Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Fortuita Misericordia:
 Luther On The Unchosen Figures In The Patriarchal History As Shown In His Lectures On Genesis, Chan-U "Vincent" Kam

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

In this study, we attend to Luther’s Lectures on Genesis with a specific focus—Luther’s idea of fortuita misericordiaand his view of the unchosen figures in Genesis, including Cain, Hagar, Ishmael, Esau, and the Egyptians. We suggest that Luther’s use of fortuita misericordia and his treatment of the unchosen exemplify the highpoint of his evangelical theology.

Fortuita misericordia can be understood in two ways, one personal, and another salvation-historical. Regarding the person, fortuita misericordia is part of Luther’s explanation for why God generously spared some from deserved punishment, and instead provided temporal subsistence and blessings. Regarding salvation-history, fortuita misericordiaopens …

The Source And Application Of Thomas Müntzer's Theology Of Divination In His Marginal Notes On Tertullian, Roger Drinnon

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Drinnon, Roger A. “The Source and Application of Thomas Müntzer’s Theology of Divinization in His Marginal Notes on Tertullian.” Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2021. 101 pp.

Traditional Lutheran and Marxist interpretations of Thomas Müntzer inadequately account for Müntzer’s theology and practice. The doctrine of the order of creation tied Müntzer’s theology and practice together. According to the order of creation, the goal of the material world was to return to God at the end of time. Müntzer’s writings on the order of creation stated the doctrine was the central tenet of Christianity. By returning to God, Müntzer believed the creation would …

In Search Of The Best Practices In Preaching On Christian Stewardship, Mitchel Schuessler

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Pastors are challenged to preach Christian stewardship within their parishes in a way that they not only overcome the personal and congregational biases against stewardship sermons, but will also assist their congregations to the grow in their knowledge of stewardship and help them to become better Christian stewards. This project sought to find pastors that have discovered ways to preach stewardship that increased the congregational stewardship life and assisted individual members to become better stewards. This study intends to help the parish pastor to learn how to address stewardship on a regular basis, be more confident in his preaching of …

A Lutheran Response To The Role Of Healing And The Healer In African Independent Churches, Jasper Olawo

Master of Art Theology Thesis

A conversation with a parishioner, who left the church when her son was suffering from epilepsy and claims he could not be healed even after a series of prayers from her Lutheran pastor, revealed the extent of the influence of African Independent Churches (AICs) among members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK). Many people in Kenya who are suffering from chronic illnesses find it difficult to maintain their faith in such moments of crises and are tempted to seek quick remedies from AICs’ healers. These healers claim that salvation and the healing of the body are not separate …

Messiahship And Discipleship, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The question of discipleship in the synoptics is really a question of what it means to be a faithful member of God’s people of Israel. In late Second Temple Judaism the answer to this question was by no means obvious. For some, such as the Pharisees, the answer was to follow the traditions of the elders fastidiously in every area of life (cf. Matt 15:2). For others, such as the Qumran community, the answer was to escape the sinful compromise of modern Israel and create a pure community in the desert. For others, such as the zealots and other revolutionaries, …

Cd Poem, Christian Dollar

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Poetry composed by Christian Dollar.

Sanctification And Ecclesiology, Gregory Moffitt

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The question of the nature of the Christian community is complex, with farreaching implications. For instance, the way in which we conceive the Christian community impacts how we think about questions such as the sanctification of the individual as he or she lives out their vocation as a part of the community. In this paper I will examine how Dietrich Bonhoeffer discussed the Christian community, focusing particularly upon how he discusses questions concerning ecclesiology and sanctification in his Discipleship and Life Together.

Letter From The Chairman, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

It’s almost certainly a cliché at this point, but it’s been an incredibly long year and a half for all of us. This year’s fourth year class was forced to learn alongside their churches how to do ministry in the midst of a pandemic. This year’s vicars will have done their entire vicarages during a pandemic. Even though we’ve been inperson for classes, things have still been markedly different on campus. Classrooms are socially distanced and have even been conducted online at times. The usual events that characterize the seminary calendar have been mostly gone. Even outside of the pandemic …

Reflections On The Dangers, Christian Dollar

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The culture is changing. Such a statement is as obvious and non-controversial as they come. No matter what side one fights for in the innumerable culture wars being simultaneously waged in our country and world, all can agree on one thing: the morals, rituals, beliefs, and behaviors of wide swaths of people are changing. New morals are crashing into old ones. Old beliefs are being revitalized, and behaviors once thought unimaginable or relegated to distant lands are being championed at home. Infinitely more controversial than the presence of cultural change is what exactly culture is. For the sake of simplicity …

A Christ Poem, Hayden Brown

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Hayden Brown.

