Dr. Eckardt, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, spent most of his career in the field of education. After teaching at the City University of New York, Duke and Lawrence College, he joined the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where, from 1951 through 1982, he chaired the religious studies department. During that period he was also the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion for ten years.

In 1979 President Carter appointed Roy to be a special consultant to the President's Commission on the Holocaust and from 1981 to 1986 he served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council as a special advisor to its chairman, Elie Wiesel. At the time of his death he was a senior associate fellow of the Center for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and a Maxwell Fellow at Oxford University.

Roy Eckardt had an international reputation as a first-rate scholar known for his erudite, sometimes provocative, presentations that focused on issues often ignored or overlooked by most Christians. The range of his expertise can be seen in the numerous books he wrote, which include Christianity and the Children of Israel: A Theological Approach to the Jewish Question (1948), The Surge of Piety in America (1958), Elder and Younger Brothers: The Encounter of Jews and Christians (1967), Christianity in Israel, editor (1971), Jews and Christians: The Contemporary Meeting (1986), For Righteousness' Sake: Contemporary Moral Philosophies (1987), Black-Woman-Jew: Three Wars of Human Liberation (1989), Reclaiming the Jesus of History: Christology Today (1992), How to Tell God From the Devil: On the Way to Comedy (1995).

 Together, Roy and Alice Eckardt were one of the most powerful and prolific teams working in the broad area of Christian-Jewish relations. They co-authored two books -- Encounter With Israel: A Challenge to Conscience (1970) and Long Night's Journey Into Day: A Revised Retrospective on the Holocaust (1982) as well as numerous articles. They tirelessly traveled the world to challenge Christians in their relation to Jews, Judaism and Israel and seemed to take a special delight in fostering younger people who work in the field of Christian-Jewish relations. We are glad that Alice Eckardt continues her writing, teaching and involvement with NCLCI.

We are thankful for the life and work of Roy Eckardt. His thinking is a challenge to those who want easy answers to the issues of Christian and Jewish relations because it was original and ahead of his time. He has left us a rich body of work that has deepened the Christian-Jewish dialogue will continue to be revered by Christian scholars who truly wish to come to grips with the beneficial realities of Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel.