A grant from the Buntrock Foundation for Leadership allowed Luther Seminary to recruit two part-time visiting contract faculty members, who are splitting their time between Faith+Lead and the seminary’s academic degree programs. Anthony Bateza, a specialist in Martin Luther and Christian ethics who teaches religion at St. Olaf College, will join Luther in June. Tripp Fuller, who hosts the popular Homebrewed Christianity podcast, began his work at Luther this spring, teaching a class on spirituality and popular culture, which will also be available through Faith+Lead Academy.

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Arlene Flancher, children, youth, and family coordinator and student advisor, and Jen Gruendler, associate director for enrollment services, presented a workshop—“A Handful of Practices to Cultivate Friendworks (Like Networks but a Billion Times Better)”—at the ELCA Network Extravaganza in New Orleans in January, an annual conference drawing together more than 1,000 leaders in children, youth, and family ministries.

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“Embodying Creation and Gospel: Thinking With and After Gustaf Wingren,” an essay by Lois Malcolm ’89 M.A., professor and Olin and Amanda Fjelstad Reigstad Chair for Systematic Theology, was recently published in “Bodies Inhabiting the World: Scandinavian Creation Theology and the Question of Home,” edited by Derek Nelsen, Niels Gregersen, and Bengt Uggla (Lanham: Lexington, 2024).

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Kenneth Reynhout, senior director of institutional effectiveness, assessment, and research, began serving as president of the Association for Institutional Research in the Upper Midwest.

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Cody Sanders, associate professor of congregational and community care leadership, gave a paper titled “LGBTQ+ Chrono-Stress, Traumatic Temporality, and Queer(ing) Preaching” on a panel at the Society of Biblical Literature, and has offered a number of forums and sermons at churches around the Twin Cities. Sanders became co-editor, with Justin Sabia-Tanis, of a new book series with Lexington Books, titled “Queer and Trans Approaches to Religion and Theology.” He joined the editorial boards of the journals Christian Ethics Today and Pastoral Psychology. He also served from January through March as the interim chaplain for the Plymouth Fire Department.

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In March, Kathryn Schifferdecker, professor and Elva B. Lovell Chair of Old Testament, was the keynote speaker at the 43rd Annual Rural Ministry Conference, sponsored by the Center for Theology and Land at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

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Matthew Skinner, professor and Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Chair of New Testament, published “Matthew: The Gospel of Promised Blessings” with Abingdon Press this year. The book includes a leader guide and a collection of videos to facilitate small-group discussions.

Skinner also wrote the introduction to and study notes for the Acts of the Apostles in The SBL Study Bible published by HarperCollins in November 2023. Other contributors from Luther Seminary include David Fredrickson ’80 M.Div., retired associate professor of New Testament, who wrote the introduction to and study notes for Philippians; Cameron Howard, associate professor of Old Testament, who wrote the sidebar “The Authority of the Written Word”; and David Tiede ’66 B.D., former president of the seminary and professor emeritus of New Testament, who wrote study notes for Luke.

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In Memoriam

Carl Braaten ’55 M.Div. died on October 28, 2023. Braaten was an esteemed American Lutheran theologian and minister, and contributed significantly to Lutheran theology and ecumenism. After studying at St. Olaf College and Luther Seminary, he furthered his education at Heidelberg University and Harvard Divinity School under the guidance of Paul Tillich. Ordained in 1958, Braaten served in a Minneapolis parish and taught at Luther Seminary before joining the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1962. He was one of the founders of the journals dialog: A Journal of Theology and Pro Ecclesia and the author of many books and articles.

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Sylvia Ruud died on February 8, 2024. She was managing editor of Word & World, Luther Seminary’s quarterly journal of theology, from its inception in 1981 until she retired in 2016. Former editor Fred Gaiser said she was “the most overqualified person for a job that I have ever known. Not only did she do an excellent job of carrying out the day-by- day affairs of the Word & World office, but as managing editor, she proofread every article and could correct your Greek, your Hebrew, and your English grammar. She never missed a typo or deadline, and on top of all that, she could read Italian. We worked side-by-side for a quarter of a century, and it was never anything but a pleasure.” She also served as production editor of Dialog, a theological journal formerly based at Luther.