Brief typed pieces Joseph Sittler, untitled comments on how the church plans for its own future, typescript with secondary comments in two hands, 1 page, undated (text suggests during tenure at U of C, so 1957-73). PDF, 846K Joseph Sittler, “Reflections on Christmas in Church,” typed and hand-marked sermon mss, 4 pages, Dec. 1974. PDF, […]

When we were students at Northwestern University in the early 1950’s, Meta (now my wife) and I first met Joe Sittler. Our Lutheran campus pastor at Northwestern, Clyde McCormack, used to invite Joe up to Northwestern to speak to our student group. We were fascinated by Joe. It was from him that I learned that […]

The Eloquence of Grace: Joseph Sittler and the Preaching Life. Edited by James M. Childs, Jr. and Richard Lischer. Eugene, Ore.: Cascade Books, 2012. xiii +325 pp., refs., index. $32.00 pb. This book is a gem. For both the dried-out preacher who needs some slaking and the one who is forever whittling theological nuances, the […]

During my middler year at LSTC I was a commuter student, which meant that, in order to beat the traffic, I was often sitting in the refectory early in the morning sipping coffee and reading. It was not uncommon in those years to find Joseph Sittler sitting at one of the small tables looking out […]

This issue of Let’s Talk is a retrospective on the life and work of Joseph Sittler, “our Chicago theologian,” as one of our board members called him. I offer to the mix of articles this reflection on my own relationship with Joe and how he contributed to my vocational decision to become a liturgist long […]

At a recent convocation on Joseph Sittler, I was asked to comment on his University of Chicago years, which ended in 1973. I had studied with him toward an S.T.M. degree at the old Chicago Lutheran Theological School in Maywood from 1952-1954, after which I went for the Ph.D. at the University, 1954-56. After receiving […]

For Joseph Sittler, aesthetics — broadly defined — was one of the key elements in theology. The development of Sittler’s theology offers highly interesting views into the relationship between “Chicago School” theology and other theological movements. Sittler, influenced by both traditional Lutheran theology and liberal theology, in an early phase becomes a kind of neoliberal. […]

To a large extent, Joseph Sittler was a theologian of his time and place. While his reputation as an academic theologian is not sufficient to place him among the giants of 20th-century theology (in the manner of, say, Barth, Tillich, Rahner, or von Balthasar), his life and work do serve to reflect many of the […]