Colleagues, At the Seminex birthday party a few weeks ago — reported last month in ThTh #578 https://crossings.org/thursday/2009/thur070909.shtml — five of us goldie-oldie profs showed up on a panel. Some had prepared their words on paper; I and one other just ad libbed. A glitch in the recording system failed to preserve the words of us ad-libbers for posterity. So …
A Double Autobiography–Art Simon and Bread for the World
Colleagues, Long-retired Lutheran pastor Karl Boehmke (he just turned ninety) is the irrepressible activist for Bread for the World in our local congregation here in St. Louis. So it was a no-brainer in deciding who shouild review Art Simon’s retrospective on his own life and the life of Bread for the World, which sprang from his heart and …
“The Unlimited Mercy of God” – Armencius Munthe, R.I.P.
Another memento mori. Three in a row for us in 8 days. Just two weeks ago (ThTh #579) Armencius was our reporter for “Platzregen on the move in Indonesia.” I passed on to you his words that cheered our community: “On July 7 here in Sumatra I was asked to present a Bible Study for a conference of …
Memento mori. Two Reminders of My Mortality
Colleagues, Since last Thursday’s post two memento mori’s have come my way. One was the death of James Danker, son of dear Seminex colleague and next-door neighbor Fred Danker and his now-sainted wife Lois. Only 53 years old! We had the memorial service last Friday. The second was the death of John Steven Paul, whizkid speech-and-drama student from …
The Crossings Matrix (Diagnosis/Prognosis) Keeps Moving
Colleagues, The Crossings matrix (Diagnosis/Prognosis) keeps moving–to people and places that surprise me. Is it the “Platzregen” phenomenon, Luther’s thunder-shower metaphor for the Gospel’s own “free course . . . to the joy and edifying of Christ’s people on earth”? Why do I ask that? Two serendipity emails have come into my in-basket since the Fourth of July …
Seminex at Thirty-Five.
Colleagues, For the Seminex 35th birthday party–you had to have been there. Well over 200 of us, they said, gathered at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Three days concluding on June 25, the 479th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Some of you on this listserve were there. For those who weren’t, but might …
Augsburg Confessional Theology and the Sexuality Debate Part Two: A Canadian Sequel to Last Week’s Post.
Colleagues, One of the responses to last week’s post came from Canada. Co-crosser Hal Remus alerted me to the parallel debate in the ELCIC [Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada] and he sent me the “nay” and the “yea” documents, both of which I pass on to you here. Just plain “super,” to my mind, was the Augsburg-Confession-grounding of …
Augsburg Confessional Theology and the ELCA Sexuality Debate.
Colleagues, Today is the 479th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession in the town of that name to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. That document from 1530 is the magna charta of the Reformation and thereby the yardstick for later groups who call themselves Lutheran. In these postings you’ve often heard references to the “Augsburg Aha!” …
Crossing the Kidney Market — With Law and Promise
Colleagues, I recently sent on to you Paul Tambyah’s request for Crossings counsel on new legislation in Singapore that seeks to regulate the sale of human body parts. Nine of you have already responded, all of it good stuff. So I’m going to pick and choose for today’s ThTh posting the one that explicitly takes Tambyah’s issue through …
Some Luther Quotes for the Feast of the Holy Trinity
Colleagues: [We’re still in the afterglow of Bishop Francisco Claver’s visit last week. Steve Kuhl, who had just reviewed Claver’s book for you (ThTh #572), was here for some of the time. Much of the fun for those of us gathered around was “just listening” to the two of them conduct a Lutheran-Catholic dialog on THE MAKING OF …