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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Erasmus The Exegete, Marvin Anderson
Erasmus The Exegete, Marvin Anderson
Concordia Theological Monthly
Erasmus appears everywhere in the theological controversies of the 16th century. Discovery in 1506 of his beloved Lorenzo Valla's New Testament Notes encouraged Erasmus to continue the task of editing, annotating, and paraphrasing the New Testament. Whatever can be said about Erasmus, his dedication to this task has earned the gratitude of generations of Christians. His latest encomium is Erasmus of Christendom. An analysis of Erasmus’ devotion to New Testament study adds depth and breadth to the philosophy of Christ. Heirs of the 16th century should ponder the life work of Erasmus in this 500th anniversary of his birth. In …
Were The Reformers Mission-Minded?., Thomas Coates
Were The Reformers Mission-Minded?., Thomas Coates
Concordia Theological Monthly
The subject "The Reformation and Missions" might well suggest a very short paper indeed. Both theologically and practically, the Reformation period is notable chiefly for its lack of missionary emphasis.
The Secret Of God's Plan: Studies In Ephesians, Martin H. Scharlemann
The Secret Of God's Plan: Studies In Ephesians, Martin H. Scharlemann
Concordia Theological Monthly
Verse 9 of chapter 1 of Ephesians provides a good general tide to highlight one basic theological emphasis of the letter. There the Greek, literally translated, makes reference to "the mystery of His will." The Revised Standard Version in this case retains just that wording from the Authorized Version.
The Mission On Which We Are Sent, Paul E. Jacobs
The Mission On Which We Are Sent, Paul E. Jacobs
Concordia Theological Monthly
The Affirmations on the Mission of the Church which The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod adopted at the Detroit convention in 1965 are part of the evidence of the ongoing struggle of one part of the church to understand what and why the church is in the world. The struggle has not been easy nor has it been without conflict. The affirmations call us to see the church's mission in terms of people rather than church structures. They compel us to wrestle with the standards of comfort and convenience by which we continually serve ourselves. They plead with us to …
Freedom In Christ-Gift And Demand, Edgar Krentz
Freedom In Christ-Gift And Demand, Edgar Krentz
Concordia Theological Monthly
"Freedom," a word we often hear and a concept we highly prize, is surprisingly rare in the New Testament. A rapid survey of the words eleutheria, eleutheria, and eleutheros in a concordance will show that in any sense other than the sociological (free man as opposed to slave) the term is practically confined to Paul. He is the only one to use freedom consistently in a religious sense.
The Particularity Of The Gospel: Good News For Changing Times, John H. Elliott
The Particularity Of The Gospel: Good News For Changing Times, John H. Elliott
Concordia Theological Monthly
Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me." In this transitional period of modern history when change and change by revolution are the order of the day, the plaintive plea of the popular hymn seems to assume an ever more urgent note. But the question is this: How effectively, if at all, can the notion of the unchangeableness of God expressed in this hymn aid an atomic age society in coping with population explosions, sexual, racial, and campus revolutions, and the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation? Can men of our time indeed …
Gospel Freedom, Robert H. Smith
Gospel Freedom, Robert H. Smith
Concordia Theological Monthly
The Western world has understood freedom in two basic ways. For one school of thought freedom is the right and the power to do what one wishes. A man is not free if he is behind bars or in a captive nation or lying crippled in a hospital - no matter what his state of mind. Persons or powers beyond his control dispose his life and dictate orders to him, and to say that he is free is to play fast and loose with the language.
The Gospel And Mass Communication, Martin E. Marty
The Gospel And Mass Communication, Martin E. Marty
Concordia Theological Monthly
The gospel and its mission are effected in a world which they do not have to themselves. Others also build community by offering sôtêria and shalôm. In our time the mass communicators are decisive, and those who care both for gospel and world have to come to some sort of understanding of communication.
The Gospel Approach To Counseling, Kenneth Siess
The Gospel Approach To Counseling, Kenneth Siess
Concordia Theological Monthly
Pastors are discovering today that the issue of pastoral counseling comes up repeatedly, both in their pastoral practice and in their study. A survey conducted several years ago revealed that of the people interviewed 42 percent indicated that they sought out a clergyman as their first source for help in an emotional crisis in their lives. Most pastors can attest readily to the reality of such a statistic. Day after day they are being sought out by people who find themselves in some kind of stress and are looking for help. In response to this demand pastors are becoming increasingly …
The Gospel, The Pastor, And "Culture.", Warren Rubel
The Gospel, The Pastor, And "Culture.", Warren Rubel
Concordia Theological Monthly
Actually the word "culture" continues to evoke an unmanageable number of responses from most of us. So much so that we need to distinguish quickly among a number of ideas clustering around the term in order to place the understandably complex relationships among the Christian gospel, the pastor, and culture in a meaningful if limited perspective. Here, after offering a quick sketch of some of the main currents and crosscurrents surrounding culture today, we attempt to suggest a rough plot for personal action. Our assumption is that the pastor as perpetual "student and literary worker" will fill in the details …
Wholeness-Oneness, William H. Kohn
Wholeness-Oneness, William H. Kohn
Concordia Theological Monthly
Perhaps we have "a thing" going in our church. In a memorable convention in Detroit four years ago our church acted in a most distinctive way. Aside from several bold administrative decisions, such as recognizing the autonomy of developing national churches overseas and creating a unified Board for Missions, our church collectively penned and proclaimed the total mission of the church in six brief resolutions and then summarized them in six concise but meaningful statements. We called them the Affirmations on God's Mission.
