he taught on five continents.
In his own church family, as a biographer stated, "He shaped the theological views of literally thousands of students, many of whom became pastors, missionaries and leaders within the church…. Ewert tried to emulate an irenic balance between denominational loyalty and collaborative, cooperative relationships with a broad network of evangelical Protestants."
The Ewert family's very early years were marked by a struggle to survive as new immigrants, followed by a more settled and rewarding existence in the Lethbridge area of southern Alberta. Here David committed his life to Christ and was baptized into the Coaldale Mennonite Brethren Church. His early studies were mainly in Mennonite Brethren schools. He became principal of the Bible school in Coaldale as a 26-year-old after teaching four years in two other schools.
In the early 1950s he came to Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg, where he spent a great many years and from which he exercised a large part of his influence. In the early 1970s he joined the Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Virginia for several years, then moved to the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in California and remained there until 1982, when he returned to MBBC to become its president. He remained there until he retired.
Ewert's studies took him to UBC, to the Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, to Wheaton College, to Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul and to the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary. The latter school brought him to his darkest academic experience.
After five years of study he gave up the pursuit of a PhD when his faculty advisor refused to sponsor his thesis project unless Ewert accepted his theological views. It left him with a "deep distaste for the dogmatism and narrow prejudices of theological liberalism," his biographer wrote. Later, Ewert gained a PhD in New Testament studies from McGill University.
Over the years, Ewert not only did a great deal of classroom teaching, he also travelled widely on preaching missions, and wrote. Much of his writing in both English and German was for publications of his denomination, but as time passed increasingly for a wider audience. He also authored numerous books, some of which came to be read widely. One of them, From Ancient Tablets to Modern Translations, a review of how the Bible came to us, is used as a college textbook. Another, And Then Comes the End, helped many Mennonite Brethren and others move away from a "speculative and sensationalist interpretation of current events" to "more pastoral and ethical considerations."
Within his denomination, Ewert also took active leadership roles on boards and executive bodies. He typically engaged with issues the denomination was wrestling with, whether it involved Bible translations, the charismatic movement, women in ministry or eschatology.
David Ewert was a person of discipline and enormous output. He wrote, spoke and taught in a style not much in vogue today—he wrote out his lectures, sermons and even Bible studies in detail and knew how long he wanted to be in each case. Even his walk seemed to reflect such precision.
Yet his relationships with people reflected great generosity of spirit. His wife and family recall a husband and father who cultivated a very warm and supportive relationship. He is survived by his wife Lena (formerly Hamm) of 65 years and five children and their families.
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