Coming soon!
“Journey to Jesus”
a book with Kent Burreson
Rhoda Schuler
History of the website
I remember vividly the 2005 North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), when an incredulous scholar turned to me and said, “You have your own domain name?!?”
As I explained to my astonished colleague, in the early “aughts” (perhaps in 2003 or 2004), my geeky and wonderful husband had given me this birthday gift that keeps on giving—my own domain name. The site came in handy when I was presenting a paper to my NAAL seminar group on my research at the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. An early footnote in the paper referenced rhodaschuler.com for the curious reader who might want to see my photos of the Flight 93 Memorial. Seeing the website name in the footnote is what prompted my colleague’s question, “You have your own domain name?!?” The “influencers” were yet unborn.
My earlier efforts at creating web content revolved around two travel/research projects: The aforementioned research on the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial (2003-04) and my first Lutheran pilgrimage (Summer 1999). For the latter, I was “a student” auditing a university-sponsored trip for class credit. I had agreed to write some historical background and devotional reflections to be posted online (originally on a now defunct web address) as my “homework.” After the brief study trip, I spent eight weeks studying German in Dresden, with weekends free for more peregrinations. Both of these early efforts are still available in their original format on this spiffy, upgraded website. As an historian, I think these links have value, showing the crude nature of scanned photographs taken with a cheap point-and-shoot film camera and clunky layout options for the amateur creating web content decades ago. To see what I mean, click here and here.
2025: The Year of Shameless Self-Promotion
My research interests took an unexpected turn in 2018 when I received an invitation to participate in a research project on the adult catechumenate (aka, adult faith formation).
That invitation came from a colleague in NAAL (North American Academy of Liturgy), fellow Lutheran, and fellow alum of Valparaiso University, Kent Burreson. Six years, two research grants, countless Zoom meetings, several presentations and workshops, and a book project later, it is time to update my personal website in anticipation of our book publication, Journey to Jesus. Having immersed myself in the marketing information provided by our publisher (Wipf & Stock), these items stick in my brain.
- From “The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing,” number 7: “Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.”
- From “Book Marketing on Social Media,” number 11: “You are your best marketing tool.” Details in this section say that marketing one’s own work “requires both hunger and humility.”
Declaring 2025 to be my year of shameless self-promotion demonstrates my “hunger,” even as my hunger pangs seem weak and are delayed by procrastination. I can’t but help recall how I felt filling out portions of my “annual review” during my years of full-time teaching—touting all my “accomplishments” struck me as self-serving and unseemly. Even as I update my CV in retirement, I hear in my head St. Paul’s words: “as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor 2:31).
The “humility” side seems to come more easily, perhaps because of my vocational call as a deaconess (from the Greek work for servant). I am convinced that humility is a virtue to be cultivated as a Christian, especially in our current cultural climate. As a deaconess student in the 1970s, I loved the balance sought by this section of the LDA diaconal litany:
Holy Spirit, purifier of sinners, making us sharers in the holiness of God:
Bestow on us the mind of Christ that we neither think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, nor deprecate ourselves in unbelief, calling common what you have called clean.
And so, I seek that balance here, praying that the Spirit continues to bestow on me the mind Christ, to see this current opportunity as a way to serve the church, as a way for the Holy Spirit, the Divine Influencer, if you will, to use the modest, forthcoming volume on adult faith formation to awaken in congregations, pastors, and lay leaders the zeal to be a winsome witness of Jesus Christ in their communities.


Posts coming soon…
I have begun to configure this updated website. Posting will follow once the design is complete. Check back again… In the meantime, please relax with my friends…
Independent LIturgical Scholar
With deliberation and thought I have chosen these three words to describe me and the content of this website. Working from right to left …

Scholar
– ThD, Historical Theology, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota
– MA, Liturgical Studies, St. John’s University School of Theology, Collegeville, Minnesota
– BA, Theology major (with honors), Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana
My BA and ThD are from Lutheran institutions, giving away my Lutheran heritage and denominational affiliation.
I’m very grateful for my study of liturgy at St. John’s School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota. In the early weeks of my first semester Father Godfrey Dieckmann, osb, gave a special lecture open to the campus community. Father Dieckmann had been present at the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) serving as a Peritus, a scholarly “expert,” advising the bishops on liturgical matters. When Father Dieckmann said, “At the Council we rediscovered Christ,” I knew this Benedictine school was the right place for me.
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- Professor Emerita since Spring 2021
Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota - Term Professor of Religion and Interdisciplinary Studies Fall 2008-Fall 2020
Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota - Adjunct Faculty Fall 2004-Fall 2007
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota - Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion 2002-2004
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota - Faculty Associate Spring 2002
Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota - Adjunct Faculty Fall 2001
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota - Guest Instructor 1995-1998; Spring 2000, 2002
Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Professor Emerita since Spring 2021
Liturgical
This selected list of publications highlights my interest in all things liturgical.
I have a few articles published by peer-reviewed journals, as well as the joy of writing for Sundays and Seasons, in which my prayers and other liturgical texts are available for weekly use by thousands of English-speaking Christians (mostly Lutherans) in North America.
“Voyage to Belonging and Renewal through the Adult Catechumenate.” Currents in Theology and Mission 49, no. 2 (April 2022): 42-48.
“Confirmation” in Dictionary of Martin Luther and the Lutheran Tradition, ed. Timothy Wengert, Robert Kolb, Jonathan Strom, Mary Jane Haemig, Mark Mattes, and Mark Granquist. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017.
“Luther, the Lord’s Prayer, and Luther’s Liturgical Reform.” Studia Liturgica 46, no. 1-2 (2016): 195–207.
“Worship among Lutherans: A House Divided.” Studia Liturgica 25, no. 2 (1995): 174–191.
To see a complete list of my scholarly work, click here.


Independent
“Independent” names the sweet spot in which I find myself these days. I’m retired from teaching, giving me ample time for research without the demands of the classroom
as well as time to “be” rather than to “be doing” the next urgent item on a to-do list. Although I have been granted emerita status by the LCMS, the denomination in which I am a rostered deaconess, and by Concordia University – St. Paul, where I taught full-time for over a decade, I have no official responsibilities with either institution. I am blessed to be “honored” with this designation,[1] but the content on this website is wide-ranging and intentionally ecumenical. After all, I need a wider audience for my year of shameless self-promotion!
[1] The word is defined as “holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service.” See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emeritus.
Last modified on Jan 23, 2025 @ 9:14 am