Colleagues, This week we bring you Part 2 of Chris Repp’s paper on the role of cultural differences and political expediencies in some of the major schisms in the history of the Church. In Part 1 of this paper (first presented in its entirety in August of last year, at St. Augustine’s House in Oxford, Michigan), Chris discussed the cultural …
#750 On Being Special, or Not. A Double Crossing.
Colleagues, You’re about to read one of the best things we’ve sent you all year. It comes from Paul Jaster, who blessed us back in January with a three-part overview of Mark’s Gospel. If you’re not quite sure who Paul is, see the first paragraph of our introduction to ThTheol 710, the first installment in that series. In the …
#749 Manichean America
Colleagues, Today’s offering might best be described as an op-ed piece. It comes to you from Dr. Michael Hoy, pastor of First Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Decatur, Illinois, former editor of the Crossings newsletter, and steward of Bob Bertram’s professional papers. We heard from Mike earlier this year in ThTheol 729. For this present contribution, readers outside the …
#748 The Cultural Roots of Schism (Part 1)
Colleagues, Three Sundays from now the churches some of us lead or attend will celebrate the Reformation. I assume this habit is peculiar to Lutherans. The date we pick for it, after all, is pegged to the anniversary of Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. I grew up thinking and feeling about this event …
#747 A reading of St. Mark, Crossings-style (Part 5)
This week brings the fifth and final installment of my fellow Thursday Theology editor Jerry Burce’s reading of the Gospel of Mark, first presented during the pre-conference to the Fourth International Crossings Conference this past January. As you may recall from the first part of Jerry’s presentation (ThTheol #742), he set out to articulate how it is that …
#746 A reading of St. Mark, Crossings-style (Part 4)
Colleagues, This week we return to the next part of my fellow Thursday Theology editor Jerry Burce’s extended exploration of the Gospel of Mark, which he first presented during the pre-conference to the Fourth International Crossings Conference in January 2012 in Belleville, Illinois. (The previous parts were ThTheol #742, #743, and #744.) When we last left off, Jerry was walking us …
#745 Ed Schroeder Reports from Toronto
Colleagues, In the early ’80s, as Crossings co-founder Ed Schroeder was stepping away from the disintegrating remnants of Christ Seminary—Seminex, he somehow got bitten by the mission bug. There followed for him and his wife Marie a second career, grossly underpaid, as a globe-trotting teacher of Lutheran theology and a steady contributor to ecumenical conversation about the mission …
#744 A reading of St. Mark, Crossings-style (Part 3)
Colleagues, As you’ll remember from ThTheol #742 and #743, we’re in the midst of the Rev. Dr. Jerome Burce’s multipart presentation on the Gospel of Mark, which he first delivered in three one-hour sessions on the day before the official start the Fourth International Crossings Conference in Belleville, Illinois, in January of this year. Today’s installment brings you the first half …
#743 A reading of St. Mark, Crossings-style (Part 2)
Colleagues, Last week (ThTheol #742) we brought you the first part of a paper on the Gospel of St. Mark by my fellow Thursday Theology editor, Jerry Burce. As you’ll recall from last week, Jerry presented this paper as an extended pre-conference study session before the opening of the Fourth International Crossings Conference in Belleville, Illinois, this past …
A reading of St. Mark, Crossings-style (Part 1)
Colleagues, This week we bring you the first part of a paper by my fellow Thursday Theology editor, Jerry Burce. At the Fourth International Crossings Conference this past January—in fact before the conference officially started—Jerry presented a Crossings-style reading of the Gospel of Mark to an audience of pre-conference attendees. Below you’ll find the first installment of that …