Religion: Prickly Presbyterian

Theodore Alexander Gill has the lanky, bespectacled good looks that go with Hollywood's idea of a successful minister —but not the sweet disposition. As managing editor for the past two years of the nondenominational Christian Century, prickly Presbyterian Gill has told off churchmen, politicians and the public with a pungency rarely equaled in U.S. religious journalism. Last week Gill announced that he was leaving the Century to head a seminary himself—San Francisco Theological (enrollment: 272).

Minnesota-born President-designate Gill has studied under the Big Four of contemporary Protestant theology: Karl Earth, Emil Brunner, Reinhold...