Colleagues, For this first week of Easter some Grace Notes. The texts come from two ThTh subscribers. Number 1 is from Edwin Boger, a college biology prof in Worcester, Massachusetts. Number 2 is from Paul Marshall, the Episcopal bishop of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I was once blessed to have both of them as students, Edwin at Valparaiso University, …
A Time for Confessing in the Missouri Synod (continued)
Colleagues, Last week’s ThTh 96, Steve Krueger’s essay on the “The Promising Tradition – For A Time to Confess” in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, elicited considerable response. I pass on to you a few of them for ThTh 97. You may remember that Steve spoke of some of these LCMS confessors as the “Daystar” group. …
A Time for Confessing in the Missouri SYnod
Colleagues, The more things change, the more they stay the same. There is theological conflict, serious conflict, in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Yes, again. In some respects it looks like a re-run of the Seminex epic of the seventies, though this time the LCMS St. Louis seminary is not the focus. Instead, and on the …
Book Review — “Reviving Sacred Speech” by Gail Ramshaw
Gail Ramshaw’s latest book, “Reviving Sacred Speech: The Meaning of Liturgical Language,” (Akron, OH: OSL Publications, 2000) is a second edition of “Christ in Sacred Speech” which was published in 1985. In the introduction, Ramshaw explains that her publisher wanted to reissue “Christ in Sacred Speech,” which had been out of print since 1994. She decided that she …
Christology at the Tenth I.A.M.S. Missiology Conference
Colleagues, TWO PRELIMINARIES NUMBER ONE: The text for ThTh 94 is some thoughts I posted to fellow-participants at that missiology conference Robin and I attended in January. Our group is the International Association for Mission Studies [IAMS]. We meet every 4 years. This year we gathered in South Africa–220 of us from 50-plus countries–at the Hammanskraal campus …
A book on Authority in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
Colleagues, This week’s edition of ThTh is a book review. You’ll see very quickly why I got it as soon as I heard it was out, viz., one-third of it is about my life. If that fact might deflect you from reading on any further, forget the fact, and read on anyway. Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder …
Fasting & The Resurrection of the Body
Dear Folks, This week we have two pieces for you. The first is by Fred Niedner of the Theology Department at Valparaiso University. It’s his pre-Ash Wednesday column for the Post-Tribune which is part of the Chicago Sun Times chain of newspapers. The second is by Rick Mueller, pastor at The Lutheran Church of the Atonement in …
Faith/Works Conundrum Responses
Dear Folks, Thanks so much to those of you who responded to my query last week. You offer us all some great insights about a topic that obviously is still alive and well even this long after the Diet of Augsburg. I give them to you in the order I received them. Enjoy, Robin Robin,the “conundrum” about …
The Faith/Works Conundrum
Dear Folks,This past weekend I got a new computer and cleaned off my desk in the process. At the bottom of one pile (don’t tell me you never have piles on your desk!) I discovered this reflection I wrote a while back and realized that it was, unfortunately, still part of my struggle as a parish pastor. The …
A Book Review of FAITH ALOUD: DOING THEOLOGY FROM THE HYMNS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. by Marcus Felde, Goroka, Papua New Guinea: Melanesian Institute, 1999
Law-Gospel theology (aka Lutheran) was hard to find at the Tenth Conference of the Int’l Association for Mission Research [IAMS] in Pretoria, South Africa Jan. 21-28, 2000. Seminex alum Richard Bliese, missiologist at the Lutheran Seminary in Chicago, said it was even worse than that: “Lutheran theology is not just a minority voice in missiology today, Ed. It’s …