CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "It's a little bit like the town of Gettysburg honoring a German for research and writing about the Civil War in America." That's how the Rev. Timothy J. Wengert, a professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP), said about an honor to be conferred upon him Feb. 20 in Bretten, Germany. LTSP is one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Wengert, who teaches Lutheran confessions and Reformation history at LTSP, will be the first U.S. citizen ever to receive the Melanchthon Prize.
The honor is conferred every three years. The prize includes an $8,000 cash award, which Wengert intends to use toward the costs of a current project.
"The Melanchthon Prize is a culmination of my professional career and a complete surprise," said Wengert. He will travel to Bretten on Feb. 18 to receive the honor at a session attended by scholars from many parts of the world.
Wengert is recognized for his book, "Human Freedom, Christian Righteousness," a book about Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), a German humanist, teacher and Lutheran reformer often referred to as the "right hand man" of Martin Luther, a 16th- century German church reformer. Bretten was Melanchthon's hometown.
Wengert describes Melanchthon as the author of "the single most important confession of faith," in published history, the Augsburg Confession. "Through his systematic work on theology, he made faith understandable to scholars and others during the explosion of the Reformation period," he said.
Wengert further characterizes Melanchthon as a true Renaissance man deeply engaged in studies of language, law, medicine, history, theology and interpretation of the Bible. He was "a kind of Albert Schweitzer of his day. Philipp Melanchthon helped scientists and others comprehend how they could be involved in their various disciplines and still be true to their religious faith," Wengert said.
"Through his theories and proposals, Melanchthon did much to unite churches of his day and he wrote the first theological textbook of the Protestant Reformation in 1521," Wengert said.
"Melanchthon was then in his early twenties," Wengert said. His skills were akin to the contemporary dialogues that led this past October to the signing of a Joint Declaration between Lutherans and Roman Catholics in Augsburg, Germany. He also wrote many commentaries analyzing the content and style of St. Paul's letters, taking advantage of his skills in the disciplines of logic and rhetoric.
Wengert joined LTSP in 1989 and became a full professor in 1997. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1972, and a master's degree in arts from the same school in 1973. He earned a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in 1977, and received his doctorate degree from Duke University, Durham, N.C., in 1984.
Wengert and his spouse, Barbara Ann, live in Oreland, Pa. They have two children, Emily and David.
[*Mark A. Staples is director of communications at The Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.]
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