Theology for the Church

Scharen Responds to Hinlicky on the Proposed Recommendations to the ELCA

2009-06-13T12:37:00.007-04:00

Some of you may know that I am one of 150+ signers to the statement, "Appropriate Next Steps for the ELCA," whereby we state that we wish to "to affirm and support the four recommendations on Ministry Policies proposed by the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis" which will be held this August. Our support for the recommendations has been attacked by ELCA theologian Paul Hinlicky as "misleading and self-contradictory." Among other things, he accuses us of not affirming the authority of Scripture and of teaching material anti-nomianism.

I signed the statement because I agree with the recommendations and the rationale behind them, even though I am not pleased with the Sexuality Statement itself which I think is theologically weak and insufficient in its treatment of the first use of the law. Indeed, I think a strong case *can* be made for same-gender marriage from a non-Thomistic understanding of natural law, or as Lutherans have preferred, "ordering of creation." This is a project that Chuck and I hope to work on once he finishes his dissertation.

In the meantime, I would like to draw your attention to some recent blog posts of my colleague at Luther Seminary, Christian Scharen, who makes his own argument for a pro-gay ethic that is Scripturally and Confessionally based. Chris makes his argument in four posts:

"God Loves Gays: On Lutheran Debates, Part 1"
"God Loves Gays Gay: On Lutheran Debates, Part 2"
"God Loves Gay Desire: On Lutheran Debates, Part 3"
"God Loves Gay Desire: On Lutheran Debates, Part 4"

You can find more of Chris's writings on this topic (among others) on his faculty web site at Luther Seminary.

The return of indulgences

2009-02-15T15:17:00.007-05:00

Last week, indulgences made the headlines again. Many Roman Catholic parishes recently have revived the practice of offering indulgences as a way to get people to think more about penance and return to confession. This move, which has received mixed reviews among Catholic scholars, is troubling and confusing to Lutherans who wonder how the Roman Catholic Church can continue this practice in light of the "consensus in basic truths" between Lutherans and Catholics in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ). Indulgences, after all, were the focus of Luther's 95 Theses, which sparked the Reformation in 1517. The practice, which fell into disuse after Vatican II, was revived by Pope John Paul II right on the heels of the adoption of JDDJ. This led to an outcry among many Protestants . In 2001, an ecumenical consultation of Lutherans, the Reformed, and the Roman Catholic Church met to discuss the theological issues involved in this practice in light of the consensus achieved in JDDJ.

Michael Root, a fellow member of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, published an essay around this time which helpfully clarifies what indulgences do (and don't do) in Catholic devotional practice, but even Root is not sanguine about the new attention given to this practice. “It has been something of a mystery to us as to why now,” Root is quoted as saying in the New York Times article, adding that the renewal of indulgences has “not advanced” the dialogue. Indeed, the latest round of dialogue, on the Hope of Eternal Life is discussing, among other things, pentiential practices related to the dead, including indulgences and prayers for the dead, and the recent attention to and encouragement of indulgences does make our work more difficult.

Imaging Jesus

2009-02-03T13:18:00.010-05:00

This semester I am teaching a class called "Christ and Atonement." The course is split roughly into two parts, the first part focusing on the "person" of Christ and the second on the "work" of Christ (theories on how we are saved as well as who is saved).

For the introductory class, we talked about the images of Jesus that we bring with us to the course. I asked the students to write down images that they associate with Jesus. There were many interesting responses, ranging from more traditional image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd to less traditional ones, like Mother or homeless person. I also asked the students to share "what Jesus looks like" for them and then I showed them this set of contemporary images of Jesus. Note: a different set of images that runs from the first through the 21st centuries can be found here. A shorter "tour" of historical images with commentary by Stephen Cook can be found here. Interestingly, none of these sets of images included the most famous image of Jesus in mid-20th century America, the Sallman Head of Christ, nor the "Christa" sculpture by Edwina Sandys that created a controversy when it was unveiled in a church for the first time in 1984.

