Reli professor leaves legacy of compassion

By Sarah Rutledge     8/20/09 7:00pm

Edith Wyschogrod, a former religious studies professor, died July 16. She was 79.Wyschogrod, a native New Yorker, started her career teaching philosophy at Queens College of City University of New York. She advanced from lecturer to a permanent member of their faculty and, in 1967, to chair of the department. She held this position until 1992, when she joined the Rice Religious Studies Department.

At the time of Wyschogrod's arrival, the department was more of a theological seminary than an academic religious department, Religious Studies Professor William Parsons said. The department primarily focused on Christianity and Western thought and the faculty numbered fewer than 10 professors.

Seeking to transform the department, Religious Studies Chair Werner Kelber, Dean of Humanities Allen Matusow and President George Rupp, a former religion professor, established the Jay Newton Rayzor Chair for Philosophy and Religious Thought with a donation from the Jewish community in Houston. Once that position was created, they hired Wyschogrod.

---

---

Wyschogrod was a prime candidate for the position, as she was already well known in academic circles, Parsons said. She was also a member of the highly selective American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"They got her here at a crucial time for our department," Parsons said.

Wyschogrod aided in the department's transformation by attracting a larger number of graduate students.

Parsons said in addition to drawing students for her international renown, Wyschogrod looked after her graduate students by ensuring they would be placed at universities or similar ventures and made the necessary phone calls to colleagues across the country.

"Talk about a faculty adviser being wholly committed to their students," Parsons said. "They swore by her. She trained them very well."

Her eclectic approach to teaching and understanding religion tied in to the department's changing approach to the subject. Kelber's vision of a department that would integrate religions from across the world, as well as applying varying methodological approaches to them, was helped along by Wyschogrod, Parsons said. Though raised in the Jewish faith, she taught classes that drew from a variety of religious traditions.

"What were important to her were ideas," Parsons said.

In the same way, she viewed religion and philosophy as being intertwined. Because both subjects fascinated her, Parsons said she eluded the label of religious studies professor.

Parsons said the religious studies department today owes much to Wyschogrod. The department placed fifth in the nation for faculty scholarly productivity by Academic Analytics, owned by the State University of New York, and boasts 12 faculty, many selected from across the globe to teach about their religions.

During her career, Wyschogrod joined the American Philosophical Association and the Hegel Society of America, edited the Postmodern journal and served on the editing staff of various other religious and philosophical publications.

After leaving Rice in 2003, she returned to New York. She also served as a guest professor at Williams College and Villanova University.

Wyschogrod's philosophical work, which focused on ethics and altruism, addressed the question of "the Other." She argued for altruism as a potentially self-sacrificing love for someone.

"She defined altruism as loving a person even at the cost of giving one's own life," Parsons said. "This is a kind of self-giving that could hurt you."

This philosophy, however, transcended beyond mere text. Parsons said Wyschogrod treated everyone with respect and exhibited humility, despite her fame.

She also liked to help others overcome obstacles. Interestingly, her favorite religious symbol was the Hindu god Ganesha, who helped others in the same way.

She was at once a well-read academic with a seemingly endless supply of knowledge, a person who refused to hear others speak of her too highly and a professor fascinated by tattoos from a cultural and religious perspective. Hardly one-dimensional, she was a true intellectual whose absence will be felt from Rice and the larger academic community, Parsons said.

"She embodied her work," he said. "She lived her work.

---