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In Memoriam: Jeffrey Jordan

Campus community remembers long-time philosophy professor, Faculty Senate president

Jeffrey Jordan, long-time professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware, passed away Feb. 14, 2025, after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 66.

Jeffrey Jordan
Jeffrey Jordan

Dr. Jordan joined the Delaware faculty in 1990 as an associate professor of philosophy and was promoted to full professor in 2006. All told, he was at UD for 35 years.

Dr. Jordan’s scholarly work was primarily in the philosophy of religion, with a special focus on pragmatic reasons for belief and on the problem of evil. He regularly taught courses in philosophy of life and philosophy of religion.

Beyond his scholarly work, he was a much-beloved teacher, able to command the attention and respect of large lecture classes of many generations of students. He also led 12 Winter Session study-abroad programs to Italy. In 1999, he received the University of Delaware’s highest teaching honor—the Excellence in Teaching Award—and his name is inscribed on a brick in Mentors’ Circle.

Faculty Senate officers 2001
Jeffrey Jordan (second from left) in 2001 with other Faculty Senate officers (from left) Charles Mason, Dallas Hoover, Michael Keefe and James Richards.

A passionate advocate for strong faculty governance and academic freedom, Dr. Jordan was president of the University’s Faculty Senate from 2011-12 and for several years served on the Committee on Faculty Welfare and Privileges. In 2015, he was presented with the Jon Olson Faculty Senate Exemplary Service Award, named in honor of the Senate’s first president.

Remembrances

Joel Pust, professor and chairperson of the Department of Philosophy:

“Jeff was my colleague for more than 25 years. He was, from my first weeks on campus, uniquely supportive, helping me with teaching by discussing pedagogy and sharing his own teaching materials, with research by reading and commenting on my work, and with service by being a model of engaged and diligent participation in faculty governance. His insistence on defending a robust notion of academic freedom, perhaps born of defending unpopular positions, was something from which I learned a great deal and continue to take inspiration.

“I am also grateful to Jeff because he was always up for an argument. He would often ask, if I said something, why I thought it was correct. Sometimes, there is nothing better for getting at the truth than being forced to defend something you thought was obvious.  When you cannot defend it, you realize you ought not have said it, and when you can, you learn more about the truth. Having people around who can, in good faith and good humor, argue about the truth, is what makes a university and a philosophy department a special and intellectually vital place.  

“We will miss Jeff and so will the thousands of students who have, over the years, heard him pause during class with his trademark phrase: ‘Question?  Questions? What’s Unclear?’”

Katherin Rogers, professor of philosophy:

"Jeff was a wonderful colleague. He was a very sharp and dedicated philosopher, well known among philosophers of religion for his work on Pascal's Wager and on the Problem of Evil. He was always willing to argue—in the good, philosophical sense. In the Q&A after a paper, he'd always have, as he said, 'a simple-minded question,' which invariably turned out to be pointed and meaty; just the sort of question to advance the discussion. And he was generous with his time. When I was going up for tenure, he read and commented on half of a manuscript I was hoping to publish. He was also a great friend, who was fun to be with. Once, after dinner at his house, he took me and my husband shooting, and he was kind about my poor performance. And I remember with gratitude how much of a comfort he was when we were travelling to one of our favorite conferences, and our flight got cancelled. (We managed to get there eventually.) He contributed a great deal to the discipline, the department and the University, and he will be missed."

Dr. Jordan with Winter Session students in Pisa, 2022
Jeffrey Jordan in Pisa with students in his 2022 Winter Session study abroad trip to Italy. Photo courtesy of Raymond Peters.

Raymond Peters, 2023 alumnus who participated in Dr. Jordan’s 2022 Winter Session trip to Italy:

“What sticks out to me most clearly when I think about the study abroad with Professor Jordan was how knowledgeable and passionate he was as both a professor and a tour guide. I enjoyed his lectures, especially those on the problem of evil, one of his specialties. Despite the COVID-related chaos and restrictions of the time, his intimate knowledge of Rome made the trip very memorable. One particularly evocative memory that I still have of Rome is when he brought us to the Vittore Emmanuel II monument at sunset to watch a starling murmuration. I'm extremely grateful to have been able to go on such a trip and get to know him during my time at UD.”

About Jeffrey Jordan

Born in Wichita, Kansas, he received his bachelor’s degree. from Hardin-Simmons University and a postgraduate degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary before completing a Ph.D. in philosophy at Purdue University in 1989. He taught at the University of Notre Dame for a year before joining UD. 

Jeffrey Jordan
Jeffrey Jordan in a 1999 portrait, when he received the Excellence-in-Teaching Award. Photo courtesy of University Archives and Records Management.

He was the author of Pascal’s Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God (Oxford 2006), the editor of Gambling on God: Essays on Pascal’s Wager (Rowman and Littlefield 1994) and the co-editor (with Daniel Howard-Snyder) of Faith, Freedom and Rationality: Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (Rowman and Littlefield 1996), as well as more than 50 articles in philosophical journals and volumes.  He was an active member of the society of Christian Philosophers and the Society for Philosophy of Religion, and he served on the editorial boards of Religious Studies and the International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion.

Outside of his academic roles, Dr. Jordan had a great interest in history and loved the great outdoors, spending many holidays on hikes and exploring historical sites in the United States and abroad.

He is survived by his wife, Julia Jordan, and a son, Jacob Jordan, in addition to extended family.

Gifts in his memory may be made to American Battlefield Trust, P.O. Box 1751, Merrifield, VA 22116-1751 or online here; or Tunnel to Towers Foundation, 2361 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10306 or online here.

To read his complete obituary or leave online condolences, visit Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Homes.

 

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