History
The Augustine Institute at Carthage College was founded in 2005 as an online forum for discussing the theological issues of today. The first directors of the Institute were Bishop Emeritus William H. Lazareth and Carthage Professor Leonard G. Schulze.
William H. LazarethBishop Lazareth was one of the world’s foremost Lutheran theologians. He served as bishop of the ELCA’s Metropolitan New York Synod from 1988 to 1992. A former dean of the faculty at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, he also served as director of the Faith and Order Secretariat of the World Council of Churches, and as the Council's ecumenical liaison officer to the Vatican.
Bishop Lazareth completed his career as the Jerald C. Brauer Distinguished Professor of Lutheran Studies at Carthage. He contributed his last work to the Augustine Institute, in the form of essays written expressly for this site. Showing once again the range and acumen of Dr. Lazareth's insights, the essays deal with topics as diverse as the influence of Pelagianism in the early church to the ecumenical legacy of Pope John Paul II. Pastor Lazareth died in February of 2008. The Institute is humbled to serve as the repository for his last work.
Leonard G. SchulzeProfessor Schulze is chair of the Department of Communication and Digital Media at Carthage. Before coming to the College in 2004, he was executive director of the ELCA’s Division for Higher Education and Schools and a longtime lay leader in the church. He holds advanced degrees in comparative literature from Johns Hopkins and Yale, and has a distinguished record of scholarship, teaching, service and administration at colleges and universities in the United States and Europe, especially colleges of the ELCA.
When it was founded in 2005, the Augustine Institute was a moderated online forum. Its directors posted questions or themes for discussion to the web site, and provided initial perspectives and resources.
"We're using this medium in much the same way that Luther used the printing press," Professor Schulze explained. "If it hadn't been for the printing press just coming into vogue, ideas like Luther's would have never gotten currency."
Today, the Augustine Institute continues to initiate public discussion through lectures and symposia held at Carthage and posted online. In 2010, the Augustine Institute sponsored the Lazareth Lecture series in honor of Bishop Lazareth: "Exploring the Role and Purpose of Lutheran Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century." Read lectures from that series.
"I came to Carthage...."
—St. Augustine, The Confessions