1517 Media, formerly Augsburg Fortress Press, is the official publishing house of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

(ELCA), also publishing for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as ''Augsburg Fortress Canada''. Headquartered on South Fifth Street in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota, in the former headquarters of the

American Lutheran Church The American Lutheran Church (TALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States and Canada that existed from 1960 to 1987. Its headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon its formation in 1960, The ALC designated Augsburg ...

, Augsburg Fortress publishes '' Living Lutheran'' (founded 1831, named ''The Lutheran'' until 2016), the ''

Lutheran Book of Worship The ''Lutheran Book of Worship'' (''LBW'') is a worship book and hymnal used by several Lutheran denominations in North America. Additional hymns and service music are contained in the companions, ''Hymnal Supplement 1991'' and ''With One Vo ...

'' (1978), the ''Lutheran Study Bible'', and ''

Evangelical Lutheran Worship ''Evangelical Lutheran Worship'' (''ELW'') is the current primary liturgical and worship guidebook and hymnal for use in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, replacing its predecessor, the ...

'' (2006), as well as a range of academic, reference and educational books. Tim Blevins has served as the CEO of 1517 Media since August, 2018. Beth Lewis served as the CEO of Augsburg Fortress since September 3, 2002.

History

Augsburg Fortress was formed in 1988 when the Fortress Press of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and Augsburg Publishing House of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, merged as their parent denominations, the

Lutheran Church in America The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was an American and Canadian Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press. The LCA's immigrant heritage came mostly fr ...

(LCA) and the

(ALC) merged to form the ELCA. Augsburg Publishing House was affiliated with the American Lutheran Church. It had been founded in 1891 at

Augsburg Seminary Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the u ...

in Minneapolis Both the publishing house and seminary were part of the

United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America The United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLC) was the result of the union in 1890 of the Norwegian Augustana Synod (est. 1870), the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (1870), and the Anti-Missourian ...

(UNLC). The publishing house left the seminary campus in 1894, relocating to the downtown area in 1908. By 1960 it had become the publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. With the 1960 merger of Lutheran denominations that formed the "new" American Lutheran Church, Augsburg was designated that church's publishing arm. It absorbed the publishing houses of the other denominations that participated in the merger, including Wartburg Press (established 1881) of the "old"

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

; and the Danish Lutheran Publishing House (established 1893) of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in

Blair, Nebraska Blair is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,990 at the 2010 census. History Blair was platted in 1869 when the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was extended to that point. It was n ...

. When the Lutheran Free Church joined the ALC in 1963, its publishing house, Messenger Press (established 1922), was also added. Augsburg, and Wartburg before it, had published the old ALC denominational magazine ''The Lutheran Standard'', which had ancestry back to the 1840s in the

Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio The Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States, commonly known as the Joint Synod of Ohio or the Ohio Synod, was a German-language Lutheran denomination whose congregations were originally located primarily in the U.S. state of Ohio ...

. Fortress Press was the publishing arm of the Lutheran Church in America, headquartered in northwest

, in the Muhlenberg Building, a unique U-shaped brick

Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...

style structure named for

Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (an anglicanization of Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg) (September 6, 1711 – October 7, 1787), was a German Lutheran pastor sent to North America as a missionary, requested by Pennsylvania colonists. Integral to the ...

and other members of the Muhlenberg family who were important in American Lutheranism. Henry is considered the "Patriarch of American Lutheranism" and the prime organizer of the first Lutheran synod in America, the

Pennsylvania Ministerium The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), the Ministerium was founded at a Church Conference of Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748. Th ...

in 1746. The LCA came into existence in 1962 with the merger of several smaller

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

denominations. The largest forerunner of the Fortress Press was the Muhlenberg Press of the

United Lutheran Church in America The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) was established in 1918 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation after negotiations among several American Lutheran national synods resulted in the merger of three German-l ...

, the largest partner in the LCA merger. The oldest ancestor was the Henkel Press, started by the son of

Paul Henkel Paul Henkel (December 15, 1754 – November 27, 1825) was a native of North Carolina who became an itinerant evangelist for the Lutheran Church in the eastern United States. He was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1754. His family moved ...

, a famous late 18th and early 19th century Lutheran pastor, missionary, and evangelist in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

region. Fortress published ''The Lutheran'', the monthly magazine of the LCA and also of the earlier United Lutheran Church in America. The magazine had its beginnings in 1831 in publications of the

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly, is the legislative body of the Church of ...

. In July 2016, the company re-branded as 1517 Media. They continue to use Augsburg Fortress as an imprint for church resources and Fortress Press as an imprint for academic and reference titles. Other imprints include Beaming Books, Broadleaf Books, and Sparkhouse.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Augsburg Fortress
official site.
''Living Lutheran''
official publication of the ELCA Christian publishing companies Book publishing companies based in Minnesota Publishing companies established in 1988 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

History

See also

References

External links