Expense For Just Their Kind, Cody Macmillin

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Poetry composed by Cody MacMillan.

Faithfully Unmasked, Cody Macmillin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Church has found herself in a difficult situation these past twelve months. Wrestling with the practical concerns of gathering safely and legal restrictions on worship, many Christians have found themselves in some form of spiritual exile. They have been isolated from the people who would otherwise demonstrate God’s love and care. The voices that once sang together in their sanctuaries have since been muted for fear of feedback in their monitors, and the Christians who have found the courage to attend in-person worship are now met with floating eyes over choking cloth. Indeed, the oft-debated and dreaded drapery which …

Behind The Mask Of God, Cody Macmillin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Cody MacMillan.

Grapho 2021, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The complete Grapho for 2021.

Íconos E Imágenes Sagrados, Gerardo Cruces Pérez

Artículos educación teológica

Íconos e imágenes sagrados

The Role Of The African Church In The 21st Century Global Mission: A Case Study Of The Eecmy Global Mission Venture And Economic Mindset, Wondimu M. Game

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Jesus Christ inaugurated and commissioned his church to be a missionary until the end of the world. Thus, the church is missionary by her very nature. The modern mission paradigm was from the West to the rest. But, in this 21^st century, the mission has shifted from the global North to the global South; this massive shift has anchored the global South as the heartland of Christianity and the force of mission. This mission shift also demands the paradigm shift of both global north and south. Although the African church has played a pivotal role in the church history, …

“I Said, You Are Gods”: Pastoral Motives Manifest In Patristic Citations Of Psalm 82:6, Charles Schulz

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The early church fathers frequently cited Ps. 82:6 (LXX 81:6), “I said, You are gods and all sons of the Most High,” a passage Jesus himself quoted (John 10:34) to defend his own title as the Son of God. Scholars agree that the patristic use of verse underwrote the developing doctrine of deification, which promised that Christians would become “gods” in some sense by bearing God’s image and likeness and participating in Christ and his saving work. In order to deepen and focus our understanding of the significance and role of this passage for patristic theology—and particularly for pastoral practice—this …

Chrysostom And Luther On The Intergenerational Character Of The Faith: Retrieving The God-Designed Parental Role In The Transmission Of The Faith To The Next Generation, Charles Samuel Voigt Ledebuhr, Charles Samuel Voigt Ledebuhr Mr.

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Ledebuhr, Charles S. V. “Chrysostom and Luther on the Intergenerational Character of the Faith: Retrieving the God-Designed Parental Role in the Transmission of the Faith to the Next Generation.” MA Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2020. 167 pp.

Although hardly anyone would argue against the importance of parents in the faith formation of their children or that God commanded parents to pass on the faith to their children, there is still a clear tendency in the church to concentrate the teaching of the faith around the temple and the pastor rather than giving to the home and the parents the proper attention …

Demonology According To The Universal Church Of The Kingdom Of God Three Important Aspects And A Lutheran Response, George Felten

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Felten, George, C. “Demonology According to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: Three Important Aspects and a Lutheran Response.” MA Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2020. 145pp.

Demonology should not be the center of a church’s theological center or modus operandi, but it should not be denied or avoided either. While the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), a prominent neo-Pentecostal Brazilian church, makes too much of demonology, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) seems to make too little of it. Yet this need not be the case. This thesis will analyze three aspects of IURD’s demonology, …

The Sword & The Mask: Toward A Confessional Lutheran Account Of Spiritual Warfare, Jon Furgeson

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Furgeson, Jon C. “The Sword and the Mask: Toward a Confessional Lutheran Theology of Spiritual Warfare.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2020. pp. "[Number of pages]"

This dissertation, a work in Trinitarian & ecclesial theology, seeks to recover the foundations of a full doctrine of spiritual warfare. Considering seeming disparate voices such as Walter Wink, C. Peter Wagner, John Kleinig, Gustav Wingren, and Leopoldo A. Sánchez, this dissertation asserts a constructive and integrative approach to spiritual warfare wherein the warfare is only enacted by the fallen powers of the sinful nature, the fallen world, and the fallen angels. This warfare is …

The Christian Family: Implications Of Familial Language For The Identity Of The Church, Rebekah Lukas

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Lukas, Rebekah L. “The Christian Family: Implications of Familial Language for the Identity of the Church.” M.A. thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2020. 85 pp.

