Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Covenant And Justification In The Old Testament, Walter R. Roehrs

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Lutheran World Federation convention at Helsinki in 1963 was not able to reach agreement on a formulation of the doctrine of justification. This lack of agreement, it is said, does not imply disagreement regarding the doctrine itself, but it resulted from the inability to formulate or present this basic teaching of Scripture to modern man in such a way as to speak to him in terms that are relevant and pertinent to him. This difficulty arises, it is said, particularly because modern man no longer asks Luther's question: "How do I find a gracious God?" but asks: "Is there …

Problems Of Messianic Interpretation, Alfred Von Rohr Roehrs

Concordia Theological Monthly

As Christian scholars consider problems of Biblical interpretation, it is well that they pause and take note of areas of agreement that have been reached, and also spell out differences that still exist. It was pointed out recently that a considerable area of agreement has been reached in this field among exegetes of various denominations.

Editorial, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

This Issue represents a new venture for this journal. At the request of the Commission on Church Literature of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod a special 96-page issue devoted entirely to Old Testament studies was planned. The issue is beamed at parish pastors and Old Testament scholars. We hope that it will serve two purposes: (1) to make dear what much of the shouting is about in the field of Old Testament studies, and (2) to help the man who wishes to preach the Old Testament with greater effectiveness.

The Old Testament In The Pulpit, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

How much should the pastor preach from the Old Testament? Probably the general answer should be: More than he has been doing. A brief review of sermon study series and sermon books published for pastors of The Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod reveals an average of four or five New Testament studies for each Old Testament text.

Old Testament Theology As Heilsgcschichte, Arlis John Ehlene

Concordia Theological Monthly

An important group of Old Testament scholars in Germany and America is currently making copious use of the term Heilsgeschichte and the ideas associated with it. Avoided until recently by scientific theologians as suggestive of Biblicism and obscurantism, it has staged a comeback as a key word in some of the most respected scholarly circles.

Dangerous Trends In Modern Theological Thought, K. Runia

Concordia Theological Monthly

When we approach the problem of demythologizing from this starting point, it is beyond question that the Bible rejects every attempt in this direction.

Editorial, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Number One Question confronting most Christian denominations today is the hermeneutical question. A basic hermeneutical question in the minds of many is that of the origin, nature, and purpose of the Scriptures. The debates about inspiration, revelation, and inerrancy indicate this. The fruitfulness of some of the revived emphases in hermeneutics is revealed by Maynard Dorow in the first article in this issue.

Editorial, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Changing of the Guard

The Men of Missouri

Jesus Christ: Conservative And Liberal, Erwin L. Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Politicians, intellectuals, artists, businessmen, and also theologians are often classified as conservative or liberal. Some are even classified as radical, a term which in its basic meaning is better used to describe the thoroughgoing consistency of both the conservative and the liberal. In naive thought the conservative is the person who sees great value in a situation as it is and seeks to preserve it. The liberal, on the other hand, is a person who sees greater value in new methods, in new thoughts and in new structures. He seeks continually to be in the vanguard of those who break …

The Process Of Americanization Excerpts From Moving Frontiers, Carl S. Meyer (Editor)

Concordia Theological Monthly

In addition to a fervent zeal for home missions, the history of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, from the end of the Civil War to the end of World War I was marked by two dominant characteristics. The first was a vigorous theological conservatism which led it to resist any compromise in the historic Lutheran confessional position. The second. characteristic, shared with other ethnic groups, was a continued isolation, from American linguistic, economic, and. social pattens. These characteristics were intensified because the majority of the Synod's membership was rural. During the same period most of the other American churches were moving …

Dangerous Trends In Modern Theological Thought, K. Runia

Concordia Theological Monthly

In an article on “The Development of Theological Thought;” contributed to the symposium Twentieth Century Christianity, Dr. Walter Marshall Horton distinguishes four phases during the first six decades of this century.