Then I read this passage from a recent article in Lutheran Forum by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, entitled, "The Face of Jesus, Part II:"

". . . It is the historically specific, male, freeborn, Jewish image of Jesus that we are free to re-image, precisely because of his total assumption of humanity. Each of us is made in the Son's image, so the Son may be found in each of our faces . . .
On the one hand, a multiplicity of images of Christ can bespeak blessings upon the created goodness of skin that is white, brown, black, yellow, red, and any combination thereof, and of anatomy that is male or female, and of faces more or less beautiful. On the other hand, the images can convict the sin that assumes an easy alliance with Jesus because one is male or Jewish, as well as the sin that rejects Jesus because one is neither.
These mutiplicitous images may in fact be the only means to dismantle the idolatries of our minds and hearts by giving Jesus a face that we would never have given ourselves. We all need a Jesus who looks like us in our humanity, but perhaps even more we all need a Jesus who looks different from us to stand against us in our sin. Or to put it another way, it is not ulimately for my own sake that I need a Jesus different from myself, but for the sake of my neighbor, so that I may learn to see in my neighbor the humanity that Jesus died to save. For as you did it to one of the least of these, Jesus said, you did it to me." (Lutheran Forum 42/4 (Winter 2008: 9-10).

For fun, we ended with this clip from "Talladega Nights." (Note: just the first half of the clip pertains to the topic at hand!).

ELCA Bishops Visit Israel

2009-01-09T14:46:00.004-05:00

More than 35 ELCA bishops are in Israel this week as part of their annual 2009 Bishops' Academy. Though planned more than a year ago, the trip is especially timely given the violent conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. A smaller group of bishops and staff arrived early for meetings with religious and political leaders. A blog has been set up on the ELCA website where you can follow their activities.

A Lutheran-Catholic Joint Statement on the Eucharist?

2008-11-29T10:43:00.026-05:00

In response to a request from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the ELCA and the U.S. Roman Catholic Church will explore the possibility of a joint teaching statement on the real presence of the Eucharist. Such a statement no doubt would build on the important work already done in the 1967 Statement on the Eucharist--one of the early statements to come out of the bi-lateral dialogue that only began two years earlier, the fruits of which are still largely unknown by members of both communions.

Last year, I was invited to present at the 2007 Covenant Celebration of the Diocese of Youngstown and the Northeastern Ohio Synod (ELCA) on the topic "Bread of Life: Roman Catholic and Lutheran Understandings of the Eucharist." Here is the text of my presentation which includes my thoughts on the points of agreement between Lutherans and Catholics on the Eucharist as well as areas that need continued work.

“Bread of Life: Roman Catholic and Lutheran Understanding of the Eucharist.”
Northeastern Ohio Synod -Youngstown Diocese
A Lutheran Understanding of the Eucharist
Cheryl Peterson
October 28, 2007

Thank you, Bishop Murray and Bishop Eaton, and the planners of this covenant celebration, for the opportunity to be with you today. It is an honor to be making this presentation alongside my colleague on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, Father Jared Wicks, whose presentation gives us much to consider—in fact, much of what he said can and is affirmed by Lutherans in our understanding of the Lord’s Supper. A Lutheran understanding of the Eucharist, is, I will suggest, both catholic and evangelical. Among Protestants, Lutherans arguably have the strongest “sacramental realism” – and this is a point of contact with our Catholic sisters and brothers.

The Lutheran emphasis on Christ’s real presence in the sacrament was (oddly) a surprise to Catholic participants in the third round of the bi-lateral U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue on the Eucharist (1967).[1] Kent Knutson reported that “Roman Catholics had been led to believe that the Lutheran concept of real presence was only . . . in the eating and drinking.” He adds that “Lutherans were happy to correct this misunderstanding and articulate their belief that the Lord is present in the whole Eucharistic action, both before and after the eating and drinking.”[2]

This misunderstanding can be attributed to Luther’s rejection of transubstantiation as dogma. Luther’s concern was not to propose a new way of explaining the real presence by recourse to scholastic theology but more basically to affirm the mystery of the presence of Christ (in his humanity as well as his divinity) without resource to such constructs, which is why “consubstantiation” (the idea that at consecration there are two substances present alongside one another) is also rejected.[3]

