History of Christianity Commons^™

The Free Conferences Of 1903-1906 And The Concept Of Analogia Fidei, Martin W. Flor

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has been charged many times with practicing separatism, and this in almost every phase of its history. The church historian Guericke even judged the Saxon emigration to be a movement of such a nature. One fact which refutes this accusation is that from the very beginning Missouri was eager to hold so-called free conferences, the ultimate goal of which was the establishing of doctrinal unity and possibly of church fellowship.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

The Posting Of Luther’S Theses - Legend Or Fact?, Franz Lau

Concordia Theological Monthly

Less than 10 years ago a discussion began over the posting of Luther's Ninety-five Theses, some doubting that it actually took place on the traditional day of October 31, 1517, some going so far as to contend that the posting never happened and is only a legend. Ten years ago, in the summer of 1957 at the Lutheran World Federation Meeting in Minneapolis, I was one of those who saw a young Sunday school teacher, impersonating Luther, on a float in a parade vigorously nail a copy of the Ninety-five Theses on a stage door depicting the one of Wittenberg. …

Some Animadversions On Early Church Government, E. G. Weltin

Concordia Theological Monthly

Throughout the entire history of the Western church, two poles of episcopal government, the primatial and the collegial, have struggled to find some sort of equilibrium. At one time, as during the 15th century conciliar movement, the pendulum swung far in the collegial direction; at another, as in the 19th-century Vatican council, wide in the primatial. Vatican II seems to have been concerned with prospects of confining the pendulum's movement in the future to a more restricted arc.

The Early Success And Gradual Decline Of Lutheranism In England, 1520-1600, Basil Hall

Concordia Theological Monthly

This calendar was an unofficial enterprise intended to oppose the names of "Protestant saints" to those of "Popish saints" in the traditional calendars in Elizabethan use, and it cannot be taken to mean that a deep or ready sympathy existed for Lutheran doctrine and religious practices at that time. In fact it would be difficult to find an Elizabethan writer approving of Lutheran teachings and methods of worship and advocating them apart from those subjects which had become common to Protestantism, including justification by faith.

Approved Workman: In Memoriam John Theodore Mueller, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

God uses the men with whom we live and work to write things into our lives; He works their message into the stuff of our biographies. Not all men qualify as pens of the Ready Writer; not all have hearts that indite a goodly matter. These fill our pages with the futile tracery of their flattery, the evanescent lines of amusement, the easy curves of casual camaraderie, or the acid etchings of their spite. But there are those who are good and honest pens in the Almighty Hand, and God says notable things to us through them. He uses men …

Aspects Of Change In The Postapostolic Church, Carl Volz

Concordia Theological Monthly

A question sometimes posed by aides of dogmatic development within the church is this, “Would St. Peter have understood the technical Christological terms employed by the Nicene Creed or the Chalcedonian Formula?" Assuming that the answer is no, the questioner proceeds to insist that the development of dogma therefore represents a change, if not a deterioration of the pristine Gospel. Adolph von Harnack's well-known "fall of the church" theory is based on the assumption of a radical discontinuity between the kerygma of the Beatitudes and the dogma of later centuries. Somewhere and somehow, to use Chesterton's phrase, "the puppy became …

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 Canonist "Panormitanus" And The Problem Of Scriptural Authority, Hermann Schessler

Concordia Theological Monthly

The ecumenical discussions of recent years have made it apparent that one of the major issues-if not the major issue- between Roman Catholics and Protestants is still the problem of Scriptural authority. In the dialog with Roman Catholics we are confronted with what appears to be a dilemma. Roman Catholics will ask this question: How is it possible to preserve the purity and plenitude of revelation and even the very authority of the Scriptures without the magisterial authority of the church?

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.

Vatican Council Ii Addresses Protestantism, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Second Vatican Council made no overt bid to all Christians to return to Rome. It did not condemn those outside the Roman Church. Instead, the Council spoke kindly to those who are not under the jurisdiction of the Pope. The pronouncements of the Council about nonRoman-Catholics are earnest and deserve serious attention. Although they are not addressed directly to Protestantism, they speak about Protestantism and in that sense they may be regarded as being addressed also to Protestants.

Scripture, Tradition, And Authority In The Life Of The Early Church, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Among the many theological topics being discussed in the church today, none is potentially more helpful - and more complex- than the related topics of Scripture, tradition, and authority. What role does each of these basic concepts play in the work in the parish? In the ecumenical movement? How do they relate to each other?

