Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

A Study Of The Religious Educational Philosophy Of George Albert Coe, Gordon Cromwell

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Masonic Apostasy From Christ, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christian by Degrees (1954) is the second of two books written by Walton Hannah, clergyman in the Church of England. In this book, as well as in an earlier work, Darkness Visible, the author demonstrates the irreconcilable difference between Christianity and Freemasonry. This journal published a review of Darkness Visible (XXIV [1953], 316 f.) and of Christian by Degrees (XXV [1954], 709 f.), 1n addition, we kept our readers informed regarding the controversy in the Church of England caused by Rev. Hannah's analysis of the religious character of Freemasonry. See "Freemasonry in England under Fire" (XXII [1951], 353 f.) and …

A Study Of Hindu Eschatology, Kenneth W. Behnken

Bachelor of Divinity

The eschatological emphasis as it is found in Christianity and its implications for the believer help to make Christianity the unique religion that it is. As God's revelation of Himself. to mankind, Christianity preaches an eternity with God, an eternity of certainty and hope. In contrast with some of the religions developed by man's philosophical invention, it speaks with certainty of the fact, of eternal life with God; in contrast with others it offers a living hope of an existence the marks of which are individuality, purpose, and bliss. It is in the latter category that the Hindu religion stands …

The Doctrine Of The Call Into The Holy Ministry, William F. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

In discussing the doctrine of the call, as we all know, we are not traveling on an uncharted sea, but the subject has been discussed in innumerable books, brochures, essays, lectures, and articles. A person would think that since so many navigators have been at work, surely the proper ocean lanes leading to the desired ports have been discovered. Sad to say, there is no unanimity here. Affirmations are hotly pursued by denials.

The Covenant Of Blood, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

To many the Bible appears to contain two different religions. One is the religion of Judaism in the Old Testament; the other, the religion of Christianity in the New. The differences appear to be so great that the two "religions" seem worlds apart. The Old Testament is a religion of Law; the New Testament, of the Gospel. The Old Testament religion is characterized by a complex scheme of sacrifices, by circumcision, by detailed Sabbath regulations; in the New Testament all this is rejected. The Old Testament religion is the religion of a nation; the New Testament religion is to be …

The Faculty At Bethel On The "Demythologizing" Championed By Professor Dr. Bultmann, A. Adam

Concordia Theological Monthly

The intention is not to pass judgment on the theology of R. Bultmann in general. To do that, a far more detailed discussion would be required, for which we do not have the space here. In concerning ourselves specifically with demythologizing as understood by Bultmann, we had to curtail to some extent the study of the problem and thus simplify some of the implications.

Human Relations According To Ephesians, Martin H. Scharlemann

Concordia Theological Monthly

About ten years ago a high school girl from the South took first place in a radio contest with her answer to the question, "How should Hitler be punished for his crimes against humanity?" She won a prize for the answer: "He ought to be made to wear a black face and to live in a community where racial discrimination is practiced." This girl had observed, if not experienced, the horrors of prejudice, of man's most cruel inhumanity to man. It is something of a tragic commentary on human affairs that the worst punishment this student could imagine had to …

The Mature Christian, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Authorized Version does not use the term "mature." But the idea is completely Biblical. It assumes that a Christian, as a Christian, is not a statistical, either-or being, but that he is the product of a birth, a growth, and an expanding life. To speak of a Christian as mature suggests that he has arrived at the peak of that growth, that he has arrived at the climax of the development of his faith and his life with God.

The Incarnation And The Lord's Supper In Luther, Norman Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

The ways of God to men are one. Despite the paradox of Law and Gospel, despite His myriad providence, despite our wondering and paltry understanding, we may yet discern a unity in the way in which the holy God deals with us. It is the way of His grace, of which Christ is the archetype and the Lord's Supper the consequent and continuing form.

It will be the attempt of this paper to set forth some of the aspects of the parallel between God's dealing with us in Christ and Christ's dealing with us in His Supper as grasped and …

The Formal And Material Principles Of Lutheran Confessional Theology, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The source of doctrine, or the formal principle, of Lutheran theology is sola Scriptura, the Scriptures alone. It does seem strange that with its avowed emphasis on the sole authority of the Scriptures the Lutheran Church nowhere has a specific article setting forth its attitude toward the Holy Scriptures. By contrast the early Reformed Confessions have an elaborate statement concerning the place and the scope of Scriptures, including even a list of all the books which are considered canonical. The Lutheran Confessions have no specific article dealing with the Holy Scriptures for three reasons.

Some Word Studies In The Apology, Jaroslav Pelikan

Concordia Theological Monthly

"When I use a word," said Humpty-Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." In the history of Christian theology the tendency to do this has become almost an occupational disease, often making it difficult to understand theologians of the present and almost impossible to understand theologians of the past. Nor does this apply only to thinkers like Berdyaev, who found it necessary to coin his vocabulary as he went along, or to groups like the Gnostics, who sometimes seem deliberately to have chosen nonsense syllables to …

Evangelistic Work In Egypt And Its Relation To Christian Education, Fahim Botrous Mikkail Akhdary

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Relation Of The Unio Mystica To The Corpus Doctrinae, Herbert Kretzmann

Bachelor of Divinity

It is the purpose of this paper to consider the relation or the unio mystica to the body of Christian doctrine. We will note first of all how so many well-meaning people have practiced all sorts of mystical exercises which they believed would obtain and strengthen their union with God. Many have believed and taught this doctrine as the basis of man's justification, saying that "faith justifies … as the germ of renewal, or as the means or ingrafting into the new humanity. Others seem to overlook this doctrine altogether, in spite of the fact that the unio mystica has …

We Conquer Death, Eduard Ellwein

Concordia Theological Monthly

When the golden sun emerges out of the ocean, he casts a shaft of his glorious light across the expanse of the water. The glorious reflection of an unspeakably greater light rests upon the Gospel of St. John: the certainty of our victory over death, the believer's assurance that he has conquered death and possesses eternal life as a present reality. To believe on the Son means to have eternal life.

