The Melanchthon Institute will host the celebration of Eric Gritsch’s 75th birthday on April 23, Sunday, at 6:00 p.m. in the parish hall. Professor Gritsch has had a profound effect on the Institute, Christ the King Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Lutheran Churches worldwide. Reservations may be made by contacting the church office
Special guests include Eric’s wife, Bonnie Brobst, Pastor Kirsten Drigsdahl
(Denmark), and Professor Jane Strohl, church historian at Pacific Lutheran Theological
Seminary and a former student of Dr. Gritsch. Professor Strohl will preach in
the morning services on April 23 at Christ the King Church in honor of Professor
Gritsch. Ashley Hall, on leave from the Melanchthon Institute while writing
his dissertation at Fordham University, will return to help host the celebration.
Eric Gritsch was raised in Austria. His father was a Lutheran pastor of Hungarian
ethnicity. He lived through the brutal days of World War II. Following the war
he studied theology at the Universities of Vienna, Zurich and Basel and was
ordained as a pastor. His first visit to the U.S. was as a Fulbright scholar.
He later returned to the States where he completed doctoral studies under Roland
Bainton at Yale University. After a brief stay at Wellesley he accepted the
call to teach at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Dr. Gritsch
established the Institute for Luther Studies in 1970 and retired in 1993 as
Emeritus Professor of Church History.
Dr. Gritsch has published primarily with Fortress Press, our Lutheran publishing house. He was editor of Volumes 39 and 41 of Luther’s Works. Robert W. Jenson and Gritsch co-authored one of the most influential books on contemporary Lutheranism by the same title, Lutheranism: The Theological Movement and Its Confessional Writings. His numerous publications include Martin, God’s Court Jester: Luther in Retrospect; Born Againism, Perspectives on a Movement; and Thomas Muntzer: A Tragedy of Errors; Fortress Introduction to Lutheranism; and A History of Lutheranism. He translated and prepared the section on the Augsburg Confession for the new edition of the Book of Concord. His latest book is soon to be released by Fortress, The Wit of Martin Luther: Distinguishing Mark of Christian Freedom.
Works from other publishers include Martin Luther: Faith in Christ and the Gospel (New City Press) and A Handbook for Christian Life in the 21st Century, published jointly by ALPB Books and Kirk House Publishers. The latter book was written while Dr. Gritsch was resident theologian at the Melanchthon Institute. Autographed copies will be available on Sunday, April 23.
Professor Gritsch served on the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue and many other commissions and task forces in the ELCA and its predecessor bodies. He served as scholar-in-residence at the Melanchthon Institute in 1995, 1997 and 2002. He has served as primary advisor to the Melanchthon Institute in our efforts to bring serious scholarship to our understanding of the Lutheran Christian tradition.
The Melanchthon Institute has established a fund in honor of Eric Gritsch.
Interest from the fund will be used to support our scholar-in-residence program.
To celebrate Eric’s seventy-fifth birthday is to celebrate the breadth,
depth and height of the faith, both catholic and reformed.