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To The Glory Of God Evaluating Origen’S Exposition Of The Scripture In His Leviticus Homilies, Andrew Johnson

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Johnson, Andrew M. “To the Glory of God: Evaluating Origen’s Exposition of the Scripture in His Leviticus Homilies”. Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2022. 237 pp.

Origen has been called “Adamantine,” an impossibly hard metal. Many have found his work to be strong and powerful and equal in its density. Origen’s preaching is almost impenetrable to the Evangelical preacher. This dissertation seeks to offer an entry for modern evangelical preachers to engage with the historic practice of figural exposition in Origen’s Leviticus homilies. The dissertation investigates the interpretative, homiletical and rhetorical histories which intersect in Origen’s homilies. It unpacks Origen’s use …

Grammars Of Transformation: Saving Evangelical Cultural Engagement, William Watts

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Watts, William J. “Grammars of Transformation: Saving Evangelical Cultural Engagement.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2018. 137 pp.

Evangelical Christians have been struggling to offer a thorough and unified account of cultural engagement for the last several decades. H. Richard Niebuhr’s “Christ the Transformer of Culture” type has supplied evangelicals with the most influential rhetoric on the proper relationship of Christians and the church to the culture at large. However, this consensus is collapsing in the wake of new ways of speaking of cultural engagement that largely downplay or altogether avoid the language of transformation. The emergence of these new ways …

The Practical Orthodoxy Of Balthasar Meisner: The Content And Context Of His Theology, David R. Preus

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Preus, David R. “Balthasar Meisner’s Practical Orthodoxy: The Content and Context of his Theology.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2018. 397 pp.

Throughout his tenure at Wittenberg from 1611 to 1626 Balthasar Meisner (1587-1626) contended with defining “theology” in terms of a genuinely practical enterprise. His challenge was to preserve Luther’s evangelical theology, along with its metaphysical and ethical implications, in the crucible of current political realities and shifting intellectual trends. Though drawn from Scripture, Luther’s theology had certain metaphysical and ethical dimensions that simply could not be ignored by the first two generations after his death. In the interest of …

My Brother’S Keeper How American Lutherans Fought To Preserve The Evangelical Lutheran Church Of Russia In The Ussr, 1921–1939, Matthew Heise

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail

The years between 1939 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 were bleak for Christians. Surrounded by the daily drumbeat of atheist propaganda, many kept their faith underground, not just figuratively but literally by hiding Bibles under the floorboards. World War II enacted a severe toll upon the nation as well as Christians, whether underground or open about their faith. Friedrich Wacker had survived the Great Terror and the closing of the churches, but when Nazi Germany invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941, he knew his family would suffer as …

Proposals For The Development Of Strategies, Including Workshops, To Advance Unity And Harmony Concerning Charismatic Gifts Of The Holy Spirit In The Ethiopian Evangelical Church, Hailu Bulaka

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Bulaka, Hailu Yohannes “A Proposal for the Implementation of Workshops and Other Strategies That Will Advance Unity and Harmony Concerning Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2017. 122 pp.

The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) is the largest Lutheran Church in Africa with 8.35 million members, which proclaims the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church is experiencing what many see as the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. This sometimes causes conflict and division among members. For our unity and harmony …

Recurring Characters As Benefits In Applying God’S Word, Daniel Hahn

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Hahn Jr., Daniel A., Recurring Characters as Benefits in Applying God’s Word. D.Min. MAP., Concordia Seminary, 2016. 166pp.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of recurring characters in sermon stories as tools for connecting hearers to Biblical concepts. The report tells the story of a six-week series of sermons which were developed for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Millvale, Pennsylvania. The project aimed to determine if the two contemporary characters, created for this series, would become increasingly beneficial over time as hearers became more familiar with them. The report explains the rationale behind the project and …

The Fathers' Faith, The Children's Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism In Its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, And Hymns, 1889-1912, Jon Vieker

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Jon D. Vieker, "The Fathers' Faith, the Children's Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism in Its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, and Hymns, 1889-1912." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 581 pp.

This dissertation offers an accounting of the hymnological sea change in the Missouri Synod as it transitioned from German into English toward the end of the nineteenth century. It explores how this immigrant, Lutheran church body brought a large portion of its German hymnody into English, while at the same time appropriating a substantial number of English-language hymns from the surrounding ecclesial culture of American Evangelicalism.

The dissertation is divided into …

Becoming Lutheran: Exploring The Journey Of American Evangelicals Into Confessional Lutheran Thought, Matthew Richard

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

The purpose of this Major Applied Research Project was to examine the journey of American Evangelicals into Lutheran thought. Otherwise stated, the research project studied the emotional struggles, linguistic confusion, worldview changes, and epistemological shifts that happen during the pilgrimage between two theological traditions.

The research findings are intended to identify valuable insights and provide avenues of comfort for those who are making this transition. Furthermore, the findings of this research are intended to aid Lutheran pastors as they care for and shepherd individuals who are coming into Lutheranism from American Evangelicalism.

The primary components of this study were the …

Women's Ordination- A Litmus Test For Antinomianism, Joseph Omolo

Master of Art Theology Thesis

When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), to which I belong, established a deaconess college at the beginning of this century to train young women for parish work, it was not clear which kind of education they were going to be offered. Many observers, both from within and without, saw this as a signal that the church was moving towards the ordination of women. When the first crop of deaconesses graduated and were deployed into the parishes, a great confusion reigned among the members, both clergy and ordinary Christians, regarding the role of these new workers. To compound the …

Conrad Dieterich (1575-1639) And The Instruction Of Luther's Small Catechism, Gerhard Bode

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Bode, Gerhard H. "Conrad Dieterich (1575-1639) and the Instruction of Luther's Small Catechism." Ph.D. Diss., St. Louis, MO: Concordia Seminary, 2005.350 pp.

Luther's catechisms have had a lasting impact on catechesis in the Lutheran church and are still widely used in Lutheran circles more than 475 years after Luther wrote them. Conrad Dieterich (1575-1639) wrote several catechisms based on Luther's Small Catechism that were widely used in Lutheran circles during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Two of Dieterich's works were intended for use by upper-level students in Latin schools and employed dialectical method in presenting the catechetical doctrine. The dissertation …

Changes Within The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference Of North America That Led To The Exit Of The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Mark Braun

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The following study presents the stages of the intersynodical debate that led the Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod to exit the Ev. Lutheran Synodical Conference during the thirty years, 1931-61.Official source material is abundant. The synod's theological journal has presented a consistent viewpoint regarding the Scouting movement, the military chaplaincy, applications of the synod's teachings regarding church fellowship, and the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, all of which played key roles in Wisconsin's exit.

A Study In The Theology Of Carl Fr Wisloff With Particular Focus On Faith And The Means Of Grace In The Bestowal Of Salvation, Eugene Boe

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The general topic for this work is the relation of faith and the means of grace in the bestowal of salvation. The Lutheran Church from her beginning has believed, confessed and taught that we are saved by grace through faith alone. This is stated briefly in the Augsburg Confession, Article IV.

Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ's sake through faith 2 when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by …

Der Grund Der Seligkeit Luther's Evangelical & Christological Method Of Distinguishing Doctrine Within The Early Church Councils & Fathers, Jeffrey Meyers

Master of Sacred Theology Seminar Papers

This essay will analyze Luther's On the Councils and the Church, especially Parts I and II, in search of the criteria he uses for distinguishing between true and false doctrine in the ecumenical councils and consequently for "locating" the "true" church amid the confusing whirl of ecclesiastical traditions. It is my desire to allow Luther himself to speak, to engage the reader in Luther's own argument as it develops in this treatise. He does not show all of his cards in the first pages of the treatise. He builds his case slowly, methodically. As we shall see, according to Luther, …

The Home Mission Work Of The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference: A Description And Evaluation, George Gude

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

The scope of this dissertation is to describe, analyze, and evaluate the home mission work5of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference, which was a mission toAfro-Americans.6 The purpose is to expose the various factors which impacted this mission work and either helped or hampered its success. As a result of the study, it is the hope of the author that the church will learn from its past and manage to put fewer obstacles in the path of the Gospel it proclaims.

