The Robert W. Bertram Collection

I'm pleased to announce that the Christopher Center at Valparaiso University has finished cataloging books from the library of Dr. Robert W. Bertram (1921-2003). These are materials that I received as a gift from the Lutheran School of Theology in St. Louis, which were then transferred to the Special Collections in Valpo's library. Included in these materials are typed and handwritten notes, letters, sermons, and many books containing Dr. Bertram's marginal comments. 

I am grateful to Cathy Lessmann, who had been Bob's close friend and the administrator of Crossings and the Lutheran School of Theology in St. Louis, who kindly arranged for these materials to be given to me. Years earlier, the Bertram family had graciously donated Bob's library to LST-SL.

I also want to thank Judith Miller and Rebecca Ostoyich, who oversee Valpo's Special Collections and who spent countless hours organizing and cataloguing these important materials. Thank you, Judy and Rebecca! 

My friends and Valpo theology colleagues, Fred Niedner and Jim Albers, also provided helpful counsel and advice about how best to set up this collection, for which I thank them, too.

To learn more about the Bertram Collection, go here.

Dr. Bertram was my teacher at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC) when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School (1988-1993). For several of those years, I lived in LSTC housing, which was more affordable than what the U. of C. had offered me. The trade-off was the requirement that I take at least one graduate seminar per term at LSTC, which I gladly did. That is how I met Bob and got involved in the Crossings Community, which he co-founded with Ed Schroeder.

Bob deeply shaped my own theological orientation and understanding. His theological interests have largely become my own. Indeed, I would not be serving in my present vocation were it not for him, his example, and his encouragement.

After leaving Chicago, I remained in regular contact with him until his death in 2003. I feel a personal connection to his life and work, not merely because I was his student at LSTC but also because of our joint connection to a few other institutions: Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (he graduated in '46; I in '88); the University of Chicago Divinity School (he received his Ph.D. from there in '64; I received mine in '01); and Valparaiso University (he taught here between 1948 and 1963--see the photo above from that period of his life--while I've been a professor here since '04). 

And we both were kicked out of another institution in which we served: the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod! In that connection, I don't mind being labeled a "Seminex-er"--maybe the last of them!--even though my path crossed his several years after that seminary faculty and its students had been dispersed.

I hope pastors, theologians, and students of theology will come to Valpo to study these materials, perhaps especially Bob's handwritten notes in the books he once owned. I know there's at least one doctoral dissertation that is waiting to be written about his life and theology! If you are interested in pursuing that project, come and see me. I have some ideas for you.

In the meantime, you might also want to read the chapter on Bob and Ed in a recent book by their former LSTC colleague, Carl Braaten, who also was once my teacher. The title of that book is:

A Harvest of Lutheran Dogmatics and Ethics: The Life and Work of Twelve Theologians 1960-2020 (ALBP, 2021). I'll write more about this book in a subsequent post.