Dr. Carol Schersten LaHurd

Carol Schersten LaHurd lives in Chicago where she serves as adjunct professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. From 2006-2010 she was coordinator of the Middle East peace-making campaign of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). She has taught biblical studies and Islam. She received the M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago, and the Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. With her family she has lived in Damascus, Syria, and Sana’a, Yemen, where she taught English as a second language and did research on women in Islam.

Dr. LaHurd has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on biblical and interfaith topics. Carol LaHurd has deep and extensive experience in inter-religious and ecumenical work. She has been co-chairperson of the Muslim-Christian Relations Committee of the Minnesota Council of Churches, chairperson of the Ecumenical Affairs Committee of the Minneapolis Area Synod, member of the ELCA Peace Task Force (to draft the 1995 social statement, “For Peace in God’s World”), and member of the North Carolina Synod Ecumenical Affairs Committee. Dr. LaHurd served on the Board of the ELCA Division for Global Mission from 1997-2003. Currently she is active in adult spiritual formation at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago.