Faculty Leader

Prior to his retirement, Jim Aageson was Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. He is ordained in the ELCA and a member of the ELCA Convocation of Teaching Theologians. Jim has degrees from Pacific Lutheran University, Luther Seminary, Union Seminary in Virginia, and Oxford University. He also served parishes in Great Falls and Anaconda, MT.  His academic interests focus on the history and thought of Early Judaism, Pauline studies, and early post-New Testament Christianity. His books include Written Also for Our Sake: Paul and the Art of Biblical Interpretation; In the Beginning: Critical Concepts for the Bible; Paul, the Pastoral Epistles and the Early Church; and Windows on Early Christianity: Uncommon Stories, Striking Images, Critical Perspectives. He has also contributed numerous articles to other books and journals. He has traveled extensively in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Italy, and he has taught in Greece. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Association, where he has also served as an associate editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly.

Julie Aageson is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University and has done graduate work and continuing education at several universities and seminaries.  She is an author and in her own words, "My books express wide ranging interests: the beauty of the natural world, curiosity and optimism about the complexities of everyday life, a life-long desire to see the sacred in ordinary things, a passion for the riches of liturgical life, skepticism about pat “answers”, the nature of family life, and so much more."

For almost 30 years, she wrote as a resource specialist for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to serving on Churchwide Staff as Coordinator of ELCA Resource Centers and as director of a synodical resource center, she was a public school teacher. Julie also wrote a regular column for GATHER Magazine for a decade. She's published in L Magazine, Living Lutheran, Clergy Journal, Parish Teacher, The Lutheran Magazine, and Seeds for the Parish. 

Julie and Jim divide their time between West Glacier, Montana and Portland, Oregon where they enjoy spending time their three daughters and sons-in-laws together with six grandchildren, or the "littles".