Colleagues, On the last day of this month, the Eve of the big celebration All Saints Day on Nov. 1, Lutherans celebrate Reformation Day. The day recalls Luther’s “going public”–482 years ago–with his 95 Theses critiquing congregational practice of the sacrament of penance in the medieval church. If Luther’s action actually constituted the opening shot of the Reformation, …
Two for Eternity
Colleagues, This week in the church year brought us St. Michael and All Angels. So today’s ThTh offering has some links with that festive day. It is a pair of meditations, “Two for Eternity.” The first one’s from Robin Morgan, the second one from me. Peace & Joy! Ed #1 I love eternity A symphony of dreams …
LOSING OUR VIRTUE. WHY THE CHURCH MUST RECOVER ITS MORAL VISION
In 1973 therapy guru Karl Menninger made headlines in the U.S. needling his fellow practitioners in psychiatry with a book titled: WHATEVER BECAME OF SIN? Already then “sin” was gone from psychiatric vocabulary and fast slipping away in US common culture as well. Now 25 years later David Wells poses the same question to his fellow Evangelicals in …
Moving our Congregations from Maintenance to Mission
Colleagues, Last week Thursday, Sept. 10, Robert Bertram made the following presentation to the St. Louis area “Lutheran Professional Church Worker Conference.” I thought you’d like to see it. If you’ve been reading earlier ThTh items, you’ll know Bob from the stuff I’ve sent out about Crossings and about Seminex. Should you wish to review some of …
The Historic Episcopate Question?
On August 8 John Rosenberg, regular receiver of ThTh, wrote me the following: Say, are you planning on doing anything in Thursday Theology about the “historic episcopate” question? Perhaps you’ve written about this and I missed it. At any rate, I need some enlightenment on what YOU think is at stake in that discussion. What brought the matter …
Moving Our Congregations “From Maintainance to Mission”: Is the Jerusalem Congregation at Pentecost (Acts 2) a Model?
Robert W. Bertram [Address at an LPCWC (Lutheran Professional Church Workers Conference) September 10, 1998 in St. Louis, MO.] Answer: ‘Could be, but only if we see that “model” congregation for what it was – and was not. In short, which way was it “moving?” Was it moving into obsolescence? Yes, in some ways it was. Was …
True Repentance and President Clinton’s Confession?
Dear Thursday Theology folks, This week I’ve asked Dr. Robert Schultz to do a piece for us in regard to the latest presidential crisis. Al Jabs, one of our Crossings board members, wrote to some of us asking about the issues of confession and repentance in relation to this current situation and Dr. Schultz graciously accepted my …
Seminex Remembered — Faculty Reductions/Closing Shop
ThTh 14 concluded: “That’s two of the four [sc. name change and internal governance] episodes where I think we strayed from our exilic calling. Next time, d.v., faculty reductions and closing shop in St. Louis.” FACULTY REDUCTIONS Seminex began classes on Feb. 20, 1974 with something like 450 students and 45 faculty, a 10 to 1 ratio. The …
Seminex Remembered — Four Crucial Votes
ANNOUNCEMENT #1. Mark your calendars for June 24-25, 1999. St. Louis area Seminex grads are convoking a 25th anniversary gathering here where it all started in 1974. Spread the word around. The planners say that details will soon be forthcoming. They need help for the current addresses of Seminexers in today’s diaspora. Such info sent to me I’ll pass …
Seminex Remembered — The Theology Department
ThTh #9 concluded: “The consequences of these two focal points [Historical critical method (HCM) in the Biblical departments and the Law-Gospel hermeneutic (LGH) in systematics] for the ellipse of Seminex’s theology is a topic I’ll try to address next time.” Well, this “next” time is now four weeks later. And in these intervening weeks another of the saints …