Dr. Jon Vieker is associate professor of Practical Theology, dean of chapel and chairman of the Department of Practical Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He became a faculty member in 2021.
His areas of academic interest include the study of hymns, hymn writers and hymnals, especially as viewed through the history of American Lutheranism and the wider American ecclesial context.
Vieker earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) and Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Concordia Seminary (2004, 1990, 1987). He received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in music from California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, Calif. (1983).
Before joining the Seminary faculty, Vieker served as senior assistant to LCMS President Dr. Matthew C. Harrison from 2010 to 2021. From 1998 to 2010, he served as assistant director for the LCMS Commission on Worship, and was involved with all aspects of research, development, editing and production of Lutheran Service Book and its core companion volumes. Before serving on the LCMS Commission on Worship, Vieker was a parish pastor for nine years at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, West Bloomfield, Mich. He also has served as organist and choir director in a variety of settings.
Vieker was lead editor in a translation of Friedrich Lochner’s “The Chief Service of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church” (CPH, 2020) and served as a co-editor of the two-volume Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns (Concordia Publishing House [CPH], 2019). He served as lead editor for festschrift volumes in honor of Norman Nagel (1990, 2015) and Ronald Feuerhahn (2002).
He has written several scholarly articles on Lutheran hymnody and liturgy in “Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly,” “Logia,” “CrossAccent,” “The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology,” “Concordia Theological Quarterly” and “Concordia Journal.”
An accomplished musician, Vieker is also a composer, with choral settings and organ preludes published by Concordia Publishing House and Liturgy Solutions.
Vieker is a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie. He also is a member of Concordia Historical Institute.
Vieker and his wife, Kim, reside on campus and are members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Mo., where they sing in the parish choral ensembles. They have two married children, Jonathan (Sarah) and Rebecca (Christopher), and two grandchildren.
Interests:
Hymnology
Worship
History of Lutheranism
