Dr. Marcia J. Bunge Named Bernhardson Chair in Lutheran Studies Posted on April 16th, 2012 by Matt Thomas '00

Dr. Marcia J. Bunge

Gustavus Adolphus College has announced the appointment of Dr. Marcia J. Bunge to the Drell and Adeline Bernhardson Distinguished Endowed Chair in Lutheran Studies. Dr. Bunge, who is currently serving as professor of humanities and theology at Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University, and the university’s W.C. Dickmeyer Professor, is a Lutheran (ELCA) theologian and an internationally recognized scholar of religious understandings of children and childhood. Dr. Bunge will officially begin her duties at Gustavus on January 1, 2013.

“We are pleased that we have been able to attract a scholar of Dr. Bunge’s stature to represent Gustavus Adolphus College as the Bernhardson Chair,” said President Jack R. Ohle in announcing her appointment. “Dr. Bunge has the energy, enthusiasm, and character to advance the Lutheran tradition in the classroom and in public forums, and has strong interest in relating to faculty, congregations, and the larger Church. Her work as the Bernhardson Chair is critical to helping Gustavus articulate what it means to be a church-related liberal arts college today.”

A graduate of St. Olaf College, Dr. Bunge earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, specializing in hermeneutics and historical and systematic theology. She has taught at Luther Seminary (1985-1990), Luther College (1990-1995), Gustavus Adolphus College (1995-1997), and most recently Christ College at Valparaiso University (1997-2012).

Over the past 11 years, Dr. Bunge has spoken and published widely on various religious perspectives on children and obligations to them, editing or co-editing and contributing to three foundational volumes on the subject: The Child in Christian Thought (2001), The Child in the Bible (2008), and Children and Childhood in World Religions: Primary Texts and Sources (2009). A fourth volume, titled Children, Adults, and Shared Responsibilities: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives, is forthcoming. She also translated and edited a collection of essays by the 19th-century Lutheran theologian and educator J.G. Herder titled Against Pure Reason: Writings on History, Language, and Religion (1993).

Her work on religious understandings of children and childhood has been supported by various grants totaling nearly $700,000. As a professor and mother of two children, she is both personally and professionally committed to promoting children’s well-being through her scholarship, teaching, and advocacy. She has spoken about her work in several countries around the world.

Dr. Bunge has served on a number of national and international committees and boards, including the board of the International Herder Society; the Task Force on Education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and the steering committees of the Childhood Studies program units of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.

In addition to being a scholar and a teacher, Dr. Bunge is a deeply committed Lutheran theologian who is highly informed and enthusiastic about the aims of church-related higher education. In the 1990s she was a founding member of the Rhodes Consultation on the Future of the Church-Related College, an ecumenical and national initiative funded by the Lilly Endowment. At Valparaiso she directed the planning grant for the university’s two million dollar “Theological Exploration of Vocation” project, served on the ELCA’s National Task Force on Education, and organized a national meeting on “Vocation and Lutheran Higher Education.” She continues to speak and write about Lutheran understandings of education and vocation.

“I am honored by this opportunity and feel deeply called to this particular position,” Bunge says. “Being a member of the faculty at Gustavus will allow me to continue to teach and to pursue my scholarship at a Lutheran institution, and the Bernhardson Chair will provide me with a broader public platform for speaking and writing about a range of issues close to my heart, such as the Church’s commitment to children, theological understandings of vocation, and Lutheran higher education.”

###

Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
luch@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510