- Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German monk, theologian, and church reformer. Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by emphasizing the Bible as the sole source of religious authority and the church as a priesthood of all believers. According to Luther, salvation was attainable only by faith in Jesus as the messiah, a faith unmediated by the church. These ideas helped to inspire the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization. - Martin Chemnitz
Martin Chemnitz (November 9 1522 - April 8 1586) was an eminent second-generation Lutheran theologian, reformer, churchman, and confessor. In the Lutheran tradition he is known as "Alter Martinus," the "Second Martin": "Si Martinus non fuisset, Martinus vix stetisset" ("If Martin [Chemnitz] had not come along, Martin [Luther] would hardly have survived") goes a common saying concerning him. - Jaroslav Pelikan
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan was one of the world's leading scholars in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history. Pelikan was born in Akron, Ohio to a Slovak father and a Serbian mother. His father was a Lutheran pastor and his paternal grandfather a bishop of the Slovak Lutheran Church in America. Before he turned three, his mother had taught him to use the typewriter, as he could not yet hold a pen. - Paul Gerhardt
Paul Gerhardt, was a German hymn writer. He is commemorated as a hymnwriter in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on October 26 with Philipp Nicolai and Johann Heermann. Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. His education was held back by the troubles of the period; the Thirty Years' War began when he was about eleven. - Mark Hanson
Mark S. Hanson (1946-) is currently the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, having been elected in 2001. He also serves as president of the Lutheran World Federation. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson was born in Minneapolis Minnesota on 2 December 1946. He was raised in a Lutheran family in Minnesota. Hanson graduated from Minnehaha Academy in 1964, and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Augsburg College in 1968. - Martin Stephan
Martin Stephan was pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Dresden, Germany during the early 19th century. He organized the Saxon emigration to the United States in the early 1800s. Stephan soon became embroiled in allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct, and was ejected from the settlement, leaving C.F.W. Walther as the senior clergyman. Following his removal from the colony, he served another congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church, at Horse Prairie near Red Bud, … - Samuel Simon Schmucker
Samuel Simon Schmucker (February 28, 1799-1873) was a German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was integral to the founding of the Lutheran church body known as the General Synod, as well as the oldest continously-operating Lutheran seminary and college in North America. Later in his career, Schmucker became a controversial figure because of his theological positions, in particular his approach to the Lutheran Confessions. - Hans Nielsen Hauge
Hans Nielsen Hauge (April 3, 1771 - March 29, 1824) was a revivalist Norwegian lay preacher who spoke up against the Church establishment in Norway. He and his followers were persecuted in their time, though their teachings were in keeping with Lutheran doctrine. He began preaching about "the living faith" in Norway and Denmark after a mystical experience that he believed called him to share the assurance of salvation with others. - Rudolf Otto
Rudolf Otto was an eminent German Lutheran theologian and scholar of comparative religion. - Martin Niemöller
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was a prominent German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known as the author of the poem "First they came...". Although he was a national conservative, an antisemite, and initially a sympathizer of Adolf Hitler, he became one of the founders of the Confessing Church, which opposed the nazification of German Protestant churches. For his opposition to the Nazi's state control of the churches, … - Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (January 17, 1463 - May 5, 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria. He is notable as being one of the most powerful early defenders of Martin Luther, Lutheranism, and the Protestant Reformation. - Jón Arason
Jón Arason was an Icelandic bishop and poet. He became a priest about 1504, and having attracted the notice of Gottskálk Nikulásson, bishop of Hólar, was sent by that prelate on two missions to Norway. In 1522 he succeeded Gottskálk in the see of Hólar, but he was soon driven out by the other Icelandic bishop, Ögmundur of Skálholt. That bishop later proved to be the other to go against Lutheranism, … - Oscar Cullmann
Oscar Cullmann (25 February, 1902, Strasbourg - 16 January, 1999, Chamonix) was a Christian theologian in the Lutheran tradition. He is best known for his work in the ecumenical movement, being in part responsible for the establishment of dialogue between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions. - Prussian Homage