I might note here that the common statement of the 1967 dialogue states that while there has been an agreement that Christ is truly present in the supper, what has been disputed is a particular way of stating the “how,” the manner in which he becomes present.” One of the things the Lutheran participants in that dialogue learned is that contemporary Catholic expositions of transubstantiation intend to affirm the fact of Christ’s presence and of the change which takes places, not to explain how Christ becomes present. Even though Lutherans can acknowledge that transubstantiation is a legitimate way to express the mystery, they continue to believe that the conceptuality associated with it is misleading and prefer to avoid the term.

Interestingly, Article 10 of the Augsburg Confession – the central confessional document of the Lutheran Church – uses language strikingly similar to that of transubstantiation without subscribing to this doctrine. The article affirms that Christ is truly present “under the form of bread and wine.”[4] (And this is one of the few articles the Augsburg Confession that does not give “offense” to the Roman Catholics in their Confutation!). In the Apology, this teaching is reiterated—again using words that affirm a true substantial change but without embracing the formula used in the doctrine of transubstantiation. It states, “In the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood of Christ are “truly and substantially present and are truly offered with those things that are seen, bread and wine.”[5] In the Quarto, Philipp Melanchthon goes on to positively cite the epiclesis in the Greek liturgy, in which the priest “clearly prays that the bread may be changed and become the very body of Christ.”[6]

Later debates about real presence (within Lutheranism and with other Protestants) led to the formula most familiar to Lutherans – “in, with, and under” – which appears in the Formula of Concord/Solid Declaration (1570). The true body and blood of Christ are received not only spiritually through faith but orally with the bread and wine because of the “sacramental union” of the elements with the body and blood of Christ.[7]

Evangelical and Catholic

What is at the heart of Lutheran Eucharistic Piety, however, is an evangelical understanding of God’s self-giving in this real presence through which the believer receives “forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.” When Lutherans speak about the Eucharist, they emphasize what is promised and received in the supper, the gospel. In the Eucharist, the gospel is proclaimed and received in a visible way—“This is my body, given for you” – indeed, Luther calls the sacrament a short summary of the whole gospel, “For the Gospel is nothing but a proclamation of God's grace and of the forgiveness of all sins, granted us through the sufferings of Christ. . . . And this same thing as we have seen, is contained in the words of this testament.”[8] As Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson has said, “The main thing to remember is that what Lutheranism says about sacraments is always a specification of what it says about the gospel communication event in general.”[9] He explains: "The gospel is an unconditional promise, three things follow. First, the gospel promises personal communion. The only thing that can be promised unconditionally is the promiser’s own love.” . . . the shortest form of the gospel content is: ‘I will give myself.’ Second, this promise grants a present reality. . . . Third, the subject of the gospel-promise is the risen Christ himself.” Thus, in the Lord’s Supper, “the speaking of the gospel is the event of Jesus’ own giving of himself into communion with the hearers” in a real and embodied way – by his true presence in and under the bread and wine." [10]

Luther’s Critique of the Mass

Luther’s critique of the medieval Catholic mass (which is most forcefully stated in his Smalcald Articles[11]) comes out of this evangelical concern. When the Reformers are accused of abolishing the mass, they retort that they are honoring it and celebrating it more than their opponents because they have reclaimed the biblical understanding of the supper’s purpose. What they abolished was the misuse of the “mass” as a good work – something we do for God (that benefits ourselves or someone else—which led to a multiplication of private and votive masses for the living and the dead) – rather than a celebration and reception of what God has done for us in Christ. The mass is not our sacrifice to God, but a means by which we receive the assurance of the forgiveness of sins on account of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice on the cross.

