Luther Seminary history

The merged seminaries occupied the site of the United Church Seminary on Como Avenue and Luther Place, and retained the name of the oldest of the three schools, namely, Luther Theological Seminary, which had been founded in 1876.

The merger in 1917 brought together the three major Norwegian American Lutheran denominations: the United Church, the Norwegian Synod, and the Hauge Synod.¹ For the first time in North America, the vast majority of Norwegian American Lutherans were united in a single Christian denomination.

Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary traces its origin to the Chicago Lutheran Divinity School, begun in Chicago, Illinois, in 1920 following action taken by the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the Northwest, a synod of the United Lutheran Church in America.

In 1921, the seminary was moved to Fargo, North Dakota, and the following year to Minneapolis.

He brought the first woman professor at a Lutheran seminary, Bertha Paulssen, to Gettysburg (1945) where she introduced the social sciences to the curriculum.

At the time of the formation of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962, Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary was placed under the jurisdiction of two supporting synods: the Minnesota Synod and the Red River Valley Synod.

Augsburg Seminary joined Luther Theological Seminary in 1963.

Desiring to make witness to a shared mission in theological education, Luther and Northwestern seminaries were functionally unified in 1976, beginning with a single administration.

After a period of six years, the two seminaries formally merged on July 1, 1982, as Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary.

On January 1, 1988, Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary became affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which was formed by a merger of the LCA, the ALC, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.

United Lutheran Seminary, formed in 2017 (the year marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation), joined two historic Lutheran institutions into one.