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Pastor Matthew Becker was born in Salem,
Oregon in 1962. He graduated in
1984 from Concordia University, Portland, with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in the liberal arts. That same year he entered the Master of
Divinity program at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. After
receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Concordia in 1988, he
entered a doctoral program in theology at the University of Chicago. In 1990 he earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies degree from the University of Chicago. In 1996 he passed his doctoral examinations with the rare mark of “with distinction.” His dissertation, "The Self-giving God: Trinitarian Historicality and Kenosis in the Theology of Johann von Hofmann (1810-1877)," was completed in the summer of 2001 and published later by T&T Clark as The Self-Giving God and Salvation History: The Trinitarian Theology of Johannes von Hofmann. This work examines the theology of one of the most important Lutheran theologians of the nineteenth century. Dr. Becker was ordained into the Lutheran ministry in 1989. He served for five years at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, West Dundee, Illinois. He also served as an interim pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Chicago. In 1994 he was called to serve as an assistant professor of theology and director of the pre-seminary program at Concordia University, Portland. During the ten years he served on that faculty, Dr. Becker became an associate professor and finally full professor of theology. He taught courses in theology, history, Greek, and the humanities. In 2004 Dr. Becker was called to serve as associate professor of theology at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. Here he has taught courses in modern theology. In 2007 he was chosen to serve as the director of Valparaiso's study abroad program in Reutlingen, Germany. Dr. Becker is the author of several journal articles and book chapters in the area of modern Christian theology. He has written encyclopedia articles on Lutheranism, most recently for the New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, which should be published in 2011. He was the co-editor of the book, God Opens Doors, which analyzes the history of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in the northwest United States. He recently edited a collection of essays on the LCMS and contemporary theology that was published as The Daystar Reader. He is currently completing two books on Lutheranism and editing another on theology in the nineteenth century. Dr. Becker is currently serving as a
vacancy pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Michigan City, Indiana.
He also keeps a blog, "Transverse Markings: One
Theologian's Notes". Dr. Becker and his wife, Detra, were
married in June 1993. They have an eleven-year-old son, Jacob.
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