The Prussian Homage or Tribute was the formal investment of Albert of Prussia as duke of the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia. In the aftermath of the armistice ending the recent Polish-Teutonic War Albert, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and a member of the House of Hohenzollern, visited Martin Luther at Wittenberg and soon therefter became sympathetic to Protestantism. On April 10, 1525, two days after signing of the Treaty of Kraków, … - Laurentius Andreae
Laurentius Andreae was a Swedish clergyman and scholar who is acknowledged as one of his country's preeminent intellectual figures during the first half of the 16th century. In his time he was most renowned as one of the main proponents of the Swedish Protestant reformation of 1523-31. Laurentius Andreae (in Swedish Lars Andersson, in English Lawrence Anderson) was born in the Swedish town of Strängnäs. - Walter von Cronberg
Walter von Cronberg (born 1477 at Kronberg Castle near Frankfurt am Main; died 4 April 1545) was the 38th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order between 1527 and 1543. Von Cronberg hailed from a rather poor family of knights. He joined the Teutonic Order in 1497. From 1499, he held the post of a tax-collector in the komturship of Mergentheim, and in 1504 he became the Komtur of Frankfurt. - Gustav Trolle
Gustav Eriksson Trolle was Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden, in two sessions, during the turbulent Reformation events. After returning from studies abroad, in Cologne and Rome, he was in 1513 elected vicar in Linköping. One year later he became Archbishop of Uppsala. In 1515 he got into an argument with the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger, who spread the rumour that he was allied with the King Christian II of Denmark. - Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg
Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (July 10, 1682 - February 23, 1719) was a member of the Lutheran clergy and the first Protestant missionary to India. - John Tietjen
John Tietjen (June 18 1928 - February 15 2004) was a Lutheran clergyman, theologian, and national church leader in the United States. He is best known both for his role in the Seminex controversy which roiled the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) in the mid-1970s, and for his efforts on behalf of Lutheran unity that resulted in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Tietjen was born in New York City as a son of German immigrants, … - Henry Eyster Jacobs
Henry Eyster Jacobs (10 November 1844- 7 July 1932) was an American educator and Lutheran theologian. Jacobs was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1865. Between 1870 and 1883, he was professor at Pennsylvania College. He was then appointed professor of systematic theology in Mount Airy Seminary in Philadelphia, where he also assumed the office of dean in 1894. - Fausto Paolo Sozzini
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus (December 5, 1539 - March 4, 1604) was an Italian theologian and founder of the school of Christian thought known as "Socinianism", based on the Latinized spelling of his name. Sozzini was born at Siena, the only son of Alessandro Sozzini and Agnese, a descendant of Pandolfo Petrucci. His father died in 1541, in his thirty-second year. - William H. Macy
William Hall Macy Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated American actor, best known for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo". He is also a teacher and director in theatre, film and television. Macy has described his screen persona as "sort of a Middle American, WASPy, Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman". - Justus Falckner
Justus Falckner (November 22, 1672-1723 was a Lutheran minister, and the first Lutheran pastor ordained in the United States. He is commemorated as a priest in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on November 24 with Jehu Jones and William Passavant. He was the fourth son of Daniel Falckner, a Lutheran pastor at Langenreinsdorf in Saxony. In 1693, he entered the University of Halle, where he studied theology under A. H. Francke. - Andrievs Niedra
Andrievs Niedra, formerly spelt Andreews Needra (b. February 8 1871 in Tirza civil parish near Gulbene, Vidzeme -- d. September 25 1942 in Riga), was a major Latvian writer, a Lutheran pastor, and the Prime Minister of the German puppet government in Latvia between April and June 1919, during the Latvian War of Independence. Niedra's first collection of poems was published when he was only sixteen years old, … - Frederick Muhlenberg
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, was an American minister and politician who was the first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A Delegate and a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a Lutheran pastor by profession, Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. - Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts VR I/1 and III/1 (February 23 1874 - January 18 1956) was a politician and the first President of Estonia. "Päts" means a loaf of bread in Estonian and so was called one of his ancestors, a miller by his profession. The religion of his forefathers was Lutheranism, as for most Estonians, but his father Jakob Päts, a housebuilder, converted to Orthodoxy. - Onesimos Nesib
Onesimos Nesib, was a native Oromo who converted to Lutheran Christianity and translated the Christian Bible into Oromo. His name at birth was Hika; he took the name "Onesimus", after the Biblical character, upon converting to Christianity. Born near Hurumu in modern Ethiopia, Onesimos lost his father when he was four years old. - Kaj Munk
Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (commonly called Kaj Munk was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during World War II. He is commemorated as a martyr in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on August 14 with Maximilian Kolbe. He was born Kaj Harald Leininger Petersen at Lolland, Denmark, and raised by a family named Munk after the death of his parents. - Ernst Käsemann
Ernst Käsemann, was a Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament in Mainz (1946-1951), Göttingen (1951-1959) and Tübingen (1959-1971). - August Kavel
August Ludwig Christian Kavel was born in Berlin, Germany on September 3, 1798. He died February 12, 1860 in South Australia. Pastor Kavel was a founder of Lutheranism in Australia. - Francis Lambert
Francis Lambert (c. 1486-1530) was a Protestant reformer, the son of a papal official at Avignon, where he was born between 1485 and 1487. At the age of 15 he entered the Franciscan monastery at Avignon, and after 1517 he was an itinerant preacher, travelling through France, Italy and Switzerland. His study of the Scriptures shook his faith in Roman Catholic theology, and by 1522 he had abandoned his order, … - Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe
Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe was a pastor of the Lutheran Church and is often regarded as being a founder of the deaconess movement in Lutheransim and a founding sponsor of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. He was a pastor in nineteenth-century Germany. From the small town of Neuendettelsau, he sent pastors to North America, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, and the Ukraine. - Christian Scriver
Christian Scriver was a German Lutheran devotional writer. He was born at Rendsburg (18 miles west of Kiel) on January 2, 1629 and died at Quedlinburg (31 miles southwest of Magdeburg) on April 5, 1693. He entered the University of Rostock in 1647, and in 1653 was appointed archdeacon at Stendal, whence he was called in 1667 to Magdeburg as pastor of St. James's. Here he remained twenty-three years, until in 1690 he was made chief court chaplain at Quedlinburg, … - Heinrich Christian Schwan
Heinrich Christian Schwan (April 5 1819 - May 29 1905), a German Lutheran pastor, served as a missionary in Brazil, a pastor in Cleveland, Ohio, and Central District President and General President in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Schwan is credited with being the first pastor to erect a Christmas tree in an American church sanctuary and is also known for the Missouri Synod's first exposition of Martin Luther's <cite>Small Catechism</cite>. - Albert Duke of Prussia
Albert (16 May 1490 – 20 March 1568) was the 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia, which was the first state to adopt the Lutheran faith. Because Albert was a member of the Brandenburg-Ansbach branch of the House of Hohenzollern, … - Giacomo Aconcio
Jacopo Aconcio (7 September 1492 - 1566?), pioneer of religious toleration, was born at Trent, it is said, in September 1492. He was one of the Italians, like Peter Martyr and Bernardino Ochino, who repudiated papal doctrine and ultimately found refuge in England. Like them, his revolt against Romanism took a more extreme form than Lutheranism, and after a temporary residence in Switzerland and at Strassburg, he arrived in England soon after Elizabeth's accession. - Leonhard Hutter
Leonhard Hutter (January, 1563 - October 23, 1616), was a German Lutheran theologian. He was born at Nellingen near Ulm. From 1581 he studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Jena. In 1594 he began to give theological lectures at Jena, and in 1596 accepted a call as professor of theology at Wittenberg, where he died twenty years later. Hutter was a stern champion of Lutheran orthodoxy, … - John Christian Frederick Heyer
John Christian Frederick Heyer (10 July 1793-November 7, 1873) was the first missionary sent abroad by Lutherans in the United States. He founded several Lutheran missions in India, including Guntur Mission. "Father Heyer" is commemorated as a missionary in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on November 7, along with Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen. Johann Christian Friedrich Heyer was born in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, Prussia (now Germany), … - J. A. O. Preus II
Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus II (January 8 1920 - August 13 1994) was a Lutheran pastor, professor, author, and church president. He served as the president of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod from 1969-1981. He was a major figure in the Seminex affair which resulted in a schism in the Missouri Synod. Preus attended Luther Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, graduating in 1945. He was ordained a pastor and served several congregations in Minnesota. - Jehu Jones
Jehu Jones, Jr. (1786-1852) was a Lutheran minister. He founded one of the first African-American Lutheran congregations in the United States, and was actively involved in improving the social welfare of blacks. He is commemorated as a priest in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on November 24 with Justus Falckner and William Passavant. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and named after his father, …
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