| Paul van Buren | |
| Birth Date: | 20 April 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Norfolk, Virginia |
| Death Place: | Memorial Hospital, Blue Hill, Maine |
| Occupation: | Theologian Author |
| Nationality: | American |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard College, Episcopal Theological School, University of Basel |
| Movement: | Death of God theology (disavowed) |
| Spouse: | Anne Hagopian |
Paul Matthews van Buren (April 20, 1924 – June 18, 1998) was a Christian theologian and author. An ordained Episcopal priest, he was a Professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia for 22 years. He was a Director [''NYT'' obituary says "Associate"] of the Center of Ethics and Religious Pluralism at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
He died of cancer on June 18, 1998, at age 74.
Van Buren was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. During World War II, he had served in the United States Coast Guard.
Van Buren attended Harvard College, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in government, in 1948. He then attended the Episcopal Theological School, and received a bachelor's in sacred theology in 1951. It was after this that he was ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Massachusetts. He received a Th.D. in theology in 1957 from the University of Basel in Switzerland studying under Karl Barth. A professor at Temple University, he was considered a leader of the "Death of God" school or movement, although he himself rejected that name for the movement as a "journalistic invention," and considered himself an exponent of "Secular Christianity."
Later, however, Van Buren expressed criticism of the approach that he and others had taken to accommodate the Christian faith to an increasingly secular culture. Writing in 1980, Van Buren stated:
Below is an incomplete list of his works:[1]