The Eclipse Of Lutheranism In 17th-Century Czechoslovakia, Marianka Sasha Fousek

Concordia Theological Monthly

This article is concerned with the fate of Lutheranism in "Czechoslovakia" in the 17th century. I am using the somewhat anachronistic name "Czechoslovakia" for this area as a convenient symbol for both the Czech lands, that is, the crown lands of Bohemia, and the Slovak territory under Hungary. The Czech lands, often referred to also as the crown lands of St. Wenceslas, included Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia. Slovakia on the other hand belonged to the Hungarian crown of St. Stephen ever since the Magyar invasion of the Danube valley in the 11th century. Thus in spite of the close …

The Braunschweig Theses On The Teaching And Mission Of The Church, Paul M. Bretscher (Translator)`

Concordia Theological Monthly

In an accelerating tempo, theologically and doctrinally false teachings are infiltrating the life and proclamation of the These teachings claim that since they derive from a so-called "existential interpretation" of Biblical passages, they are the only way in which the proclamation of the Gospel can be made relevant and do justice to man's current understanding of the present world.

Christianity And Nichiren In Japan, Donald Neiswender

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is a force building up in Japan which has a most threatening aspect, no matter whether one views it from East or West, from the base of the church or the base of communism. The throbbing nationalism of this force is antithetical both to the unity needed among free nations and to the enforced internationalism of communism. And since this force is preeminently a religious force, it must appear terribly anachronistic to a believing and practicing communist who believes that man is outgrowing his need of religion. It is also a heart-breaking phenomenon to behold from the viewpoint of …

Luther Against Erasmus, James I. Packer

Concordia Theological Monthly

On Sept. 6, 1524, Desiderius Erasmus, the foremost literary man of his day, sat in his study writing a letter to a distinguished friend and patron, Henry VIII, King of England. In the course of his letter came the words: ''The die is cast. The little book on free-will has seen the light of day." He was referring to his Diatribe seu collatio de libero arbitrio ("Discussion or Conference Concerning Free Will"), which had been published at Basel five days earlier. He wrote more truly than he knew. The die was now cast indeed. A Rubicon had been crossed, and …

The Theologian's Craft, John Warwick Montgomery

Concordia Theological Monthly

Scientists are generally at a loss to know precisely what theologians do. Mailmen deliver letters; bartenders serve numerous varieties of firewater; otorhinolaryngologists concern themselves with throats, ears, and noses: but what exactly do theologians endeavor to accomplish? The aura of mystery surrounding theological activity troubles not merely the scientist, who generally has a clear-eyed view of his own professional function, but also the so-called "average man," who, though his awareness of his own role in life may be exceedingly vague, is even more troubled by the peculiarities of "religious" vocations. The wry comment of the parishioner, ''We take care of …

Martin Chemnitz' Views On Trent: The Genesis And The Genius Of The Examen Concilii Tridentini, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

"In recent centuries one or the other of [the] pillars supporting the Tridentine system have appeared to tremble, but as a whole the system has always survived the various crises which had only brought about certain individual degenerations. Beginning with 1958-1959, through a whole concourse of historical and spiritual factors, and certainly under an impulse of the Holy Spirit, the [Roman] Catholic Church (and more generally the entire Christian world) abandoned the Tridentine system on all fundamental themes. The brief intervening time cannot distract us from the global dimensions and the definitive significance of this abandonment."

A Checklist Of Luther's Writings In English, George S. Robbert

Concordia Theological Monthly

A Checklist of Luther's Writings in English

The Ecumenical Century And The Parish, Alvin N. Rogness

Concordia Theological Monthly

I am not audacious enough to think that I can say anything new or solve any of the many problems which our day enforces upon us. I hope I may call into focus some of the issues that face us now and others that assuredly will be upon us in acute shape in the years ahead. At the outset I want in all candor to say that I am more terrified than exhilarated by the ministry which my son and his generation must face in the next 40 years. And it follows that I must confess that I have no …

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 …

Mammon For Moravian Missions, William J. Danker

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Christian world mission has preached the Gospel and established churches. It has healed the sick and opened hospitals. It has taught those who sought education in the schools it conducted. But it has often shrunk back from structuring a forthright ministry to men's economic needs.

Dr. George V. Schick, Walter R. Roehrs

Concordia Theological Monthly

Dr. George V. Schick