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Luther Seminary

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Full-Text Articles in Religion

Reconciling The Believing Nonbelonger: Readiness To Reach And Receive Lost Sheep, Robert E. Sachs Jr. Jan 2007

Reconciling The Believing Nonbelonger: Readiness To Reach And Receive Lost Sheep, Robert E. Sachs Jr.

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This study examines and explains readiness of reconciling with believing nonbelongers from 284 respondents in two categories of 139 systematically selected ELCA congregations in the western United States that received adults during 2001-2005. A concurrent-nested, mixed-method design integrates biblical-theological missio Dei and missio ecclesia foundations with Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Stages of Change and Parshall’s Contextualization Spectrum. Chi-square crosstabulations, simple logistical regression, and Centering Resonance Analyses show: faith of origin, worship attendance growth trend, regional location, population size and growth trend, clergy and lay partnership, and programmatic emphasis has significant effects on the readiness of congregations and respondents to receive the unaffiliated.

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Cross-Training Christians For Rural Servant-Leadership : An Exploration Of The Role Of A Congregation In Nurturing Leadership In The Community Of Wessington Springs, South Dakota, John H. Paulson Jan 2007

Cross-Training Christians For Rural Servant-Leadership : An Exploration Of The Role Of A Congregation In Nurturing Leadership In The Community Of Wessington Springs, South Dakota, John H. Paulson

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This study explores the relationship between what is learned and experienced in the Christian faith community and people’s involvement in collaborative leadership within the rural community of Wessington Springs, South Dakota. The author makes use of Martin Luther’s theology of the cross and his teachings regarding Christian vocation, including the calling of parents as family leaders. This approach to leadership development employs a missional ecclesiology, with attention to the Triune God’s transformative, sending work in the world, and examines contributions from knowledge about civil society and human and social capital. Asset mapping is examined as a tool for leadership development.

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Mainland Chinese Christian Scholars Leaving The Church In The Twin Cities (Minneapolis /St. Paul): A Theological And Pastoral Analysis, Yu Zhao Jan 2007

Mainland Chinese Christian Scholars Leaving The Church In The Twin Cities (Minneapolis /St. Paul): A Theological And Pastoral Analysis, Yu Zhao

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Mainland Chinese Christian scholars (Xue Zhe Ji Du Tu) are crucial to the Chinese churches in the American context in the U.S. In the last two decades, because these scholars join and then quickly leave the church, the fate of the Chinese church is in jeopardy. This research will consider this phenomenon of Christian scholars joining and then leaving the church and attempt to determine what are the theological, pastoral and sociological factors that contribute to these scholars leaving. This research will utilize a qualitative approach using the interview method to study the members of these Chinese Churches …

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Congregations As Systems For Empowering Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Hermeneutic For Leading In Mission, Terri Lynn Martinson Elton Jan 2007

Congregations As Systems For Empowering Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Hermeneutic For Leading In Mission, Terri Lynn Martinson Elton

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

What are the cultural dynamics within a congregational system that are vital to the empowering of missional leadership? Do Lutherans have anything to contribute to the missional church movement in the United States? These two questions were primary for this dissertation and emerged out of two gaps identified in the missional church literature. Seeing congregations as complex, open systems, missional leadership within congregational systems was studied using a grounded theory, qualitative research approach. The five ELCA congregational systems in this study were identified by their peers as excelling in helping their faith community discover their calling as disciples of Jesus …

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On Enduring Political Authority: Comparing Oliver O’Donovan And The Book Of Revelation, Aaron Perry Jan 2007

On Enduring Political Authority: Comparing Oliver O’Donovan And The Book Of Revelation, Aaron Perry

Journal for Christian Theological Research

The political thought of Oliver O’Donovan is discussed alongside a key text for his thought, the book of Revelation. Specifically I examine the question of God’s providential relationship to enduring political authority. I suggest that while O’Donovan’s work presents a positive relationship between God’s providence and an enduring political authority, the book of Revelation presents a negative relationship, meaning God keeps at bay the forces that would otherwise destabilize political authority. We begin with an introduction to O’Dovovan and his notion of political authority, which is followed by an inductive study of Revelation. I conclude with a comparison of the …

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Creational Ethics Is Public Ethics, Guenther Haas Jan 2007