The Body Of Christ, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession warns against two distortions in the meaning of the church. The one is that the church be viewed as an outward organization in which believers and hypocrites are mingled. In the days of the Reformation this distortion implied that the church was a political organization to which men adhered through the carrying out of rites and obligations. In our own time it may take the form of stress on extending and financing the church's business to the point of devaluating its other concerns. The other distortion is that the church is regarded as a …

Motivation In Paul's Epistles, M. H. Grumm

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is no pastor worthy of the name who does not keep the perennial question of motivation at least simmering at the back of the stove. A problem not only of pastors but of teachers, parents, psychiatrists, salesmen, advertising men, and politicians is this: How do you move people? move them not only to do something but to want to do something? The pastor, of course, is concerned with more than a job by which he earns his bread and butter and with more than a specific job for a specific aim, for this office covers the whole range of …

Representative Universalism And The Conquest Of Canaan, A. J. Mattill Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

The problem of the nature of the conquest of Canaan has long puzzled biblical scholars. The Book of Joshua opens with the Lord promising Joshua "every place" that the sole of his foot shall tread upon, "from the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea.

God's Tabernacles Among Men: A Study Of The Transfiguration, Walter R. Roehrs

Concordia Theological Monthly

One of the features found in all accounts of the Transfiguration of our Lord is the suggestion of Peter: "Let us build here three tabernacles." We are not told what Jesus' answer to this request was, but from the sequence of events it is clear that it went unheeded.

Able Ministers In The New Year, Lorenz Wunderlich

Concordia Theological Monthly

This Word of God through St. Paul the apostle is preeminently for those who are privileged to stand in the diaconate of our Lord and who perform diaconal functions for Him. To be sure, it does not offer the catena of one and one-half dozen qualifications which the same apostolic writer forges in his letters to Timothy and Titus.

The Natural Knowledge Of God, Ralph A. Bohlmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

This study grows out of a request for guidance from the Commission on Fraternal Organizations of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Over the years this commission has been meeting with leaders of a number of fraternal organizations in an effort both to explain our synod's position on lodgery as well as to encourage the removal of objectionable features from lodge rituals. These groups have shown readiness to make many of the ritualistic changes suggested by our commission. In one area, however, these groups refuse to yield. They insist that requiring belief in the existence of a Supreme Being of their members …

Communism And Religion In Russia And China, Walter W. Oetting

Concordia Theological Monthly

Scores of impressive books are appearing on the nature of Communism in Russia and China, on the history of Russia as background to what happened in 1917, reprints of Russian and Communist classics, and on the struggle between Christianity and Communism. A single reviewer could not hope even to list, much less review, this literature. The task that this reviewer has set for himself is to examine the "pick of the pack," especially those that have come across his desk for one reason or another. He writes this article with the intention of directing the attention of his colleagues in …

Christianity And Communism -An Ideological Comparison, Ralph L. Moellering

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his book Communism and Christ, Charles W. Lowry contends that we are living in a new religious age. As evidence he points to the post-World War II popular religious revival, to what he calls "a new priesthood" set up by psychiatry, to the influence of existential thought in philosophy and theology (consider Paul Tillich), and to the "collective neurosis" brought on by the crisis and anxieties of our hydrogen-missile age. "The final and conclusive proof that we have entered into a new religious era Lowry perceived in the expansion and menace of the "new universal salvation religion - Communism."

August Hermann Francke, 1663-1963, Philip J. Schoeder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Why remember August Hermann Francke on the 300th anniversary of his natal year?

Certainly association and identification with Pietists and Pietism should not disqualify him for a niche in the hall of remembered saints. Though some still speak with caution and even opprobriously about Pietists and Pietism, the climate has changed especially with reference to the earlier Pietists. Much of the suspicion, detraction, and obloquy which became attached to the name and fame of Pietism stems from falsely attributing many excrescences and aberrations of later Pietism to the early founders of the movement.

