Freelance theologian: Anna Madsen sets up shop
In 2009 Anna Madsen left her tenure-track job at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and started a business as a freelance theologian. Her venture is called OMG: Center for Theological Conversation. She works with individuals and with churches to address theological concerns.
Why did you leave academia and start a business as quirky as this one?
In 2004, my husband and I were studying theology in Regensburg, Germany. Right before my family was to move to Augustana after my Ph.D. work was completed, my husband and almost-three-year-old son, Karl, were hit by a car. My husband died, and Karl suffered a traumatic brain injury. My daughter, Else, was only eight months old at the time. I moved to Sioux Falls. The constellation of a lot of things had changed: family, vocation—and not least of all, theology.
I was worried about finances, but Reynold, whom I married in 2009, said that while he respected my worries, he wondered if I really needed to put a dollar sign before all of my "emotional investments." So I resigned the teaching post.
