Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Computer With Legs And The Rough Beast Slouching -Notes On Religion In The 1970s, Martin E. Marty

Concordia Theological Monthly

The author reviews a variety of models used in religious interpretations that were popular in the sixties as a prelude to his discussion of the trends and images that theologians must discern and deal with during the cultural revolution of the seventies.

What's Going On Here?, Donald L. Jerke

Concordia Theological Monthly

There's a cartoon around which shows a perplexed father driving home from the local high school PTA meeting with his wife; he says, "Twenty years ago I was told I wasn't as smart as my father. … Today rm told I'm not as smart as my teen-ager …. Where did we go wrong?"

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 …

Preaching From The Old Testament, Carl Graesser Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

Preaching from the Old Testament has fallen on evil times. Many a pastor, even if he does not have a mental block from struggles with Hebrew at the seminary or a feeling of guilt because of rusty exegetical skills, feels much more at home in the New Testament. If he should attempt to preach on an Old Testament text, he cannot assume that his audience has either a ready knowledge or interest in the Old Testament. Unlike a bygone generation, his audience would think it a joke to name a child Jehoshaphat or Ahab or Hepzibah.

The Status Of Societal Religion In The United States, Martin E. Marty

Concordia Theological Monthly

In recent years citizens of the United States have been experiencing a new version of an old debate. This debate concerns itself with the question: Does or should a nation, a culture, or a society have a single integrating and supporting societal religion? What is the relation of a particular theology to such a common faith or religious consensus in our society and in our nation? The parties which are participating in this widespread and profound debate are many; we can identify some of them.

Lutheranism In American Theological Education, Jerald C. Brauer

Concordia Theological Monthly

It is a privilege to bring greetings, very special greetings, from my institution, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, to Concordia Seminary on this its 125th anniversary. There has been a long, intimate, and friendly relationship between these two institutions. I am not certain of the number, but I was informed that seven PhDs from the University of Chicago are on the present Concordia faculty. In addition to men holding degrees, a substantial number of the present Concordia faculty have taken courses at the University of Chicago. Hence it is understandable that the greetings I bring for this …

Worship Music In A Synthetic Culture, H. Grady Davis

Concordia Theological Monthly

You asked me to speak to you on some subject of my own choosing within the area of worship and culture. I have chosen the announced topic because I am deeply concerned about it not so much as a musician but primarily as a man of the church. I think there are aspects of this subject which are of vital concern to the whole church, all of us together, and I know no place in the United States of America where I think the kind of questions I want to raise today will get a fairer and more intelligent bearing …

Religion In America And The Church's Use Of Mass Media, Carl Schalk

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is little doubt that the church today faces a unique opportunity as well as a unique responsibility in communicating the message of God in Christ to man today.

The greatest need is for the churches to listen to what God says to them and through them. Yet the churches have equal responsibility to determine the best ways in which they can pass on to those who do not hear and who do not listen, what they know and believe about their Lord and Savior.

The Readiness Of The World For The Mission, R. Pierce Beaver

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The Readiness of the World for the Mission" or "for the Gospel" has been a favorite argument in the promotion of the mission in Protestant churches for at least a century and a half. Thus John M. Mason, preaching in 1797, exulted in the fact that by the providence of God the most formidable obstacles to the spread of the faith, such as travel, language, manners, had already been overcome by those persons who were primarily serving science, wealth, and fame.

Toward An Evangelical Philosophy Of Science: The Historical And Recent Background, Oscar T. Walle

Concordia Theological Monthly

The general title of our discussions indicates that we are interested in the search for a unifying discipline or point of view which may bridge or fuse what Carl Henry calls. "the cleavage between science and religion . . . one of the defacing characteristics of our culture." This author ably states the case when he says, "Evangelical theology, if it is to make a major contribution to synthesis, must propound a Christian philosophy of science tracing the implications of the sovereignty of God for all branches of science." It is the purpose of this presentation to call attention to …

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 Lutheran Church And Its American Environment. Martin H. Scharlemann, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Lutherans landed in America before the arrival of the Mayflower. Some Danish Lutherans, looking for the Northwest Passage, buried forty of their dead on Hudson Bay in 1619. In December of the same year Pastor Rasmus Jensen held a Lutheran Christmas service on the shores of what is now the United States of America.

The Relationship Of The Church To The National Culture In America, Ernest B. Koenker

Concordia Theological Monthly

As one considers the cultural complex of America today, there are a number of questions which might present themselves to the Christian living under the Word. What are the values which underlie our national culture, and is there any sense in which these are being absolutized today in some kind of Messianism? Can one say that the Christian churches in America, or the Lutheran Church, have profoundly shaped our culture, or have the churches themselves been thoroughly shaped by the culture? In view of the loss or muffling of a dynamic Christian witness in many of the American denominations, what …

The Church's Opportunity On State College And University Campus, Ruben H. Hahn

Concordia Theological Monthly

Things arc happening in secular higher education. The State colleges and universities have recaptured much of their lost concern for religion and are setting themselves to the task of putting religion at the heart of the educational process as a guiding, motivating, and integrating force.

One of the most gratifying factors on the educational scene is the growing determination of college administrators to suffuse the campuses with religion.

Essays In Hermeneutics, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the circle of language the interpreter seeks to master the language in which the Scriptures were originally written; in the circle of history he seeks to master the world in which and for which the Scriptures were originally written; he strives to envisage and to keep before himself, as concretely and as plastically as may be, the geographic, social, economic, and cultural pattern in which the original proclaimers and the first hearers lived and moved. This pattern, or complex, includes also the past of which the proclaimers and hearers were the inheritors, for by the very fact that a …

What About The Field Of Christian Art?, P. E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The study of the humanities, as included in the course of study at our junior colleges, will do much toward establishing and developing an appreciation of the best products of the human mind through the centuries. The students are now being introduced to the masterpieces of ancient and modern literature, to the drama of the Greeks and Romans as well as that of modern times, to music from primitive times to our own day, to history from the standpoint of economics and the social relationships, to the effect of scientific research in our daily lives, and specifically in the fine …