Martin Luther And The Idea Of Monasticism, Heinz Bluhm

Concordia Theological Monthly

Monasticism was still a major issue in the first half of the 16th century in Europe. It played a definite role in the life of many men and women. Among the famous, Desiderius Erasmus and Ulrich von Hutten left the monastery easily, even eagerly; Martin Luther on the other hand only after immense inner difficulties. Inevitable as the final break was for Luther, it caused him great anguish of soul both before and after. Hence it is hardly surprising that throughout his numerous writings there are frequent references to what was surely one of the most stirring experiences in his …

The Psychological Disciplines In Theological Education, Paul W. Pruyser

Concordia Theological Monthly

Much has been written during the last decade about the relevance of certain aspects of psychology and psychiatry to the professional role and work of ministers. When one surveys the massive literature which has been produced in this area of concern one is impressed at first by great topical variety. which ranges from theological critiques of psychological concepts and theories to pastoral counseling; from the psychological screening of candidates for the ministry to how pastors might deal with grief; from life situation preaching to techniques of supervision in clinical pastoral training courses.

The Triangle Of Tension: An Editorial, Herbert T. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Tentatio, oratio, meditatio faciunt theologum,'' said Luther as he summarized his philosophy of theological education. In effect, we reaffirm these words in this issue, which we dedicate to Dr. Theo. Hoyer.

The Function Of Historical Theology In The Theological Training Program, Walter W. Oetting

Concordia Theological Monthly

What is the function of historical theology? Since many of you students are not sold on the value of studying history, to say the least, we need to know at the very outset why it is important for theological students to study the history of the church.

Die Wittenbergisch Nachtigal (1523), By Hans Sachs, Phil. J. Schroeder (Translator)

Concordia Theological Monthly

Die Wittenbergisch nachtigal (1523), by Hans Sachs

Calvin's Doctrine Of Justification, Thomas Coates

Concordia Theological Monthly

Justification by faith was the great central doctrine of the Reformation, a doctrine which formed the foundation of the entire theological system of Luther and was bequeathed by him to the succeeding generations of Christendom as the great heritage of the Reformation. This doctrine, of course, did not originate with the reformers, but was restored by them to its rightful position as the pivot around which the entire Christian religion revolves - the doctrine which, in a preeminent sense, marks the great cleavage between Christianity and all heathen religions. The unique and distinctive character of Christianity, in contrast with all …

The Nevius Methods, Wi Jo Kang

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Nevius Methods derive their name from the Rev. Dr. John L Nevius, a Presbyterian missionary to China. Nevius first arrived in Ningpo, China, as he wrote: "'My first home in China was in the city of Ningpo, in the province of Che-Kiang, which place we reached in the spring of 1854." Later (in 1861) Nevius moved to Shantung province, and he became a prominent missionary there. The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Clark called Nevius a prophet of new mission methods. Nevius' views on missions and mission methods first appeared in a series of articles published in the Chinese Recorder …

The Secret Of God's Plan, Harry G. Coiner

Concordia Theological Monthly

A restive search is going on today, and almost everyone is engaged in it. The search is for meaning in life, for significance, for purpose. Captured by a meaningless job and caged inside four walls with a TV set for companionship, modern man feels trapped. We need not extend the picture except to suggest that a disintegrating anguish takes possession of people when suddenly they realize that life is empty and sterile, completely lacking in meaning for them. One single devastating question keeps begging for an answer: Why live? The author of Ecclesiastes struggled with this question long ago and …

The Christ-Figure In Contemporary Literature, Donald L. Deffner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The terms "Christ-figure," or "Christ-image," or "Christ-symbol" with respect to literature are commonly understood to designate a motif, or, more specifically, a person whereby something analogous to our blessed Lord's personality and work is played our.

Polygamy And The Church, Willard Burce

Concordia Theological Monthly

Polygamy is a common practice among the Enga uibcs of Wabag, New Guinea. A survey a few years ago showed that nearly 30 percent of Enga marriages were polygamous.