Roy Eckardt, author of 18 books and many articles on moral philosophy and the theology of politics, was a scholar of Christian-Jewish relations who founded the department of religion studies and served as its chair during much of his tenure at Lehigh from 1951 to 1982.

Eckardt’s books included Black-Woman-Jew: Three Wars for Human Liberation, Elder and Younger Brothers: The Encounter of Jews and Christians and Christianity and the Children of Israel.

For 10 years, Eckardt was editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Eckardt often collaborated with his wife, Alice, a professor emerita of religion studies. The Alice Eckardt Visiting Scholar-in-Residence program, endowed by an anonymous donor in 2012, examines changes in the academic study of religion.

The Eckardt Scholars Program in the College of Arts and Sciences allows selected undergraduate students to create a flexible course of study while completing an independent project.