In making this study of the black mission work of the Synodical Conference, it became apparent to the author that …

Mystical Aspects Of Pentecostal-Charismatic Soteriology, James Breckenridge

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

Statement of the Problem

Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan estimates that Pentecostals now comprise the largest family of Protestants in the world. Drawing from the World Christian Encyclopedia) he concludes that Pentecostalism now claims a total of 51,167,000 adherents, not including an additional11,000,000 independent charismatics. This places the Pentecostal/Independent Charismatic movement significantly ahead of classical groups such as the Anglicans (49,804,000adherents), Baptists (47,550,000) and Lutherans (43,460,-This figure grows even larger when the "Third-Wave “phenomenon is included. This term, used by Pentecostals and Charismatics to identify members of traditional evangelical churches who have begun to practice charismatic gifts and worship, indicates a …

A Study Of German Lutheran Communion Hymnody The Early Years, Paul Becker

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that in the early years of Lutheranism, what the faithful sang and confessed about the Sacrament of the Altar is dangerously close to being forgotten by American Lutherans in the latter half of the twentieth century. What Christians sing about as they are given the body and blood of their risen Lord reveals both their confessional stance and their piety. By digging into the treasure-store of German Lutheran Communion hymnody, the theology of the Sacrament as confessed in the early years of Lutheranism will be brought to light and offered to the …

The History And Use Of The Galesburg Rule In American Lutheranism, William Utech

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

It is not the aim of this presentation to consider all the ecumenical issues and endeavors these three branches involved themselves in during the years 1875 to the present. Rather, this discussion is limited to only those personalities, documents, and events which had a direct relationship to The Galesburg Rule and the kind of ecclesiastical practice it encouraged. In addition to the standard American Lutheran histories, the primary source materials employed are the official convention proceedings and reports of the various synods and ministeriums under consideration. Also utilized are sources of secondary importance, such as the writings of the theological …

An Historical Analysis Of The Doctrine Of The Ministry In The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Until 1962, John Wohlrabe

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

This study will analyze the historical background of statements on the doctrine of the ministry within The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (hereafter identified as the Missouri Synod) until 1962. Such statements on the doctrine of the ministry will include declarations and resolutions which were officially adopted by the Synod at its conventions, books, articles and essays published or delivered by Missouri Synod theologians, statements drafted in attempts at reaching doctrinal unity with other Lutherans, and the personal papers and minutes of certain individuals, boards or agencies which had a decided impact upon the position of the Synod with respect to the …

Watchman Nee And The Priesthood Of All Believers, Wai Man Ng

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

It is the thesis of this study that the priesthood of all believers serves to undergird the seemingly unrelated loci of his theological scheme, namely, personal sanctification and the doctrine of the church. We shall examine Nee's teaching of the priesthood of all believers with reference to his spiritual theology and the doctrine of the church. And since Nee's teaching of the priesthood of all believers has historiographical implication in that the apostasy of the church is indicated by what he considers the intermediary class of clergy and the decline of the universal priesthood, we shall examine the development of …

The Jesus Movement Of The 1960s And 1970s As A "Great Awakening", Kurt Bodling

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

This thesis attempts to answer the question: Was the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 1970s another "Great Awakening? It will begin by discussing the so-called "First Great Awakening" that occurred in colonial America under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Then there is a chapter on the history of the series of events known as the "Jesus Movement," followed by a chapter devoted to an inspection of its theology. Finally, the major emphases are drawn together in a conclusion.

Imputatio Iustitiae Christi, Liberum Arbitrium In Renatis, And Tertius Usus Legis In Melanchthon's Later Loci, Richard Osslund

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

It is the purpose of this study to investigate how forensic justification, the third use of the Law, and the free will of the regenerate Christian complement one another in Melanchthon's theology. The distinction of Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, "old man and new man," sin and grace provide the pedagogical framework for this expression of evangelical theology. This study therefore focuses on the fundamental distinction basic to understanding the Scriptures and articulating Christian theology -- the distinction between Law and Gospel. In so doing, it underscores Melanchthon's great and continuing legacy as the pedagogue of the Lutheran reformation. …

Dr. H. C. J. Leupold, The Man And His Work --Especially His Exegesis, David Schreiber

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

Dr. Leupold holds a pivotal position in American Lutheranism, if for no other reason than that theologically he came to be little bit at odds with his own (1960) American Lutheran Church. And because his church went off in a little bit different direction than Dr. Leupold himself, it just makes him stand out in relief that much more.

