Attending Augustana District Conference

Nicholas Hopman on Vocation, Family, and the Legacy of the Reformation

Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at ILT’s Christ College, Nicholas Hopman spoke at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Augustana District of LCMC on Saturday April 25th. Hopman (pictured above right) spoke on the Lutheran doctrine of vocation and its historical roots in the early Reformation. He argued that vocation, along with the Lutheran teaching of justification by faith alone, can only be understood in the context of the Lutheran reformers’ polemical attack on medieval monasticism. Against the monastic ideal, the Lutherans asserted that marriage and life in the family are actually God’s ordinances.

Hopman illustrated the point by telling the story of the relationship between Martin Luther and his father Hans. The key historical source is Martin’s open letter to his father, which served as a preface for the treatise “Martin Luther’s [Negative] Judgement on Monastic Vows (1521).”

Martin recalls that Hans was furious when he entered the monastery. When Martin explained that he would be serving God in the monastery, Hans responded, “have you not also heard that parents should be obeyed?” Against Martin’s self-chosen religious works, Hans asserted God’s own Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” By 1521 Martin had concluded that Hans was correct and that he, Martin, had been mistaken.

Hopman argued that the family is God’s bulwark against false religious teachings like monasticism as well as against government overreach. He pointed out that although Lutherans have basically won the fight against monasticism, there have been many other movements throughout the history of the church and Western society that try to convince us that some institution, group, or ideology is more righteous than God’s institution of and commandants for the family. He appealed to the church to continue teaching the 10 Commandments and to attack polemically the false claims and institutions that attack the family. The presentation concluded with a rebuke of “Christian” Zionism, a false teaching that calls for Christians to support governmental actions that hurt our own families for the sake of non-Christians, and a call for Lutherans to use the current Middle Eastern crisis to point out the destructive nature of American Evangelical Dispensationalism.

Nicholas Hopman has a PhD in Church History from Princeton Theological Seminary and has published peer reviewed articles in Lutheran Quarterly, the Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, and has a forthcoming article in the Lutherjahrbuch. He edited The Essential Forde and How the Reformation Began: The Quincentennial Perspective and is the Managing Editor of Lutheran Quarterly. Hopman has translated several German articles in the fields of Reformation History and Systematic Theology. He is the Senior Pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (NALC) in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

Dr. Leon Miles (pictured above left) also represented ILT at the conference and shared his reflections:
“I had a wonderful time reconnecting with ILT students, alumni, and friends at the Augustana District Annual Meeting. Dr. Hopman delivered a keynote on the Doctrine of Christian Vocation, and Mike Hanson also spoke—both did an excellent job. It is always a joy to gather at Mount Carmel Ministries, such a beautiful setting.”