Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Not My Church: Confessional Living In An All-Consuming World, Cody Macmillan

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

What I hope to offer in the following pages is a vision for the Church that is not our own in a world that is increasingly foreign to us. In a discussion of the Scriptures and the Sacraments, I would like to present three ways in which this Church is distinctly alien in nature. She presents alien standards, alien sentiment, and alien strength to which we are called to subscribe, submit, and surrender. In presenting the alien nature of this church, I offer points of contrast and comparison with the culture to which we are tempted to succumb. These comparisons …

The Beginnings Of Jewish Missions In The Lcms, Jaron Melin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Mission is the theological account of the relationship between the church and the world. Where are the Jews in this relationship? If the church and the Jews had a relationship status on Facebook, then it might say, “It’s complicated.” This may be true of any kind of missions, but this shows itself to be especially true in Lutheran history and in particular LCMS-history. I look at the histories as recorded by Meyer, Lieske, Cohen, Parviz, and others on the early history of Jewish Missions in the LCMS, and I reflect on the context and theology behind them using missiologists like …

Virtual Reality In And For Creation, Jaron Melin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Within the last few years, there has been growing excitement and concern in the rise of what is called the metaverse. How do various enthusiasts and observers characterize the metaverse? Bobrowsky on the Wall Street Journal reports the metaverse as “an extensive online world transcending individual tech platforms, where people exist in immersive, shared virtual spaces. Through avatars, people are able to try on items available in stores or attend concerts with friends, just as they would offline.”

Arius As A Figure In Church History, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Church history, much like any other kind of history, is an exercise in meaning-making and identity creation. As Anglican theologian, Rowan Williams, writes regarding Church history, “We begin with a sense of identity that is in some way fragile or questionable, and we embark on the enterprise of history to make it clearer and more secure. In the process, of course, definitions may change a good deal, but the aim is to emerge with some fuller sense of who we are.”1 This is quite obviously true when we tell stories about the heroes of the faith: Irenaeus, Martin Luther, C. …

A Lutheran Response To The Role Of Healing And The Healer In African Independent Churches, Jasper Olawo

Master of Art Theology Thesis

A conversation with a parishioner, who left the church when her son was suffering from epilepsy and claims he could not be healed even after a series of prayers from her Lutheran pastor, revealed the extent of the influence of African Independent Churches (AICs) among members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK). Many people in Kenya who are suffering from chronic illnesses find it difficult to maintain their faith in such moments of crises and are tempted to seek quick remedies from AICs’ healers. These healers claim that salvation and the healing of the body are not separate …

Truth And Reconciliation In Light Of The Cross: Martin Luther’S Theology Of The Cross In Relationship To The Current Ubuntu Theology Of Desmond Tutu, Nokukhanya Pearl Shabalala

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Shabalala, Nokukhanya, P “Truth and Reconciliation in Light of the Cross: Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross in Relationship to the Current Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu.” Master of Arts Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2019. 97pp.

The issue of suffering in Africa has resulted in Africans attributing suffering to God’s work, ancestors’ anger and evil spirits or witchcraft’s work. This is a skewed understanding of suffering. And not only that, the suffering that has been perpetrated by the civil war has birthed the phenomenon of child soldiers resulting in Africa casting out its children. In both of these presented issues sub-Saharan …

Mission In The Margins: An Emplaced Missional Ecclesiology For The Brazilian Church In Urban Environments, Samuel Fuhrmann

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Fuhrmann, Samuel Reduss. “Mission in the Margins: An Emplaced Missional Ecclesiology for the Brazilian Church in Urban Environments.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 217 pp.

As the church tries to engage in God’s mission in Brazilian metropolises, it needs to account for the reality of the favelas. Favela is a housing category that refers to an urban built environment where one encounters a rich social, cultural, and spatial diversity, and often the problems of violence and poverty, all of which configure a challenge to the church. How does the church understand this reality? How does urban missional ecclesiology account for …

How Embodied Human Creatures Converse Online, David Edwards

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Have you ever noticed just how much you can learn about what a person has going on in life without asking them a single question? All you have to do is hop on Facebook, scroll through twitter, or scan Instagram and you can see updates on everything! From the birth of a first child to the death of a loved one, from their favorite new show to Fantasy Football failures, it is pretty easy to learn a lot about a person and their life today with only so much as a couple of clicks on a screen or a keyboard.

