The Crossings Blog

Colleagues, At last summer’s Tenth Luther Research Congress in Copenhagen, one (and only one) member of the club was hyped for perfect attendance. He’d been at all ten congresses starting right after WWII. He’s George Forell, now octogenarian, with a life story perilous and bizarre, a story he is now putting together as a printed chronicle. ...

Dear Folks, Here’s the review of a very useful book which I recommend to you, even with the caveats which I articulate below.Peace, Robin Morgan A Review of William Lazareth’s “Christians in Society: Luther, the Bible and Social Ethics” Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001 William Lazareth’s book, “Christians in Society: Luther, the Bible and Social Ethics,” offers the reader some useful resources, ...

Colleagues, Two weeks ago ThTh 244 examined FROGBA, The Folk Religion of God Bless America. A number of you responded. None so extensively, however, as Jeffrey Anderson, himself a recent post-er on these pages, viz., ThTh 240 of January 16.The FROGBA posting 244 came in three sections, as you may remember. Chapter 1 was FROGBA’s diagnosis ...

Colleagues, This week’s ThTh posting is a case study in Gospel-grounded theology where the rubber hits the road. Its author, Timothy Hoyer, is an ELCA pastor in the state of New York. He’s also a Seminex grad. The case he makes sounds compelling to me. What do you think?Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder Bishop’s Decisions Regarding the Offering ...

Colleagues, It was not exactly a quiet week-end just passed here in our household on the banks of the Mississippi. For Saturday I flew to Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois, to discuss “Theology of the Cross,” some of which discussion may show up in future ThTh postings.Sunday a.m. Marie and I concluded our Adult ...

Colleagues, Fred Niedner and Dave Truemper did a great job of giving you an overview of the Aarhus conference (Jan. 15-19 in Denmark) as well as their theological critique of much that transpired while we were gathered. All I’d like to add are a couple of snapshots of our time together from my perspective ...

Colleagues, Ever since the first ThTh posting after Sept. 11, 2001, repentance, America’s need to repent, has been a frequent theme here. There was no hint of anything like that in the “State of the Union” address Americans heard Tuesday evening from their president. Worse still, was the implicit message that America “had no need for repentance” ...

Last week (January 16-19) approximately 125 Lutheran theologians from around the world gathered in Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, for a conference, “The Future of Lutheran Theology: Charisms & Contexts.” Sponsored by the Theological Faculty of the University of Aarhus and the Editorial Board of Dialog, along with support from the Danish and German Lutheran churches, ...

Colleagues, Jeffrey Anderson supplies today’s Thursday Theology whilst Robin and I are both out of town. One of the pleasant memories of my first semester as prof at Concordia Seminary (35 yrs ago) was great students. One of that creme-de-la-creme bunch was Jeff,who still remembers that first semester encounter where he learned to have “sufficient grounds” ...

Colleagues, First off, some facts and figures: Twenty-five of you sent generous donations for getting us ThTh honchos to the Aarhus Conference next week on the Future of Lutheran Theology. The 2K total you contributed covers most of the airfare. For that we are grateful. Year-end statistics for the Crossings Web-page in 2002: Average hits per day 1,044. ...