Melanchthon's Understanding Of The Will In The Loci Communes, Richard Osslund

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

It is a commonplace among many Lutheran theologians that Philip Melanchthon was a synergist. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this theological judgment on the basis of Melanchthon’s Loci of 1521, 1535, 1543, 1555, and 1559. The conclusion of this study is that Melanchthon's writings do not support the charge of synergism which has been directed against him. It is not the intention of the author to ascribe malevolence or lack of scholarly integrity to those who have described Melanchthon's position as synergistic. There are reasons for the historical judgment that Melanchthon was "the father of synergism in …

The Missouri Synod's Unity Attempts During The Pfotenhauer Presidency, 1911-1935, John Wohlrabe

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The purpose of this paper is to examine the unity attempts of the 4 German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (hereafter referred to as the Missouri Synod) during the presidency of Frederick Pfotenhauer (1911-1935). This period of the Missouri Synod's history has been chosen because it was during these years that American Lutheranism, as a whole, began to consolidate through mergers, amalgamations, and various federations. The synodical alignments and boundaries that exist today in American Lutheranism found much of their early formation during this period of time. In analyzing the Missouri Synod's attitude and involvement in …

Uemura Masahisa (1857-1925) First Generation Pastor, Christian Leader And Instinctive Proponent Of Indigenized Christianity In Japan, Addison Soltau

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

Uemura was an extremely able leader and organizer of men, sophisticated thinker, broad reader, and committed to the Christian faith ashes understood it. Part of the fascination of the study lies in observing how the influence of this towering figure and others like him came so quickly to bear upon the church in Japan. Unlike other countries to which the faith has been taken by missionaries, Japan stands out as one in which missionary leadership and influence were replaced by Japanese within thirty years after its introduction. Uemura was one who helped to bring this about. The Christian church in …

Contemporary Doctrines Of The Lord's Supper Believed, Taught And Confessed By Selected Religious Bodies Of The United States Of America, With Special Emphasis Upon The Doctrines Of The Real Presence And The Consecration, David Last

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper has attempted to present the doctrines of 'the Real Presence and the consecration in various religious bodies on these United States; especially among Lutherans. It has hopefully raised some eyebrows, driven us back to Scripture and the Confessions, and caused us to think through our position once again. It has presented the understanding of the Sacrament and the Real Presence for Luther and for the Confessions of our beloved Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Lutheran Confessions And St. Paul's Epistle To The Romans, Mark Wangerin

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper will investigate the use of Scripture by the Lutheran Confessions in their presentation of important Scriptural teachings. Such an undertaking, however, would be monumental in character if some way were not found to limit the scope of the presentation. For this reason, passages from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans which are quoted in the Confessions will be used as the basis for this study. Most of the passages referred to will be ones which are quoted directly rather than merely cited unless there is some point of interest in the cited passage.

Dr. Adolph A. Brux And Prayer Fellowship In The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, John Marschhausen

Master of Divinity Thesis

The purpose of this paper is to explore the case of Dr.Adolph A. Brux and his relations with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod on the subject of prayer fellowship, and in doing that to discover what effect, if any, the work of Dr.Brux had upon the Missouri Synod. F. Dean Lueking, in his book, Mission in the Making, terms the period between 1920and 1940 "The Struggle for Vision" within Missouri. It is in this period that the case between Dr. Brux and the Missouri Synod took place, and it is during this time that one can begin to see the shift …

The Doctrine Of The Church In American Presbyterian Theology In The Mid-Nineteeth Century, David Clyde Jones

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

There is considerable unity in the principle with respect to the essential nature of the church, a unity which the theological leaders see as grounded in evangelical theology. However, even with the evangelical principle, perhaps because of it, some differences appear with respect to the church. The main purpose of the writer of this paper is to investigate the roots of those differences. One major problem discovered is a too great reliance on the distinction between the visible church and the invisible church.

An Examination Of The Lochhaas Theses As Steps Towards Discovering How One Deals With The Lodge Problem Evangelically, David Fielding

Bachelor of Divinity

The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church in America (LCMS) has had a long history of opposition against the lodge. This opposition still exists today in the constitution of the synod and by select individuals within the synod who urge those in authority) to "hold the line". The history of opposition to the lodge has been called the "lodge problem" or the "lodge question". Though the question should still be raised, it is also true that some of the lodges have changed their rituals and teachings so that it is no longer accurate to speak in a general way about …