LHC Meeting

October 8 – 10, 2026

At Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Details are being updated this summer. Stay tuned!

Main Conference Schedule

Wednesday, October 7

• Optional tour — Dakota War (1862) and Lutheran sites in Minnesota River Valley (South Central Minnesota). Click here for details.

Thursday, October 8

12:00–1:00 Registration: Luther Seminary

1:00–3:00 Panel 1: Lived Religion in American Lutheran Contexts

• “Finnish Folk Ritual and Laestadian Lutheranism on the Minnesota Frontier” (Mirko M. Hall)

• “Lutheran Clerical and Congregational Life on the Frontier in the Upper Midwest during the Nineteenth Century” (William E. Petig)

• “Believing Shapes Building: The Architecture of T. Norman Mansell (1904–1991)” (William P. McDonald)

• “Exploring Norwegian-American Lutheran Cookbooks as Indexes of Cultural Change” (Kristofer Dale Phan Coffman)

3:00–3:30 Break

3:30–5:30 Panel 2: Lutheran Theological Biography and Intellectual History

• “Five Years in Amerika: Eduard Moldehnke’s Personal Sacrifice and Shifting Perspectives” (Benjamin Phelps)

• “Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Gudina Tumsa: Modern Lutherans Martyred for Their Faith” (Suzanne Hequet)

• “Lutheran Pioneers: Karl Kretzmann’s Biographical Sketches in the ALPB’s American Lutheran” (Alexander K. Smith)

• “C. F. Liefeld and the ‘Golden Years’ of Eureka Lutheran College” (David R. Liefeld)

5:30–6:30 Break

6:30 Dinner

Friday, October 9

8:30–10:30 Panel 3: Race and Ethnicity in American Lutheranism

• “‘Concerned Members”: Race, Theology, and Conflict in a Columbus Lutheran Congregation, 1969–1972” (Joel Wildermuth)

• “Beyond Assimilation: The Emergence of the Conference of International Black Lutherans USA” (Richard J. Perry, Jr.)

• “Becoming American Lutherans: Oral Histories and Perspectives on Lutheran Identity” (Alexis Wilson)

• “The Intersection of Identity at Immanuel Lutheran College (1903–1961)” (Timothy Barber)

10:30–11:30 Break

11:00–1:00 Panel 4: Dissent and Controversy in Lutheran History

• “A Prosopography of Ecclesiastical Protest: A Study of the Signers of the Statement of the 44” (Joel L. Pless)

• “No Rest for the Lutherans” (Richard O. Johnson)

• “Lutheran Religion in the Space Age” (Kristi Keller)

• “The Wisconsin Synod’s Protes’tant Controversy” (Joel Otto)

1:00–2:00 Lunch and Business Meeting

2:00–6:00 Local Tour of Churches in the Twin Cities

6:30 Biennial LHC Banquet

Saturday, October 10

8:30–10:30 Panel 5: Institutional and Cultural Change in American Lutheranism

• “Pastor, Teacher, Physician, and More: Friedrich Beckel, Lutheranism, and Wisconsin” (Steven A. Hackbarth)

• “‘The Cheerfulness that comes from Beerfulness Leads to Tearfulness’: Southern Lutherans and the Battle against Alcohol” (Susan Wilds McArver)

• “‘Grandmothers in the Faith:’ Women at Gettysburg Seminary in the Early 20th Century” (Victoria Jesswein)

• “The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) and the American Experience” (Elisabeth Urtel)

10:30–11:00 Break

11:00–1:00 Panel 6: Scandinavian Lutheranism and the Preservation of Transatlantic Memory

• “The Fox Valley, IL, Norwegian Settlement and Its Influence” (Trenton R. Ferro)

• “Wisconsinism, Socialism, and the Freedom to Condemn: Marcus Thrane’s satire of the Norwegian Synod in his The Old Wisconsin Bible” (Alex M. Aakre)

• “Movement and Church: How Scandinavian Awakening Movements Became American Denominations” (Brian Lunn)

• “A Lutheran History Vault Tree Schema: Reclaiming a Cabinet of Curiosities Model for Faithful and Responsible Curation and Presentation of Lutheran Historical Material” (Daniel Harmelink)

1:00 Lunch

1:30 Optional Tour of Luther Seminary campus

• Library and rare book room, Old Muskego Church, etc

Special Group Rate Hotel Information

CALL FOR PAPERS

for the 2026 LHC meeting

Lutherans and the American Experience at 250 Years

The Program Committee invites proposals that investigate the history, theology, and cultural presence of Lutherans in the American context from the colonial period to the present. We seek to explore the ways Lutherans have both adapted to and shaped the diverse cultural, social, religious, and political landscapes of North America over the past two and a half centuries. We encourage proposals that situate Lutheran experience within the broader American story of settlement, diversity, and change, highlighting both the distinctiveness and adaptability of Lutheran traditions across time. We are interested in contributions that consider how the American context influenced Lutheran witness and activity. Proposals from archivists are especially invited.

Speakers will be given twenty minutes for their presentations, followed by five to ten minutes of Q&A and discussion. Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a brief biographical sketch of the presenter.

Proposals are due by Monday, April 13, 2026, and should be submitted as email attachments to the Program Co-Chair, Mirko Hall, at mirko.hall@converse.edu. Other members of the Program Committee include Jesse David Chariton, Maria Erling (Co-Chair), and Benjamin Phelps. Questions and inquiries are welcome.

Presenters must be or become members of the Lutheran Historical Conference prior to the meeting and are responsible for covering conference fees and travel costs, though they are encouraged to seek financial support from their home institutions. Students are especially invited to submit proposals and may apply to Mirko Hall on behalf of the LHC Board for limited scholarship assistance to help offset travel-related expenses.