The Eclipse Of Elegance: Towards A Contemporary Lutheran Aesthetics Of Discipleship, Andrew Whaley

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

WHALEY, ANDREW D. “THE ECLISPE OF ELEGANCE: TOWARDS ACONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN AESTHETICS OF DISCIPLESHIP.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2018. 214 pp.

It is no secret that, from the time of the Reformation Iconoclast controversy through the period of Pietism, and even into the twentieth century, aesthetics has had a troublesome existence in many, if not most, protestant denominations. This, of course, includes my own denomination, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In such cases, aesthetics has unfortunately been forgotten, ignored, or viewed with such deep suspicion that its place in theology has been outright denied. The result is that the aesthetic aspect of …

The Gospel-Centered Christian, Timothy Saleska

Concordia Pages

When I was a seminarian back in 1980 we were less than six years distant from the synodical upheavals that came to a head in 1974. One of the documents that every seminarian was required to read in those days was the 1970 report of the LCMS Commission of Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) entitled, Gospel & Scripture. Prof. Harry Huth of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, who served as the primary drafter for the report, penned what is arguably one of the most important reports ever put out by the CTCR. Or at the very least, it was a …

Leonardo Boff’S Social-Environmental Ecology Exposition, Analysis, And Appropriation For Lutheran Theology, Alan Furst

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Furst, Alan Diego. “Leonardo Boff’s Social-Environmental Ecology: Exposition, Analysis, and Appropriation for Lutheran Theology.” MA Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2018. 107pp.

Ecological issues throughout the world present an urgent need for a deepened theological approach to the doctrine of creation. In fact, recent studies have shown that such issues point to a more serious problem with the entire system at work shaping social relations today. This situation calls Christian theologians to rethink the doctrine of creation in light of ecological issues. This includes Lutheran theologians, who still need to address the current situation involving ecological issues and to offer reflections and …

The Power Of God’S Word: Jeremiah Speaks To Kenya Today, Jared Otieno Magero

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Magero Jared Otieno “The power of God’s Word: Jeremiah speaks to Kenya today.” Master of Arts Thesis. Concordia Seminary, 2018. 106pp.

This thesis searched what moved Jeremiah to keep proclaiming God’s Word when the people opposed it, when by proclaiming God’s Word Jeremiah himself went through a lot of suffering and persecution, and when the people instead heard and delighted in the words of false prophets. My research explored how the theology of the powerful Word of God and the task of its proclaimer speak to my church in Kenya where, even though we are a confessional church, we are …

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 …

Righteousness And Salvation, Tibebu Senbetu

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Some of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus (EECMY) members’ understanding of righteousness and salvation fits into neither Pauline nor Jacobite teaching.1 This short paper examines whether Christians in Ethiopia today correctly understand the whole account of Scripture about righteousness and salvation. It also analyzes what the Scriptures and the Lutheran teachings say on the subject. Knowingly or unknowingly, the full biblical message on soteriology has been neglected by some Christians, which has resulted in a confused understanding of righteousness and salvation. Finally, this paper attempts to bridge the gap between the …

Rethinking Law And Gospel In The Way We Do Preaching, Benjamin Berteau

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

This paper evaluates the impact of C. F. W. Walther’s Law and Gospel and Richard Caemmerer’s goal, malady, means approach to homiletics, also discussing the potential trap of law-gospel reductionism. A suggested pathway forward is a reemphasis on a creedal approach to Lutheran theology and preaching as well as a renewal of rhetoric as foundational to ultimately restoring a positive view of the third use or function of the law in Lutheran preaching. Having done so, the reader may certainly apply this positive view of the law as it relates to preaching on other topics related to the Christian Life …

Lcms Identity And Mission In The American Urban Context: Engaging Conian Black Theology Through Strategic Lutheran Missiology, Gregory Seltz

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Seltz, Gregory P., “LCMS Identity and Mission in the American Urban Context: Engaging Conian Black Theology through Strategic Lutheran Missiology.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2017. 304 pp.

This dissertation addresses the challenges of the American urban context by dialoging with James Cone’s Black Theology in order to construct an LCMS urban missiology. This LCMS urban missiology is a dynamic, Two-Kingdom, sacramental engagement strategy that addresses the issues endemic to the urban community for the sake of the community and for the sake of the Gospel. The American urban setting is fraught with challenges: identity politics, ethnic-sociological fragmentation, and the delegitimation-politicization …

Extra Nos But Not Extraneous: Augustine’S De Natura Et Gratia And Contemporary Receptions Of Augustine, Thomas Pietsch

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Pietsch, Thomas, D. “Extra Nos but not Extraneous: Augustine’s De Natura et Gratia and Contemporary Receptions of Augustine.” STM thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2017. 116 pp.