The family is a prominent image for the identity of the Church. Biblical language reflects the truth that the Church is a family, and God’s promises include familial rhetoric. For Christians, God is “Our Father who art in heaven,” and Jesus is our brother. Christians are made “sons of God” through Baptism, becoming a member of the whole family of God. These are essential aspects of the Christian’s identity. When the Church neglects its use of this …

Contemporary Confessional Commitment: A Models-Based Approach With A Particular Focus On Global South Lutheranism, Roberto Bustamante

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Bustamante, Roberto E. “Contemporary Confessional Commitment: A Models-Based Approach with a Particular Focus on Global South Lutheranism.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 297 pp.

Current scholarly research on creeds and confessions is in a paradoxical situation. We live in a golden age of such research because of its growing findings and new contributions, but at the same time we are experiencing what is arguably the deepest crisis in terms of confessional alliance and semantic clarity. Additionally, Global South Lutheranism is in a search of identity and legitimate reasons that may justify ascribing the Lutheran Confessions a relevant role in shaping …

Investigating The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ-A New Transdisciplinary Approach, Andrew Loke

Ebooks

This book offers a new contribution by addressing issues using a transdisciplinary approach, that is, one which integrates different disciplines—in this case, historical-critical studies of the Bible, psychology, comparative religion, analytic philosophy, and theology—to create a new methodology that moves beyond discipline-specific approaches to address a problem. Utilizing an original analytical framework, I shall demonstrate that a logically exhaustive list of categories of hypotheses in relation to the claims of Jesus’ post-mortem appearances and the outcome of Jesus’ body can be formulated—indeed, this would be the first monograph on Jesus’ resurrection to demonstrate a comprehensive coverage of all the categories …

Recapitulation And Christ’S Active Obedience A Lutheran Retrieval Of Irenaeus, Andrew Bloch

Master of Art Theology Thesis

That will conclude the discussion on theologians and their views of the active obedience of Christ. Next, we will look back to the Reformation. Georg Karg questions the imputation of Christ’s active obedience. Through a historical lens, there could be merit to what Karg argues. This will lead to the problem with which this thesis is concerned: Is the active obedience of Christ necessary? Some of the theologians discussed below suggest that the active obedience of Christ is something that can be discarded from the atonement with no major consequences (or even perhaps that removing it strengthens the theology of …

Luther's Small Haiku, Jaron Melin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Jaron Melin.

Burying Jeremiah, Adelphos Mikroteros

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Narrative composed by Adelphos Mikroteros.

Walther On Confessional Agreement And Church Fellowship, Christian J. Einertson

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

In its report, Church Relations in the 21st Century,1 the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) addresses many of the challenges faced by the Missouri Synod as she enters a new era of global interconnection and is consequently confronted with a variety of church bodies near and far who seek support from, cooperation with, and even altar-and-pulpit fellowship with her. In this report, the CTCR helpfully points out that the differing histories of other church bodies around the world have caused their assumptions regarding ecumenical relationships to differ from those of the Missouri Synod, which were themselves shaped by …

How Embodied Human Creatures Converse Online, David Edwards

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Have you ever noticed just how much you can learn about what a person has going on in life without asking them a single question? All you have to do is hop on Facebook, scroll through twitter, or scan Instagram and you can see updates on everything! From the birth of a first child to the death of a loved one, from their favorite new show to Fantasy Football failures, it is pretty easy to learn a lot about a person and their life today with only so much as a couple of clicks on a screen or a keyboard.

Historical Deficiencies And Present Needs, Jordan Voges

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The second decade of the twenty-first century is drawing to a close. In the realm of the sciences, round-the-clock work continues to discover whatever might fill in the next paradigmatic gap, cure some heretofore fatal disease, or make the tabloid headlines.1 If the recent past is any indicator, from the discovery of the Higgs Particle at CERN to the enamoring photos of the Pluto system and Ultima Thule by the aptly named New Horizons space probe, science has and will continue to stir excitement in the global public.

A Triptych Of Hymns, Kyle Ronchetto

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Kyle Ronchetto.