Conference Speakers

Keynote lecturers

Peter C. Hodgson - Luther and Freedom

Risto Saarinen - Luther: The Urban Legend

Bishop Munib Younan - Reforming Luther: Toward Prophetic Interfaith Dialogue for Life

Conference speakers

Peter Burgard - Masterful Rhetoric: The Logic of Authority and Subjection in Luther

Jacqueline Bussie - "A Dream with a Sequel" or the "Coming Summer"?: Martin Luther

on Hope for the World

Theodor Dieter - The Global Luther: Justification

Krista Duttenhaver - "Stretched Out With Christ": Martin Luther and Simone Weil on

Suffering and Love

Hans-Peter Grosshans - Human Reason: A Sun in the Twilight of Human Life

Christine Helmer - Honest Truth and Liberal Love

Paul Helmer - Liturgy as Liberation: Luther and Worship Music

James W. Jones - Contemporary Psychological Reflections on Luther and his Theology

Allen Jorgenson - The Priesthood of All Believers as the Congregatio Fidelium and Vox

Christi

Volker Leppin - Punishing God--Freeing God in Luther

Antti Raunio - Looking for the Good of Neighbor: Luther's Social Theology in the

Contemporary World

Birgit Stolt - Luther's Faith of "The Heart": Experience, Emotion, and Reason

Ronald Thiemann - Luther's Theology of the Cross: Resource for a Theology of

Religions?

Christiane Tietz - Peasants and Politics

Vitor Westhelle - Power and Politics: Incursions in Luther's Theology

Music Concert

Bella Voce

Andrew Lewis, conducting

Frank C. Senn, introductions

Conference Panelists

G. Sujin Pak

Benjamin Sommer

M. Sani Umar

Kenneth Vaux

Keynote lecturers

Peter C. Hodgson (Vanderbilt University)

Peter C. Hodgson is Charles G. Finney Professor of Theology, Emeritus, in the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, where he taught from 1965 to 2003. He is the author, editor, and translator of over twenty books, the most recent of which are Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision (2007), Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God--by G.W.F. Hegel (2007), and Hegel and Christian Theology (2008).

Risto Saarinen (University of Helsinki)

Risto Saarinen is Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of Helsinki. He served as Research Professor at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg from 1994 to 1999. He is author of a number of books, articles, and encyclopedia entries in both English and German. His most recent book is entitled God and the Gift: An Ecumenical Theology of Giving (2005).

Bishop Munib Younan (Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jordan)

The Rt. Rev. Munib Younan is the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. He is a leader in interfaith dialogue with Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and helped to initiate the new Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land. He has written Witnessing for Peace (2003) plus many articles and speeches on religion, politics, and peace-building in the Middle East.

Conference speakers

Peter Burgard (Harvard University)

Peter J. Burgard, Professor of German at Harvard University, works on literature, art, architecture, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. His publications include essays on Caravaggio, Opitz, Gryphius, Hoffmannswaldau, Grimmelshausen, Goethe, Herder, Lessing, Nietzsche, Mann, Kafka, Adorno, Ibsen, Miller, and Warhol. His books include Idioms of Uncertainty: Goethe and the Essay (1992), Nietzsche and the Feminine (1994), and Barock: Neue Sichtweisen einer Epoche (2001).

Jacqueline Bussie (Capital University)

Jacqueline Bussie (Ph.D., University of Virginia, M.A., Yale Divinity School) is Assistant Professor of Religion at Capital University. She is the author of numerous articles and of The Laughter of the Oppressed, which received the national Trinity Prize in 2006.

Theodor Dieter (Center of Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg)

Dr. Theodor Dieter is Research Professor at and Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France. He studied Protestant theology and philosophy in Heidelberg and Tübingen, and received both his Ph.D. (1991) and his Habilitation (1998) in Tübingen. He is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg. His publications include Der junge Luther und Aristoteles (2001) and numerous articles in Luther studies, ecumenical theology, and social ethics.

Krista Duttenhaver (University of Notre Dame)

Krista Duttenhaver is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at the University of Notre Dame, where she is completing a dissertation entitled Christian Platonism as a Radical Politics: Simone Weil and the Mystical-Political. She also works on nineteenth-century German philosophy of religion and theology and has published on Schleiermacher.

Hans-Peter Grosshans (Geneva/Tübingen)

Hans-Peter Grosshans is Study Secretary for Theology and the Church of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva and is Assistant Professor in Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen. He has held teaching positions at various universities, including Tübingen, Hamburg, Munich, and Zürich. He is the author of Luther (1997) in the Fount Christian Thinkers Series, Theologischer Realismus (1996), and Die Kirche--irdischer Raum der Wahrheit des Evangeliums (2003). He was also co-editor of the Festschrift for Eberhard Jüngel (2004) and a collection of essays called Kritik der Religion (2005).

Christine Helmer (Northwestern University)

Christine Helmer is Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of German at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Trinity and Martin Luther (1999) and is editor (or co-editor) of numerous volumes in the area of Schleiermacher studies, philosophy of religion, and biblical theology, most recently The Multivalence of Biblical Texts and Theological Meanings (2006).

Paul Helmer (McGill University, Montreal, CA)

Paul Helmer received his Ph.D. in historical musicology from Columbia University, NY, has taught until recently at McGill University in Montreal, and is a concert pianist. His publications include an edition and recording of the missa sancti iacobi and le pemier et second livre de fauvel. At present he is completing Growing with Canada, a book dedicated to the musical émigrés from Europe who came to Canada between 1933-48.

James W. Jones (Rutgers University)

James W. Jones holds doctorates in both Clinical Psychology (Rutgers, 1985) and Religious Studies (Brown, 1970) as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Upsaala in Sweden. He is the author of eleven books, the most recent being Waking From Newton's Sleep: Dialogues on Spirituality in an Age of Science (2006). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and currently serves as the vice-president of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion.