A Study Of The Alternate Work-Study Plan In Higher Christian Education, John Freemont Beeson

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Professional Work And Relationships Of The Director Of Religious Education, Carolyn Oleta Dorn

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Luther On Creation, Henry W. Reimann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Although he was bred in a Church and society in which men tried with their works to appease the God whom theologians and philosophers had carefully thought out, Martin Luther returned to the Gospel. Here God took the initiative to rescue and redeem His sinful creatures through His Son. This has rightly been called a Copernican revolution in the realm of religion. Just as Copernicus started with a geocentric, but reached a heliocentric conception of the physical world, Luther began with an anthropocentric or egocentric conception of religion, but came to a theocentric conception. In this sense, Luther is a …

Sin As The Cause Of God's Wrath, Walter Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

Every system of Christian doctrine and dogma treats the subjects of man's sin and its opposing element, God's wrath, as being in some way basic to an understanding of the Christian life. Both matters, however, receive their full due only in the theology of Luther and in our Confessions.

The Growth Of Our Faith, W. F. Beck

Concordia Theological Monthly

Contrast a righteous but weak Lot with Abraham, the father of all believers. Lot is materialistic, timid, helpless; Abraham is unselfish, bold, royal. Lot has to run for his life; Abraham, alone, pleads with God for Sodom. Lot escapes from the burning city with the loss of everything, while Abraham lives peacefully with the Lord who made heaven and earth. Lot wants to hide in a cave, while Abraham rises like a lonely mountain peak, touching the clouds.

The Basis Of Our Faith, W. F. Beck

Concordia Theological Monthly

A careful person insists on evidence. He is critical. He will be interested in the proofs for the existence of God and other apologetic evidence for the Christian faith. He is delighted to see that Christianity has met human needs better than any other religion (the pragmatic evidence) and finds such practical values a potent demonstration of its truth. But we do not reach our Savior along the lines of logic, of premises and inferences. We do not find God at the end of a philosophical search - He is standing on our doorstep. He simply appears in our midst …

The Koranic Doctrine Of Sin, Roland E. Miller

Bachelor of Divinity

The problem that was the occasion for the writing of this thesis is indicated by the title - namely, what is the teaching of sin as it is set forth in the Koran, the Holy Book of Mohammedanism. The problem may be a strictly academic one; but for the writer the problem is one of more than casual importance, since he is a representative of the Christian Church. And the Christian Church in its effort to present the Gospel to Islam, must be vitally concerned with the concept of sin as it is to be found in that theological system.

The Responsibility Of The Chinese Native Pastor In Christian Education, Martin Shoe Wen Lee

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Place Of Adequate Bible Study In The Christian Education Of Young People, Maryanna Williams Johnson

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Race Relations -The Christian Directive, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Does the Christian religion have something to say c:onceming race relations?

There are those who would limit the references of the Christian religion to race relations simply to those data of the Old and New Testaments of sacred Scripture which concern races. Thus they assemble material on the creation of man, the separation of races, the pattern of races in the pre-Christian era, the nature of races and the Biblical references to them in the Christian era, and the like.

The Universal Priesthood Of Believers With Luther's Comments, L. W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

The universal priesthood of believers is the Christian Church on earth, the Communion of Saints, which Jesus Christ has redeemed, purchased, and won from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that it may be His own, live under Him, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, and which the Holy Ghost has called by the Gospel, enlightened with His gifts, sanctified and kept in the true faith. Thus Luther has taught us. Each Christian confesses …

God's Concurrence In Human Action, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

In presenting the doctrine of divine providence, the teachers of the Christian Church usually stress, in the first place, God's actual conservation of all created things, by which His creatures persist both in their being and their operation (in esse suo ac vi operandi). Should their categories at times appear as rather scholastic or academic, it is well to remember that they were endeavoring to clarify and preserve intact in its purity the somewhat mysterious Scripture doctrine of God's actual participation in creatural action against the two fundamental fallacies of erring human reason: fatalism and atheism.

Human Will In Bondage And Freedom, A Study In Luther's Distinction Of Law And Gospel. (Part I.), F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther's re-discovery of the proper distinction between Law and Gospel may be viewed as the starting point of the Lutheran reformation. The proper distinction between these two doctrines is the heart and core of Lutheran theology, or in the words of the Formula of Concord, Art. V, "the specially brilliant light which has come to us through the Reformation." Where this distinction is properly observed, the Scriptures will be correctly explained and understood; conversely, where these two doctrines are mingled, the merits of Christ are obscured, and the Christian is robbed of his comfort. The Lutheran Reformation may be viewed …

Brunner On Revelation, Robert Bertram

Concordia Theological Monthly

Professor Emil Brunner, the Reformed theologian at the University of Zurich, probably requires little introduction. He, more than any others of the so-called neo-orthodox theologians from Europe, has fast found his way into American Protestant theological thinking. his books seem to be showing up more and more frequently even in Lutheran parsonages, and his name has appeared a number of times in past issues of this very journal. This wide respect which Brunner enjoys is not undeserved. He has been considerably instrumental in encouraging Protestant theologians to return to the rock whence they were hewn, to the classical Christian doctrines …

An Historical Study Of The Largest Sunday School In Lexington, Kentucky, Wilbur Myron Cleveland

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Collation Of Statistics Bearing On Christian Education, Clay Woodrow England

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.