Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Editorial: The Task Ahead, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

September marks the beginning of a new academic year at Concordia Seminary and provides a natural stimulus to look at the task ahead of us. It promises to be an exciting year: a major task force is subjecting the total curriculum to analysis. We may not recognize the place after they are through. This would be good in the eyes of many pastors, students, and faculty. The students set another ball of curriculur revision in motion last year. Unfortunately, only one-third of that group will be on campus this year. In the judgment of some, the Denver convention of The …

The Mission On Which We Are Sent, Paul E. Jacobs

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Affirmations on the Mission of the Church which The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod adopted at the Detroit convention in 1965 are part of the evidence of the ongoing struggle of one part of the church to understand what and why the church is in the world. The struggle has not been easy nor has it been without conflict. The affirmations call us to see the church's mission in terms of people rather than church structures. They compel us to wrestle with the standards of comfort and convenience by which we continually serve ourselves. They plead with us to …

The Particularity Of The Gospel: Good News For Changing Times, John H. Elliott

Concordia Theological Monthly

Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me." In this transitional period of modern history when change and change by revolution are the order of the day, the plaintive plea of the popular hymn seems to assume an ever more urgent note. But the question is this: How effectively, if at all, can the notion of the unchangeableness of God expressed in this hymn aid an atomic age society in coping with population explosions, sexual, racial, and campus revolutions, and the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation? Can men of our time indeed …

The Gospel And The Ecumenical Movement, Robert P. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The first conference on "Life and Work," held in Stockholm in 1925, appealed to Christians to repent the divisions among them and to make the gospel the decisive power in all areas of life. This conference - the "Nicea of ethics," as it came to be called-was not summoned to discuss the theological or dogmatic questions which divide the churches; it was called to address the churches' task of working together in the public life. The invitation declared the world situation to be so serious that Christians could not afford to await the reunion of churches before setting "hearts and …

The Gospel Promise To Abraham, Norman C. Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

"How were the people in the Old Testament saved?" That question is raised by students of the Scriptures in many contexts. The wary teacher usually responds by asking for a definition of the word "saved." A related question is posed this way: ''What is the nature of the gospel in the Old Testament?" Such queries open the door to a flood of concerns about the relationship between the Testaments. That flood will not abate in the wake of this brief article. The ravens and doves of biblical theology will hardly be satisfied with anything less than a preservation of past …

Gospel Freedom, Robert H. Smith

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Western world has understood freedom in two basic ways. For one school of thought freedom is the right and the power to do what one wishes. A man is not free if he is behind bars or in a captive nation or lying crippled in a hospital - no matter what his state of mind. Persons or powers beyond his control dispose his life and dictate orders to him, and to say that he is free is to play fast and loose with the language.

The Gospel In The Medieval Church, Carl A. Volz

Concordia Theological Monthly

A curious phenomenon of Protestant and Lutheran historiography since the 17th century has been a studied neglect of the millennium labeled by Renaissance scholars as the "Middle Ages." One reason for this indifference lies in the popular notion that the Reformation was preceded by a thousand years of sub-Christian superstition during which the strong Pauline accent of justification by grace through faith on account of Christ was almost totally ignored. By coloring these centuries dark, the reformers tend to stand in bolder relief as heroic men of God who appeared to correct long-standing abuses in the church. The more sharply …

Freedom In Christ-Gift And Demand, Edgar Krentz

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Freedom," a word we often hear and a concept we highly prize, is surprisingly rare in the New Testament. A rapid survey of the words eleutheria, eleutheria, and eleutheros in a concordance will show that in any sense other than the sociological (free man as opposed to slave) the term is practically confined to Paul. He is the only one to use freedom consistently in a religious sense.

Justification By Works: Fate And The Gospel In The Roman Empire, Robert L. Wilken

Concordia Theological Monthly

A prominent theme in the Christian writings of the second and third centuries is that men are "rewarded and punished according to the quality of their works." It is sounded in the middle of the second century by Justin Martyr in his First Apology: "We have learned from the prophets and declare as the truth, that penalties and punishments and good rewards are given according to the quality of each man's action." A century later, Origen, in Contra Celsum, lists this belief as an article of faith alongside the resurrection and virgin birth.

Editorial, George W. Hoyer, Arthur Carl Piepkorn, Herbert M. Zorn, Oliver R. Harms

Concordia Theological Monthly

Denver, Theological Comments

Will the Decision on Fellowship at Denver Make a Difference?

