It was a cold and sunny Saturday when hundreds of people packed into the Church of the Savior, a stone’s throw from Eastern’s campus. They gathered to celebrate the life of the late Rev. Tony Campolo, who passed away at the age of 89 from heart failure on November 19, 2024 (NY Times). Campolo was an Eastern University undergraduate alumni, long-time sociology professor and beloved community member. Mac Macolino, an attendee at the service, said that rather than a mournful atmosphere, the tone was full of joy and celebration for Campolo’s long, fruitful life.
Former first lady, senator and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was in attendance. Campolo had been a spiritual advisor to President Bill Clinton following a sex scandal that resulted in an impeachment and a turbulent marriage. The spiritual guidance blossomed into a friendship between the Campolos and the Clintons. During remarks she gave at the service, she quoted one of Campolo’s favorite lines: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.”
According to the NY Times, Campolo was born and raised in Philadelphia, where he stayed the rest of his life. His family chose to remain in the city during the “white flight” of the 1950s and joined a mainly Black church in the wake of the neighborhood’s changing demographics. This would have a profound effect on Campolo’s focus on criticizing the Church for exiting the city and leaving communities to fend for themselves against the challenges of urban life.
Ronald Matthews, current president of the university, was a professor at Eastern at the same time as Campolo. “Tony was, first of all, faithful. He actually believed in the church. He believed that the church was the primary vehicle for the Gospel and for reaching out to the community, because a church is in a community. So the community and the church would be so seamlessly integrated that it’s not a foreign thing to say, oh, my church, even if you’re not a Christian. It was just that kind of bold [vision]: ‘We’re gonna be the resource of holistic love for this community,’” Matthews said.
It was this radical vision of what the church should be that drew people across the country to his sermons, speeches and lectures. NY Times reports that in his prime, Campolo was speaking 500 times a year.
Campolo was a mentor and professor to Shane Claiborne. Together, they helped found Red Letter Christians, an organization of folks committed to living as if Jesus really meant what he said. According to Claiborne, Campolo took the founders of the Youth Against Complacency in Homelessness Today (YACHT) club out to dinner at its formation and asked “How can I help?” He and Peggy were also one of the first to write a check for Claiborne and the Eastern alumni who started The Simple Way, an intentional Christian community in Philadelphia.
For Claiborne, and for thousands of others, Campolo showed them a different way to be Christian–a way that integrated the active commands of Jesus with the call to be born again.
“I think what Tony did for me is bring the gospel to life from words on paper to the real possibility of what it could look like to imagine my whole life transformed. He said over and over, Christianity is not just about a way of believing, but a way of living in the world… And even now, we look at the state of Christianity in America, and most of the folks that are doing a lot of damage to the credibility and witness–many of them would pass a doctrinal test. You know, they would believe Jesus died for our sin, rose from the dead, but it doesn’t translate into love. Tony was always challenging that,” Claiborne said.
Campolo also had a profound impact on Eastern University. He has been memorialized already in the institution through the Campolo Center for Ministry, which gives thousands of dollars in scholarships to Eastern students looking for a ministry focus during their time in college. The Campolo Institute for Applied Research in Social Justice has also been started in his name, in honor of his active approach to justice work.
“ [Tony] loved Eastern. His vision for Eastern, which, I believe, represents the heart of Eastern, was related to the formation of people who would change the world. That we would not only prepare [students] for vocations, but that those vocations would include activism, advocacy, making hard choices to change things, to be willing to go public to picket and protest, to serve and to love–and to do it whether you’re in public or private,” Matthews said.
Campolo was not only an unrelenting voice for justice. Matthews also emphasized his humanity and his everyday self. “He took risks. He told stories. He was just so creative and challenging… he was a brilliant sociologist. And he was contemporary; he kept reading. He wasn’t content to be him. He always wanted to be more of him, a better of him,” Matthews reminisced.
Matthews said one of Campolo’s standout qualities was the way he lived as if he was meeting Jesus in every person he interacted with. “That’s not only kingdom justice; it’s like kingdom relationships. I think if justice becomes a thing that’s an idol, we forget we’re talking about people here. We all want to live a happy life. We all prefer not being hungry or sick. We’d all prefer having a home than not having a home. If we can think relationally, I think this gets us to where we need to go.” Matthews said, contrasting this with an attitude across the political spectrum that prizes power over relationships.
Campolo did not act for justice because he wanted to be better than someone else. He first formed relationships with people, and then when he came to realize injustices were plaguing a person or group, he would act. Campolo leaves a profound legacy at Eastern, one that calls members of its community to do justice while refusing to lose sight of the real people impacted by social injustice.
Colin Tomczak 
Shelby Sweeney 
Eva Whited