The Augsburg Confession states that “the holy sacrament was not instituted to provide a sacrifice for sin—for the sacrifice has already occurred—but to awaken our faith and comfort our consciences.”[12] This is why the sacrament requires faith—because faith alone van grasp the promised grace and forgiveness of sin by Christ. Thus, the Reformers insisted that the Mass is not a sacrifice that takes away anyone’s sins (living or dead), but it should be a “Communion” whereby those gathered—the priest and the people—receive the sacrament together and with it the assurance of the forgiveness of sins, which Luther calls “food for the soul, for it nourishes and strengthens the new creature.”[13]

Thus, for Lutherans, the emphasis is on communion—and not sacrifice—when we celebrate the sacrament. And yet, in our Lutheran liturgy, this language is not completely foreign, for we do speak of our “sacrifice of praise” in connection with the supper. In the Apology to the Augsburg Confession (Article 24), Philipp Melanchthon makes an important distinction between propitiatory sacrifices which he defines as the human work of satisfaction for sin that reconciles God or merits the forgiveness of sins, and eucharistic sacrifices, or sacrifices of praise, which by contrast, do not intent to merit forgiveness because there is one propitiatory sacrifice: the death of Christ.[14]

While the mass can never be a propitiatory sacrifice, he does allow that we can call the Lord’s Supper a sacrifice of praise or spiritual sacrifice in which those who have been reconciled give thanks and express their gratitude for the forgiveness and blessings they have received.[15] He further notes that the term “Eucharist” arose out of this piety which focuses on what has been given and what has been forgiven; and of how great God’s blessings are in comparison to our sin.[16]

Allow me a brief excursus on the use of the term “Eucharist.” It is more traditionally used by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican communions but has increasingly become the most commonly used term for the supper in ecumenical and liturgical circles (e.g. it is the preferred term in dialogues, and is the term employed for the sacrament in the watershed 1982 Lima Document of the World Council of Churches, “Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry,” aka BEM).” One colleague believes that the term partially caught on because it’s easier to make an adjective out of it – e.g. Eucharistic – other names for the meal, such as “Holy Communion” and “Lord’s Supper” are more limited in this regard.

Not all Lutherans are happy with the increasing usage of this term because of its association with sacrificial language of any kind. In its official response to the Lima Document, the American Lutheran Church made a point with regard to the use of this term, whereas the Lutheran Church in America did not.[17] For these Lutherans, the term “Eucharist” misses the real focus of the supper; it makes it primarily something we offer, rather than something that is offered to us. Most Lutherans with this perspective suggest that we reclaim the name “Lord’s Supper” as the primary name for the sacrament, since it is the most frequently used name for the sacrament in the Lutheran confessions and of course, is the term that St. Paul uses. Eucharist, on the other hand, does not appear in the Bible as a name for the sacrament, although it does appear very early on in Christian literature such as the Didache in this regard.

Even if Lutherans continue to favor “Lord’s Supper” for these good reasons, there is no reason we need to reject “Eucharist” as long we remember that our “thanksgiving” is only offered in response to God’s great gift to us – and that this element of joy should be part of our liturgical celebration of the Supper.

As some of you may know, the third round of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue in 1967 (to which I already briefly referred) had for its topic this very issue: the Eucharist as Sacrifice. In the common statement, Lutherans and Catholics were able to affirm together the unrepeatable nature of the cross for the sins of the world. The Catholic Church does not teach that the priest “re-sacrifices” Christ at each mass. Secondly, they affirmed the idea that the celebration of the Eucharist is the church’s sacrifice of praise and self-offering.

Two points of controversy also were addressed: one historical controversy centered on the whether the worshipping assembly “offers Christ” in the sacrifice of the mass in any sense. This Catholic affirmation has been increasingly explained in terms which the statement argues have answered Lutheran fears that this detracts from the full sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice (at least, those members of the dialogue were satisfied with this explanation). I quote directly from the statement:

The members of the body of Christ are united through Christ with God and with one another in such a way that they become participants in his worship, his self-offering, his sacrifice to the Father. Through this union between Christ and Christians, the Eucharistic assembly ‘offers Christ’ by consenting in the power of the Holy Spirit to be offered by him to the Father. Apart from Christ, we have no gifts, no worship, no sacrifice of our own to offer to God. All we can plead is Christ, the sacrificial lamb and victim whom the Father himself has given us.” [18]

A second point of controversy that was left unresolved has to do with the term “propitiatory” and whether that can be applied to the Eucharistic sacrifice. As noted, both Catholics and Lutherans affirmed the unique propitiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross. However, Lutherans reject what they understand Trent to say about the mass as a propitiatory sacrifice “offered for the living and the dead,” and the implications of this in practices such as “masses for the dead.”

