On August 8 John Rosenberg, regular receiver of ThTh, wrote me the following: Say, are you planning on doing anything in Thursday Theology about the “historic episcopate” question? Perhaps you’ve written about this and I missed it. At any rate, I need some enlightenment on what YOU think is at stake in that discussion. What brought the matter …
Moving Our Congregations “From Maintainance to Mission”: Is the Jerusalem Congregation at Pentecost (Acts 2) a Model?
Robert W. Bertram [Address at an LPCWC (Lutheran Professional Church Workers Conference) September 10, 1998 in St. Louis, MO.] Answer: ‘Could be, but only if we see that “model” congregation for what it was – and was not. In short, which way was it “moving?” Was it moving into obsolescence? Yes, in some ways it was. Was …
True Repentance and President Clinton’s Confession?
Dear Thursday Theology folks, This week I’ve asked Dr. Robert Schultz to do a piece for us in regard to the latest presidential crisis. Al Jabs, one of our Crossings board members, wrote to some of us asking about the issues of confession and repentance in relation to this current situation and Dr. Schultz graciously accepted my …
Seminex Remembered — Faculty Reductions/Closing Shop
ThTh 14 concluded: “That’s two of the four [sc. name change and internal governance] episodes where I think we strayed from our exilic calling. Next time, d.v., faculty reductions and closing shop in St. Louis.” FACULTY REDUCTIONS Seminex began classes on Feb. 20, 1974 with something like 450 students and 45 faculty, a 10 to 1 ratio. The …
Seminex Remembered — Four Crucial Votes
ANNOUNCEMENT #1. Mark your calendars for June 24-25, 1999. St. Louis area Seminex grads are convoking a 25th anniversary gathering here where it all started in 1974. Spread the word around. The planners say that details will soon be forthcoming. They need help for the current addresses of Seminexers in today’s diaspora. Such info sent to me I’ll pass …
Seminex Remembered — The Theology Department
ThTh #9 concluded: “The consequences of these two focal points [Historical critical method (HCM) in the Biblical departments and the Law-Gospel hermeneutic (LGH) in systematics] for the ellipse of Seminex’s theology is a topic I’ll try to address next time.” Well, this “next” time is now four weeks later. And in these intervening weeks another of the saints …
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, part 3
Concluding the last two weeks’ discussion of the June 25 “Clarifications” on the Catholic – Lutheran “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” [JDDJ] coming from Edward Cassidy, the Vatican’s chief ecumenical officer. Topic: Simultaneity: To call Christians righteous and sinners at the same time prompts Cassidy’s third “big” objection to JDDJ. He says flat-out: “not acceptable.” Although …
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, part 2
Continuing last week’s discussion of the June 25 “Clarifications” on the Catholic – Lutheran “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” [JDDJ] coming from Edward Cassidy, the Vatican’s chief Ecumenical Officer. Last week’s ThTh #10 focused on one of Edward Cassidy’s three major theological objections to the text of JDDJ, viz., it fails to mention human “cooperation with grace” when …
Vatican “Clarifications” on the Catholic – Lutheran Joint Declaration on Justification
Like day and night. That’s what the last two issues of Lutheran World Information (LWI), the fortnightly newsletter of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), were. LWI’s issue of 23 June 1998 was all hype and hallelujah about the LWF council members unanimously approving the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ)” with the Roman Catholic church. …
Seminex Remembered–Seminex’s own Theology
Both friends and foes–then and still now–talk about “the theology of Seminex.” Just what was that? It’s not easy to specify–even for us Seminexers. Critics from within the Missouri Synod painted our theology with the “liberal” brush. For some that meant “Bible-doubters.” I.e., we didn’t believe the six-day creation that the Bible teaches; we were skeptics about Jonah’s …