Christian Scharen serves as Associate Professor and Gordon Braatz Chair of Worship at the Lutheran School of Theology Chicago. A practical theologian, he was ordained a pastor in the ELCA in 2001. He holds the Ph.D. in Religion from Emory University and has written or edited more than a dozen books and many articles, book chapters, and research reports.
Creating Mission-Based Statements in Lutheran Institutions of Higher Education
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
Christian Scharen, Linda E. Thomas
[1] Just days after the election, with the board of directors on campus for their fall meeting, then LSTC President, James Nieman, scraped his prepared board report. Instead, he shared five significant potential threats he saw to in the rhetoric of the U.S. President elect. He also gave theological responses to those. Nieman clearly stated, […]
Lazareth on Luther
[1] Writing in the season of Lent, I might helpfully begin with an act of confession. My first published comments engaging the work of William Lazareth included a vigorous critique. Writing on the topic of sexuality and the Lutheran church, I challenged Lazareth’s strong position against blessing gay unions and ordaining those gay and lesbian […]
Context Versus Principles: Still A Misplaced Debate
[1] “What benefits and drawbacks do you see to the theological moves made in the draft?” I was asked to respond to this question in this brief article, and I do so with enthusiasm for the powerful-if still imperfect-theological framing found in the recent ELCA draft social statement on human sexuality. Some Methodological Reflections: Four […]
A Response to the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality
January 2005 (Volume 5 Issue 1)
“We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn” -M.C. Bateson In the last years of study in the ELCA, we have learned that: Even as we confess one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, we hold different points of view about human sexuality; especially our church’s willingness to bless same-sex […]
Elections 2004 and Theology of the Cross
October 2004: Politics (Volume 4 Issue 10)
[1] My observations of this political season leave me in despair. My thesis here is drawn from my observations-truth is not any longer either the goal or expectation in American politics. What I am pointing to here is a general public perception that we are unable to expect public discourse and public leaders to be […]