Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Psychology And Theology: A Return To Dialog, Alan C. Reuter

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is a close relationship between Christian theology and contemporary psychology. The Lutheran theological tradition is especially founded in an experiential matrix which gives it a common ground with psychological thought. However, this relationship between theology and psychology has not always been a clear or comfortable one.

Theology-Philosophy-Poetry: Toward A Synopsis, Erwin L. Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

From his background as professor of systematic theology, as well as that of his deep interest in philosophy and poetry and his writing in these fields over many years, the author sketches his impressions of the nature of the relationship between theology, philosophy, and poetry and indicates the current tendency toward a synopsis. The relationship between literature (especially poetry) and philosophy and theology is receiving increasing attention from scholars in all three areas. It is the author's conviction that the sensitivity of poets often makes them pioneers in recognizing new situations and impending changes and that some of the outstanding …

Evangelization And Humanization, Won Yong Ji

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his article Dr. Ji offers a review and critique of the Frankfurt Declaration and indicates the nature of a sound conjunctive relationship between evangelization and humanization in the Christian mission today. Variations of this article have appeared in Lutheran World, XVII (1970), 358-361, and Lutherische Rundschau, XX (1970), 468--472.)

The Christian-Marxist Dialog: Spurious Or Authentic?, Ralph L. Moellering

Concordia Theological Monthly

The author offers a descriptive analysis of the Marxist-Christian encounter to date, raising the question whether or not the stage has been set for authentic dialog to occur.

The Black Church: Its Implications For Lutheran Theological Education, Charles Shelby Rooks

Concordia Theological Monthly

I hope you will regard this speech as an exploration with you of some ideas and concerns and an occasion in the ensuing discussion to follow up on your particular levels of interest and current activity.

The Gospel In The Medieval Church, Carl A. Volz

Concordia Theological Monthly

A curious phenomenon of Protestant and Lutheran historiography since the 17th century has been a studied neglect of the millennium labeled by Renaissance scholars as the "Middle Ages." One reason for this indifference lies in the popular notion that the Reformation was preceded by a thousand years of sub-Christian superstition during which the strong Pauline accent of justification by grace through faith on account of Christ was almost totally ignored. By coloring these centuries dark, the reformers tend to stand in bolder relief as heroic men of God who appeared to correct long-standing abuses in the church. The more sharply …

Reflections On Bonhoeffer's Theology, Otto W. Heick

Concordia Theological Monthly

The difficulty of presenting a "theology of Bonhoeffer" which tries to relate organically the later fragmentary writings of Bonhoeffer to the more comprehensive studies of his earlier period has been recognized in a number of major studies since 1960. The famous essay on cheap grace written in 1937 protested against grace without discipleship and faith without obedience, drawing a sharp line of demarcation between the world and the community of saints.

Communism And Religion In Russia And China, Walter W. Oetting

Concordia Theological Monthly

Scores of impressive books are appearing on the nature of Communism in Russia and China, on the history of Russia as background to what happened in 1917, reprints of Russian and Communist classics, and on the struggle between Christianity and Communism. A single reviewer could not hope even to list, much less review, this literature. The task that this reviewer has set for himself is to examine the "pick of the pack," especially those that have come across his desk for one reason or another. He writes this article with the intention of directing the attention of his colleagues in …

Christianity And Communism -An Ideological Comparison, Ralph L. Moellering

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his book Communism and Christ, Charles W. Lowry contends that we are living in a new religious age. As evidence he points to the post-World War II popular religious revival, to what he calls "a new priesthood" set up by psychiatry, to the influence of existential thought in philosophy and theology (consider Paul Tillich), and to the "collective neurosis" brought on by the crisis and anxieties of our hydrogen-missile age. "The final and conclusive proof that we have entered into a new religious era Lowry perceived in the expansion and menace of the "new universal salvation religion - Communism."

Christian Love According To 1 Cor. 13, George Klien

Concordia Theological Monthly

The cry for love is heard today particularly in connection with the union movements.

The appeal to the principle of love in the life and work of the church is certainly in order within the Christian communion. It is well that we beseech all our brethren by the mercies of God to have fervent charity among themselves, whether in correcting those who would put a "strait jacket of legalism" on the church, or in rebuking those who would license the church to appear in the daring dress of "evangelical" liberalism. The admonition to evidence love has always been needed; the …

Nietzsche's Final View Of Luther And The Reformation, Heinz Bluhm

Concordia Theological Monthly

Nietzsche began as an admirer of Luther and the German Reformation. The age of Luther ranked as high in his early opinion as the age of Goethe and Beethoven. From Menschliches, Allzumenschliches on, this favorable attitude toward Luther underwent a strong transformation. In the five years from 1878 to 1883, Nietzsche’s second creative period, Luther emerged as a highly questionable figure, even as a most regrettable event in the history of German and European thought and civilization. But all these severe pronouncements on Luther were only a prelude to the scathing denunciations to come in Nietzsche's post-Zarathustra writings.

