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Professor of Church History, Director of the Reformation Research Program
Mary Jane Haemig, Professor of Church History, joined the Luther Seminary faculty in 1999. She had been Assistant Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, from 1994-1999.
Haemig completed her Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) at Harvard Divinity School in 1996 with a dissertation titled “The Living Voice of the Catechism: German Lutheran Catechetical preaching 1530-1580.” She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977, and received both a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) from Harvard Divinity School and a doctor of jurisprudence (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1981. She worked as an attorney in Illinois from 1982-1989, before commencing doctoral studies at Harvard.
Haemig is a specialist in Reformation studies, particularly the study of the Lutheran Reformation. Her interests include preaching, catechesis, and prayer in that period. She teaches courses related to the Reformation and participates in teaching the Lutheran Confessional writings. She is also Director of the Reformation Research Program at Luther Seminary. Haemig has made many scholarly presentations, numerous church presentations, and has written many articles and book reviews. She is associate editor and book review editor of “Lutheran Quarterly,” is associate editor of the “Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions,”is a member of the continuation committee for the International Luther Research Congress and participates in other scholarly organizations.
Haemig's honors include membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a research grant from the Herzog-August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany (2010), a research grant from the Evangelische Kirche Deutschland (2003), the Regency Advancement Award of Pacific Lutheran University (1997), and the Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellowship of Harvard University (1993-1994).
Baker Academic (Sept. 2017)
In the five hundred years since the publication of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, a rich set of traditions have grown up around that action and the subsequent events of the Reformation. This up-to-date dictionary by leading theologians and church historians covers Luther's life and thought, key figures of his time, and the various traditions he continues to influence.Prominent scholars of the history of Lutheran traditions have brought together experts in church history representing a variety of Christian perspectives to offer a major, cutting-edge reference work. Containing nearly six hundred articles, this dictionary provides a comprehensive overview of Luther's life and work and the traditions emanating from the Wittenberg Reformation. It traces the history, theology, and practices of the global Lutheran movement, covering significant figures, events, theological writings and ideas, denominational subgroups, and congregational practices that have constituted the Lutheran tradition from the Reformation to the present day.
Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions
Fortress Press (Aug. 2016)
Volume 4 of The Annotated Luther series features Luther's writings on prayer and his more personal insights on human suffering, the Christian life, and death. Faith prepares and gives hope to the followers of Christ who face adversity. This will be heard in selected letters, sermons, hymns, and his popular Small Catechism.
The Annotated Luther, Volume 4: Pastoral Writings
A study of the confessions of the Lutheran Church as set forth in the Book of Concord. The documents of the reforming movement, viewed in the historical settings, are explicated in the light of their witness to the centrality of the gospel of justification by faith. Consideration is given to the contemporary importance of this witness for the life and mission of the Lutheran Church in a post-secular age. A central question of the course focuses on what it means to confess today in ecumenical engagement, in culturally diverse situations and interfaith contexts, and how that confession is shaped by those contexts.
This course inquires into the roots of present day Christianity in the Renaissance and Reformation, Luther and the Lutheran Reformation, various Protestant and Roman Catholic reforming movements, and other efforts for Christian witness in the early modern period through the eras of enlightenment and Evangelical revivals (approximately 1400-1800). The course considers the expansion of these movements from Europe and their reception and transformation in other parts of the world during this period. The course seeks, first, to be faithful to Christian tradition and, in the words of St. Paul, to deliver what we have received, and second, to examine how these traditions of reform and renewal continue to shape how Christians today understand their faith and how Christian communities today speak God's promise and serve our neighbors.
An examination of how Christians have embodied, understood and confessed their faith from the Enlightenment to the present. This course considers the challenges of confessing the Christian faith and pays particular attention to how disputes over orthodoxy, heresy, society, culture, and politics have affected and been affected by missional concerns. A survey of major events, movements, and figures that have influenced the history of Christianity and its mission since the French Revolution in Europe and, in America, since the seventeenth century; with special attention to expansion of Christian missions to Asia and the Global South.
Email:mhaemig@luthersem.edu
Office:651-641-3244BH 126C
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