Rick Carlson (
full-size
image)
Dr. Richard Carlson serves as the Philip H. and Amanda E. Glatfelter Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His primary area of teaching is New Testament studies as well as Greek. He is also serving as the seminary’s Acting Director of Internship.
A native of Minnesota, Dr. Carlson holds degrees from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota; Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa; and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. Prior to joining the faculty at Gettysburg in 1990, he served pastorates in northern Minnesota.
Dr. Carlson has published material on the New Testament and its relationship to such areas as New Testament exegesis, preaching, Jewish-Christian relationships, diaconal ministry, evangelism and ministry in the 21st century, and baptism. His books are Preaching 1 Corinthians 13 (co-authored and edited with Dr. Susan Hedahl) and New Proclamation, Year C, 2004, Easter through Pentecost. Dr. Carlson has three children (29, 26, 23), who lead their own very active lives. He is married to the Reverend Dr. Michelle Holley Carlson.
Susan Briehl (
full-size
image)
Susan Briehl, a Lutheran pastor since 1981, has served as Director of Holden Village, a Lutheran center for renewal in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State, campus pastor at Pacific Lutheran University, and pastor of Our Saviour's Lutheran in Bellingham, WA. Currently, she is a member of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod (ELCA), called to her work with the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People of Faith. She serves as the Distinguished Professor of the Art of Ministry at Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, where she teaches when they need her.
Susan's work includes a devotional book for families with children, Come Lord Jesus: Devotions for the Home (Augsburg Fortress, 1996), two chapters co-authored with her daughters in Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens (Upper Room, 2002), and, with Marty Haugen, Turn My Heart: A Sacred Journey from Brokenness to Healing (GIA, 2003), a resource for those who are suffering. On Our Way: Christian Practices for Your Whole Life, a book for young adults will be published in January 2010. Holden Prayer around the Cross, with Tom Witt, is forthcoming from Augsburg.
Her hymn texts include: "Holy God," "Bread of Life from Heaven," “By Your Hand," and “Once we Sang and Danced.” Susan and Marty Haugen have written Santo: A Bilingual Communion Rite (GIA 2002) and Unfailing Light: An Evening Setting for Holy Communion (GIA, 2004).
Susan lives in Spokane with her husband, Martin Wells, where their daughters, Mary Emily, who is working with the Maryknoll Missioners in Bolivia, and Magdalena, a middle school teacher in Kansas City, MO, sometimes visit.
Mary Hess (
full-size
image)
Mary Hess joined the Luther Seminary faculty in July of 2000. Hess received her BA degree in American Studies in 1985 from Yale University in New Haven, Conn. She received her MTS degree in 1992 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. In 1998, she received her Ph.D. in religion and education from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Hess' most recent professional experience includes serving on the editorial board of the premier journal in her field, Religious Education (1999-present), working with the Lexington Seminar and the Wabash Center, and serving as a core member of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture. She is a member of the Religious Education Association, the American Academy of Religion, and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Her most recent publications include the books: Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts: Promises and contradictions (Melbourne, FL: Krieger, 2008), and Engaging technology in theological education: All that we can't leave behind, (New York: Rowman Littlefield 2005). She maintains her own website and has written her weblog,
Tensegrities, since 2003.
David Rhoads (
full-size
image)
David M. Rhoads is professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Ordained in 1968, Rhoads was pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Asheboro, N.C.(1968-1970), and professor of religion at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis. (1963-1968), before joining the seminary's faculty in 1988. He is married to the Rev. Sandra Roberts. He has two children and five grandchildren, two of whom he and Sandra raise. They live in Racine, Wisconsin.
Widely published, Rhoads is an accomplished oral interpreter of Biblical writings that include The Gospel of Mark, the Sermon on the Mount, Galatians, James, I Peter and the Book of Revelation. He is the author of several books including Mark as Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Fortress Press, 1999) and The Challenge of Diversity: The Witness of Paul and the Gospels (Fortress, 1996). In 2004, he published a collection of his essays, Reading Mark, Engaging the Gospel. In addition, he has taught in the Select program of video courses for continuing theological education.
An enthusiastic environmentalist, Rhoads is advisor to the seminary's Green Zone Committee and has planned eco-conferences, edited guidebooks for parishes, and helped initiate "The Web of Creation," an online environmental service for congregations (
www.webofcreation.org). Rhoads also recently wrote The Green Congregation Training Manual, and with David Glover, An Environmental Guide for Churches, Their Buildings and Grounds. Both are available online at
www.webofcreation.org. He now also directs the Green Congregation Program, which works primarily with clusters of congregations in some Midwest synods of the ELCA. In 2007, he edited a collection of sermons by 36 different theologians and preachers: Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet (Continuum, 2007).
Margaret A. Krych (
full-size
image)
Margaret A. Krych is the Charles F. Norton professor emerita of Christian Education and Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She retired in 2008 after 31 years at the seminary where she was Associate Dean of Graduate Education (directing the Master of Sacred Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs), and where she taught courses at first professional and graduate level in Christian education and theology.
Her many publications include: Teaching the Gospel Today (Augsburg, 1987), Teaching About Lutheranism. (Augsburg Fortress, 1993), The Ministry of Children’s Education: Foundations, Contexts, and Practices. (Fortress Press, 2004), and "The Bible and Those Difficult Topics," Parish Teacher, Vol. 19:4, December 1995, pp. 2-3.
She is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has served on several Boards and national committees of the ELCA. She is married to a retired ordained Lutheran minister and lives in a suburb of Philadelphia. They have two adult children.