What is Advent Vespers? That’s what Sesquicentennial Co-Chair Darcey Engen asks Sonja Hagander to describe in this video.
For four decades, Augsburg University has ushered in the Advent and Christmas seasons with Advent Vespers, a magnificent experience of music and liturgy, focusing on the theme of preparation and culminating in the joyful celebration of the Incarnation.
Hold Fast to What is Good is a history of Augsburg University told through objects—the material culture left behind by the “Auggies” themselves. This history includes tales of teachers and students, but also of whale bones and ceremonial pipes, of missionaries and prohibitionists, of sex scandals, racism, kidnapping, murder, and, of course, money. It is a story about ideas, and how those ideas evolved over time; a story of how one school both reasserted and reinvented its vocation. Hold Fast to What is Good has been nominated for the Hognander Minnesota History Award.
“In this fine and provocative history of Augsburg University … Phil Adamo crafts a story of an institution at once resilient and fragile, innovative and stuck, open and closed, faithful and relevant.” —President Paul C. Pribbenow
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Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial history book “Hold Fast to What is Good” is now available in paperback for purchase online.
“The history of Augsburg is the history of America, in microcosm. That’s my take away after reading the remarkably fast-paced, entertaining and deeply meaningful ‘Hold Fast to What is Good: A History of Augsburg University in 10 Objects.’ Augsburg’s history, like that of America, includes the struggles of generations of immigrants, the industrial revolution, the civil rights movement, modern feminism, and the broader for equity and inclusion.
“Featuring fascinating and largely unknown stories from Augsburg’s past, including tales of murder, world explorers, major land deals gone awry, the ancient city of Troy, and protest marches at the height of the Vietnam war, this book is that rare history that transcends the past.” — Bob Groven, associate professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Film and New Media, the Director of the Minnesota Urban Debate League
Preview images of these objects found inside “Hold Fast to What is Good” on our Facebook album.
The book will also be available in the Augsburg bookstore.
An interview with Martin Olav Sabo ‘59, whose rise to politics was supported by Augsburg University students, is expected be available this fall at the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship website.
One year after graduating from Augsburg, Sabo—then 22— was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. During his tenure, he became the first member of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party to serve as Speaker of the House and went on to the U.S. House of Representatives, retiring in 2007. Sabo died in 2016.
A link to a shortened version of the interview, with closed captioning and video description, should be available this fall. Chair of Political Science and Sabo Fellow Andy Aoki successfully applied for an Augsburg Sesquicentennial Faculty Project award to pay for the closed captioning and video description that was required to be able to post it online.
