The North American Lutheran Seminary (NALS), an interdependent network of five seminaries across North America working together to form leaders for the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), today announces that Alexander H. Pierce, Ph.D., will serve as Assistant Professor of Historical Theology. This position has also been added to Trinity School for Ministry’s on campus faculty.
The NALS, centered at the Trinity School of Ministry in Ambridge, PA, serves seminarians from across North America through a network of campuses, including Beeson Divinity School (Birmingham, AL); Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA and Houston, TX); Sioux Falls Seminary (Sioux Falls, SD); and Concordia Lutheran Seminary (Edmonton, AB).
According to the Rev. Dr. Eric M. Riesen, president of the NALS, Dr. Pierce was hired on to serve the seminary at a point when the church is experiencing significant growth. “Dr. Pierce will help elevate the seminary’s commitment to delivering the knowledge and tools necessary for tomorrow’s pastors and church leaders to be the stewards of classic, orthodox, biblical theology in preparation for Word and Sacrament ministry in the NALC.”
Prior to joining the NALS, Dr. Pierce served as an Assistant Postdoctoral Teaching Professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. As an Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Pierce will utilize his wide-ranging research and theological expertise – evident in his many scholarly articles, presentations, seminars and workshops – to educate seminarians across the NALS campus network.
“I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve the hundreds of future pastors who must be raised up over the next decade, forming them in the Great Tradition of confessional and evangelical Lutheran Faith,” said Pierce. “The NALS is singularly focused on forming pastors and church leaders with an education both shaped by the Catholic tradition and bound by the Holy Scriptures.”
In 2012, Dr. Pierce received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern College, St. Paul, MN, with a concentration in Biblical and Theological Studies. Subsequently, he received his Master of Arts degree in Systematic Theology, as well as his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2016. He completed his Doctorate in Theology, with a concentration in the History of Christianity, at the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
Dr. Pierce and his family are currently active members of Saint Peter Lutheran Church in Mishawaka, IN. He also serves as the president of the board of directors at Covenant Christian School, where three of his children are enrolled in a Spanish immersion program.