The Institute of Lutheran Theology is a private

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

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

Brookings, South Dakota Brookings is a city in Brookings County, South Dakota, United States. Brookings is South Dakota's fourth largest city, with a population of 23,377 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Brookings County, and home to South Dakota State Un ...

. It provides

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

online and at its campus in Brookings.

History

The Institute of Lutheran Theology was started in 2009 by conservatives in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affiliated with the WordAlone Network in order to train Lutheran clergy and other church workers. The Institute of Lutheran Theology is not supported by a single synod or

religious association The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State instituted in France (at the time without the Alsace-Lorraine, where the law does not apply) of religious associations also say ''parochial'' or sometimes in some churches, ''presb ...

, but several. These include the

North American Lutheran Church The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) is a Lutheran denomination with over 420 congregations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, counting more than 142,000 baptized members. The NALC believes all doctrines should and must be judged by th ...

, the

Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) is an association of Lutheran congregations located primarily in the United States. It describes itself as an affiliation of autonomous Lutheran churches and not a denomination. It began in 2001 ...

, the

Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations The Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations (CALC) is a small Lutheran denomination in Canada. Along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Lutheran Church–Canada, it is one of only three all-Canadian Lutheran denominations ...

, and the

Augsburg Lutheran Churches The Augsburg Lutheran Churches is a moderate-to-conservative confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. History The Augsburg Lutheran Churches was formed in 2001 in response to the Called to Common Mission, an agreement between the ...

. Instead, it hires and serves people from several different

church bodies in the United States, some of which recently formed after separating from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and lack seminaries of their own.

Academics

The institution is accredited by the

Association for Biblical Higher Education The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), formerly The Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges (AABC) is an evangelical Christian organization of bible colleges in the United States and Canada. It is a member of the International C ...

(ABHE). ILT operates as a school which grants certificates and degrees to students who complete their studies with the school. It does not

ordain Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

graduates; that is left to the synods and associations which accept their graduates.

Library

The library has 30,000 physical volumes and more through

ebrary ebrary (the "e" is lower case) was an online digital library which held over 100,000 scholarly e-books in 2014. It was available in many academic libraries and provided a set of online database collections that combined scholarly books from ove ...

as well as access to several other academic databases.

Notable faculty

*Robert Benne *Dennis Bielfeldt * John Eidsmoe *Paul Hinlicky *Jack Kilcrease *George Tsakiridis *Lucas V. Woodford (emeritus)

References

External links