Allen Jorgenson (Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Waterloo, CA)

Allen G. Jorgenson is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. He is the author of The Appeal to Experience in the Christologies of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Rahner (2007).

Volker Leppin (University of Jena)

Volker Leppin studied theology and German literature in Marburg, Jerusalem, and Heidelberg. After receiving his Ph.D. (1994) and Habilitation (1997) from the University of Heidelberg, he was appointed Professor of Church History at the University of Jena, and has taught there since 2000. He is the author of Martin Luther: Gestalten des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (2006), and specializes in late medieval and reformation piety and theology.

Antti Raunio (University of Helsinki)

Antti Raunio received his Th.D. from the University of Helsinki in 1994, and has taught there in the Department of Theology since 2000. He also studied in Mainz from 1986 to 1987. He has published Summe des christlichen Lebens: die Goldene Regel als Gesetz der Liebe in der Theologie Martin Luthers (2001) .

Birgit Stolt (Upsaala University)

Birgit Stolt received her Ph.D. at the University of Stockholm in 1964, and taught there as Professor from 1980-1992. She was awarded an honorary doctorate of theology from University of Upsaala in 1996, and has been a member of many prestigious academic institutions. Her publications include, among others, Martin Luthers Rhetorik des Herzens (2000).

Ronald Thiemann (Harvard University)

Ronald F. Thiemann holds the Benjamin Bussey Professorship of Theology, the oldest chair in theology at Harvard University. An ordained Lutheran and a specialist on the role of religion in public life, Professor Thiemann is the author of Revelation and Theology: The Gospel as Narrated Promise (2005), Constructing a Public Theology: The Church in a Pluralistic Culture (1991), and Religion in Public Life: A Dilemma for Democracy (1996). His current book project is entitled Prisoners of Conscience: Public Intellectuals in a Time of Crisis.

Christiane Tietz (University of Tübingen)

Christiane Tietz holds a doctorate and a postdoctoral degree in systematic theology at the University of Tübingen. She has taught at the Universities of Tübingen, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Mainz, and at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She was the recipient of the Heisenberg Scholarship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is currently a Member-in-Residence at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton. She is the author of Freiheit zu sich selbst (2005).

Vitor Westhelle (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)

Vítor Westhelle is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He is the author of The Scandalous God: The Use and Abuse of the Cross (2006), and has written extensively on Luther, liberation, creation, the apocalypse and eschatology, among other topics. He is on the editorial board of several theological journals, including Dialog and Lutheran Quarterly, and has served in several faculties of theology for the last quarter of a century.

Music Concert

Bella Voce

Founded in 1982 as His Majestie's Clerkes, Bella Voce performs classic a cappella repertoire, early music of the Americas, and contemporary music from all over the world. The ensemble has recorded for Centaur, Harmonica Mundi, Narada, and Cedille Records; and has three self-produced CDs in release. In 2005, the organization’s longtime artistic director, Dr. Anne Heider, retired after more than 16 years leading the group. In 2006, after a year-long search, Andrew Lewis was named as Bella Voce’s new artistic director.

Andrew Lewis, conductor

Mr. Lewis received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory and Voice at Northwestern in 1995 and his Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music in 1998, where he studied choral and orchestral conducting with William Weinert and orchestral conducting with David Effron. Cantor at Immanuel Lutheran Church for eight years, Lewis is now Director of the Chancel Choir at Glenview Community Church, as well as artistic director of Bella Voce, and music director of the Elgin Choral Union. He is also the founder and artistic director of The Janus Ensemble, and is on the conducting faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Frank C. Senn, introductions

Professor Senn received his Ph.D. in Theology (Liturgical Studies) from the University of Notre Dame. He was Professor of Liturgics at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago between 1978-81, and has since taught courses at many universities. His most recent publications include The People's Work: A Social History of the Liturgy (2006) and Lutheran Identity: A Classical Understanding (2008). He is a past President of the North American Academy of Liturgy.

Conference Panelists

G. Sujin Pak (Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary)

G. Sujin Pak is Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. She is the author of The Judaizing Calvin: Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms (forthcoming with Oxford University Press) and articles on Luther and Calvin’s exegesis. Her areas of specialization include Reformation history, the history of biblical interpretation, and the history of Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations. She has recently accepted a position at Duke Divinity School that starts this next fall.

Benjamin Sommer (Northwestern University)

Professor Sommer specializes in the history of Israelite religion, literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible, and biblical theology. He also studies the ancient Near Eastern context of biblical texts and interpretative strategies in midrash. He is currently working on conceptions of God's body in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Assyria, as well as a project entitled, Artifact or Scripture? The Jewish Bible between History and Theology.

M. Sani Umar (Northwestern University)

M. Sani Umar is Associate Professor of Islam with research interests in Islam and Colonialism in West Africa, Islamic Law, Sufism-Anti-Sufism in and Islamic Intellectual Traditions of West Africa, and theories of academic religious studies. He is currently working on Islam, democratization, and politics in Nigeria and West Africa. He is the author of Islam and Colonialism: The Intellectual Responses of Muslims of Northern Nigeria (2005) and numerous essays in edited volumes and the leading journals of Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, and African Studies.

Kenneth Vaux (Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary)

A Doktorand of Helmut Thielicke, Kenneth Vaux has focused his work on science and theology. Editor of Health Medicine and the Faith Traditions: An Inquiry into Religion and Medicine (1982) and Who Shall Live? (1996), he has most recently published Jew, Christian, Muslim: Faithful Unification or Fateful Trifurcation? (2003) and An Abrahamic Theology for Science (2007).