“Scripture and Tradition” in the Lutheran Confessions

Robert W. Bertram [First draft of Address at the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue USA, February, 1991. Later printed in Pro Ecclesia, Vol. X (Spring 2001) #2, 179-194. Reprinted with permission.]   In the Lutheran Confessions it is not Scripture which is handed on by a post-canonical, credal-confessional tradition so much as it is the Word of God which is …

Take the Jerusalem Bypass Matthew 2:1-12—The Visit of the Magi

Edward H. Schroeder   “And they went back home by another way, a different way.” The Magi are not the main characters in the drama of Matthew 2. No, the main characters are the two people in the text who have the same title, King of the Jews— Jesus, called the Christ, and Herod, called the Great. …

Korean Women Search for the Silver Coin

Edward H. Schroeder [The Christian Century, May 2, 1990, p. 452f.]   AN ANCIENT Korean proverb says, “Three men determine the fate of every woman.” They are her father, her husband and her son. This Confucian tradition has been the ironclad rule in Korean society for centuries. A woman is valued if she is obedient, quiet and subservient …

Do Not Cling To Me

(printed in the Easter, 1990 Crossings Newsletter)   C s for Cling, as in “Do not cling to me.” (Jn. 20:17) So says the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb. Not that she should not “touch” him, as the older translations put it. In fact, in the very next scene he literally dares another of …

Whitehead’s Theory of God and the World

Robert W. Bertram   The object of this paper is to point out two contrasting strains of religious feeling which appear in Whitehead’s writings, to show how each is related to certain features of his cosmology, and to make some suggestions about the outcome of his theory of God and the world. I. One strain of feeling which …

Forgiving One Another, Out Loud

Isn’t that what we in our congregations act out on Sunday mornings when we come to that point in the service called “The Exchange of Peace” or “Passing The Peace” or just “The Peace”? I mean, aren’t we thereby saying to one another, Here, sisters and brothers, is a peace which, though it is also mine, is every …

What Crossings Is/Was/Might Be

Robert W. Bertram [Meeting of Crossings’ board of directors, 16 July, 1989]   1) It was when Crossings’ board of directors came together recently to get some professional advice on fund-raising, specifically through direct-mail methods, that one of the directors brought us back to what I think is the heart of the matter. He asked the basic question …

Lutheran Confessional Perspectives in Today’s World

Robert W. Bertram [Address, Cabrini Retreat Center, Chicago, June 1, 1989.]   Three-point outline: 1) SOCIETY; 2) JUSTIFICATION; 3) FAITH/FORGIVEN-NESS 1)  Learn from SOCIETY, as from God’s lawful creation, 2)  but not as if society defined our JUSTIFICATION; 3)  that (justification) comes only by FAITH via Christ’s FORGIVING community—where society, too, is being upgraded.   The point of …

Altogether By Faith

Robert W. Bertram [Published in Lutheran Forum, Volume 23, Number 2, Pentecost, 1989.] ABSTRACT The theme of the 1967 (New York) LCMS convention, “Justification by Grace,” with no mention of the sola fide (“faith alone”), reveals a problem far more broad than merely the LCMS’. As the Fourth Article of the Apology argues, by minimizing faith, the Reformation’s …