Rev. Dr. Gerhard H. Bode

Dr. Gerhard Bode is chairman of the Department of Historical Theology, professor of Historical Theology, director of the Center for Reformation Research and archivist at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He joined the faculty in 2005.

He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) and Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Concordia Seminary (2005, 1999, 1995). He received Master of Arts (M.A.) from Washington University in St. Louis (1998) and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from the University of Minnesota (1990).

Before coming to the Seminary, Bode was assistant to the pastor (2005-08) and assistant pastor (2004-05) at Salem Lutheran Church in Affton, Mo.

His areas of interest and expertise include the Reformation and the history of Lutheranism.

He has authored the following:

• “The Missouri Synod and the Historical Question of Unionism and Syncretism,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 78:3–4 (July/October 2014), 39–58.
• “Preaching Luther’s Small Catechism: Paul Eber’s Catechismuspredigten (1562),” in Paul Eber (1511-1569): Humanist und Theologe der zweiten Generation der Wittenberger Reformation, edited by Daniel Gehrt and Volker Leppin, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2014), 401–23.
• “Man on a Mission: Henry Muhlenberg (1711–1787) and the Lutherans in America,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 84:2 (Summer 2011), 67–78.
• “Leonhart Hütter’s Compendium Locorum Theologicorum: A classic of Lutheran theology and its translation into English (Henry Eyster Jacobs and George Frederick Spieker),” epilogue in Leonhart Hütter, Compendium Locorum Theologicorum ex Scripturis Sacris et Libro Concordiae, Lateinisch—deutsch—englisch. Edited by Johann Anselm Steiger. Teilband 2. (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 2006), 1123–1144.

He also edited Tägliche Andachten: Ein Jahr mit Jesu (Concordia Publishing House, 1999), and translated “Why Philipp Melanchthon did not Fear Death” in the Winter 2010 issue of Concordia Journal and “Doctrinal Development of the Reformation Legacy: Hermeneutics and Interpretation of the Sacred Scripture in the Age of Orthodoxy,” by Johann Anselm Steiger, in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht, 2008).

Bode and his wife, Rachel, have three children; Nicholas, Jacob and Katharina. They live in Glencoe, Mo. His hobbies include reading, hiking, music and making firewood.

Interests:

Reformation
History of Lutheranism