This national bi-lateral dialogue was followed by an international Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in 1978. The dialogues are significant for the theological clarifications that have been made, in particular regarding what each means by “real presence” and long-held misunderstandings have been removed, especially regarding the Catholic notion of sacrifice.

However, in spite of this progress, there is still the need for clarity and mutual understanding regarding our distinctive practices and expressions of Eucharistic piety. Many aspects of the celebration of the Mass as practiced in the Catholic Church remain “foreign” and even troubling to those of us in Reformation traditions. But Lutherans have their own unique Eucharistic piety, which perhaps seem as “foreign” to Roman Catholics as masses for the dead are to Lutherans. I would like to conclude with some remarks on Lutheran Eucharistic piety and practice in the United States today.

Lutheran Eucharistic Piety Today

All Lutherans learn in the Small Catechism that the Lord’s Supper “is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and drink.” Lutherans have never wavered from a belief in the “real presence” of Christ in the sacrament; it is a central tenet our faith and life. The benefits of the sacrament—central to our Eucharistic piety—are given in the words of promise: “given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” As Luther states, these words show us that forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given to us in this sacrament, “because where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”[19]

Although faith plays an important role in effecting the benefits of the sacrament to the believer, Lutherans teach that Christ’s presence in the sacrament does not depend on the faith of the recipient, but solely on the word of Christ’s promise. As one Reformation historian puts it, Jesus shows up in the sacrament because he promises to! If one receives the Lord’s Supper without faith in Christ—by which the Reformers did not mean a weak or struggling faith, but a rejection of God—then one would eat and drink to his condemnation. Indeed, as the Article VII of the Formula of Concord states, “the true and worthy guest, for whom this precious sacrament above all was instituted and established, are the Christians who are weak in faith, fragile and troubled, who are terrified in their hearts by the immensity of their sins and number of their sins and think they are not worthy of this precious treasure and of the benefits of Christ because of their great impurity, who feel the weakness of their faith and deplore it, and who desire with all of their heart to serve God with a stronger, more resolute faith and purer obedience.”[20]

Traditionally, Lutherans have emphasized the assurance of the forgiveness of sins as the central aspect of the sacrament, though “communion-fellowship” (in terms of personal communion with Christ) has also been stressed. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the great eighteenth century Lutheran missionary to the colonies, notes with approval that people desire the sacrament in order “to be more closely united with Christ and his body and blood and to be strengthened in their weak faith”[21]

But it is the connection of the Supper with the “forgiveness of sins” that has really shaped Lutheran Eucharistic piety in the last two centuries. Since the Lord’s Supper is an “application of the forgiveness of sins,” the church took seriously its responsibility to examine, instruct, and discriminate with regard to who can come to the table. The supper became a solemn event, for which church members were counseled to consider their sinfulness and unworthiness before God through private confessional examination for those.

Infrequent reception (most often quarterly)—due to a host of factors—heightened the special nature of this observance, which often had little celebratory tone to it. Communicants filed up to the altar by “tables” to receive a wafer and a small—usually pre-filled—individual glass of wine. As a historical aside, these individual cups were first proposed in 1888 and used at a Protestant Communion service in 1893[22] out of a concern for public hygiene. The Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and faculty at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia opposed this “innovation” but the use of these cups soon became commonplace in many Lutheran congregations. Following the proper preface and sanctus, the words of institution stood alone in The Common Service (used until 1958) apart from any longer prayer of thanksgiving—emphasizing that this was a pure proclamation by which God addressed the promise of forgiveness to the Christian.

