The Cranach Institute (TCI) is a research and educational arm of Concordia Theological Seminary devoted to working out the implications of the Lutheran doctrine of vocation and engaging contemporary culture with the truths of the Lutheran confessions. That means wrestling with culture and many other cross-sections of Christian Two-Kingdom life.
Although TCI has sponsored programs, conferences, and research projects in the past, we now primarily provide this website as a resource to help students, pastors, and laypeople engage the critical issues of the day and to exert a Biblical influence in the marketplace of ideas. More specifically, we hope to gather digital and bibliographic resources on vocation, humanity, culture, Fine Arts, ethics, etc.
Many changes are in the works, so be patient with us as we upgrade this website into a first rate resource for the Church at Large.
Our most popular items from our old site, including this God at Work student guide by J. D. Lowitzer, are still here, although we are rearranging quite a bit.
Our Inspiration: Lucas Cranach
Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) was a close friend of Martin Luther to the point that they were godfathers of each other’s children. He also became one of the most important artists of his day.
Cranach is a model of a layman who applied his faith in his secular vocation, impacting the culture with his Biblical worldview and his Lutheran convictions. He was not only a Christian and an artist: He was active in each of Luther’s vocational realms.
He was a husband and father within his family; a subject, court painter, and two-time mayor (or burgomaster) of Wittenberg in the realm of civil government, and a faithful Christian, as confessed through numerous alter pieces, woodcuts, engravings, coin designs, prints, and paintings (often classified as German Renaissance)
He adapted his vocations according to the opportunities and needs around him. And, that is precisely what we are privileged to do today.
In his honor, TCI offers you
- Director Gene Veith’s Cranach Blog, and
- A compilation of resources focusing on vocation, culture, and various intersections of Christian living in the modern world, including apologetics and nurturing the Christian mind.
Cranach signed his works with his family seal – a dragon bearing a ring, symbolizing Christ’s redemption of sinners – which is the logo of the Cranach Institute.
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