Instructor

Nancy Koester teaches in the Religion Department as an adjunct. She holds a B.A. in American Studies and a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in history of Christianity. She has taught at Luther Seminary and has served as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and she is currently rostered with the Minneapolis Area Synod. Part of her calling is to teach adult forums in congregations around the Twin Cities when she is not singing in the choir at  St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, her home congregation.

Professor Koester has taught widely in the area of religion, but her focus area is the history of the religion in the U.S. She loves working with students, especially doing “time travel” to discover what people believed and how they lived out their faith. “Why study history?” she will ask. “Because objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear.”

Koester is the author of  Fortress Introduction to the History of Christianity in the U.S. and several articles and reviews in her academic field. In the field of spirituality, she has published Journeying Through Lent with Luke and numerous Bible studies. Her current project is a research biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the abolitionist author and reformer.

Professor Koester recently completed a two-year program in spiritual direction at the Christos Center for Spirituality. She wants to hear how students live out their calling in your their communities and in the wider world.

Koester is active in the Twin Cities Sacred Harp Singing community and can often be found in Como Park walking her dog. She and her husband, Craig, have two grown children. Her son and daughter-in-law are both graduates of Augsburg College.

Education

• B.A. American Studies
• Master of Divinity
• Ph.D. in History of Christianity