President, Office of the President
Professor of Exegetical Theology, Exegetical Theology
Dr. Thomas J. Egger is president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He also is a professor of Exegetical Theology.
Inaugurated as the 11th president of Concordia Seminary in 2021, Egger is the Gustav and Sophie Butterbach Professor of Exegetical Theology, chairman of the Department of Exegetical Theology, associate professor of Exegetical Theology and the academic adviser for first-year students. He has been a faculty member at the Seminary since 2005.
Egger served as pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Storm Lake, Iowa, from 2000–05. He previously served as a guest instructor at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1999.
Egger earned his Master of Divinity at Concordia Seminary (1997), and received his Bachelor of Arts in English and German from Central College in Pella, Iowa (1993). He completed his Doctor of Philosophy at Concordia Seminary in 2019. His dissertation focused on the phrase “visiting iniquity of fathers upon sons” from the book of Exodus.
His areas of interest and expertise include biblical Hebrew, the books of Genesis and Exodus, Old Testament theology, Old Testament Christ-typology, divine justice, narrative and rhetorical analysis, the nature and authority of Scripture, and “objectionable” texts in the Bible (those often raising criticisms of divine violence and accusations of divine immorality).
He has made contributions in the area of American Lutheran history, especially the history of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and its first president, Dr. C.F.W. Walther. Another area of special interest is the theology of Luther’s catechisms and the intersection of the catechism and the Bible in Lutheran teaching and piety.
He has written pieces for a number of publications, including Concordia Journal, Modern Reformation, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Concordia Pulpit Resources and The Lutheran Witness, and for the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR).
Egger currently serves on the Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) Awards Committee. He previously served on the Board of Regents for Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill. He served three terms on the CTCR and was part of the seven-member LCMS Catechism Revision Committee, which prepared the 2017 revision of the Synod’s explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism. For 10 years, he served on the Board of Directors of Providence Classical Christian Academy, a K–12 school in St. Louis, Mo.
His favorite pastimes are running, Cardinals baseball, birdwatching, hiking, golf, reading stories and poetry to his children, and singing hymns with his family. He and his wife, Victoria, have been blessed with six children: Andrew, Stacey, Abram, Bonnie, Ellen and Mary.
Biblical Hebrew
Exodus
Old Testament theology and Christ-typology
Divine justice
Narrative and rhetorical analysis
The nature and authority of Scripture
“Objectionable” texts in the Bible