The Crossings Blog

Thursday Theology -full listing Crossings Film Series
  • Non-Western Theology, Part 2 – The Stress in Letting the “Kids” Grow Up
    Colleagues: Last week’s posting on non-western theology reminded me that a few months ago (September 2000) the Vatican generated a bit of a brouhaha with its Declaration on Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue titled “Dominus Iesus” . Non-Roman Christian communities were reminded of their inadequate claim to being fully “church,” and world religions beyond the Christian ...
  • Samplings from Non-Western Christianity
    Colleagues, The second Thursday every month our local Lutheran Professional Church Workers Conference gathers for liturgy, program, business and lunch. This morning 30-some showed up. At lunch today one of my buddies commented positively about Thursday Theology, but couldn’t resist the quip: “Some of them, Ed, are a bit long.” So in deference to such a “challenged” ...
  • Theology of Nature – Two Lutherans’ Viewpoints
    Colleagues, After a semester’s leave-of-absence from ThTh postings my partner Robin Morgan is back. ThTh #134 is her theology-of-the-cross essay on one of today’s hot topics: Eco-theology. These reflections arise from Robin’s work this past semester in her PhD program at St. Louis University. As usual: comments welcomed.  Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder Some Thoughts on Ecotheology In a recent ...
  • Thoughts of a Manger
    Colleagues, On December 1, with arms full of greenery for the family Advent wreath, my sister-in-law Linda Schroeder was walking back across the street from the garden shop to get to her car. That’s all she can remember. Witnesses say she was struck by a hit-and-run driver (who a day later did “turn himself in.”) The ...
  • Christmas 2000 in Bethlehem
    Colleagues, Two years ago a dozen or so of us Crossings folks celebrated Christmas in Bethlehem. Our “home” during those days was the guest-house of the Talitha Kumi school in nearby Beit Jala. It’s mentioned in the final paragraph below. So the people and places mentioned below are woven into our own biographies. I receive messages ...
  • Reflections on the Message of the Advent Season
    Colleagues, Here’s something for Advent. It’s the Pastor’s Piece in the December 2000 newsletter from Mt. Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mukwonago, Wisconsin. That pastor, Steven Kuhl, also wears a couple of other hats. He represents the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA on the Council of Churches, does some teaching at nearby St. Francis Archdiocesan Seminary, ...
  • Roman Catholic – Eastern Orthodox Rapprochement
    Colleagues, Paul Goetting, like me, is a retired ELCA pastor with LCMS roots. We were classmates in seminary days–class of ’55–and teaching colleagues at Seminex. Paul and wife Trudy (nursing instructor–specialty midwifery) have been short-term missionaries off and on for a number of years. Their venues of service include India, Afghanistan (in earlier days when that ...
  • Crossings Theology: Roots and Branches
    Colleagues, The posting of 2 weeks ago, ThTh 127, linking the lectionary-appointed Gospel for Thanksgiving Day 2000 (in the USA) to theological instruction at Valparaiso University forty-plus years ago, elicited some responses. Here are three of them. You may remember that ThTh 127 reported on the “new curriculum” at V.U. in ...
  • A Book Review on “Proclaiming the Scandal.”
    Colleagues, Today’s offering, on Thanksgiving Day (USA), expresses my thanks for the gift Jerome Burce has given us with the book reviewed below. As you’ll divine beginning with my opening line, I commend it to you with no reservations. Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder PROCLAIMING THE SCANDAL. REFLECTIONS ON POSTMODERN MINISTRY By Jerome E. Burce Christian Mission and Modern Culture series ...
  • A Crossing for Thanksgiving Day 2000
    Colleagues, By popular demand (well, actually one Crossings junkie explicitly asked for it) I’m composing a Crossings style text study of this year’s Gospel (Revised Standard Lectionary) appointed for the USA Day of Thanksgiving, a week hence on November 23, 2000. So substantively this Thursday Theology #127 belongs to the genre “Sabbatheology” (=text studies). But Thanksgiving ...