Fellowship and the Younger Sister Churches

Synodical Conventions: A Theological Perspective

Documentation: A Response To Some Critical Questions, Reuben C. Baerwald

Concordia Theological Monthly

Many critical questions have been raised about Synod’s New York resolution on fellowship with the American Lutheran Church(ALC). These questions challenge the reality of the doctrinal agreement and point to many problems and differences in church practice. The following material picks up many of these questions (some from a widely distributed essay, “To Join or Not to Join,” by Robert Preus), and provides a positive response.

Theses On Ecumenical Truth And Heresy, John George Huber

Concordia Theological Monthly

Out of love and zeal for both truth and unity, the following theses are presented to my beloved colleagues in the Southern California District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as a constructive contribution to the current debate on altar and pulpit fellowship. They do not represent an official policy, but are only a personal, unofficial opinion offered for exploratory discussion. They reflect the "hernial stance" of one who lives in the tension of obedience to Jesus Christ while simultaneously remaining a responsible member of a changing synod and a changing world.

A Survey Of Trends And Problems In Biblical Interpretation, Edgar Krentz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Any man fool enough to accept the assignment described in the title above deserves his fate. He is like the mythological traveler approaching ancient Thebes. To go forward means to meet the Sphinx and her dread riddle; to miss the answer means to be thrown headlong down a precipitous cliff and face destruction. Yet the possibility that one may deprive Oedipus of his glory by answering the riddle leads one to trudge along the dusty path under the hot sun.

The Christian Faith And Revelation, Fred Kramer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Christian faith rests solidly on God's own revelation of Himself and of His will with respect to man. Divine revelation is an act of God, not subject as such to the correction of the philosopher. Divine revelation has, however, a human correlative, namely theology. Theology, as the word is here used, is the church's speaking and teaching about God and His will. It is not itself revelation, which is always God's activity, but the church's speaking and teaching based upon divine revelation and therefore subject to correction, where it may need correction, on the basis of divine revelation.

Reflections On Bonhoeffer's Theology, Otto W. Heick

Concordia Theological Monthly

The difficulty of presenting a "theology of Bonhoeffer" which tries to relate organically the later fragmentary writings of Bonhoeffer to the more comprehensive studies of his earlier period has been recognized in a number of major studies since 1960. The famous essay on cheap grace written in 1937 protested against grace without discipleship and faith without obedience, drawing a sharp line of demarcation between the world and the community of saints.

Legalism In An Evangelical Church, J. P. Koehler

Concordia Theological Monthly

The essay that follows developed from a remark that the author made at one of the larger intersynodical conferences. The remark was to the effect that there is much legalism rampant in our circles, that the result is stagnation and retrogression in all areas of church life, and that for this reason sincere and general repentance is necessary before we may anticipate a turn for the better. The expression "legalism in our circles" was not generally understood. It was intended to describe one aspect of all our activity in thought, speech, and endeavor, based on a comprehensive observation of life …

The Realism Of Hope: The Feast Of The Resurrection And The Transformation Of The Present Reality, Jurgen Moltmann, Gilbert A. Thiele

Concordia Theological Monthly

Some of the great festivals that Christians (in our country) celebrate appeal to us, some do not. In a way we respond to some of them, but others estrange us: we do not know what to do with them. Many people obviously feel that Christmas has value for them. Regardless of what they think about it, they nevertheless have the feeling that God comes close to them again and that in His nearness they find human warmth. The "Totensonntag" (Sunday of repentance and prayer, last in the Trinity season) affects people who mourn their dead. We can even understand Good …

The Authority Of Scripture, Kent S. Knutson

Concordia Theological Monthly

We in the American Lutheran Church hope and pray that The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Denver will take that step which is necessary for full altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Lutheran Church. As we understand it, you have already decided in convention assembled that the basis for such fellowship exists, but you must take this one more step. We are all acquainted with the complexities of American Lutheranism in the last hundred years, and we all know some of the misunderstandings and some of the real disagreements which have been among us in the decades of the past. …

Haggadah In Jewish Bible Study, Etan B. Levine

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christian Biblical interpreters adopted and adapted the interpretative principles and methods of their Jewish and Greek teachers and neighbors whenever and insofar as they judged them to be compatible with the Biblical text. One method of Scriptural interpretation and application in Judaism was that of Haggadah. Jesus used a form of this method when in Matt. 12:1-7 He added an interpretative story (Haggadah) about David and his soldiers to the Biblical principle that Yahweh desires mercy and not sacrifice.

The History Of A Joint Catechism: Progress In India, Herbert M. Zorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

Efforts toward union have generally been characterized by emphasis either on "order" or "faith." To epitomize these emphases with the phrases "union first, agreement later" and "agreement first, union later" approaches caricature; but it does serve to indicate the direction in which each emphasis is headed. Both these emphases seem to partake of the same weakness, the supposition that the other side, somehow or other, will be taken care of. The "union first" supposes that agreement will grow out of union; "agreement first" supposes that a series of agreed propositions is going to take care of the organizational problems of …

Four Correlations Of The Revelation Of God And The Witness Of God, Arthur M. Vincent

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christian scholars of many ages have often found "the revelation of God" and "the witness of God" among the major concepts needing study and application to their times. Modern theologians, under the influence especially of Karl Barth, have shown some of the depth and breadth of these topics. Now the Second Vatican Council with its pronouncements, including the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, has brought these subjects into the limelight for current consideration.

Theological Education: Crisis And Renewal, David S. Schuller

Concordia Theological Monthly

The institutions of higher learning in the United States of America are undergoing rapid and profound changes. Theological education, for the most part, senses this feeling of change in the air but has been hesitant as to how to move. In many quarters the pressures for change are increasing; a rising sense of uneasiness is building. But the future appears indistinct enough so that those who should be exerting leadership on the level of the local seminary and denomination are pleading for more time.

Brief Studies, Herbert J. Bouman, Erwin L. Lueker, Arthur Carl Piepkorn, Donald Heinz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Lay Workers in The Church

Brief Translation Note on John 15:19

Race And The Institutional Church (Reading Programs In Theology), Robert L. Conrad

Concordia Theological Monthly

The bewildered Christian, viewing the relatively recent and rapid progress of the American Negro, may ask: ''What more does the Negro want?" The black's reply to that question is likely to be, "What have you got?" Such a reply indicates the fact that a revolution becomes more demanding as the gap is narrowed. But the gap has been narrowed only in certain respects. The Negro has made gains in having but not in belonging. In fact, things seem worse in the latter area. In view of all this, the great mass of Christians is confused and inert.

Notes On "Spirit-Baptism" And "Prophetic Utterance", Victor Bartling

Concordia Theological Monthly

The two subjects in the title fall into the difficult area of Pneumatology and are prompted by what is called the modern "charismatic" or "Pentecostal" movement. Both subjects deal with the exceptional gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early church usually called "charisms" (charismata). Strictly speaking all gifts of the Spirit are supernatural, Spirit-given, hence charismatic, so, for example, also the three basic endowments granted to all Christians: faith, hope, love. In the following notes, for the sake of convenience, we shall call the exceptional gifts (for example, "speaking in tongues" and "prophecy") "charismatic," and the spiritual endowments granted …

In Many, Much, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Pastors of large churches have always had to suffer from well-meaning brothers who masked their sometimes subconscious envy behind a hearty "I'll bet you just wear yourself out on that big job." In addition, two movements of thought have recently bedeviled them. One is that God is dead, and perhaps the whole operation should be turned into a used-car lot. The other is that the parish is dead, that it is a shame for people to come on a Sunday and be comforted when they ought to give up all and live in tenements. In all three corrosive comments is …

Brief Studies, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Inter-Lutheran Relations: A Bibliographical Study

Editorial, Alfred O. Fuerbringer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Before the balloting took place at the national Republican and Democratic party conventions last August, all who watched the proceedings saw roving reporters continually buttonholing delegates, party bigwigs, and candidates, checking on rumors, inquiring about developments, asking for opinions, and frequently winding up with "What's your prediction?" The national election and the days immediately preceding it will no doubt bring many a repetition of that question.

Our Common Confession And Its Implications For Today, Robert Bertram

Concordia Theological Monthly

What is it that our confession, or rather the God we confess, is revolutionizing? What is He overturning and replacing? Our sin with His righteousness? Yes, but not only that. Our old world with His new world? That too, but not only that. The tyrants and principalities of this age with His new age? Not even only that. What He is replacing is His own old order - old, yet truly His.

Editorial, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

One's opinion on the proposed altar and pulpit fellowship with The American Lutheran Church should lend itself to singing, for a "Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot." It's a good criterion by which to evaluate Christian thought and life. A Christian should be a living alleluia in his relationship to his fellow Christian, a living alleluia in his relationship to non-Christians.