Dr. Paul Sponheim Department: Religion Years at Concordia: 1961-1969 Current Home: St. Paul, MN Email: psponhei@luthersem.edu
I taught at Concordia from 1961 to 1969, with time away for a year of research/writing (Kierkegaard, Denmark) and a year’s guest professorship at the Lutheran seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. From 1969 to 2008 I taught at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, as a systematic theologian with a penchant for team-teaching with colleagues from other departments. I was Lloyd Svendsbye’s first academic dean but otherwise emphasized teaching and writing (nine books, several other co-authorships, many articles and book reviews). My latest book, Existing Before God: Søren Kierkegaard and the Human Venture (1517 Media, 2017), will be reviewed by Dr. George Connell of the Concordia philosophy department. My wife (a Cobber as well, 1953—Nellie Hanson of Pelican Rapids) and I have two living sons, Rolf and Scott. Both are Concordia College products. We are glad they also reside in the Twin Cities. In the 1960s, Concordia students were predominantly Caucasian with a northern European cultural background. Cy Running used to say perceptively that the freshmen showed up “with a little straw on their backs.” They could use some polishing. But they were often bright and curious.They had a genuineness about them and their eagerness to learn even held up through a three-course religion requirement. I enjoyed teaching future doctors, lawyers, foreign service officers, social workers and the like. When I moved to seminary teaching, I gained an older student population with a more settled vocational objective, but I missed the sense of exploration and vocational imagination. I hear that current students at Lutheran colleges are much more diverse and sensitive to pluralism. A fond memory reaches back to a class in the library classroom my first quarter at Concordia. I was fresh out of the University of Chicago and only nine years out of my own Concordia student days. I had only twelve students in this elective with the unlikely subject of F.D.E. Schleiermacher’s 751-page The Christian Faith. Schleiermacher is often called the father of liberal Protestant theology, and I wasn’t at all sure how this would go. It was an unambiguous delight poring over Schleiermacher’s pages with Dorcas Haanstad, Sharon Blessum, Vince Lindstrom, M. Darroll Bryant, Marcus Borg and the like. Many more thrilling hours followed in classrooms old (Cobber Hall) and new (the Science building). Words of Wisdom in this pluralistic time? Soli Deo Gloria indeed, for God has a pretty big operation going in this world.
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