Gerhard O. Forde, Lutheran theologian and pastor, taught at St. Olaf College, Luther College, and Luther Seminary. In addition to his teaching, he served as a member of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogues for twenty years. He authored several books, including Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life (1982), Theology Is for Proclamation (1990), and On Being a Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther's Heidelberg Disputation, 1518 (1997). Three published collections of Forde's essays and sermons have been edited by Mark Mattes and Steven Paulson: A More Radical Gospel:Essays on Eschatology, Authority, Atonement, and Ecumenism (2004), The Preached God: Proclamation in Word and Sacrament (2007), and The Essential Forde (2019). Another collection of sermons, We Preach Christ Crucified: Sermons by Gerhard O. Forde (2016), was edited by his wife, Marianna. Gerhard Forde died on August 9, 2005.

Mark C. Mattes is professor of philosophy and religion at Grand View University, Des Moines, Iowa.

Steven D. Paulson is professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.