Preaching Justice, Doing Mercy: The Gospel in the Public Square Can we, should we, and did we ever distinguish clearly between the vocations of preachers, prophets, and partisans? Institute of Liturgical Studies 25 March 2008 Frederick Niedner, Valparaiso University Thanks for coming, and as always, for the work you and your congregations and communities do in the way …
Our Time For Confessing in the Philippines-The People Power Revolt
Colleagues, I can no longer remember how Bob Bertram and I learned about Francisco F. Claver, Roman Catholic bishop from the Philippines. Somehow we’d heard of him as a major player in the church and state conflict of the Marcos regime. Then one day during Seminex years [1974-83] he showed up at St. Louis University visiting his …
The 2008 Meeting of the American Society of Missiology, Part II.
Colleagues, Preliminary Note: By the time next Thursday rolls around, Marie and I, God willing, won’t be in St. Louis, but in Europe. For most of the rest of the summer–actually 41 days and 40 nights. Sounds almost Biblical. At either end of that stretch are two conferences we’re attending. First one is four days for the 200th …
The 2008 Meeting of the American Society of Missiology
Colleagues, Two weekends ago, June 19-22, (for what might be the 30th time) I was with the mission studies crowd at the annual meeting of the American Society of Missiology. Many of them are dear (and now, like me, “old”) friends, and each year a bunch of youngsters shows up to add to the collegiality and the friendship. …
Luther’s Missiology. A Conference Paper
Colleagues:Here’s the current shape of the text for a presentation I’m to make in August at IAMS XII. That’s the 12th every-four-years conference of the International Asociation for Mission Studies, this year meeting in Budapest. Marie and I have been to the last eight, beginning with Bangalore in 1982. Every now and then I speak up, sometimes on …
Thoughts occasioned by reading Robert Bertram, A TIME FOR CONFESSING, by William R Burrows.
Colleagues, Here is the second of four reviews of Bob Bertram’s book that will, deo volente, eventually show up on ThTh posts. [One is yet to come from Rudolf Keller, German Lutheran pastor-theologian in Bavaria, one of the keynote speakers at the 2007 Crossings “Honest to God” conference. And then one by Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J., from the …
Continuing last week’s post: “A Mixed Report Card on ‘Damn is Not a Dirty Word’ and ‘Preaching from OT Texts'”
Colleagues, Last week’s ThTh 521 got us this far in responses to: Preaching from OT Texts. Peace and Joy! Ed Schroeder 6. Several pointed questions came from someone who’s new, he says, to Crossings stuff, but (mostly) likes what he’s reading. However, there were items in my reading of the Old Testament where he found Biblical texts saying …
A Mixed Report Card on “Damn is Not a Dirty Word” and “Preaching from OT Texts”
Colleagues, A mixed report card came in for recent ThTh posts. The “Damn is Not a Dirty Word” post (ThTh 517) received about an equal number of thumbs-up and thumbs-down. Though the thumbs-down were mostly focused on Jeremiah Wright as an unworthy messenger (“evil man . . . narcissistic . . . psychopath . . . liar . …
Robert W. Bertram, “Time for Confessing”-When Faith Hits the Road
Colleagues: Richard H. Luecke reviews Bob Bertram’s book for us this week. Sixty years ago he and Bob Bertram and Jaroslav Pelikan were teaching philosophy at Valparaiso University. That field was my undergraduate major in 1948-50. So they were my teachers. Up until that time I was a pre-med student. These three were at the center of my …
Book Review on Lutherans in Hitler’s Germany
Colleagues, This past semester I was asked to sit in for one session on a graduate seminar at St. Louis University where the topic was: The Church’s Response–both Catholic and Protestant–to Hitler. The professor, Mark Ruff, is a rising star in that era of European history. We’re both ELCA Lutherans–yes, even both with LCMS roots. When the seminar …