Group 411 takes a course on the Confessions

Lutheran Theological Seminary has a new instructor, the Rev. Prof. Paul Gregory Alms. He is teaching a three-week intensive class on the Book of Concord to the first-year students. LTS is rightly considered a confessional seminary in the Lutheran world. Study of the Confessions occupies one of the major parts of the seminary curriculum. Earlier LTS students took the basic course in the Confessions, and then in addition were given a special course on some themes of the Book of Concord. Now, however, the program has become even more extensive. The students are being offered three courses in general, two of them in the first year of study. The number of hours dedicated to the study of the Confessions in the main program has been doubled, so that the seminary now offers two courses rather than one. The Book of Concord will be divided into two parts. In the first course that Professor Alms now teaches, the students are studying the three Ecumenical Creeds, Augsburg Confession, and the Apology. In the second course, which will be taught in the second semester, they will study the remaining documents of the Book of Concord.

Although Rev. Alms is teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary for the first time, he had already visited Siberia in 2002. At that time he gave lectures on "Christology in the Early Church" at the Summer Theological Seminars in Ekaterinburg, Tomsk, Abakan, and Irkutsk.

Professor Alms is enjoying his present trip. "I am in Siberia for the second time. I like it here; so far it has not been very cold. I like to walk and look at people and see how their life is different from where I came from."

Rev. Alms acknowledges that the first year students he is teaching are "very energetic; all want to study. They all came from different backgrounds, and it is good to see that they strive to study God's Word and the true teaching of the Lutheran Church. We have not only lectures but also very lively discussions. I see in the students a deep interest in the theology we are learning," he says.