Many changes were introduced into Lutheran Eucharistic practice through the publication in 1978 of The Lutheran Book of Worship (preceded by the Service Book and Hymnal of 1958) and the adoption of a “Joint Statement on Communion Practices” by the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America, which were strongly influenced by the liturgical renewal movement that had become widespread by that time.
Both the LBW and the Joint Statement assume weekly communion as a normative practice for Lutherans as stated in our own confessional symbols—which was not the case with the previous worship resources.

The more recent (1997) ELCA Statement on Sacramental Practices, “The Use of the Means of Grace” reaffirms weekly communion as a normative Lutheran practice. Currently, 46% of ELCA congregations celebrate the sacrament weekly (up from 16% in 1989!). Nearly as many congregations celebrate it more than once a month (once a month plus festivals, twice a month, etc). Only 5% offer it monthly or less.[23]

In 1969, a report was adopted by a majority of congregations now in the ELCA which separated the rite of confirmation and reception of Holy Communion and began inviting children to receive their first communion in fifth grade. Since that time, a number of congregations have continued to lower the age of communion, especially for school age children, but in some cases, even infants.[24] The “Use of the Means of Grace” along with more recent worship resources, including Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) assumes the unity of word and sacrament in the service and discourages congregations from “tacking on” a communion service at the end as sometimes was done in the past.

These also recommend the retrieval of a full Eucharistic prayer which includes the “proclamation of the words of institution” (though it should be noted that the Service Book and Hymnal was the first to introduce a Eucharistic Prayer as an alternative to the bare verba). The new worship resource, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, has continued this pattern, offering now ten (instead of three!) Eucharistic prayers which follow a Trinitarian pattern (thanks to the Father, words of institution, prayer for the Holy Spirit) but also continuing the practice of allowing for the option of the bare verba (the words of institution by themselves). It is not known how many congregations continue to use this option, but those who do believe they are safeguarding the meaning of these words as “pure proclamation” to the assembly.

Other Recent Changes in Lutheran Eucharistic Practice and Piety

Other significant changes in Lutheran Eucharistic practice include a strong accent on communal celebration (including more frequent use of the common cup), the sense of the altar as a table in our midst, the character of the sacrament as a meal, more prayer for the hungry world, a stronger emphasis on the eucharist leading to mission, more use of the posture of standing rather than the posture for kneeling for communion, and a certain diminution of the accent on sin and forgiveness.[25] The focus on the assurance of forgiveness has not been replaced, but today the Lutheran understanding of the Eucharist is being broadened to include other aspects which have not been as strongly emphasized in our tradition: reconciliation, communion-fellowship (horizontal as well as vertical), and participation in Christ’s life.

As Lutheran liturgy scholar Beverly Nitschke has written, “It may be argued that in Lutheran consciousness the forgiveness of sins which is received is an intensely individual experience. It is the individual experience of forgiveness which is received.” Luther’s concentration on the word of promise “for you” and “for the forgiveness of sins” have in effect “rendered the Eucharist subservient to a form of ‘penitential piety.’”[26] This is what German Lutheran theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg calls the “Lutheran distortion of the meaning of the Eucharist, in celebrating it primarily as a visible and touchable assurance to the individual of the forgiveness of sins.”[27]

It must be remembered that Luther’s distinctive emphasis on the evangelical promise “for you, for the forgiveness of sins” was developed in light of late medieval practices which to him seemed to take away from the notion of the supper as “pure gospel” and the priority of God’s action in the meal. At the same time, Luther does not focus exclusively on forgiveness of sins. In the Small Catechism (1529), as we saw, he speaks of three benefits: life and salvation, in addition to the forgiveness of sins.

