Robert W. Bertram [Printed in Lutheran World Information, Release No. 34/82 (September 16, 1982) p. 7-8.] St. Louis, Sept. 16 A note just arrived from Professor Jill Raitt, and thereby hangs a parable. Professor Raitt suggests that we schedule our flights together to New York for the next meeting of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Consultation USA. She is …
A Christmas Crossing II
John 1:1-18 Robert W. Bertram [Printed in Currents in Theology and Mission 8, No. 6 (December, 1981): 335-343. Reprinted with permission.] Diagnosis If the Gospel of John is a vast “cosmic trial”—as Theo Preis put it, and Paul Ricoeur after him—then I would think the first eighteen verses function not only as prologue to the main feature but …
HOW A LUTHERAN DOES THEOLOGY: SOME CLUES FROM THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS
By Robert W. Bertram [In Lutheran-Episcopal Dialogue: Report and Recommendation, 73-87. Edited by William G. Weinhauer and Robert L. Wietelman. Cincinnati: Forward Movement Publications, 1981.] 1. Lutheran theology begins where all Christian theology does, indeed where all Christian ministry does, namely, with our risen Lord’s commissioning his followers to go – not alone but with him – …
THE WORD OF GOD IN THE LUTHERAN TRADITION
Edward H. Schroeder [Presentation in Kalamazoo, MI, Lutheran/Episcopal/Roman Catholic Dialogue, October 1, 1980] THESIS 1 It is not Martin Luther, but rather the Lutheran confessions, (the Lutheran symbols) that are the doctrinal yardstick for Augsburg Confessing Christians. These symbols, the three ancient ecumenical creeds together with the 16th century reformation confessions (=”as our symbol in this epoch” …
Jesus and the Gentiles
in Christian Century (No. 28 , September 10-17, 1980; pp. 438-439) [Copyright 1980 Christian Century. Reproduced by permission from the September 10-17, 1980, issue of the Christian Century. Subscriptions: $49/yr. Rom P.O. Box 378, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. 1-800-208-4097. Link to Christian Century is: www.christiancentury.org.] If I were Jewish, so I imagine, I would be offended …
“The Present Governance Structure”
[Memo to the Seminary Relations Committee of Christ Seminary-Seminex, March 10, 1980] Robert W. Bertram Date: 10 March 1980 To: Seminary Relations Committee From: Robert Bertram Re: Present governance structure General weaknesses of the goal-setting process 1. By leaving the goal-setting to whoever takes the initiative for that, rather than to those whom the community elects as …
Responsibility: A Confessional-Ethical Splice
Robert W. Bertram [Address at a meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics, New York, January 18, 1980. Second edition, 1987] I. Responsibility As “Consequentialist” Thesis One. The immediate social concern here is that people by the millions—notably in modern bureaucratic societies, capitalist as well as socialist—continually bear the fateful consequences of decisions in which they have small …
An Epiphany Crossing
Programming Matthew 2:1-12 For Readers Today Robert W. Bertram [Printed in Currents in Theology and Mission 7, No 6 (December, 1980): 328-336. Reprinted with permission.] I. Diagnosis In this Matthean cliff-hanger about the gullible foreigners (“magi from the East”) and their predatory host (Herod), the real suspense comes only when we recognize that the same plot which imperiled …
A Christmas Crossing
Luke 2:1-20 Robert W. Bertram [Printed in Currents in Theology and Mission 6, No. 6 (December, 1979): 344-351. Reprinted with permission.] Isn’t it so: Christmas would hardly be Christmas without some word from us about the Lucan Nativity Story? Correction: Christmas would hardly be Christmas without some word from the Nativity Story about us. The Story is not …
A Trans-Pluralism Trend: Might It Become Confessional?
Robert W. Bertram [Address at the Conference for Professional Church Workers, East Coast Synod, AELC, at Garrison, New York, October 15, 1979.] Conference Theme: “Confessional Ministry in a Pluralistic World” Part One. A Common Denominator Among Denominations Thesis One. The theme of this conference, “Confessional Ministry in a Pluralistic World,” invites a question: in spite of the …