The Crossings Blog

Thursday Theology -full listing Crossings Film Series
  • Dark Gethsemane: A Lenten Message from the Holy Land
    Colleagues, We continue to get postings every few days from Christians in the Holy Land–some of them from people we know in the Lutheran Church in Palestine and Jerusalem. Back around Christmas time we posted a few of these messages to you on the ThTh listserve. Here is another such posting for Lent. The text for ...
  • The Missouri Synod’s Presence in Eastern European Lutheranism
    Colleagues, ThTh 145 consists of five items about church conflict and church politics amongst Lutherans in Eastern Europe & the involvement of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (USA) in the turmoil. Even so, Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder NEWS RELEASE – LWF Caption: LWF General Secretary Comments on Establishment of Belarusian Church: “Separation in ELCROS will have Negative Consequences in ...
  • Ferment within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion
    Colleagues, In my weekly routine, Thursday is a “you gotta,” i.e., you gotta produce another ThTh posting. After which comes Friday’s “you get to.” You get to go to the brown-bag weekly lunch hour meeting at St. Louis University. And what happens there? An ...
  • Self-Reflections for Ash Wednesday
    Colleagues, Recent ThTh postings on Lutheran Missiology have elicited a number of long and thoughtful responses. A couple of you have gone the extra mile and given me two pieces to think about. It’ll take time for me to work my way through all of them–and I want to do that.  So today’s ThTh #143 shifts gears ...
  • Lutheran Missiology–Oxymoron? Part II
    Colleagues, Last week’s ThTh #141 closed with the epigram of the Mekane Yesus church in Ethiopia: If you’re baptized, you’re a missionary. Those six words brought a jubilant response from one of you, and other elements of the posting elicited additional comments. Many added information supporting the thesis that Lutheran missiology is ...
  • Lutheran Missiology: An Oxymoron?
    Colleagues, Five months ago our posting ThTh 119 offered some data on Luther’s Theology of Mission. It was gleanings from Luther’s sermons on the Great Commission text. The trigger for my checking to see if Luther had any “feel” for mission was an ELCA bishop’s inquiry: “Was mission the ‘great omission’ in the ...
  • Letter from the Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem to US President George W. Bush
    Colleagues, Today’s ThTh posting is the text of a letter from Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem, Munib A. Younan, sent recently to US President George W. Bush. Its further distribution comes with the bishop’s consent. Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder Jerusalem on January 31 , 2001The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States of America The White House Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. ...
  • Justification – An Eastern Orthodox Perspective
    Colleagues, One of our dear students in the Lutheran School of Theology here in St. Louis–call it LST-STL–is Richard Leigh. By trade a health-care worker, and now in his mid-years infected with the “rabies of theology,” he’s become a theological omnivore. He’s all over the map, not only in the courses he’s consuming, but also in ...
  • Salvation. What is it Really?
    Colleagues,A couple of you tweaked me a bit for last week’s claim (ThTh 137) that in New Testament usage, the verb ‘to save’ was regularly in the future tense. One of you called my attention to many NT references where that verb is present tense or even past perfect. Thus the NT also says that ...
  • Responses to Non-Western Theology
    Colleagues, Several responses have come in to last week’s posting (ThTh 136). Two of you called my attention to S. Mark Heim’s article in last week’s issue of CHRISTIAN CENTURY: “The pluralism of religious ends: Dreams fulfilled.” I don’t subscribe to CC any longer, so I went to the library to read it. ...