Tusculum Theologian-in-Residence Lecture Series to be held in February

Tusculum’s annual Theologian-in-Residence Lecture Series will be held again this year each Tuesday in February.

The series, sponsored by Tusculum with funding from Ron Smith, will be led by Dr. Joel Van Amberg, professor of history at Tusculum. The title of the lecture series is, “The Historical Luther: Tracing the Development of Martin Luther’s Central Reformation Views.”

The 2018 Theologian-in-Residence series will join with people around the world in commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation (1517-2017).          According to Dr. Van Amberg, “As Luther’s involvement in the church increased, first as friar, then priest, then doctor of theology, and finally as professor of sacred scripture and pastor, his engagement with the scriptures deepened. In it he found not only a textual source of doctrinal authority, but also a living word that addressed his most pressing spiritual concerns.”

In October 1517, Martin Luther wrote down 95 propositions, or theses, intended to form the basis of an academic debate among the faculty at the University of Wittenberg. According to Dr. Van Amberg, instead, this document swept across Europe in a matter of months, helping to spark the firestorm that would come to be called the Protestant Reformation.

“Although the Reformation is much larger than Martin Luther, this series will focus on the evolution of Martin Luther’s positions on the central issues of his religious movement,” he said.

The lecture series will open on February 6 with the topic of “Luther and the Scriptures.” This session is the first of two that considers Luther’s struggle to define the nature of religious authority.

On February 13, the topic will be “Luther and the Papacy.” This session focuses on the events that brought about the break between Luther and the Catholic Church. According to Dr. Van Amberg, Luther was an unlikely revolutionary. He considered himself a faithful son of the Church. He had a strong respect for authority. The monastic life he had led instilled deeply in him the values of humility and obedience. Yet, the dramatic events surrounding the publication of the “95 Theses,” coupled with his own spiritual development, led him to reject the authority of the Pope and the Church hierarchy to define religious truth.

The topic on February 20 will be “Luther and Justification by Faith.” This session will address the position that is often seen as at the heart of Luther’s theology, the doctrine of justification by faith. Both the concepts of ‘justification’ and ‘faith’ were the subject of intense debate in the Middle Ages, and, as an academically trained theologian himself, Luther understood the issues well. This session will explore how Luther’s view on this issue developed between 1508 and 1520 both in continuity with and in contrast to medieval precedent.

The final session will be held on February 27 and will focus on the topic, “Luther and the Sacraments.” This session will also explore issues of continuity and change, in this case regarding Luther’s view of the sacraments as it developed over his career as a reformer. For the Catholic Church, the administering of the seven sacraments lay at the heart of the Church’s mission, namely, bringing God’s grace to a needy humanity. From the Catholic perspective, Luther’s position on the sacraments was nothing less than a full assault on the most holy rites of the Church. For many Protestants, both contemporary and modern, however, Luther’s view on the sacraments seems surprisingly Catholic. This session will identify the issues behind Luther’s unique perspective on the Sacraments.

The February Theologian-in-Residence lectures will take place on each Tuesday of the month – Feb. 6, 13, 20 and 27. Each lecture session will begin at 10 a.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in the Niswonger Commons. The sessions typically end around noon, with lunch in Tusculum’s cafeteria following the conclusion of the lecture. There is no admission fee to attend the lectures or the luncheon.

Dr. Van Amberg received a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Bowdoin College and a Master of Arts in church history from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received his doctorate in European history in the division for late Medieval and Reformation studies at the University of Arizona.

His book, “A Real Presence:  Religious and Social Dynamics of the Eucharistic Controversies in Early Modern Augsburg 1520-1530,” was published in 2012. It explores the factors that led to divisions within the early Reformation movement in southern Germany.

Dr. Van Amberg has been a faculty member at Tusculum College since 2005. He teaches the pre-modern European history courses, as well as courses on the Hebrew and Christian traditions and on the history of representative government in the West. He has also served as the chair of the department of history (later history and museum studies) since 2006.

He and his wife Deirdre have five children, Jane, Samuel, Rebekah, Peter and Susanna.

Although the series has no admission fee, reservations are required. For more information or to make a reservation for the series, please call 423.636.7304 or email bsell@tusculum.edu.