Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Case For Four Adverbs: Reflections On Chalcedon, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

For many years it has been fashionable to deprecate any and all attempts, whether past or present, at formulating Biblical truth. Theologians have belittled such efforts by pleading that propositional theology fails to capture and convey the recitatif of the kerygma; and philosophers of religion have contended that any undertaking which proposes to systematize revelation was and is foredoomed to failure because of the limitations and instability of human speech and language. As a consequence the prevailing mood in large areas of Christendom is one of pessimism toward all endeavors to work at the unity we seek by drawing up …

Religion As The Integrating Principle In Education, Eugene F. Klug

Concordia Theological Monthly

D’ye think," asked Mr. Hennessey, "the college has much to do with the progress of the world?" - "D'ye think," parried Mr. Dooley, "it's the mill that makes the water run?" The stream of life in this old world goes steadily on, whether we have colleges or not. But the fact is, in spite of Mr. Dooley's skeptical cynicism, that the world would hardly be the same without them. These centers of human learning have played a major role in harnessing and developing the raw material of this world man, his mind, and his physical environment. Today especially these academic …

Kings And Priests, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

This review will spend little time on the excitement that greeted the first two volumes of the new translation. The reader will be impressed with the clean job of editing by Jaroslav Pelikan and the remarkably high and uniform excellence of the translations by six contributors. The introduction adequately notes the settings of the seven psalm expositions and correlates the locations in the Weimar and St. Louis editions of Luther's works. Footnotes - occasional but not too many - explain renderings of German idioms, suggest sources of Luther's quotations or indicate parallels, many of them in the two preceding volumes …

The Nature Of The Unity We Seek A Missouri Synod Lutheran View, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The nature of the unity we seek" has the obviousness of a platitude. Like most platitudes, it is more easily stated (by those who hold it) and more readily caricatured (by those who reject it) than it is appreciated, appropriated, and lived. It is worth while, therefore, to spell out this platitude, in order that both we and those with whom we seek unity may be made aware of its basic simplicity and of its practical complexity and difficulty.

Imitating The Wisdom Of The Almighty: Ziegenbalg's Program Of Evangelism, Hans W. Gensichen

Concordia Theological Monthly

By a happy coincidence the quarter-millennium jubilee year of the Tranquebar Mission again brought to light a long forgotten but most valuable source on that great pioneer enterprise of Protestant world missions, permitting a unique inside look into the evangelistic principles and techniques employed by Barrholomaeus Ziegenbalg and his co-workers and thus revealing the very heart and soul of their work. It is a small volume of 352 pages, and its full title may be of interest: "Thirty-Four Conferences Between the Danish Missionaries and the Malabarian Bramans (or Heathen Priests) in the East Indies, Concerning the Truth of the Christian …

A Critique Of Aulen's Christus Victor, George O. Evenson

Concordia Theological Monthly

One of the most significant theological books published in recent decades is Christus Victor by Gustaf Aulen. In it he suggests that there are three main ideas or theories of the atonement: the classic, the Latin, and the subjective-humanistic. That which makes the book both significant and controversial is the author's contention that the authentic Scriptural doctrine of the atonement is the classic idea, that Luther was an exponent of the classic idea and that therefore the orthodox Lutheran doctrine of the atonement differs markedly both from Scripture and from Luther. Aulen asserts that “the doctrine of Lutheranism became a …

A New Lexicon, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

This is not to be a review of the new lexicon -is there such a thing as a "new" lexicon? The survey of New Testament lexicography from 1522 to 1957 given by the editors of this lexicon in their Introduction (pp. v-viii) shows how relative the term "new" is in this connection; lexicographers stand strictly in a succession. Much less is this to be a critical review. We shall have to leave critical reviews to men who are less bound up with this work, emotionally and otherwise, than we of The Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod are. It is hardly to …

Contrition (Concluded), Theodore Engelder, Erwin Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Is the intention to abstain from sin and to live for God a part of the contrition which precedes faith?

Many Lutheran compends answer this question in the affirmative. Luthardt states: 'The process of conversion, wrought by God within man, begins with the self-judgment of repentance, which consists of a change of attitude, manifested in the acknowledgment of sin, sorrow for sin, and the earnest intention to break with sin and live to God"

Friction Points In Church-State Relations In The United States, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The encroachments of aggressive churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church, and the voraciousness of power-hungry governmental agencies are dominant trends in church-state relations in the United States. Education remains the largest single area in which conflicts arc found. Augusta, Maine, and Hartford, Conn., can bear ample testimony to this fact. However, there are other aspects of the question. The conflicts touch family relations, race relations, labor relations. Conflict arises from a desire to promote social reform, as in Ohio by the demands of pastors for antigambling legislation.

