Colleagues, As you’ll remember from ThTheol #742 and #743, we’re in the midst of the Rev. Dr. Jerome Burce’s multipart presentation on the Gospel of Mark, which he first delivered in three one-hour sessions on the day before the official start the Fourth International Crossings Conference in Belleville, Illinois, in January of this year. Today’s installment brings you the first half of the …
Lutheranism’s Crying Need: A Mission Theology for the 21st Century
Luther’s Own Mission Theology—Contemporary Lutheranism’s Best-Kept Secret Edward H. Schroeder A contribution to the LWF conference at Augsburg, Germany, March 26-31, 2009 From Edward H. Schroeder, St. Louis, Missouri, USA ABSTRACT Since Warneck (1892), Luther’s own theology has been ignored as a resource for the church’s mission. Yet, growing Lutheran churches like the Ethiopian EECMY point to the “evangelisch” Gospel …
Memento Mori at Home
Colleagues, We’re just back from “the ranch,” the Schroeder family farm in Coal Valley, Illinois, where the clan gathered to bury my farmer brother Bob, third in the line of us seven sibs, the first to die. Age 74. Brain tumor. Diagnosed a couple months ago. Glioblastoma multiforme, from which none recover, we are told. Besides being a highly competent …
A Reunion at the Lazarus Parable
Colleagues, I got my come-uppance this past Sunday. A prominent ELCA pastor introduced me to a friend of his after the Sunday service of the congregation he pastors as: “Ed Schroeder, heresy-hunter.” That was a surprise. [Marie thought she should’ve told him that “‘Gospel-sniffer” was more accurate. By then it was too late. Win some; lose some.] A bit of …
Using Luther’s Concept of Deus absconditus for Christian Mission to Muslims
Edward H. Schroeder [Presented at the Luther Research Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 4-9, 2002 Seminar: Luther’s Writings on the Turks.] Thesis: Luther’s concept of deus absconditus, humankind’s common experience of “God-hidden” — in contrast to deus revelatus, “God-revealed-in-Christ” — is a fundamental resource for Lutheran mission theology and practice. Although generally unused (yes, unknown) in today’s mission discussions it …
For a Nation to Repent (Continued) #4
Colleagues, I’ve been out of town for most of the week since the last posting. Four of the past 7 days were spent in Minnesota with 250 church-workers (most of them pastors) at the Fall Theological Conference of the Southwest Minnesota Synod of the ELCA. The topic was “Thinking Theologically about Sexuality.” You know what the actual topic was. There …
Tim’s questions (and Ed’s responses) about Christianity in Bali
Colleagues, Once before a thoughtful response from nephew Tim Hoyer, ELCA pastor, to these Thursday postings generated another edition of ThTh. Well, its happened again. Read on. Cheers! Ed Tim, Two postings I have from you, each with enuf questions to exhaust the small handful of answers I have lying around the Bali parsonage these days. You ask: “What is …
Implications of Justification in the Many Contexts of Today’s World
Seventy “younger” Lutheran theologians, most of them from the two-thirds world, travelled at the invitation of the Lutheran World Federation to Wittenberg, Germany, at the end of October this year to talk about the Implications of Justification in the Many Contexts of Today’s World. On the last day of their meeting, Reformation Day, the 31st, they presented their theses, 12 …
Responsible Theological Education
Edward H. Schroeder [Printed in In Touch, Vol. 2:6. (Feb., 1977).] “…that Thy Word, as becometh it, may not be bound, but have free course and…” That line from the collect (“for the church”) is a motto for responsible theological education. Of course, theological education is a churchly task. Were there no community of Christ-believers, what we today call …
What’s Lutheran About Higher Education? Theological Presuppositions
Robert W. Bertram [Printed in “What’s Lutheran About Higher Education?” Papers and Proceedings, 1974 Lutheran Educational Conference of North America, St. Louis, MO January 11-12, 1974.] (Four Theses) In the encyclopedia of the university’s arts and sciences, the closer you advance toward that center where humanity was more substantively the object of your studies the more it would make …
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