PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V. Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer

Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: cathcil@cathcil.org
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I CONGRATULATES JAROSLAV PELIKAN, THE RENOWNED CHUCRH
HISTORIAN

Antelias, Lebanon – Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, the renowned church historian was
awarded of John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities
and social sciences. In congratulating Dr. J. Pelikan “as a friend”, His
Holiness Aram I said: “You deserve such a prestigious award for your
outstanding achievements as historian and theologian. In fact, your numerous
publications are eloquent testimonies of your vast scholarship, rich
knowledge and perceptive and analytical mind. Your contribution particularly
to church history and doctrine remains unprecedented in the modern history
of world Christendom”.

Over the past 50 years, Jaroslav Pelikan has made unrivaled contributions to
intellectual, cultural and religious history. His major achievements
include: his authoritative work on the life and work of Martin Luther, his
original and monumental five-volume “The Christian Tradition: A History of
the Development of Doctrine” (1971-1989); and his volumes that gather
together the proliferation of Christian sects in our time, particularly in
the Third World, “Credo: Historical and Theological Introduction to Creeds
and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition” (1994) .

Pelikan taught at Valparaiso University in Indiana and Concordia
Theological Seminary from 1949 to 1953, and at the University of Chicago
until 1962. He then began a distinguished career at Yale University and in
1972 was appointed Sterling Professor of History, the highest academic
honor at Yale. From 1973 to 1978, he served as dean of the graduate
school there.

Pelikan was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(1994-97), founding chairman for the Council of Scholars at the Library of
Congress (1980-83; 1988-94) and chairman of the board of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science. At the age of 80, he accepted the
position of scholarly director for the “Institutions of Democracy Project”
at the Annenberg Foundation.

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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.