Creational Ethics Is Public Ethics, Guenther Haas

Journal for Christian Theological Research

This paper presents the framework and key doctrines relevant to public moral engagement as found in the Reformed or neo-Calvinist tradition shaped by Abraham Kuyper and his disciples. My thesis is that Christian ethics is public ethics because it is creational ethics. Christian ethics has a place in the public arena because it is the articulation of the creational moral order that constitutes and guides all human beings. Neo-Calvinism considers the creation order as foundational. The fall of creation and its redemption must be understood in relation to this foundational doctrine. But the creational order also shapes the nature of …

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The Wisdom Of Forgiveness: Singing Like Birds In The Cage With Old King Lear, Janet L. Ramsey, Alan G. Padgett Jan 2007

The Wisdom Of Forgiveness: Singing Like Birds In The Cage With Old King Lear, Janet L. Ramsey, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

Learning to forgive and to be forgiven is a lifelong curriculum from which we never really graduate. Shakespeare’s King Lear can be one guide in this educational process.

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Corps Of Discovery: A Twenty-First-Century Contextual Missiology For The Denominational Church In The United States, Terri L. Elton Jan 2007

Corps Of Discovery: A Twenty-First-Century Contextual Missiology For The Denominational Church In The United States, Terri L. Elton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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“Why Was The Messiah Crucified? A Study Of God, Jesus, Satan, And Human Agency In Johannine Theology.”, Craig R. Koester Jan 2007

“Why Was The Messiah Crucified? A Study Of God, Jesus, Satan, And Human Agency In Johannine Theology.”, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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The Septuagint In The Life Of The Early Church, Lois Farag Oct 2006

The Septuagint In The Life Of The Early Church, Lois Farag

Faculty Publications

Writers of the New Testament and early church considered the Septuagint translation inspired, including those books now regarded as apocryphal by most Protestants.

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"God Is A God Who Bears": Bonhoeffer For A Flat World, Gary M. Simpson Oct 2006

"God Is A God Who Bears": Bonhoeffer For A Flat World, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

This is one of a series of articles in Word & World commemorating the 100th birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer learned in his own time of crisis that “only the suffering God can help.” As God bears us in Christ, we are given the possibility of bearing the burdens of our brothers and sisters.

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A Piece Of Scripture On Part Of The Bible: Listening To Romans 15:1-6, David E. Fredrickson Oct 2006

A Piece Of Scripture On Part Of The Bible: Listening To Romans 15:1-6, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

We think about the Bible best not in abstraction but by looking at particular texts. In Romans 15, Paul, too, looks at a text (Psalm 69) to think about the nature and authority of Scripture.

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Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications From The Theology Of Bonhoeffer, Andrew Root Jul 2006

Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications From The Theology Of Bonhoeffer, Andrew Root

Faculty Publications

Youth ministry often focuses on building relationships between youth ministers and adolescents. But to what end? A relationship designed to influence the other is no relationship and is unworthy of Christ. In a true relationship Christians must be willing fully to share the place of another.

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"Stewards Of God's Mysteries": Stewarding As A Model For Congregational Ministry, Rolf A. Jacobson Jul 2006

"Stewards Of God's Mysteries": Stewarding As A Model For Congregational Ministry, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

Are we members of our congregation or stewards of God’s mysteries? Our model for ministry makes all the difference.

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Disrupting Worship, Dirk G. Lange Apr 2006

Disrupting Worship, Dirk G. Lange

Faculty Publications

Worship is not for some pragmatic or utilitarian purpose. Nor do we offer something in worship in order to receive something in return. Worship is to remember the Christ event, to allow Christ to become “for us” as the gathered Christian assembly.

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What Is Essential In Lutheran Worship?, Steven D. Paulson Apr 2006

What Is Essential In Lutheran Worship?, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

Martin Luther’s simple definition of worship remains valid: “nothing else” need ever happen “except that our dear Lord himself may speak to us through his holy Word and we respond to him through prayer and praise.” The essential moments of public worship are reading, preaching (including the presence and proclamation of Christ in the sacraments), and prayer.

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The Canonical Sense Of Scripture: Trinitarian Or Christocentric?, Alan G. Padgett Jan 2006

The Canonical Sense Of Scripture: Trinitarian Or Christocentric?, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

In this essay I develop a threefold sense for Scripture today: conventional, canonical, and contemporary. This is my “grammar” for evangelical theological hermeneutics. I explore in particular the canonical sense: the level of meaning of the biblical passage read in the light of the whole of Scripture, with Christ as the center and key. In dialogue with the Orthodox, I argue that such a christocentric approach must also be, finally, a Trinitarian one.