It is also important to note that an ecclesial or communal element was not absent from Luther’s teaching on the sacrament. Lutheran theologians such as Simo Peura are reclaiming the ecclesial dimension of Luther’s Eucharistic teaching, found most profoundly in his 1519 “Sermon on the Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ.” In this sermon, Luther speaks of communion as a sharing or participation in the life of Christ, through his body the Church.[28] “Thus in the sacrament we too become united to Christ and are made one body with all the saints, to that Christ cares for us and acts on our behalf. . . likewise by the same love we are to be united with our neighbors, we in them and they in us.”[29]

In conclusion: a Lutheran understanding of the eucharist will continue to have at its center the “pure gospel” of the assurance of the “forgiveness of sins” given in this meal. And yet, these other aspects of the Lord’s Supper are important for Lutherans to reclaim as a part of our larger “catholic” tradition, especially the more horizontal dimensions of “communion-fellowship” and the sign of unity that the sacrament conveys, for ultimately we are part of one body of Christ, Lutherans and Catholics, called to work to heal the divisions of the past through mutual affirmation and admonishment that one day we might share “full communion” at the same table.

Endnotes

[1] “The Eucharist: A Lutheran-Roman Catholic Statement,” in Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue I-III, ed. Paul C. Empie and T. Austin Murphy (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1974), 187-197. The text can also be found at this link: http://www.usccb.org/seia/luthrc_eucharist_1968.shtml
[2] Kent S. Knutson, “Introduction: The Eucharist as Sacrifice, Roman Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue,” in Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue I-III, 15.
[3] Frank C. Senn, Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), 307-310.
[4] Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 44-45, §1-2. Hereafter, BC.
[5] BC, 185, §4.
[6] BC, 185, fn. 269.
[7] BC, 599, §34.
[8] E. Theodore Bachman, ed., Luther’s Works: American Edition, Volume 35 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960), 106.
[9] Eric W. Gristch, and Robert W. Jenson, Lutheranism: The Theological Movement and Its Confessional Writing (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 85.
[10] Ibid., 86.
[11] BC, 301-305.
[12] BC, 70, §30.
[13] BC, 469, §23.
[14] BC, 260-272.
[15] BC, 260-262, §14-24; 272, §77.
[16] BC, 272, §77.
[17] The Response of the American Lutheran Church to Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper 111, Adopted as the official response of the American Lutheran Church at the June 1985 meeting of the Church Council, 5.
[18] “The Eucharist: A Lutheran-Roman Catholic Statement,” 189-190.
[19] BC, 362, §5-6.
[20] BC, 605, §69.
[21] Reginald W. Dietz, “The Lord’s Supper in American Lutheranism,” in Meaning and Practice of the Lord’s Supper, ed. Helmut T. Lehman (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1961), 138.
[22] Ibid., 162.
[23] A chart with these statistics prepared by ELCA Research and Evaluation is attached.
[24] The Use of the Means of Grace: A Statement on the Practice of Word and Sacrament,” 41. This statement was adopted by the 1997 ELCA Churchwide Assembly for guidance and practice. It is available at this link: http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Resources/The-Use-of-the-Means-of-Grace.aspx
[25] Gordon Lathrop, ed. What is Changing in Eucharistic Practice? (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1994), 4.
[26] Beverly A. Nitschke, “The Eucharist: For the Forgiveness of Sins: A Lutheran Response,” Ecumenical Trends (June 1991): 92.
[27] Cited in Ibid., 92.
[28]Simo Peura, “The Church as Spiritual Communion,” in The Church as Communion: Lutheran Contributions to Ecclesiology, LWF Documentation 42, ed. Heinrich Holze (Geneva: Lutheran World Federation, 1997), 104-121.
[29] Luther’s Works: American Edition, Volume 35, 59.

Jim Wallis Speaks at Trinity Lutheran Seminary

2008-10-18T12:54:00.002-04:00

The theme for Trinity Days 2008 was a very timely one: "The Meaning of Prophetic Politics in an Election Year." For those unable to join us at Trinity for this important discussion, you can view videos of the TA Kantonen Lecture by Sojourners founder, Jim Wallis, and a panel discussion featuring Trinity's own Dr. James Childs, Jr., Dr. Jacqueline Bussie (Capital University), and Andrew Genzsler (ELCA Advocacy), by visiting Trinity Lutheran Seminary homepage. You can also see pictures from the day (featuring yours truly!) and read Dr. Hank Langknecht's sermon.