The relationship of nature to grace has become one of significant importance for contemporary theology. Following the turbulent debates surrounding Henri de Lubac in the twentieth century, theologians associated with Radical Orthodoxy have revived the importance of the relationship in more recent years. Whether acknowledged or not, all discussions of nature and grace owe much to Augustine, who was the first person to present a systematic discussion of the matter in his 415 anti-Pelagian treatise, …

Eschatological Pneumatology As A Theological Framework For Evaluating The Pneumatology Of The International Church Of God’S Grace In Brazil, Gerson Linden

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Linden, Gerson, L. “Eschatological Pneumatology as a Theological Framework for Evaluating the Pneumatology of the International Church of God’s Grace in Brazil.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2017. 238 pp.

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the phenomenon of Neopentecostalism in Brazil, particularly as seen in the International Church of God’s Grace (ICGG), a large and well-known Denomination in Brazil, with communities in several countries in the world. This Denomination may be seen as part of a larger movement, as an expression of what has been called the third wave of Pentecostalism. On the other hand, the ICGG has …

Ad Gloriam Dei Humanism And Theology In David Chytraeus’ Regulae Studiorum, Timios Cook

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Cook, Timios E. “Ad Gloriam Dei: Humanism and Theology in David Chytraeus’ Regulae Studiorum.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2017. 296 pp.

Luther theologian David Chytraeus (1530–1600) devoted much of his career to education, serving especially at the University of Rostock. While today is he is often remembered for his contributions to the Formula of Concord, in his own time he was highly regarded as an educator and was sought out beyond Rostock to design and implement curriculum reforms. Chytraeus was a student of Melanchthon and built both upon and beyond his mentor’s insights throughout his pedagogical works. This dissertation explores …

Christ, Church, And World: A Christological Ecclesiology For Post-Christendom, Theodore Hopkins

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Hopkins, Theodore J. “Christ, Church, and World: A Christological Ecclesiology for Post-Christendom.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2016. 296 pp.

The North American church is facing a profound crisis. The post-Christendom situation is changing the landscape of the church’s relationship with culture, society, and individual communities, creating problems of ecclesial identity and purpose. This dissertation argues that the unique challenges of post-Christendom require three criteria for ecclesiology: storied identity, doctrinal substance, and visible concreteness. Most recent Lutheran ecclesiology has begun with either God’s word of the Gospel or the Holy Spirit, leading to an emphasis on individual justification or the practices …

More Than A Pretty Face: Using Embodied Lutheran Theology To Evaluate Community-Building In Online Social Networks, Joel Oesch

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Oesch, Joel, C. "More than a Pretty Face: Using Embodied Lutheran Theology to Evaluate Community-building in Online Social Networks." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2015. 264pp.

The human body holds a special place in Christian theology. Jesus gives of his body in the crucifixion and experiences bodily resurrection on Easter morning. The sacrament of Holy Communion is a common partaking in the actual body and blood of Christ. But what of the human body for the Christian, and of what import does this have for the broader community? The dissertation seeks to build on these facts and make a case for …

A Theology Of Creation Lived Out In Christian Hymnody, Beth Hoeltke

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Hoeltke, Beth June “A Theology of Creation Lived Out in Christian Hymnody.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 308 pp.

A seminal article written by Lynn White in the mid-1960’s indicted Christianity as a major cause affecting the ecological crisis of the day. White emphasized that the Christian tradition practiced domination rather than dominion and ownership rather than stewardship. Since White’s article Christian theologians have challenged his interpretation. One of the unexamined sources of the church’s teaching on creation is hymnody. This dissertation examines this source. Hymns play a vital role in the church’s teaching as they have the ability to …

"It Was He Who Gave Some To Be": Toward An Understanding Of The Role Of The Female Prophet In The Lutheran Church, Ann Murphy

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Murphy, Ann I. "'It Was He Who Gave Some To Be': Toward an Understanding of the Role of the Female Prophet in the Lutheran Church." STM thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2014,131 pp.

This thesis addresses some of the ambiguities and inadequacies in Lutheran theological reflection regarding the prophetic office and attempts to integrate theological constructions pertaining to revelatory spiritual gifts, inspiration, the Ministry, and women's roles in the church so that they more consistently inform one another.

