Endowed Chairs Recognize Seminary Faculty
The Seminary deeply values endowed chairs, which help to support faculty teaching, research, and scholarship. Following the approval of North Park’s Board of Trustees in late October, the Seminary recognized two faculty members with chair appointments and will rename an existing chair to better reflect the Seminary’s work.
Dr. Hauna Ondrey Named to the Wilma E. Peterson Endowed Chair of Church History and Theology
A newly endowed chair at the Seminary continues the legacy of the late Dr. Wilma E. Peterson and her deep love of teaching and service to the church.
Associate Professor of Church History Dr. Hauna Ondrey has been named to the Wilma E. Peterson Endowed Chair of Church History and Theology.
As chair, Ondrey will teach, research, and speak on church history broadly and reflect a commitment to the history and identity of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). She also will devote part of her teaching and research agenda to the history and affirmations of the ECC within the broader tradition of pietism, giving attention to the local, national, and global contexts of the church today.
Since 2014, Ondrey has taught church history at North Park. She is a graduate of North Park University (BA in Biblical and Theological Studies) and North Park Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity), and earned her PhD at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Ondrey’s primary area of research is the fourth and fifth centuries of Christianity. Her doctoral research on early Christian interpretation of the Old Testament prophets is published through Oxford University Press. Since beginning at North Park Seminary, she has published seminal articles on the Evangelical Covenant Church in the critical decades of the 1960s–1990s and has led Covenant history students in building an oral history collection currently holding more than 140 interviews.
“I’m grateful for the creation of this chair, which honors the legacies of Covenant historians David Nyvall, Eric Hawkinson, Karl Olsson, Glenn Anderson, and Phil Anderson,” she says. “I remain committed to the creation, preservation, and interpretation of sources documenting the rich history of the Covenant. As former Covenant archivist Sigurd Westburg wrote, ‘We enter the future with more faith and assurance if we have solid information of our past. Without the future the past is idolatry, without the past the future is but a continuing and uncertain innovation.’”
Dr. Wilma E. Peterson devoted her life as a practicing nurse who trained and educated the next generation of nurses. She spent more than 14 years as an associate professor at the Oregon Health Sciences University. During her lifetime, she spent part of her career as an administrator and educator at Swedish Covenant Hospital, attended North Park Covenant Church, took some classes at then North Park College, and supported North Park University and the Seminary with two endowed scholarships, a chair for the School of Nursing, and this chair in church history and theology for the Seminary. A lifelong Covenanter hailing from Saskatchewan, Canada, Peterson died in March 2021 at age 99.
Dr. Max Lee Named to the Paul W. Brandel Chair in Biblical Studies
Professor of New Testament Dr. Max Lee was named to the Paul W. Brandel Chair in Biblical Studies.
The Brandel Chair in honor of Paul W. Brandel A’28 C’30 was established in 1989 by his widow Bernice. Brandel, who died in 1986, was a member of the law firm of Brandel and Johnson. Prior to his death, he was recognized for 50 years of service to the Evangelical Covenant Church, Swedish Covenant Hospital, and North Park College. He was recognized by the Seminary with an honorary doctorate in 1973.
Lee has taught at the Seminary since 2006. His primary research area is the Apostle Paul in his Greco-Roman philosophical, cultural, and literary environment. He actively preaches and teaches for several local churches in the Chicago area. Lee is widely published, with his most recent book, “Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind: Mapping the Moral Milieu of the Apostle Paul and His Diaspora Jewish Contemporaries.”
Ordained as a Baptist minister, Lee has served as a pastor, preacher, college staff member, youth leader, and short-term missionary to Japan. He earned a BA in English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley; Master of Divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary; and a PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary.
“I am so very grateful and honored to be named the Paul W. Brandel Chair of Biblical Studies at North Park Theological Seminary. It is also not lost on me that I am the first person of color to occupy this chair. I’m thankful for my predecessors, Dr. Klyne Snodgrass and Dr. James Bruckner, who taught at North Park for decades and helped define biblical scholarship at the Seminary, in the Academy, and for the church. I hope, like them, to represent the very best of biblical interpretation in my own research and teaching. It remains my passion and mission to train a generation of ministers to preach God’s word faithfully and powerfully in today’s ever-changing world,” says Lee.
Seminary Renames Engebretson Chair
With the approval of the Engebretson family, the Seminary has renamed the Milton B. Engebretson Chair in Church Growth and Evangelism to the Milton B. Engebretson Chair in Evangelism and Justice.
Leading with “evangelism” underscores the perennial importance of the Seminary’s evangelistic commitments in a forward-facing way, says Dean Dennis R. Edwards. “The shift to justice underscores the importance of holistic evangelism, and the commitment of the ECC and our Seminary to God’s justice as a sign of health and advancing the good news in the world.”
Seminary faculty agree with the renaming because it better reflects the holistic nature of the Gospel and the Seminary’s work, particularly as it pertains to this position, the University, and the ECC. As related to the Seminary curriculum, including new certificates, courses, and learning outcomes, “the addition of justice to evangelism fits the teaching associated with this position,” says Edwards.