Is the son of German-Russian immigrants and grew up in a small farming community called Odessa, Washington, not too far from Holden Village. I received a BA with majors in Religion, Classical Studies, and Philosophy from Pacific Lutheran University, went on to earn a MA at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, and then I became a pastor at Prairie Valley Lutheran Church in Williston, ND. I eventually earned my doctorate in Church History from the University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!). My books include A History of Prayer: The First to the Fifteenth Century (Brill, 2008), The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church: The Pearl of Great Price (Palgrave, 2010), and presently I am working on a book entitled, We are All Beggars: The Prayerful Reforms of Martin Luther. I regularly lecture, write, and speak on a wide range of topics dealing with the history of Christianity, spirituality, religion and film, medieval history and religion and literature, and Islam. For the past 20 years I’ve been a professor of Religion at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN.