Thursday Theology: Crossings in the Landscape of Law/Gospel Communities

Co-missioners,  

Firstly, we apologize for the delay in getting this post out. Holiday weeks will sometimes cause unforeseen interruptions!

On this day observed by US-Americans as a Day of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for the gift that is the Crossings Community. Over the last half decade, this rag tag band of misfits and oddballs, united by their attraction to the Gospel and its proclamation, has become a crucial anchor for me, keeping me rooted in the solid ground of Christ amidst the storms of my life and world events.

During my first years of parish ministry, I felt unmoored and confused. I kept asking, “What am I doing this FOR? What actually is my job?? Of the thousands of things I could be doing in the church, which is most essential???”

I was rescued from flailing about aimlessly by a discovery of the Gospel. One might think that I already knew the Gospel, having been seminary trained and immersed deeply in theology. And yes, I did know much about the Gospel and was deeply attracted to it. I had waded through the theologies of Barth, Tillich, Moltmann, and others, knowing something about grace and justification. And I had had the great privilege of doing my vicarage at a church infused with the resurrection-focused theology of Walt Bouman. And yet, for all this preacher knew about the Gospel, he had not really heard the Gospel yet. At least not the Gospel as intended for me.

All of this changed a few years into my first (and so far only) call. Near burnout and thirsty for living water, I stumbled upon a few places on the internet that gave me the unvarnished good news of Jesus. My identity and sense of worth found a new and more reliable foundation in Christ’s promises. My faith grew. And here I still am, not just surviving but actually loving ministry. Thanks be to God! And thanks be to the various little outposts of Law/Gospel theology, those communities and institutions that uphold our “thin tradition” – one of them being the Crossings Community.

For this week’s offering, therefore, I want to share with you my (very subjective) survey of Law/Gospel communities and outlets – and where I see Crossings fitting into the landscape.

I would be delighted to hear your reflection on my description, including additions, corrections, or disagreements. I see this kind of surveying work as a communal exercise in discernment about our common calling as stewards of this tradition.

Thank you!

Peace & grace,
Co-editor Robin Lütjohann
for the Crossings Community

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Crossings in the Landscape of Law/Gospel Communities

by Robin Lütjohann

It has often been remarked that ours is a “thin tradition”: The insistence on a strong distinction between the Law and the Gospel, not only in the interpretation of the Scriptures but in all of the Church’s life and witness, and on the Church’s proclamation as genuinely good news without strings attached – i.e. the complete freedom and joy of God’s unconditional and total grace in Christ Jesus and the bold “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6) that emerges from it and not from a set of rules or ethical mandates – testing everything, even the Bible, according to whether it thus “drives home Christ” (treibet Christum), and letting go what doesn’t – I could go on, but I think you know what sort of tradition I’m talking about…

Holding this “thin tradition” up and waving its banner uncompromisingly has always been the marginalized cause of a small minority, even (and, sadly, sometimes especially) in church bodies ostensibly dedicated to the Lutheran confessional writings that have enshrined these key reformational emphases.

Thin as it may be, however, this tradition has never been lost. Like a sudden summer downpour (a “Platzregen” as Luther described the Gospel), it pops up in unexpected places as the need arises, and a lovely, flawed hodge podge of folks will gather around it, as one might around a camp fire on a cold night. As did I in those moments when I felt most lost as a human being and as a preacher.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5789219

What follows is a brief list plus descriptions of some of the campfires of the Law/Gospel tradition that I see lighting and warming up the cold night of our nomological existence (Elert) these days. This is, of course, a very (!) incomplete list (and a geographically and culturally biased one), and my evaluations and interpretations of these communities and traditions is bound to be woefully incomplete because it is so subjective. Yet, I hope that this can be the beginning of a conversation about the place of Crossings in the larger tradition’s witness, to give us an opportunity to clarify our calling.

1: Forde’s Radical Lutheranism

With roots in the Scandinavian Lutheranism of the upper midwest, the legacy of sainted professor Gerhard Forde, best summarized in his controversial treatise “Radical Lutheranism”, continues to loom large. In particular, many of those who came out of Luther Seminary bear the marks of this cheerfully combative, almost reactively anti-Pietist, and genuinely “radical” form of Lutheranism that offends across the board: conservatives and progressives, high church and low church, ecumenical and parochial – everyone was ticked off by Forde, who frequently found a way to offer a “third way” alternative to the battles of his day by re-rooting himself in the writings of Martin Luther – sometimes even by circumventing the Confessions!

The Fordean legacy has been taken in multiple directions. Forde’s colleagues Jim Nestingen, requiescat in pace, and their younger disciple Steven Paulson have continued to rail against Gospel-draining pietisms of all kinds. A similar tack has found institutional expression in the offerings of the Luther House of Study, an innovative pan-Lutheran seminary in Sioux Falls, SD, which clearly understands itself as a Fordean / Paulsonian alternative to what its leaders see lacking in the ELCA’s formation for faith and ministry. All of these have (far as I can see) adopted an ideologically conservative interpretation of Forde, more friendly to LCMS-style Scriptural inerrantism and even adjacent to a sort of political and social conservatism than Forde himself eschewed.

Which is to say that Forde’s brand of “Radical Lutheranism” can and is borne by more liberal or progressive folks as well. You can hear it in the preaching of many a Luther grad serving in the ELCA – and I do believe the church is better for it!

If you want to see examples of the Fordean tradition at work, check out the very lively Radical Lutheranism Facebook group – run like a tight ship by an admin friendly to Crossings.

The key difference I see between this tradition and Crossings is that the former is less explicitly wedded to the Lutheran confessional heritage, instead drinking deeply from the rediscovery of Luther’s own works in the last 150 years, sometimes even balking e.g. at the Formula of Concord’s conclusions. It aims to drink Luther 100 proof, straight from the bottle, without the meddlesome traditions and additions that have intervened since.

The other difference in comparison to Crossings is simply one of pedigree. Our community emerged from German Lutheran confessionalism (enlivened by people like Werner Elert), whereas I taste a good bit of Scandinavian upper midwest flavor in Forde and his many disciples, including a push back against the legalistic Pietism he grew up in. Sometimes, I get the sense that he threw out a baby or two along with that cold bathwater.

2: Mockingbird’s Ecumenical/Anglican Lutheranism

The Anglican tradition at its best is broad and theologically generous, so it has always been possible to hold Lutheran stances within it. Heck, Thomas Cranmer was Lutheran as far as I can tell! There have always been some Anglicans / Episcopalians who have been attracted to our thin tradition and joined it from across the Thames. One such personality is the Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl. Trained in German academia under Ernst Käsemann and Jürgen Moltmann, this self-avowed “Protestant Episcopal” priest and professor has spent much of his illustrious career embroiled in internecine struggles within North American Anglicanism, partly attempting to preserve the Reformation witness within his tradition and partly being pulled into culture war struggles. It is the former, however, that was always his greatest passion: grace apart from works of the law – a passion that has been passed on to his children, including David Zahl, who over a decade ago co-founded Mockingbird Ministries as an outlet for engaging the Gospel of grace with popular culture. What started as a blog and website has grown into an increasingly ecumenical community of Law/Gospel aficionados that organizes fantastically fun conferences in NYC and beyond, publishes books, and puts out a steady stream of podcasts and other offerings.

Mockingbird’s great gifts are cultural fluency and ecumenical range. Its many fans and supporters are astoundingly adept at translating the Gospel into language that doesn’t sound like an academic paper or Christian gobbledygook. They have also started to attract people from a variety of traditions. When I go to the NYC conference, I am surprised to see conservative PCA folks mingle with liberal ELCAers like yours truly, without even being aware of what divides them. Mockingbird is able to bring out the attractiveness and charme of the Gospel with great success. Thanks be to God!

The key distinction between the Mockingbird and the Crossings tradition (other than that they are way cooler than us) is that their “Lutheranism” is even less tied to the Confessions than Forde’s. Which makes perfect sense! Why would it be? Mockingbird emerged from the Anglican wing of the Reformation. Its 39 Articles are much more succinct and less granular than our confessions – and arguably more Reformed (Calvinist) in content. Hence, one could quibble amidst all of the wonderfully winsome talk about “grace” that there is a lack of references to “faith” – something our own Steve Kuhl observed after attending one of the conferences.

