Prof Insights: Faculty-Led Workshop: Professor Lane in Rochester, NY

The Epistle of James and its Importance for the Lutheran Church

A singular concentration on Luther’s criticism of James as “an epistle of straw” has caused many to overlook the epistle as a source of Luther’s theology. A closer look at Luther’s sermons and writings, however, suggests that Luther’s theology was shaped by the Book of James and that Luther’s faithful reading of Scripture led his students and theological heirs to follow his biblical interpretation and to preach this disputed letter fruitfully for the church.

This workshop offers a study of the Book of James based on the Lutheran exegetical tradition in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With attention to the epistle itself, we will consider why James was important to the Lutheran church in the 16th and 17th centuries, and why it is still important for us today.

Dr. Jason Lane

Associate Professor of Historical Theology, and Director of Research, Assessment and Academic Programming

Dr. Jason Lane is associate professor of Historical Theology and the director of research, assessment and academic programming at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. His areas of interest include Martin Luther and the theology of the Lutheran Reformation, biblical exegesis in the age of the Reformation and Lutheran Orthodoxy, and the theology of the 19th-century Confessional Revival, especially the works of Theodor Kliefoh. He is also the author of “Luther’s Epistle of Straw: The Voice of St. James in Reformation Preaching” (De Gruyter, 2018).

Schedule

DAY	TIME
Monday, June 1	1-4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 2	9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Wednesday, June 3	9 a.m.-noon

Registration fee: $160
Registration deadline: May 18, 2026
Location contact: John Pingel
 
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