Christine Helmer is Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Humanities, Professor of German and Religious Studies at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Her area of specialization is the theology of Christianity from historical and constructive perspectives. She has published extensively on Luther and Luther’s reception in German thought, theology and the study of religion, German intellectual history, the philosophy and theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher, biblical theology and biblical reception, and contemporary theology, particularly its contributions to the humanities in the university. She is the recipient of an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Helsinki. Her recent monograph, also soon available in Chinese translation, How Luther Became the Reformer (Westminster John Knox Press 2019), is a study of early twentieth-century German theologians who, while investigating Martin Luther as a religious figure, created the modern study of religion. She edited Truth-Telling and Other Ecclesial Practices of Resistance (Lexington/Fortress Academic 2021) and co-edited, with Shannon Craigo-Snell, Claiming God: Essays in Honor of Marilyn McCord Adams, forthcoming with Wipf & Stock. She is currently completing three books: a work of constructive theology; a collection of essays on theology and religious studies; and together with Amy Carr, Justification and Justice: A Theology of Ordinary Faith.

Dr. Helmer was a Marty Center Senior Fellow in 2021-2022.