The Bjarne Wollan Teigen Reformation Lectures

The annual Reformation Lectures were held at Bethany Lutheran College on October 25 and 26, 2012. Professor Erling Teigen announced that the lectures were renamed in honor of Bjarne Wollan Teigen, president of Bethany Lutheran College and Seminary from 1950 to 1970. An endowment fund has also been established to support future lectures.
This year’s lectures were devoted to Bible translation, a topic of interest for B.W. Teigen. The first lecture “Battling over Bibles: Episodes in the History of Translating the Scriptures,” was presented by Dr. Cameron MacKenzie, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. The second lecture “Formal and Functional Equivalence in Bible Translation,” was presented by Prof. Paul Wendland, president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wisconsin. Much of the discussion was devoted to the extent to which the translator must or may take into account contemporary attitudes in translating the Bible.
In March 1965, Dr. Herman Sasse visited the United States and was invited to speak at Bethany Lutheran College by then President B.W. Teigen of Bethany Lutheran College and Seminary, and Seminary Dean, Milton H. Otto. A couple years later, Prof. Kurt Marquardt was also invited to lecture. These lectures demonstrated the potential for developing a meeting place for confessional members of the former Synodical Conference. The Reformation Lectures developed into sort of a free conference.
Leading theologians from Europe also presented lectures over the years: Hans Kirsten, Manfred Roensch, Wilhelm Oesch, Wilbert Kreiss, Gottfried Hoffman. There have also been such luminaries as Heiko Oberman, the Preus brothers Robert and Jacob, Robert Kolb and James Kittleson, Kenneth Hagen, John W. Montgomery, and a host of other competent theologians and scholars. Other lectures were presented by parish pastors and everyday theology professors, honestly and diligently working their craft, producing very helpful pieces of scholarship in their sacristies and academic offices. Most of these lectures have appeared in our Lutheran Synod Quarterly.
B.W. Teigen’s presidency at Bethany reflected his concern for liberal arts education, doctrinal teaching, and the training of generations of confessional Lutherans. He had completed most of his work for the doctoral degree in Shakespearean literature. In 1979, he received an honorary doctorate from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.