Early life, training, and academic positions William Norman Pittenger was born in
Bogota, New Jersey on July 23, 1905, and was raised in
Princeton, New Jersey. He attended
Princeton University for a short time, but left without graduating because he wanted to try a career as a newspaper reporter in
New York City. Not able to find satisfaction, he went to
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church of the USA, on
Manhattan Island in New York. He started as a student and soon he became tutor. He was named an Instructor in Christian
Apologetics in 1935 at the same Seminary, and was ordained a deacon in the Church in 1936, and a priest in 1937; he served as Instructor at the seminary until 1951, when he was elevated to the rank of Professor in the same department there, a position that he held until 1966.
Career, corpus, and retirement Norman Pittenger was one of the first process theologians without connections with the
University of Chicago Divinity School, and produced the first genuine works on process theological
christology (see
The Word Incarnate. 1959). Pittenger wrote ninety books and many articles throughout his life (see below). In addition to his writing on explicitly Christian themes, he wrote on sexuality in general (e.g.,
Making Sexuality Human, 1970) and penned a Christian defense of homosexuality in particular (
Time for Consent, 1970), a book that was so controversial when published that the
Church Times refused to review it. He also became "discreetly open about his own homosexual orientation" in this era of his life. After his retirement in 1966 he established himself at
King's College,
Cambridge University, where, though not a Fellow, he participated in activities and meals as an Honorary Senior Member until the end of his life; he died at King's Lynn, Norfolk on 19 June 1997. ==Positions and honors==