The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, Illinois. LSTC is a member of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS), a consortium of eleven area seminaries and theological schools. It shares the JKM Library and portions of its campus with McCormick Theological Seminary. LSTC is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
LSTC was formed in 1962 by the merger of the seminaries of the four church bodies that had merged to create the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). A fifth and sixth seminary joined the school in 1967 and 1987, respectively. LSTC moved to its Hyde Park campus in 1967. In June 2023, the campus relocated to 5416 S. Cornell Avenue on the 4th floor.
History
The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago was established on September 4, 1962, as the merger of four existing seminaries: the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church's Augustana Theological Seminary at Rock Island, Illinois, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church's Grand View Seminary at Des Moines, Iowa, the United Lutheran Church in America's (ULCA) Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary at Maywood, Illinois, and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Suomi Theological Seminary at Hancock, Michigan. The four church bodies had merged that year to form the Lutheran Church in America.
The new school initially used both the Rock Island and Maywood campuses while a larger campus in Chicago was constructed. The new campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood was opened on October 22, 1967. Three months before that, a fifth seminary, the Lutheran Church in America's Central Lutheran Theological Seminary at Fremont, Nebraska, merged into LSTC.
In 1975, McCormick Theological Seminary sold its campus in Lincoln Park and moved to the LSTC campus. It built a new building on the campus for its headquarters in 2003.
In 1983, ten faculty members of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Church's Christ Seminary-Seminex in St. Louis, Missouri, relocated to the LSTC campus, and on December 31, 1987, the two seminaries merged as part of the process that created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
On May 5, 2022, LSTC and McCormick announced the pending sale of their 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) campus bounded by 55th Street, Greenwood Avenue, University Avenue, and 54th Place to the University of Chicago, whose Hyde Park campus is across 55th Street from the seminaries. Under the proposal, the two seminaries will lease back part of the facilities for a limited period of time. Construction of new facilities on the fourth floor of the Catholic Theological Union at 5416 South Cornell Avenue began in spring 2023, with completion expected in October. The space includes four classrooms; two zoom rooms, 30 office spaces; a prayer and meditation room, a café, a chapel, and a grand hallway meeting space.
Augustana Theological Seminary
Starting in 1849, groups of Swedish immigrants began arriving in Illinois, forming congregations in Andover, Galesburg, Moline, and Chicago, and also in Iowa and Minnesota. These congregations associated themselves with the Synod of Northern Illinois, which included support of the Illinois State University, a Lutheran college in Springfield, Illinois. The Swedes, under pastor Lars Paul Esbjorn, became dissatisfied with the theology being taught at the institution and withdrew in 1860, resulting in the creation of both the Augustana Synod and of Augustana Theological Seminary. The latter was located in Chicago from 1860 to 1863, and then in Paxton from 1863 to 1875. In 1875, the seminary relocated to Rock Island,. New campus buildings were dedicated in 1923.
Originally the seminary had two departments, the preparatory and the theological. In 1869, the name of the school was changed to Augustana College and Theological Seminary. The college and seminary operated as two departments until September 1, 1948, when they were split into independent institutions: Augustana College and Augustana Theological Seminary. The seminary remained on the Rock Island campus until it merged into LSTC in 1962.
During its last decade, enrollment varied between 198 and 268. Almost all the pastors in the Augustana Synod were trained there. Presidents of the seminary were L. P. Esbjorn, T. N. Hasselquist, O. Olsen, G. Andreen, C. Bergendoff, and K. E. Mattson.