Where the Gospel meets our daily lives.
Co-missioners, The year was 1530. That’s when leaders of the incipient Lutheran movement confessed their faith at the Diet of Augsburg and prompted the hostile reaction that drove Philip Melanchthon to pen the counter-response we’ve been poring over these past five weeks. The very title of the response flashes an instant signal of the distance between then and …
Co-missioners, The end is in sight. Paul Jaster will walk us today through Philip Melanchthon’s rebuttal of his opponents’ claim that he and his fellow-confessors have either made a hash of key Biblical texts or ignored them completely. God says a person needs more than faith in Christ to wind up justified—so the opponents argue. “Think again,” Melanchthon …
Co-missioners, Today Paul Jaster walks us through a critical section of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV. Here Philip Melanchthon discusses the relationship between faith and works, between trusting the Gospel and keeping the Law. This matter is as much in contention among Christians in 2023 as it was in 1530. That’s all the reason for …
Hear why Carol Braun makes time to attend the Crossings conferences each year (in fact, it is the ONLY conference she attends each year!) Carol also explains why Crossings is relevant to her and what the Crossings community offers to others. You can find these videos, links to our text studies, our Thursday Theology blog posts and more …
Co-missioners, We’re devoting this current stretch of weeks to guided tour by Paul Jaster of the Fourth Article of The Apology of the Augsburg Confession. When last Thursday’s installment ended, Paul was walking us through Philip Melanchthon’s take on the essential disagreement between Lutheran confessors and the papal theologians who opposed them. Today’s third installment opens with a …
Co-missioners, Last week Paul Jaster reviewed the events that gave rise to The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, touched briefly on its English translations, and discussed a key word in today’s standard translation that calls for the reader’s close attention. Today he begins his discussion of the Apology’s critical Fourth Article. You’ll want to keep your Book of …
Co-missioners, Students of all ages are heading back to school this week in many parts of the U.S. It’s an apt time for Thursday Theology readers to do the same. With this in mind, we send you the first installment of a six-week-long introduction to one of the fundamental documents that Crossings-style theology takes its clues from. It …
Co-missioners, Our editor ran across another article this week that he wants to tell you about. We also pass along that our next post will reach you on August 24th. Those responsible for getting them to you will be busy next week with our annual board meeting. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ A Refreshing Dose …
Co-missioners, We pass along four brief items from our editor. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ A Bit of Gospel, A Bit of Law, A Bit of Astonishment. An Announcement Too by Jerome Burce Gospel I start this week with a passage from Robert Farrar Capon’s The Foolishness of Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel against the Wisdom …
Co-missioners, We’re four weeks shy of a Sunday that will rub our faces in Matthew’s tough account of Jesus’ back-and-forth with the Canaanite woman. Today we send you an example—in advance for once—of how this text can be tapped so that it gushes with Gospel for 2023. Feel free to borrow ideas, or even better, to improve on …