Rudolf Bultmann's Concept Of Myth And The New Testament, Oscar Cullmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Is it necessary to add a new contribution to the dossier, already too voluminous, of the debate revolving around the publication of Rudolf Bultmann, former professor on the faculty of Protestant theology at Marburg, titled The New Testament and Mythology? This small pamphlet, which may be considered a manifesto and has since been reproduced by the author in a slightly different form, appeared for the first time in 1941 under the title Offenbarung und Heilsgeschehen. The purpose of the author is to make the New Testament language accessible to the modern mind by eliminating what he calls the "myth" and …

The Grace Of God Gives Us Christ For Justification, Gerhard Schulze-Kadelbach

Concordia Theological Monthly

Our theme is a confessional statement. The statement as a whole as well as each of its terms makes sense only as a confession. We must consider this for a moment at the very outset. In doing so, our thoughts tend in two directions. The realization that we are dealing with a confessional statement implies above all that the assertion of our theme is possible only within the Church. The little word "us" points unmistakably to this fact: "The grace of God gives us Christ for justification."

A Critique Of Contemporary Lutheran Preaching, Erdman W. Frenk

Concordia Theological Monthly

Preaching, i.e., the public proclamation of the Word of God, is the chief function of the Christian ministry. It is duty number one on a pastor's functional docket. It is his first and foremost responsibility. It was this in the early Church. It became this again through the Reformation. It must be this in the Church of our day. At the top of any list cataloguing the duties of a pastor in the order of their importance, preaching must stand first. If there is one field in which the pastor will seek to excel, it is in preaching.

The Christian And Government, A. M. Rehwinkel

Concordia Theological Monthly

Government is not above the Moral I.aw, but subject to it. In fact, government exists for the maintenance of the moral order. "For he is the minister of God to thee for good; but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid" (Rom.13:4). Governments cannot abrogate the Moral Law nor any of the Commandments of the Decalog. The legislation and administration of law must be in harmony with the Moral Law. Governments are responsible to God. "For he is a minister of God."

Is Doctrinal Unity A Luxury?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

By the grace of God we have been won for the proposition that the adherence to all doctrine revealed is not a luxury, but a necessity. And by the grace of God we repel, in the first place, all the arguments to the contrary. The argument is advanced that we Lutherans distinguish between fundamental and non-fundamental articles and thus eo ipso declare the non-fundamental articles to be unnecessary. Nothing could be further from the truth. To be sure, there is a great distinction between the fundamental articles and the non-fundamental ones. We say that the fundamental articles are necessary for …

Religion And The Modern World Picture, Theodore Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The scientific world picture has undergone greater changes in the past forty years than in the preceding four centuries. For one thing, the materialistic view which controlled the study of the cosmos has crashed. But that is not all. To adapt our idea of the physical world to the demands of reason "requires of scientific thought one of the greatest changes in orientation which it has ever had to make in its secular effort." The words are those of Louis de Broglie in the volume announced (p. 261).

False Principia Cognoscendi In Theology, W. H. Dau

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is a fact, admitted also by scientists, that all theological knowledge, in the very nature of the case, must be derived from God Himself. It is a fact, furthermore, that God holds all who venture to speak for Him strictly to His Word when He declares: "To the Law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Is. 8:20. Lastly, it is a fact that God has issued a solemn warning by the first and the last writers of our Bible that no man shall dare …

Reason Or Revelation?, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Satan's paramour is the mistress of a thousand wiles. We cannot conclude this study of the evils of rationalism without studying the more subtle methods by which Satan would beguile us and lead us away from the truth of Christ and the certainty of His Word. If he cannot get us to falsify the Word, he will aim to keep us from applying the Word, from exercising our faith, from putting our sole reliance on the teaching of Scripture and the promise of the Gospel.

St. Paul On Social Relationships, Rthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

There are in visible Christendom two types of social theorists who derive small comfort from a study of St. Paul's letters. The first group comprises the extreme mystical individualists, who think of Christianity as being exclusively an individual escape from the wrath to come, while the second is composed of the social theorists, who insist that the Church's chief reason for existence is to prepare the nations of mankind for the establishment by God through the Church of "a home, in history and in the world, in which men shall be brothers in Christ under the paternal arch of [God's] …

Fighting Liberalism With Blunted Weapons, Theo. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Modernists will not like certain sections of this book. The Christian Century says: ''This is a great book, greatly written, and greatly needed. Liberal Christians will find it hard to believe this. They still have in their mouths the bad taste of A Christian Manifesto, which was hailed with glee by the foes of spiritual freedom.

What The Liberal Theologian Thinks Of Verbal Inspiration, Th. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

This is what J. S. Whale thinks: ''The modem man is not impressed by the mere citation of texts; he rightly wants to understand them, in their context. His very certainty that the Scriptures are the fount of divine wisdom - that it is indeed the Word of God which is spoken to him in the words of the Bible - has set him free from the bondage of the letter, the prison-house of verbal infallibility. It is no use shilly-shallying here; loyalty to truth in the shape of literary and historical criticism forbids it.

Separation Of Church And State, Theo. Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

American low regarding churches as presented in Professor Zollmnnn's revised edition of American Civil Church Law (now republished under the title American Church. Law*) is a wonderful accomplishment of jurisprudence. While America has borrowed much of her law from England, it seems that Europe must build upon our pattern of church relations the laws which will govern religious societies when the antiquated system of established, or state, churches has been abolished.

The Modernistic Christ, Theo Graebner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The reader of modern theological literature sometimes happens upon a title which possesses significance, not on account of any intrinsic worth as a product of scholarship, but as a typical instance of modern thought regarding the nature of Christianity. From this point of view, Tittle's Jesus after Nineteen Centuries is worthy of more than passing comment. What a subject- the meaning of Jesus and the manifestation of His power in the world to-day! Proceeding from the glorious truth "Jesus the same yesterday and to-day and forever," what cannot be said of the power of the Gospel as manifested in the …