Richard B. Hays, Influential NT Scholar Who Flip-Flopped Pro-LGBTQ Position, Dead at 76
Richard B. Hays, the influential New Testament author and scholar, passed away Friday morning from pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.
A former professor of the New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Hays is perhaps best known for his 1996 book “The Moral Vision of the New Testament.” It received critical acclaim from conservative scholars, many who consider it to contain the best summary of the scripture’s views on homosexuality. Theologians of all stripes have praised it, from TGC to Christianity Today, which selected it as one of their top 100 Religious Books of the Century.
Then, 30 years later, Hays capitulated and repudiated his former position, releasing a new book in September 2024 called The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, along with his son, where he argued for a pro-LGBTQ position and “fresh, deeply biblical account of God’s expanding grace and mercy, developing a theological framework for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Christian communities.”
That is to say, he did not finish well.
His wife Judy shared news of his death on the website CaringBridge, writing:
Richard died yesterday, January 3rd, at his home in Nashville in the midst of his family. He was surrounded by his books, overseen by photos of his parents and wide family, and with Christmas music from Kings College Cambridge playing softly in the background.
Richard remained cogent until very close to his death. Long after he could write back, he read your messages with a grateful heart. He was gentle and kind to us until he took his last breath. Rest in peace, my beloved husband.
Richard will be interred in the Hays-Crick family plot at Rose Hill Cemetery in Oklahoma City at a private family service this coming weekend. His obituary will be posted at the Hahn-Cook/Street & Draper (OKC) website, and we will share it here. He also wished for a Service of Death and Resurrection at McKendree United Methodist Church in Nashville and a Memorial Service at Duke University at future dates, which I will post at this site, along with some photos of his last months.
We, his family, are deeply grateful that you expressed so much affection to Richard on this site and that you will hold wonderful memories of him close to your hearts in the days and years ahead.
Sincerely, Judy
In a message posted to the same platform on December 17, 2024, Hays wrote a final update in his own words:
The end of life for me is approaching faster than I expected. I’m grateful to all of you for your kindness, your good wishes and prayers, and, most of all, your friendship…If we are not granted the chance to meet again in this life, I trust that together we will discover far more than all we can ask or imagine in the life of the world to come.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.
If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord;
So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
May the Lord’s boundless mercy embrace you this Christmas.
Richard
About Author
