Colleagues, Back in 1963–that’s 45 years ago–Armencius Munthe, Batak Lutheran pastor from Sumatra, Indonesia, was a grad student in theology at the University of Hamburg (Germany) at the same time as I was. We’ve stayed in touch over the years. On our last Global Mission Volunteer assignment–mostly in Singapore–Marie and I flew over to Sumatra to visit Armencius …
“Damn” is Not a Dirty Word
Colleagues, The text below went to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, our home-town newspaper, last week. It has not yet made the cut to be published. I’m not holding my breath. But one of you out there did see the text and recommended wider distribution. So here it is. And short too. Doubtless the shortest ever …
More Student Theology from that Augsburg Confession Class in Springfield, Illinois.
Colleagues, Here’s more good stuff from students in the “Lutheran Confessions” class that Ron Neustadt and I taught last term. Peace and joy! Ed Schroeder To a student’s term paper on “Faith” EHS responded: Louise, you have found many of the very best Bible passages about faith and woven them together. Good. However . . . The “big” …
Reflections on the Roman Papacy
Colleagues, The Bishops of Rome, one just past, one now present, received planet-wide publicity this month. Most all of it free because the passing of one and the coming of the other was a day-after-day media event of “catholic” (= “covering the whole globe”) proportions.But what sort of PR did the Gospel get? The issue of the papacy …
Mosaic Law: Two Views Both Claiming to be Lutheran
Colleagues, First off–a long Segue to Sinai–“too long.” Last week’s post (ThTh 514) presented the two “Why Jesus?” articles I’d sent to our ELCA national magazine together with the comments and correctives that came back to me from the editor responsible for issues of “People and Faith” at The LUTHERAN. I wondered: was that editor’s message already a …
Why Jesus? Still a Problem in our ELCA
Colleagues, Two items from “Higgins Road,” (the folksy name for the ELCA national headquarters @ 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago 60631), come in under that “Why Jesus?” rubric this week. One is a news release remembering the bloody business exactly one year ago at Virginia Tech Institute. That news release also recalls what our ELCA campus pastor at …
Student Achievement in Lutheran Confessional Theology
Colleagues,Here’s some theology coming from the term papers and final exams in that Augsburg-Aha! course taught by Ron Neustadt and ES in Springfield IL this past quarter. Peace and joy! Ed Schroeder In her essay on the Triune God a student asked: “How would I respond to someone who told me that she didn’t believe that God exists?” …
The Augsburg Aha! — “Human Will and Human Works”
Colleagues, Here’s the final installment of handouts that Ron Neustadt and I used these weeks with students in Springfield, Illinois on the theology of the Augsburg Confession (1530). This one is on Human Will and Human Works (Augsburg Confession articles 6, 17-21). Peace and joy! Ed Schroeder An introductory word about ethics in the theology of the AC. …
A Message from the Field: “Ed, You didn’t get law/gospel right!”
Colleagues, Kathleen Creager discovered Crossings in the summer of 2006, I think it was. While residing, of all places, in America’s Calvinist Mecca, Grand Rapids, Michigan! But then THEIR publishing house–Eerdmans in Grand Rapids–just published the first-ever Crossings book, Bob Bertram’s A TIME FOR CONFESSING, whilst allegedly “more Lutheran” publishers demurred. Do denominational lines mean anything anymore? Things …
Obama and His Pastor — Is God Damning America, or Not? That is the Question.
Colleagues, The Word of God broke out of our American churches since last we met and spilled out into the streets. It became national news. It focused, of all things, on a black preacher’s sermon from long ago. You couldn’t have invented this. Truth IS stranger than fiction. God must have had a hand in it. It was …