JACKSON, Tenn. — March 12, 2018 — Ronald Rittgers will lecture on Martin Luther this week at Union University as part of the annual Scholar-in-Residence series.
Rittgers is professor of history and theology at Valparaiso University, where he holds the Erich Markel Chair in German Reformation Studies. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, his master’s degree in theological studies from Regent College and his doctorate from Harvard.
Rittgers is the author of two books on pastoral theology and practice in the Reformation: “The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Center Germany” and “The Reformation of Suffering: Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany.”
His lecture series at Union, entitled “The Irreducible Luther: Four New Interpretations,” will include the following lectures, all in Hartley Recital Hall in Jennings Hall: “Luther as a Theologian of Love,” March 13 at 12:15 p.m.; “Luther the Word-Prophet,” March 13 at 7 p.m.; “Luther the Evangelical Mystic,” March 15 at 12:15 p.m.; and “Luther and the Reformation of Consolation,” March 15 at 7 p.m.
The event is sponsored by Union’s Honors Community.