Lwf Study Document, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

The present Study Document, which will be submitted to the delegates attending the Assembly of the LWF at Minneapolis next August, is in form and content a decided improvement over the document which appeared a year ago. A careful comparison of both compels the conclusion that the Commission on Theology was truly concerned to prepare a statement which would be solidly Scriptural and soundly confessional. For these efforts the Commission deserves the unqualified thanks of all who love the Lutheran Zion. The following observations are therefore intended only to point up some issues in the present document which, in our …

Was Luther A Nominalist?, Bengt Haegglund

Concordia Theological Monthly

The problem of the relation between Luther and the tradition which derives its name from William of Occam has in our time acquired a new interest. Certain Roman Catholic critics are inclined to ascribe the Reformer's heretical ideas to nominalist influences. According to them nominalism bears within itself a ferment of dissolution; it rejects in a radical manner the fundamental presuppositions of the whole scholastic theology. Is such a view based on an accurate representation of nominalism? This is a question which we cannot answer within the limits of the present article.

Contrition (Concluded), Theodore Engelder, Herbert J. Bouman, Erwin Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Does repentance follow faith? Such a question seems strange to Lutherans. We teach: "Now, repentance consists properly of these two parts: One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel" (AC XII). Faith is "the chief part of repentance" (Ap XII 58, German Text). No, repentance, the essential characteristic of which is faith, cannot follow faith. Calvin and his adherents, however, teach that repentance follows faith.

Contrition, Theodore Engelder, Herbert J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

Confusion regarding the concept contrition can only confuse consciences. "Before the writings of Luther appeared, the doctrine of repentance was very much confused ... the people were able neither to comprehend the sum of the matter nor to see what things especially were required in repentance, where peace of conscience was to be sought for" (Ap XII 5). If the wrong place in the order of salvation is assigned to contrition, if it is not allowed to function in its proper sphere, if it is drawn into the doctrine of justification, or if it is made the chief factor in …

The Paradox In Perspective, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Paradox" is an ancient word and an honorable one. The Greeks applied it to anything that seemed contrary to public opinion or strange and marvelous. In this latter sense the term occurs in the New Testament. It was heard on the lips of the multitude that saw the healing of the palsied man. "We have seen παοάδοξα today," they said in astonishment and awe (Luke 5:26). In Latin authors "paradox" came to mean an apparent contradiction. This is today its most common meaning in ordinary speech, although we must hasten to add that the Christian continues to feel in it …

Lutheran Education And Philosophy, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

This study conceives of Lutheran education as an activity in which our entire church with all its homes and parishes is engaged. It has in mind all levels, all currently employed agencies, and all subject areas of modern education. To be concrete: our homes, corporate worship, schools and Sunday schools, Bible classes, Bible institutes, catechumen classes, high schools, colleges, seminaries, university, institutions for the physically handicapped. and all our other educational efforts are within the purview of this study. Furthermore, this study proceeds on the premise that Lutheran education is an inevitable outgrowth of the basic beliefs of the Lutheran …

Religion In The Public Schools, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

To the traditional three R's in education many would place as the first a fourth R - Religion. Some maintain that Religion should be taught only in the schools of the church; some say that Religion or spiritual values should be taught in the schools of the state. Others have urged that the fourth R in modern education should be Right Relations or Human Relations. The debate touches on the question of basic objectives in education and involves the question of the relationship between church and state. It embraces the questions: Do the functions of the state include the teaching …

The Baptism Of Christ With Special Reference To The Gift Of The Spirit, Herbert J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

While John the Baptist, in the country beyond Jordan near Bethany (or Bethabara), was performing his office of preparing the way for the Messiah by his preaching and baptizing unto repentance for the remission of sins, and while all the people, from all directions and all walks of life, came to John to hear him and receive his baptism, Jesus also came from Nazareth (Mark) out of Galilee (Matt.). Since His twelfth year nothing had been recorded of Him except that He grew up in Nazareth. Now, after eighteen years of silence and obscurity, when He was about 30 years …

Luther Expounds The Gospels, Lewis W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Both the state of Luther scholarship and the condition of the church have changed radically since the middle of that century of light, when J. G. Hamann lamented: "What a shame for our times that the spirit of this man who founded our church lies thus under the ashes. What a power of eloquence, what a spirit for interpretation, what a prophet! How good the old wine will taste to you!" Though Theodosius Harnack a hundred years later hailed the renewed study of Luther's theology as one of the most joyous developments in theological scholarship, his own work remained the …