Slaying The Syncretistic Chimera: A Study Of The Consensus Repetjtus In Light Of Confessionalization Theory, Timothy Schmeling

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Schmeling, Timothy R. “Slaying the Syncretistic Chimera: A Study of the Consensus Repetitus in Light of Confessionalization Theory.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 478 pp.

The Syncretistic Controversy (ca. 1645–86) was the most important controversy of seventeenth-century Lutheranism. It was inaugurated by Helmstedt theology professor Georg Calixt (1586–1656), who sought mutual tolerance between Christendom’s confessions on the basis of the fundamental agreement all shared by virtue of their adherence to the Apostles’ Creed and theology of the first five centuries. In response the Electoral Saxon theological faculties promulgated the Consensus Repetitus fidei vere Lutheranae (1655), a confession against syncretism and …

Luther On Idolatry: A Lutheran Response To Contemporary False Belief, Michael Lockwood

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Lockwood, Michael A. "Luther on Idolatry: A Lutheran Response to Contemporary False Belief." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2013. 303 pp.

The first step in solving any problem is to understand the problem. As Christians we know that Christ is the solution to the human plight. Yet what exactly is this plight? And why do so many people feel no need for the solution he provides? Luther's answer is that people feel no need for the true God until they are disenchanted with the false gods they have put in his place, which they think can provide all they need.

In …

Life In The Spirit: A Post-Constantinian And Trinitarian Account Of The Christian Life, Andrea Snavely

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Snavely, Andrea D. "Life in the Spirit: A Post-Constantinian and Trinitarian Account of the Christian Life." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2013. 235 pp.

Post-Constantinians John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas have re-imagined the Christian as a follower of Jesus, critiquing natural theology's dominance that eclipses seeing Jesus' life as the "content" of a Christian's life. However, they lack an answer to the "energy” question, of how one lives like Jesus, because their theologies are based on Logos-Christology. This dissertation proposes that a complementary Spirit-Christology provides the answer to the “energy" question by describing Jesus' life as receiver, bearer, and giver …

The Hour Has Come-A Narrative-Critical Analysis Of The Use Of Ω̋Ρα In The Gospel Of John, Dennis Matyas

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

After summarizing eschatology in the Gospel of John, this STM thesis examines the use of, ω̋ρα in Greco-Roman Greek sources, extra-biblical Jewish sources, the LXX, and the New Testament. After this examination, the thesis argues that each and every use of ω̋ρα in the Gospel of John either refers directly to the hour of Jesus' suffering and death or bears a special relationship to it.

Christian Justification After Nihilism, Joel Meyer

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Meyer, Joel P. "Christian Justification after Nihilism." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary,2012. [235] pp.

This dissertation addresses the problem that nihilism presents to Christian faith and life. North Atlantic Christians live in an age when nihilism is a normal condition. The world does not appear to have one clear and unquestionable meaning. Instead, each of us has convictions about the world that we hold dear. But we realize that other people hold drastically different convictions than our own, and we have no absolute way of determining the validity of one set over another. So they appear to us as values, rather …

John Wesley‟S Liturgical Revision: A Pattern For Reshaping Worship For Post-Christian America, Lawrence A. Lacher

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Lacher, Lawrence A. “John Wesley‟s Liturgical Revision: A Pattern for Reshaping Worship for Post-Christian America.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2011. 316 pp.

This project seeks to find a solution to the current malformation of Christian Worship in the American church through re-examining John Wesley‟s Sunday Service for Methodists in North America (1784) in order to extract the underlying pattern. That pattern is then proposed as a paradigm that allows for the contextualization of worship while retaining its historic shape, function and purpose.

John Wesley‟s liturgical advices are examined for several reasons. Since the writer is interested in helping those who …

A Theology Of Religious Change, David J. Zehnder

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Zehnder, David, J. “A Theology of Religious Change.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2011. 218 pp.

This essay sets up a dialogue between the sociology and psychology of religious change (conversion’s human side) and conversion (theologically defined) to prove that empirical research into change experience, ideology as an attracting force to religion, and social networks’ influence on conversion does not threaten theology’s assertions but can help to clarify theology’s tasks in communicating to various audiences. Science helps theology through a correlational model of interaction developed in the study. The correlational method first asks of science: Why do people change religiously? Once …