I might add that I also at times see a lack of emphasis in Mockingbird-type theology on what Crossings folks call Step 6 – the way in which the Gospel changes the way we live and behave in the world. I sense almost an allergy to talking about the transformation and love produced by faith in Christ’s promises, as if speaking of them meant annulling the Gospel promise rather than bragging about it!

But these, like so many differences within our “thin tradition” are relatively minor quibbles. We should be so lucky to have other outlets like Mockingbird outdoing us in their success at peddling the Gospel!

Lastly, I’d like to point out how much Mockingbird in its ecumenical breadth acts as a catch all for various Law/Gospel types, including those not tied to one or another outlet or institution. Kindred spirits of various kinds find representation here, both those in the church triumphant (Robert Capon, for instance) or those still among us (including Jason Micheli, Fleming Rutledge, Sarah Hinlicky, Steve Brown, and our own Matt Metevelis!).

Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

3: 1517’s Dissident Conservative Confessionalism

Another wildly successful venture in the “thin tradition” that makes us Crossings folks look like a bunch of crusty old cranks is the 1517 Network. Like Mockingbird, they have high quality media productions, publish books, and put on delightful conferences. Unlike Mockingbird, they are more explicitly Lutheran (mostly LCMS and adjacent) and conservative. I may not be comfortable taking a queer friend to a 1517 conference, for instance. And much of what comes out of 1517 makes me personally cringe.

That said, I appreciate the emphasis 1517 places on the polish and quality of their products. Like Luther and his fellow-reformers, they understand that attractive packaging does help the message.

Another thing I admire about 1517 is that there is an academic rigor to some of their writers and speakers that showcases the depth of our “thin tradition”. This is something Crossings has in common with them.

Interestingly, there has also been some cross-pollination between #1 and #3 in my list. Steve Paulson seems to have found a new home as a resident theologian there, and when Nestigen was still alive he was frequently featured by 1517 offerings.

This points me to a final quality of the 1517 community – its marginality. Like all members of the “thin tradition” these folks tend to fit rather uncomfortably into their respective denominational homes. Even as a complete outsider, I have witnessed how this community’s palling around with undesirables outside of the LCMS has drawn some ire from the upper-ups (as many Seminex grads can surely imagine). I have also read a number of screeds decrying their “antinomianism”.

So, I like to think of 1517 as conservative, yet dissident stream within self-avowed “confessional Lutheranism”. And as such, I can see a natural relatedness in spirit between them and Crossings, even if we might be divided on questions like Scriptural inerrancy or (depending on which Crossings people you talk to) social justice commitments and political questions.

4: Crossings’ Elertian Big-Tent Confessionalism

This brings me to us… the Crossings Community. A product of the Seminex walkout and its ongoing experiments with faith formation and theological education, we bear the stamp (regardless of our individual ethnicities or heritages) of German-American confessional Lutheranism (especially as found in the LCMS) – like 1517. Yet we are found more on the moderate-to-liberal camp in the culture wars, while striving to be welcoming and inclusive, thus naturally sympatico with Mockingbird. We also have a strong academic grounding and a loose institutional tie to the traditions that merged into ELCA (as well those that merge out, like the NALC), thus making us akin to Forde’s Radical Lutheranism.

Unlike the other above-named streams we also stand in the tradition of Werner Elert’s particular brand of confessionalism with its stubborn expansion of the Law/Gospel distinction into all aspects of faith and life and its profound theological and psychological interpretation of the Law. I find that these features are highlighted more clearly among us. I also get the sense that Crossings folks are more liturgically traditional in general, but I may be wrong about that.

So! Amidst these varying traditions and movements, what is our particular contribution, our gift, our niche, our calling? I am not sure.

But to get the conversation started, here is my own controversial map of the above-mentioned four streams plotted on an axis that crosses adherence to Lutheran confessionalism vs. ideological alignment (socially and or politically) in the ongoing culture wars of North America and beyond. Note that I have plotted both these four streams and some major denominations on the map. The blue lines indicate the range of ideological alignment that is possible within each grouping. I place us near the bottom right – a place that is neither theologically fundamentalist nor politically far-right, yet very confessionally traditional.

Nota bene: This is sourced ENTIRELY from my own subjective impressions and is therefore mostly based on “vibes”. So, PLEASE disagree with me and challenge me, and please do not take this as anything but the fanciful musing that it is.

That said, what do you think?