Gerald A. Larue

Gerald Alexander Larue (June 20, 1916 in Calgary – September 17, 2014 in Newport Beach, California) was an American scholar of religion and professor emeritus of gerontology, a former ordained minister who became an agnostic, archeologist, debunker of biblical stories and accounts of miracles, and humanist.

Larue was born in Calgary, Canada, into a family of a salesman. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Alberta in 1943 and was ordained in the United Church of Canada in 1945.

Over the next eight years he led congregations in Canada and California while completing his theological studies. In 1953 he earned a doctorate from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where he also studied archaeology. Even during his years in School of Religion he questioned religious dogma. According to his son's account, professors called him Heretic Larue, as he was treating religious studies more as historical or scientific facts that could be challenged. He gave up the pulpit in 1953 because, he later told the Orange County Register, "while I was doing good things in society, there was no intellectual growth for me." He regarded the existence of God as "an open question."

In 1958 Larue joined faculty of University of Southern California as a professor of biblical history and archaeology. In the 1960s he took part in digs in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and other parts of the Middle East, returning with artifacts preserved in a USC archaeological collection.

Larue gradually turned his attention to topics such as the Bible's views of sex and gender and ancient practices surrounding death and dying. Larue joined the USC Davis School of Gerontology in 1981 staying as a professor until his retirement from USC in 2006.

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