Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Christian Love According To 1 Cor. 13, George Klien

Concordia Theological Monthly

The cry for love is heard today particularly in connection with the union movements.

The appeal to the principle of love in the life and work of the church is certainly in order within the Christian communion. It is well that we beseech all our brethren by the mercies of God to have fervent charity among themselves, whether in correcting those who would put a "strait jacket of legalism" on the church, or in rebuking those who would license the church to appear in the daring dress of "evangelical" liberalism. The admonition to evidence love has always been needed; the …

Theology And Love, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Two customs of thought have tended to erect, if not a barrier, at least a filter between theology and Christian life.

The one is the hoary distinction between the "doctrinal" and the "practical" portions of the epistles - as though the apostles were "teaching" less strenuously when they were shaping the life and behavior of their readers than when they were discussing their faith. The other is the theologically more recent distinction between kerygma and didache and the assumption that when a preacher wants to save people, he tells them about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; when he …

Luther And Sanctification, Philip S. Watson

Concordia Theological Monthly

In a volume of sermons which he published in 1788, John Wesley took occasion to repeat a criticism of Luther that he had first made after reading his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians many years before. "It has frequently been observed," he says, "that very few were clear in their judgment both with regard to justification and sanctification"; and he cites Luther as an example. "Who," he asks, "has wrote more ably than Martin Luther on justification by faith alone? And who was more ignorant of the doctrine of sanctification, or more confused in his conceptions of it?" …

The Batak Protestant Christian Church, Jospeh Ellwanger

Concordia Theological Monthly

When the Batak Protestant Christian Church in Indonesia applied for membership in the Lutheran World Federation in 1951, one of the largest Christian church bodies in the non-West was catapulted out of relative obscurity into a limelight position on the stage of world Lutheranism. Some were quick to question the Lutheran character of the Batak Church. Chiefly they asked these questions: How can the Batak Church be Lutheran when it was founded by the Rhenish Mission Society, a combination of Lutheran and Reformed elements? And how can the Batak Church be Lutheran when it has not officially adopted the 16th-century …

A Lutheran Contribution To The Present Discussions On The Lord’S Supper, Hermann Sasse

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Lord's Supper has again become one of the main issues among the churches of Christendom as well as within individual denominations. This is the result of two movements which, though deeply rooted in the 19th century, have shaped the life of all Christendom since the beginning of this century: the Liturgical and the Ecumenical Movement. Since the deepest motive underlying both is what has been called "the awakening of the Church in the souls," future church historians may regard them as branches of one great movement which, like all great movements in the Western Church (Reformation, Pietism, Rationalism, etc.), …

Pauline Charis: A Philological, Exegetical, And Dogmatical Study (Concluded), Raymond F. Surburg

Concordia Theological Monthly

Francisco Zorell gives two definitions of grace that are not warranted by the context in which χάϱις, appears in the epistles of Paul.

Luther's Apologetics, Siegbert Becker

Concordia Theological Monthly

The renewed interest in the construction of a Christian apologetic which is stirring in Protestantism ought also to stimulate Lutherans to take a fresh look at the possibilities of defending the Christian faith before an unbelieving world. As Protestantism shortens its lines in an attempt to strengthen its position, it behooves a Lutheran theologian to come to a clear understanding of the nature and the place of apologetics in the Christian witness.

The Significance Of Luther's Term Pure Passive As Quoted In Article Ii Of The Formula Of Concord, Robert D. Preus

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Lutheran doctrine of conversion, standing as it does between Calvinism and synergism, is always a difficult position to maintain and defend; for it is built on a paradox, a paradox of exclusive divine action and complete human participation. Faith is at the same time passive and active: passive in that man, blind and dead spiritually, in coming to faith only suffers God to work this change in his heart, active in that man himself believes and is in no way coerced in this nor divested of any of his faculties.

Justification By Faith In Modern Theology (Continued), Henry P. Hamann Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

We shall begin the final installment of this article with the judgment that one of the truths about justification that St. Paul holds is that justification is complete before there is such a thing as faith. This fact of Paul's teaching has been known, particularly in the theological literature of "Missouri Lutherans," as objective justification. The term is not a good one, chiefly for the reason that the counterpart to it, subjective justification, if it means anything, should mean a justification that goes on in the believer, a thing which no "Missourian" ever held.