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"She Departed To Her House": Another Aspect Of The Syrophoenician Mother's Faith In Mark 7:24-30, Matthew L. Skinner Jan 2006

"She Departed To Her House": Another Aspect Of The Syrophoenician Mother's Faith In Mark 7:24-30, Matthew L. Skinner

Faculty Publications

The Syrophoenician mother stands as an exemplar of faith not because she has so much of it, but because she enacts it so consistently and deeply. Hers is an insistent, perceptive, and trusting faith that provides insight into the faith we exhibit as well.

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Justificación, Sanación Y Responsabilidad, Guillermo C. Hansen Jan 2006

Justificación, Sanación Y Responsabilidad, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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The Relationship Between Theology And Philosophy: Constructing A Christian Worldview, Alan G. Padgett Jan 2006

The Relationship Between Theology And Philosophy: Constructing A Christian Worldview, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Biblical Truth And Theological Education: A Rhetorical Strategy, Patrick R. Keifert Jan 2006

Biblical Truth And Theological Education: A Rhetorical Strategy, Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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God In Civil Society: Prophetic, Sapiential, And Pacific, Gary M. Simpson Jan 2006

God In Civil Society: Prophetic, Sapiential, And Pacific, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Biblical Truth And Theological Education: A Rhetorical Strategy., Patrick R. Keifert Jan 2006

Biblical Truth And Theological Education: A Rhetorical Strategy., Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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A New Heaven And A New Earth: The Case For A Holistic Reading Of The Biblical Story Of Redemption, J. Richard Middleton Jan 2006

A New Heaven And A New Earth: The Case For A Holistic Reading Of The Biblical Story Of Redemption, J. Richard Middleton

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Many Christian voices have proposed that the eternal destiny of the redeemed consists not in a disembodied heaven hereafter, but in the resurrection of the body in the context of a new earth. This paper explores the theological—and especially the exegetical—case for a consistent understanding of redemption as the restoration of God’s creational intent, such that the appropriate hope for the redeemed is life in a renewed earthly creation. The inner theological logic of this position is explored through an integrated reading of the plot structure of the entire biblical metanarrative and by attending to representative New Testament texts that …

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“At The Same Time Blessed And Lame”: Ontology, Christology And Violence In Augustine And John Milbank, Elizabeth Agnew Cochran Jan 2006

“At The Same Time Blessed And Lame”: Ontology, Christology And Violence In Augustine And John Milbank, Elizabeth Agnew Cochran

Journal for Christian Theological Research

In Being Reconciled, John Milbank affirms the necessity of Christ’s atonement for human redemption. Yet his Christological claims are undercut by the ontology that undergirds the narrative he puts forth in Theology and Social Theory. This narrative depends upon the premise that a denial of a positive ontological status for violence lies at the heart of Christianity. A comparison of Theology and Social Theory to Augustine’s The City of God demonstrates that Augustine accepts a form of dialectical ontology that Milbank rejects, and that this dialectical ontology undergirds Augustine’s Christology in crucial ways. Although the differences between Milbank’s …

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Karl Barth Having No-Thing To Hope For, John C. Mcdowell Jan 2006

Karl Barth Having No-Thing To Hope For, John C. Mcdowell

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Barth's work on eschatology certainly deserves more critical prominence than it has frequently been given. He encourages theologians to think much more carefully about what it is to hope as a Christian, or, better, as one whose determination and responsibility are ecclesially learned and performed in witness to God’s coming in Jesus Christ. The challenge that his material puts to much that passes for Christian talk of hope is pronounced and radical. In particular, he challenges the very kind objectivity of hope that makes what Christians hope for just another object; and in so doing, although I will focus …

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Practical Theology As Social Ethical Action In Christian Ministry: Implications From Emmanuel Levinas And Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Andrew Root Jan 2006

Practical Theology As Social Ethical Action In Christian Ministry: Implications From Emmanuel Levinas And Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Andrew Root

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Generic Protestantism: The Gospel's Embrace Of Culture?, Alan G. Padgett Jan 2006

Generic Protestantism: The Gospel's Embrace Of Culture?, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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The Augustinian Imperfection: Faith, Christ, And Imputation And Its Role In The Ecumenical Discussion Of Justification, Steven D. Paulson Jan 2006

The Augustinian Imperfection: Faith, Christ, And Imputation And Its Role In The Ecumenical Discussion Of Justification, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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"I Am The Truth": An Understanding Of Truth From Christology For Scripture, Alan G. Padgett Jan 2006

"I Am The Truth": An Understanding Of Truth From Christology For Scripture, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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