Carl Braaten

Carl Edward Braaten (January 3, 1929 – October 28, 2023) was an American Lutheran theologian and minister.

Carl Edward Braaten was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on January 3, 1929.

His parents were Norwegian-American pietists, who served as missionaries in Madagascar, and he received his early spiritual formation in that context.

After finishing high school at Augustana Academy, a Lutheran boarding school in Canton, South Dakota, he attended St. Olaf College, Luther Seminary, Heidelberg University and Harvard Divinity School where he studied under Paul Tillich and earned his doctoral degree.

His doctoral dissertation was titled Christ, Faith and History: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Martin Kähler's Distinction Between the Historical Jesus and the Biblical Christ Developed in the Past and Present Context.

He was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1958.

At that time, he began serving a parish in Minneapolis and teaching at Luther Seminary.

In 1961 Braaten, together with Robert Jenson, Roy Harrisville, Kent Knutson, James Burtness and others, founded the journal Dialog, which he continued to serve as editor until resigning in 1991.

In 1962, Braaten accepted a position at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago where he taught as Professor of Systematic Theology until 1991.

The same year, Braaten and Jenson founded the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and established a new theological journal, Pro Ecclesia.

Braaten died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 94.

Braaten authored and edited numerous books and theological papers, including Principles of Lutheran Theology (Fortress Press, 1983), Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism (Fortress Press, 1998) and In One Body Through the Cross: The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003).

Along with Robert Jenson, was an influential figure in developing and restoring the catholic roots of Lutheranism at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.