Justification By Faith In Modern Theology (Continued), Henry P. Hamann Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

The LXX does not afford us much help as we try to understand what St. Paul means by faith, except in one respect, which will be clear later. There is, of course, in the Old Testament the apostle's great example of faith, the patriarch Abraham. The Psalms, moreover, are replete with expressions which are the accents of faith. As Stewart has well said, "The thing itself can be traced everywhere from Genesis to Malachi," and the same writer quite correctly points to Heb. 11 and its many examples of faith drawn from the Old Testament. But the term itself is …

Justification By Faith In Modern Theology, Henry P. Hamann Jr.

Concordia Theological Monthly

In one of his justly famous Gesammelte Aufsaetze entitled Die Rechtfertigungslehre im Lichte der Geschichte des Protestantis1mus Karl Holl quotes the scholar Lagarde as declaring that justification as a doctrine was dead-this was in 1873 - and that no one lived by it any longer. The far more pressing task, moderns tell us, is to show to modern man that there is a God. Whether there is a God at all is the problem he has to face, not something about God, say, that God justifies. To this criticism of the very raison d’ȇtre of this study we should reply …

Suggested Principles For A Hermeneutics Of The Lutheran Symbols, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Symbols have various intended uses. They can serve as a legal club, in order to enforce conformity with their teaching by a clergyman or instructor who has solemnly committed himself to teach and practice according to them, under pain of dismissal for having obtained money or other emoluments under false pretenses. But this is certainly an opus alienum. Their proper office includes serving as a norm of teaching and of administering Sacraments, to which an individual solemnly and voluntarily committed to them strives conscientiously to conform; as a Symbol, that is, an identification among Lutherans, since they are the …

Religion As The Integrating Principle In Education, Eugene F. Klug

Concordia Theological Monthly

D’ye think," asked Mr. Hennessey, "the college has much to do with the progress of the world?" - "D'ye think," parried Mr. Dooley, "it's the mill that makes the water run?" The stream of life in this old world goes steadily on, whether we have colleges or not. But the fact is, in spite of Mr. Dooley's skeptical cynicism, that the world would hardly be the same without them. These centers of human learning have played a major role in harnessing and developing the raw material of this world man, his mind, and his physical environment. Today especially these academic …

The Nature Of The Unity We Seek A Missouri Synod Lutheran View, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The nature of the unity we seek" has the obviousness of a platitude. Like most platitudes, it is more easily stated (by those who hold it) and more readily caricatured (by those who reject it) than it is appreciated, appropriated, and lived. It is worth while, therefore, to spell out this platitude, in order that both we and those with whom we seek unity may be made aware of its basic simplicity and of its practical complexity and difficulty.

Contrition (Concluded), Theodore Engelder, Erwin Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Is the intention to abstain from sin and to live for God a part of the contrition which precedes faith?

Many Lutheran compends answer this question in the affirmative. Luthardt states: 'The process of conversion, wrought by God within man, begins with the self-judgment of repentance, which consists of a change of attitude, manifested in the acknowledgment of sin, sorrow for sin, and the earnest intention to break with sin and live to God"

Contrition (Concluded), Theodore Engelder, Herbert J. Bouman, Erwin Lueker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Does repentance follow faith? Such a question seems strange to Lutherans. We teach: "Now, repentance consists properly of these two parts: One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel" (AC XII). Faith is "the chief part of repentance" (Ap XII 58, German Text). No, repentance, the essential characteristic of which is faith, cannot follow faith. Calvin and his adherents, however, teach that repentance follows faith.

A Theological Appraisal Of Comparative Symbolics, Herbert J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

The religious scene in America presents a bewildering spectacle of about 250 religious groups maintaining a separate and often precarious existence. This multiplicity of denominations, sects, and sectlets, segregated not only by deep and basic doctrinal cleavage but all too often also by merely peripheral and even meaningless differences, is extremely confusing to a thoughtful observer. Even worse, the disunity of churches, all of which claim some relation to Christ and His Word, is bound to be a sore scandal. At first glance this ecclesiastical fragmentation seems to defy intelligent and intelligible analysis. A little stirring beneath the surface, however, …

The Authority Of Scripture, Norman Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

The way Scripture understands itself is presented elsewhere in the theses sent out by the Council. That presentation has its greatest strength in bringing Scripture into close and integral relationship with Christ. Faith's primary apprehension is Christ; the consequent apprehension is Scripture. To apprehend Christ is to be placed under Scripture. The recognition of this is the basis of how we listen to what Scripture says. Scripture has spoken Christ to us, and therefore, when Scripture speaks, we receive and accept whatever it says, for whatever it says is heard in relationship to Christ.

