Dear Friends of the Luther Seminary Community,

In the last months and days of his life, James Kittelson was still our teacher, as confessor of the faith. Deeply aware that he was dying while living, he was also intent on living while dying. He spoke the final words in the “hour of gratitude” that was held with his students, staff, and faculty colleagues on October 30, the day before Reformation Day. His voice was barely audible, but his message was as bold as Paul’s concerning living and dying in Christ: “Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Phil 1.20-21)

Thanks be to God for the hope that is ours through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Dr. David Tiede
President - Luther Seminary

James Kittelson, noted for his work in Reformation history, joined the Luther Seminary faculty in 1997 as professor of church history and director of the Thrivent Reformation Research Program.

He came to Luther Seminary from The Ohio State University, where he had been a member of the faculty in the department of history since 1971. While at Ohio State, Kittelson served as vice-chair of the history department from 1974 to 1977 and as chair of the graduate studies committee from 1989 to 1991. He was visiting graduate professor at Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary in 1992 and at Concordia University in California in 1997.

Kittelson was president and a member of the board of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. He was a member of the executive committee of the Council of the American Society for Reformation Research and a member of the executive committee of the Society for Reformation Research. He served on the board of directors of the Center for Reformation Research.

He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1963 and earned both the master of arts (1964) and Ph.D. degrees (1969) from Stanford University.

In addition to many articles published in Reformation history compendiums, Kittelson wrote Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career (1986). He was senior editor with editor-in-chief Hans Hillebrand of the four volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (1996).