Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Civic Order, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Order is a gift. It may not be taken for granted. The tensions inherent in every social situation tend toward disruption unless they are harnessed toward creative ends.

Violence on our streets and in our cities has brought us up short to the realization that the social order is much like a garden: if left untended, it will produce only the weeds of exploitation, decay, frustration, and outrage. During some of the riots in our major cities we watched our television sea in sheer disbelief that this evil could erupt in our midst. Somehow we assumed that such things could …

One Hundred Years Of Social Ministry-Now What?, Leslie F. Weber

Concordia Theological Monthly

Organized social ministry in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, officially begun in 1950 by the creation of a synodical Board of Social Welfare, is in 1968 actually in its centennial year. While it is striving to discover newer and better ways to reach troubled people and in this sense may be rebelling against the past to a certain degree, it is by no means willing to ignore the foundations and activities of the past, which have abundantly demonstrated that faith has been at work within our churches in deeds of love.

The Reforming Role Of Religious Communities In The History Of Western Christianity, Carl Volz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Reformed Christians have traditionally been suspicious of, if not viscerally opposed to, one ancient institution of Christianity - monasticism. Ever since the upheavals of the 16th century most non-Roman Catholics in the West have been content to view the monks as being psychological eccentrics at best, or the spiritual heirs of Pelagius at worst. It is the purpose of this essay to indicate the vital role monasticism played in the continuing reform of Christianity, and to encourage Lutheran Christians, who stand in a similar reforming tradition, to approach the concept of communal religious life with understanding if not with sympathetic …

Biblical Humanism And Roman Catholic Reform: (1501-1542) Contarini, Pole, And Giberti, Marvin W. Anderson

Concordia Theological Monthly

Reginald Pole deserves careful attention by students of the Reformation period. Pole delivered one and shared in a second of three confessions which assumed Roman Catholic guilt for the splintering of Christendom. Adrian VI excoriated the Curia in his Instructio of Jan. 3, 1523, read to the Diet of Nuremberg by Francesco Chieregati.

Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608): Theologian, Mystic, Hymn Writer, Polemicist, And Missiologist: A Biobibliographical Survey, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

During Philipp Nicolai's lifetime the company of ministers in the city of Zurich referred to him as "this miserable person who goes thrashing around and biting like another wild boar, altogether without reason or Christian modesty." Others of his foes called him a lunatic who ought to be chained to a wall, and could not resist the temptation of twisting his surname Nicolai into "Nicolaitan." His admirers, on the other hand, saw in him "a second Chrysostom."

Tribute To John W. Behnken: Ministry In The Acceptable Time, Alfred O. Fuerbringer

Concordia Theological Monthly

In our worship this morning two lines of thought converge. In the first place, it's the beginning of a new academic quarter, the last of this year. That raises questions: How are we doing? Are we reasonably close to schedule? Are we able for another three months to take the mounting pressures and to finish our courses? If we are concerned about the long-range and not just about today or tomorrow, next week or next May, what about our ministry?

Thomas More And The Wittenberg Lutherans, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

A man for all seasons" was also a polemicist, although this is not generally noted. Some of Thomas More's biographers, writers about the relationships between Henry VIII and Martin Luther, one biographer of Luther, and a few scholars about the 16th century,. have told in some detail the story about the relations between More and Luther. Only Sister Gertrude Donnelly investigated these relations comprehensively. One can learn something about some aspects of these relations from secondary sources, although the accounts may be distorted. Sometimes reference is made to the polemic More wrote against Bugenhagen. No writer seems to have noticed, …

Laurentius Valla (1407-1457): Renaissance Critic And Biblical Theologian, Marvin W. Anderson

Concordia Theological Monthly

When Laurentius Valla penned those words, he was writing the fuse scientific treatise on Latin grammar since John Duns Scotus. Leonardo Bruni died in the same year Valla’s treatise appeared. The year 1444 marks the return of Renaissance scholars to a philological analysis of classical texts. This method, which Valla soon applied to Biblical study, revolutionized medieval Biblical scholarship in the century before Trent. Valla's purpose was to revitalize Catholic faith. Protestants and Catholics still owe their fresh awareness of Scripture to the labors of Valla.