Rev. Lawrence D. Folkemer Papers

Born September 21, 1916 in Baltimore, Md., Lawrence Daniel Folkemer, an identical twin and one of four boys of Paul I and Laura Becker Folkemer, had his education in the Baltimore City Public Schools. A graduate of Baltimore City College High School, Gettysburg College, and Lutheran Theological Seminary Gettysburg, he received his Master of Sacred Theology and his Ph.D. in Theology and World Religions from the Hartford Theological Seminary. A Jacobus Fellow, his doctoral dissertation included an original translation from Latin of Saint Augustine’s “Faith and Works”.

Following a five year pastorate in Lansdowne, Md., the George Washington University called Dr. Folkemer to establish the Department of Religion in 1947. As founder, he led the department as Executive Officer until a call in 1954 to Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. He continued there as Senior Pastor until 1960. Then the Lutheran Theological Seminary Gettysburg called him to be Professor of Systematic Theology, where he served until his retirement in 1985.

From 1950 to 1962, Dr. Folkemer had membership in the Board of Higher Education of the United Lutheran Church in America (later LCA and ELCA), and served at its president from 1956 to 1962. In 1959 the Knubel-Miller Foundation invited him to give a series of lectures, published later in the volume Christianity and Modern Paganism. He served as the United Lutheran Church representative to the National Council of Churches in America. As a member of the Christian Century team, he traveled and studied the life and role of the church in the Far East and Middle East, visiting Japan, China, India, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Israel, Pakistan, Syria, and Lebanon. He led in the establishment of the Washington Theological Consortium and the formation of Gettysburg Seminary’s Lutheran House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He visited the Center for Advanced Study of Indian Philosophy at Madras University in India as professor and lecturer on Christianity. He served as visiting professor in Theology at the United Theological College in Bangalore, India. In addition he studied at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii, the S?d-Asian Institute of the University of Heidelberg, Germany and at Hamburg University. Numerous national conventions of the United Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church of America and the first ELCA convention in 1989 received him as an elected delegate.

Rev. Folkemer died on May 26, 2011.