The William H. Lazareth Memorial Lectures

On behalf of Carthage and the Augustine Institute, I am delighted to welcome you to the Spring 2010 Series of William H. Lazareth Memorial Lectures.

The guiding theme for this series of lectures goes to the very core of Carthage's reason for being. We start by asking Martin Luther's most famous question: What Does This Mean? The original German version of Luther's question was characteristically more direct, even blunt: "Was ist das?" — "What is that?"

Apart from posting dozens of theses on church doors, this question was Luther's vehicle for getting people to actually think about what they believe and what they say believe when, for example, they recite the creed, or pray the Lord's Prayer, or ponder the ten commandments. But in its stubborn simplicity, this question also embodies the essential attitude that ultimately justifies the existence of any institution of higher learning, including Carthage. Once we actually engage it, the question can take on a variety of connotations. "What is THAT?" Or if you will, "What IS that, anyway — and by clear implication, why should I care?"

In these lectures, our presenters ask the "was ist das" question about ourselves by Exploring the Role of Lutheran Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century. We offer these lectures in homage to the life and work of our former colleague, the Rev. Dr. William H. Lazareth.

Bill spent the last years of his life as the Jerald C. Brauer Distinguished Professor of Lutheran Studies at Carthage, after a rich and diverse career of teaching, service, writing, and national and global leadership in the church. For 20 years earlier in his career, Dr. Lazareth taught at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where he was Hagan Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of the Faculty.

Perhaps the office in which Bill Lazareth exercised the most significant influence on the global community was as Director of the Faith and Order Secretariat of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. In that role, he served as the World Council's ecumenical liaison officer at the Vatican. He also oversaw the drafting of the most widely published religious document of the 20th Century, "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry," which has been published in 40 languages and circulated in more than 100 countries.

From 2005 until his death in 2008, I was privileged to work with Dr. Lazareth as Co-Director of the Augustine Institute, which we founded in 2005 as an expression of Carthage's mission as a college deeply rooted in and shaped by the Augustinian-Lutheran tradition. The Augustine Institute is delighted to offer these lectures as a means of honoring Bill's legacy at Carthage, and in the church and the world.

— Leonard G. Schulze, Director