The Augustine Institute of Carthage College presents the third lecture in the William H. Lazareth Memorial Lecture series on Thursday, May 6.

Dr. R. Guy Erwin, professor of religion and history at California Lutheran University, will discuss "From Truth to Service: Lutheran Higher Education and the Call to Global Citizenship."

The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. in the Niemann Media Theatre. Following the lecture and discussion, a reception will be held on the lower floor of Hedberg Library.

Dr. Erwin, who joined the CLU faculty in the summer of 2000, is the first full-time holder of CLU's first endowed chair, the Gerhard and Olga J. Belgum Chair of Lutheran Confessional Theology. He also serves as Director of the Segerhammar Center for Faith and Culture and Assistant to the President for University Ministries. He teaches a survey course in the history of Christianity,  and seminar courses on topics in medieval, Reformation, and early modern history and theology, including a very popular seminar on the life and thought of Martin Luther. He is a native of Oklahoma and a active member of the Osage Tribe of Indians.

Prior to his appointment at CLU, he taught the history of Christianity and historical theology at Yale Divinity School. He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard, and has two master's degrees and a doctorate from Yale.

Dr. Erwin has recently published a book on Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), the Swedish scientist and religious visionary, and is working on both an "Introduction to World Lutheranism" (for Cambridge University Press) and a biography of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-60), Lutheran theologian and the founder of the modern Moravian church. His long-range projects include a book on Lutheran contributions to the "theology of the cross" and a book on Luther's understanding of vocation and calling. His second Swedenborg book will be published in 2009; a third is in planning.

The William H. Lazareth Memorial Lectures honor the legacy of the late William H. Lazareth, one of the world's foremost Lutheran theologians, who completed his career as Brauer Distinguished Professor of Lutheran Studies at Carthage. From 1988 to 1992, he was bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to his election, Bishop Lazareth served as director of the Faith and Order Secretariat of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. In that role, he served as the ecumenical liaison officer at the Vatican, working closely with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He later was co-president of the Lutheran-Eastern Orthodox International Doctrinal Dialogues of the Lutheran World Federation for more than a decade.

The lectures have a common theme: "Exploring the Role and Purpose of Lutheran Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century."

Read previous William H. Lazareth Memorial Lectures.
Learn more about the lecture series.