A piece of promotional mail occasionally pops up in my university mail box with the title MAKING OURSELVES ACCEPTABLE. The content – as I remember – varies, but the point in the title remains. Although the pamphlet is not directed to the concerns of this conference – as I recall it is always addressed to salesmen advising them …
Using Luther’s Concept of Deus absconditus for Christian Mission to Muslims
Edward H. Schroeder [Presented at the Luther Research Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 4-9, 2002 Seminar: Luther’s Writings on the Turks.] Thesis: Luther’s concept of deus absconditus, humankind’s common experience of “God-hidden” — in contrast to deus revelatus, “God-revealed-in-Christ” — is a fundamental resource for Lutheran mission theology and practice. Although generally unused (yes, unknown) in today’s mission …
Now About the Risks Involved… Edward H. Schroeder “Interaction,” March 1975
“Wow!” That’s what we said last summer when we saw that Frenchman on the tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. No parachute, no net, just 1,000 feet of nothing between him and the ground. That was really risky! I get vertigo just thinking about it. You’ll never catch me risking my …
“Where on Earth are the Heavenly Places?” Edward H. Schroeder Interaction, February 1976
The answer to the question in the title is “yes” – the heavenly places are on earth. Ephesians, the only place in the Bible where we run into that prepositional phrase, designates the heavenly places as any place where the Lordship of Christ is in operation. And the most palpable place where Christ is Lord is down here …
The Economy of Forgiveness
Colleagues, Summertime here in the northern hemisphere. Hot here in the USA heartland. Energy sags. So I’ve dug up some stuff from antiquity, from the days when energy was at a higher level. I’d actually forgotten about this one. But when Valparaiso University last Advent published a devotion book with gleanings from the chapel, there to my …
The Exodus: a Saving Event? Not Really [Part 2]
Colleagues, ThTh 210 of three weeks ago questioned whether Israel’s Exodus from Egypt was a “saving event” at all. A number of you gave feedback. There was quite a spectrum. From kudos to critique. Kudos: “Once again . . . as the former Talking Heads’s David Byrne is quoted as saying: ‘Stop making sense.’ I.e., Thanks for being …
Till the Night Be Past: The Life and Times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Colleagues, Guest writer for this Thursday’s posting is Dr. Kit Kleinhans, Seminex alum, now Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at the ELCA’s Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She reviews a Bonhoeffer book written by her father. “That’ll be a dicey job,” she said, when I asked her to do it, “to wrap my head …
The World Trade Center Revisited
Colleagues, This week’s posting comes from Walter Bouman, a dear friend and theological buddy. Walt and I have known each other for over half a century starting with our time together as seminary students in 1950ff, then our doctoral studies in Germany in the mid-fifties, and a generation later on the ramparts in the Wars of Missouri. …
The Exodus, a Saving Event? Not Really
Colleagues, I’ve been having e-conversation with a dear colleague about Exodus as a saving event. He calls it (and he’s hardly alone in this) “the central saving event of the Old Testament.” I don’t think so and here’s a recent letter I composed to tell him that.Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder Dear ——My scepticism about the Exodus …
Grabbing at Jesus
[This piece was inspired by Sunday’s gospel lesson, Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, and the sermon I heard on it by the Rev. Dr. Tom Schoenherr.] Every time I take another big step in my life, part of me thinks that I should be able to handle things on my own now. It’s not a part of me that gets …