The Christian Faith And Revelation, Fred Kramer
The Christian Faith And Revelation, Fred Kramer
Concordia Theological Monthly
The Christian faith rests solidly on God's own revelation of Himself and of His will with respect to man. Divine revelation is an act of God, not subject as such to the correction of the philosopher. Divine revelation has, however, a human correlative, namely theology. Theology, as the word is here used, is the church's speaking and teaching about God and His will. It is not itself revelation, which is always God's activity, but the church's speaking and teaching based upon divine revelation and therefore subject to correction, where it may need correction, on the basis of divine revelation.
The Realism Of Hope: The Feast Of The Resurrection And The Transformation Of The Present Reality, Jurgen Moltmann, Gilbert A. Thiele
The Realism Of Hope: The Feast Of The Resurrection And The Transformation Of The Present Reality, Jurgen Moltmann, Gilbert A. Thiele
Concordia Theological Monthly
Some of the great festivals that Christians (in our country) celebrate appeal to us, some do not. In a way we respond to some of them, but others estrange us: we do not know what to do with them. Many people obviously feel that Christmas has value for them. Regardless of what they think about it, they nevertheless have the feeling that God comes close to them again and that in His nearness they find human warmth. The "Totensonntag" (Sunday of repentance and prayer, last in the Trinity season) affects people who mourn their dead. We can even understand Good …
The Christian World View And The New Era In Science, August C. Rehwaldt
The Christian World View And The New Era In Science, August C. Rehwaldt
Concordia Theological Monthly
The present article will concern itself chiefly with man's mastery over nature by means of the intellectual capacities which God has so lavishly bestowed on him and which God preserves even today, even though man has not fulfilled the intentions of God for the created world. It will also show that the vitiation of God's intentions and purposes for man and the created world is in the process of being resolved even now.
Four Correlations Of The Revelation Of God And The Witness Of God, Arthur M. Vincent
Four Correlations Of The Revelation Of God And The Witness Of God, Arthur M. Vincent
Concordia Theological Monthly
Christian scholars of many ages have often found "the revelation of God" and "the witness of God" among the major concepts needing study and application to their times. Modern theologians, under the influence especially of Karl Barth, have shown some of the depth and breadth of these topics. Now the Second Vatican Council with its pronouncements, including the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, has brought these subjects into the limelight for current consideration.
Our Common Confession And Its Implications For Today, Robert Bertram
Our Common Confession And Its Implications For Today, Robert Bertram
Concordia Theological Monthly
What is it that our confession, or rather the God we confess, is revolutionizing? What is He overturning and replacing? Our sin with His righteousness? Yes, but not only that. Our old world with His new world? That too, but not only that. The tyrants and principalities of this age with His new age? Not even only that. What He is replacing is His own old order - old, yet truly His.
St. Paul's Ideology For The Urbanized Roman Empire, Saul Levin
St. Paul's Ideology For The Urbanized Roman Empire, Saul Levin
Concordia Theological Monthly
No one is likely to equal the sensation which Gibbon produced with the 15th and 16th chapters of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where he viewed the rise of Christianity from the perspective of secular history. While he adhered on the surface to a pious, naive, and conventional veneration of the early church, at the same time he pierced the aura of holiness and taught his readers-in the name of philosophy-to understand religious movements realistically. It is unnecessary for us now to review the human causes which an 18th-century historian found for the success of Christianity.
Consolation In 2 Cor. 5:1-10, Frederick W. Danker
Consolation In 2 Cor. 5:1-10, Frederick W. Danker
Concordia Theological Monthly
Commentators, lexicographers, and grammarians, almost by consensus, render έφ’ ᾠ in 2 Cor. 5:4 in a causal sense, with such variations as "because," "inasmuch as," "in view of the fact that." Exceptional is Margaret Thrall's rendering "on condition that." She paraphrases: "For indeed, we who exist in the physical body groan with weariness. (But, for the Christian, this is a legitimate attitude to our physical existence only on condition that we do not want to be divested of somatic existence altogether, but rather to be further incorporated in the Body of Christ.)" The paraphrase is obscure, but the reminder that …
A Topical Sermon, Andrew Weyermann
A Topical Sermon, Andrew Weyermann
Concordia Theological Monthly
The sermon in this issue calls attention to the possibility of dealing with very specific and even rather difficult subjects from the pulpit. It is not necessary for sermons to restrict themselves to generalities, and it is possible for preachers to build on, rather than continually repeat, the “foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God." (Heb. 6:1)
Development Of Worship Skills, George W. Hoyer
Development Of Worship Skills, George W. Hoyer
Concordia Theological Monthly
A review of bibliographic material in the areas of liturgy and worship at once requires both a definition of terms and a selection of accents. A choice in the direction of liturgiology might appear to be more academically profound; but an accent on worship would probably be more theologically sound and probably more practical for most.
Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608): Theologian, Mystic, Hymn Writer, Polemicist, And Missiologist: A Biobibliographical Survey, Arthur Carl Piepkorn
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."
Fellowship, Thomas Coates
Fellowship, Thomas Coates
Concordia Theological Monthly
On the morning of New Year's Day several years ago I stood in the outer court of Yasukuni Shrine in the city of Tokyo. New Year's Day, of course, is the highest festival day of the Shinto religion, when virtually all of the Japanese go to the shrines to pay their respects to their ancestors and begin the new year with "'a clean slate." For some time I watched with fascination as the worshipers bowed before the sanctuary, clapped their hands three times to awaken the attention of the spirits, cast their coins into the coffer, bought their good luck …
Some Thoughts On The Church In The Lutheran Symbols, Herbert J. Bouman
Some Thoughts On The Church In The Lutheran Symbols, Herbert J. Bouman
Concordia Theological Monthly
Near the end of 1536 Martin Luther wrote that "a seven-year-old child knows what the church is" (SA III XII). In our time great ecumenical gatherings expend incalculable amounts of time and effort in wrestling with the doctrine of the church, and first-rate theologians in all churches provide the printing presses with an unabating flow of materials in discussion of the problems and implications of ecclesiology.
Principles For The Development Of Adult Premembership Instruction, Robert L. Conrad
Principles For The Development Of Adult Premembership Instruction, Robert L. Conrad
Concordia Theological Monthly
The need for a study was brought forcibly to the author's attention by his membership on a subcommittee of the Board of Parish Education of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The responsibility of the subcommittee is to formulate principles for adult premembership instruction in The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The subcommittee could find no existing statement of principles, so it was forced to make a beginning on such a formulation.
Laurentius Valla (1407-1457): Renaissance Critic And Biblical Theologian, Marvin W. Anderson
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.
“The Weapons Of Their Warfare": A Study In Early Christian Polemic, Richard P. Jungkuntz
“The Weapons Of Their Warfare": A Study In Early Christian Polemic, Richard P. Jungkuntz
Concordia Theological Monthly
Illuminating for an understanding of the patristic mind in general is an examination of the techniques and forms of rebuttal that the fathers employed in opposing Epicureanism. Basically these methods fall into four categories: religious answers, debaters' tricks, stock arguments, and appeals to "science."
Tertullian And The Early Christian View Of Tradition, Robert L. Wilken
Tertullian And The Early Christian View Of Tradition, Robert L. Wilken
Concordia Theological Monthly
The term tradition enters the Christian vocabulary in apostolic times. From earliest days it has ranked in importance with such words as grace, hope, love, justification, redemption, salvation, Scripture. Already in the writings of Paul it occurs at key points and reveals a great deal about how Paul conceived of the Christian faith, its origin and transmission.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Alfred Von Rohr Sauer
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Alfred Von Rohr Sauer
Concordia Theological Monthly
Quite apart from the contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the history of their discovery and the account of what has happened to them in the meantime has proved to be a subject as fascinating as some of our bestselling books of fiction. The Qumran scrolls are to the 20th century what Tischendorfs discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus was to the 19th (Kraeling). Albright. called the scrolls "the greatest manuscript discovery of modem times." For Edmund Wilson the scrolls are "the most valuable manuscript find since the Renaissance."
The Christian And Social Responsibility, Robert J. Werberig
The Christian And Social Responsibility, Robert J. Werberig
Concordia Theological Monthly
What is the Christian's role in the many-faceted, restless, and paradoxical society of the 60s? Should his function as a Christian citizen include more than merely "holding a private opinion" on the issues of our times? Does his commitment to Christ imply something more than "contributing to welfare" in face of the fact that over two-thirds of his generation lives out life under starvation conditions? Is there a valid place for the voice and action of Christianity within the vortex of change, which today upsets whole cultures, often with crushing and dehumanizing effects to people?
The Idea Of Justice In Luther's First Publication, Heinz Bluhm
The Idea Of Justice In Luther's First Publication, Heinz Bluhm
Concordia Theological Monthly
The idea of justice or righteousness is at the very heart of the religion of Martin Luther. Everyone, friend and foe alike, agrees on this point. The special problem that has intrigued scholars for several decades now, ever since Luther's earliest Latin university lectures became available, is to determine as closely as possible the exact moment in Luther's development when a "new" conception of justice first dawned on him.