Faith Without Works, Frederic W. Danker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Demands for a creative outlet in an age of standardized production have been responsible for a rash of "do-it-yourself" hobby crafts. Such self-reliance displays itself also in the religious area. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians amply testifies, however, that the "do-it-yourself" cult is not a modern development.

Aspects Of The Relationship Of Faith To Conscience In Luther's Sermons, 1528-1532, William Arthur Olsen

Bachelor of Divinity

A brief study revealed numerous examples of the close relationship Luther established between faith and conscience in both his formal theological writings and his sermons as they have come down to us. This thesis seeks on a 1imited scale to establish and delineate that relationship between faith and conscience in the theology of Luther.

Both terms about which the thesis revolves are very prominent in the writings of Luther. That “faith” is a decisive and frequently used word in his theology seems to require no documentation.

Dr. C. F. W. Walther As Theologian, Francis Pieper, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

This is to say that in order to preserve the doctrine of justification in its purity. there must be added to it the Scripture teaching that God imparts and communicates to men the forgiveness of sins procured by Christ for the entire world in no other way than by the Gospel and the Sacraments. Therefore the Biblical doctrine of justification stands and falls with the Biblical doctrine of the means of grace.

The Doctrine Of Justification In The Lutheran Confessions, Herbert J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the 1538 edition of his commentary on Galatians, Luther speaks of "this one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification, that is, that we are delivered from sin, death, and devil, not through ourselves (nor certainly through our works which are of lesser value than we ourselves), but through outside help, through the Only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ." "If the article concerning justification falls, everything falls." "This is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the undemanding of all godliness. It is, therefore, of prime importance that it be well understood and …

Anglican Christology Of The Upper Stream From '"Lux Mundi" To "Essays Catholic And Critical.", Norman Nagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

When a certain theologian was asked what in English theology would most reward study, with twinkling and Teutonic eye he replied, "They don't have any." Now it is true that the issues which have most exercised churchmen in this country do not seem to have been primarily theological One ncvcr ceases to wonder at the thousands of parish priests in the sixteenth century who found no difficulty in making do whatever new or revised prayer book happened to come to them in the post. When divisions came, they were summed up in terms more of polity than of theology.

A Study Of Pistis In The New Testament, Vernon C. Scandrett

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Soteriolgical Aspect Of The Doctrine Of The Holy Trinity According To The Lutheran Confessions, Lewis W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Lutheran Confessions are basically doxological in their treatment of the Holy Trinity, as they sound forth a hymn of praise to the grace and mercy of the Triune God. The theme of their exultant song is Soli deo gloria! But the God to whom alone shall be all glory is the Triune God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost - three distinct Persons in one divine Essence. Measuring the space which the Confessions devote to the various doctrines which they profess, one might think otherwise.

Sacra Scriptura And ''Verbum Dei" In The Lutheran Confessions, Fred Kramer

Concordia Theological Monthly

To understand the Lutheran Reformation of the sixteenth century correctly one must know and bear in mind the fact that it was begun by a man who amid fearful troubles of conscience and after a long and bitter struggle for the certainty of his salvation had rediscovered the Gospel and who in turn desired to share its blessings with others.

The Relationship Of The Church To The National Culture In America, Ernest B. Koenker

Concordia Theological Monthly

As one considers the cultural complex of America today, there are a number of questions which might present themselves to the Christian living under the Word. What are the values which underlie our national culture, and is there any sense in which these are being absolutized today in some kind of Messianism? Can one say that the Christian churches in America, or the Lutheran Church, have profoundly shaped our culture, or have the churches themselves been thoroughly shaped by the culture? In view of the loss or muffling of a dynamic Christian witness in many of the American denominations, what …

Theological Issues At Evanston, F. E. Mayer

Concordia Theological Monthly

The second assembly of the World Council of Churches will be held at Evanston, Ill., August 15-31, 1954. The 161 member churches will be represented by 600 official delegates, 600 accredited visitors, 150 theological consultants, 120 youth consultants, fraternal delegates, and official observers from nonmember churches. The Christian world is vitally interested in the Evanston assembly, because the chief concern of this gathering will be to agree on the "Christian message" which the member churches of the W. C. C. will proclaim to the world. This message comprises a main theme and six subthemes, which will receive intensive study in …

Some Scriptural Aspects Of Processes In Nature, August C. Rehwaldt

Concordia Theological Monthly

Nature is like a veil. It both reveals and conceals the truth. What William Taylor says of the parable may also be applied to nature: " ... a cloud luminous to some, yet dark to others; the enveilment, but also the unveiling, of the truth to men." If nature appeals only to our intellect, we shall see only that which lies on the surface.

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.