Colleagues, One of you readers tweaked me to stop beating around the bush and start to show and tell what I learned about mission theology during my Spring Semester term (January to May) at the Overseas Ministries Study Center (New Haven, Connecticut). OK, I will, and I’ll start with the book review below, which I just completed …
Mosaic and Christic Ethos in the Gospel of John
Edward H. Schroeder [Printed in Currents in Theology and Mission Vol. 29:3 (June, 2002) Reprinted with permission.] “The Law was given through Moses: grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” — John 1.17 The Gospel of John contains no ethical teachings as we find it in the synoptics or in Paul – no Sermon on the Mount, …
Update from Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem
Colleagues, The internet provider to Christmas Lutheran Church/ International Center in Bethlehem was down for seven weeks. Here is a message from Rev.Mitri Raheb sent our way on May 22. It includes links to a number of articles on their website. Day before yesterday Mitri followed up with another message reminding us that the siege really continues …
From a Crossings Colleague in Beirut, Lebanon: “How the Israel-Palestine Conflict Looks from Here.”
Colleagues, Art Preisinger and wife Mitzi are in Beirut, Lebanon this semester. They’re at Near East School of Theology [NEST] as ELCA Global Mission Volunteers. Art’s teaching church history. Mitzi’s also doing useful work. Art and I were classmates in seminary days. I asked him for something that I could pass on to the listserve readership. This …
The Church’s Authority and Homosexuality
Colleagues, This is the last ThTh posting coming from New Haven, Connecticut. Next Thursday, d.v., Marie and I hope to be home in St. Louis. Our spring semester tour of duty here at the Overseas Ministries Study Center is over. It’s a bit too soon for a retrospective summary. Yet today’s posting is a piece of it–a report …
Richard John Neuhaus, A Mystery No More [Part 2]
[Just as I was getting ready to post ThTh 204, this came through from the Crossings office in St. Louis: “Will Herzfeld. Went to Africa. Shortly after return to USA was found unconscious. Diagnosed with cerebral malaria. Next 24 hours critical. Ask for prayer.” We’re doing so and ask you to do so too.] Colleagues,In the April 2002 …
Richard John Neuhaus, A Mystery No More
Colleagues, Richard John Neuhaus [hereafter RJN] has been a conundrum–especially so to many of his fellow Lutherans in North America when he “swam the Tiber” twelve years ago and became a Roman Catholic. But he has unscrambled the puzzle for the perplexed in the lead article of “his” journal FIRST THINGS, April 2002 [also available at its website, …
A Tribute to Irmgard Koch
This past Friday, the matriarch of the Crossings community went on to her glory. Irmgard Koch, beloved teacher and friend to so many, was part of Crossings from the very beginning. She took every class, pressed Bob and Ed to invent more courses so she could continue taking them and even coined the phrase “God-sized problem” for …
Jesus Through Jewish Eyes
Colleagues, Someone asked: Why don’t you send us any of the stuff you’re doing at the Overseas Ministries Study Center this semester? I have been working on mission themes. One product is an expanded essay on Luther’s preaching on the so-called Great Commission. Another is a 34-page study book for my seminar running here this week. Today’s …
Just how good is the theology of GOD BLESS AMERICA?
Colleagues, This posting consists of two responses to the omnipresent mantra in US national theology for these past 7 months: God bless America. The first is from Gary Dixon, an associate minister from downunder in the Lutheran Church of Australia. The second one, brought to my attention by Steve Hitchcock, comes from a recent issue of The …