Global Luther Conference - February 2008

2008-10-18T12:28:00.008-04:00

Last February, scholars gathered for an international conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, entitled "The Global Luther: Reconsidering the Contributions of Martin Luther." The purpose of the conference was to bring "Luther's ideas into international conversations underway today about how people around the planet live, think, and suffer in the context of geopolitical and religious instability and crisis."

Obviously, this event already happened but I draw your attention to it now because the videos from the conference have been posted on YouTube by the Department of Religion at Northwestern University.

In particular, I want to highlight the paper given by my colleague from Capital University, Jacqueline Bussie: "'A Dream with a Sequel' or the 'Coming Summer'?: Martin Luther on Hope for the World." Those of you who attended 2008 Trinity Days will remember Jacquie's participation in the panel discussion with Jim Wallis, Jim Childs, and Andrew Genzsler.

Blog hiatus is over

2008-10-18T12:24:00.002-04:00

I realize that it has been months since I have posted! My apologies to those who have been checking this and finding nothing new since late June. New posts are coming. . .

John H. P. Reumann, 1927-2008

2008-06-24T10:52:00.006-04:00

Another ecumenical giant is gone. John H.P. Reumann died on June 6, 2008, after a long battle with cancer. John ("Jack" to his friends) was professor emeritus of New Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue since it began in 1965.

The first time I met Jack was twenty years ago this summer, when I visited his daughter, Amy, in Philadelphia for the Fourth of July (during the summer of our respective CPE programs; I was in Danville, PA and she was in Philadelphia). Amy and I became friends in 1984 when we participated in the international summer study program, "Global Issues and World Churches" (developed and directed for years by Charles Chatfield, emeritus professor of history at Wittenberg University) that took us to New York City, Geneva, Rome, and Budapest, among other places. Three years later, we found ourselves beginning seminary together as roomates at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

For the past year and a half, I was blessed and humbled to serve with Jack as colleagues together on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue. Jack's careful scholarship and commitment to the church was renowned and he will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. Amen.

Survey shows religious tolerance in the U.S.

2008-06-24T10:45:00.003-04:00

Read about the findings of the new study by the Pew Forum on religious tolerance in the U.S. as reported by the New York Times here. The homepage of the "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" can be found here.

A Message for Graduating Seminarians

2008-05-27T19:46:00.005-04:00

I know that at least a few of my graduating seniors check out my blog on occasion so I want to heartily second Kelly's Fryer's message for graduating seminarians and thank Mary for posting it on her blog.

The One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: Reflections on the Understanding of the Church in an Ecumenical Horizon

2008-05-27T11:46:00.010-04:00

I am working on a paper for a Lutheran World Federation international conference hosted by the Department for Theology and Studies that will meet at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, June 12-16, 2008. The topic is "The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." Theologians from around the globe have been invited to offer various perspectives on this topic. Interestingly, very little scholarship has been done on the creedal marks of the church from a Lutheran perspective.

The conference is organized into three sections:

I. Historical Perspectives: The soteriological relevance of the Church
II. Denominational Perspectives on the Church
III. Global Perspectives

I am speaking in the third section to offer a North American Lutheran perspective on the Nicene marks of the church. The other global perspectives will be from Ethiopia, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and South America. My paper will 1) relate the Nicene marks to the classic Lutheran marks of the church as "word and sacrament;" and 2) suggest reading the Nicene marks in a reverse order as proposed by Darrell Guder (see his paper, "The Nicene Marks in a Post-Christendom Church") for a North American context "in order to restore missional purpose to our theology of the church."

"We must change America, not the world"

2008-05-17T10:18:00.005-04:00

I found this important op-ed, "The Long War Fallacy," by Andrew J. Bacevich (which appeared earlier this week in the L.A. Times) on Eric's blog. Bacevich has written elsewhere about America as Empire.

Krister Stendahl, 1921-2008

2008-04-21T23:41:00.010-04:00

Krister Stendahl, "ecumenical bishop," died on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. We heard the news during one of the LERN plenaries at the National Workshop on Christian Unity. Bishop Stendahl served the church in many capacities: as a biblical scholar, professor, dean, and campus pastor at Harvard Divinity School, as bishop of Stockholm, and as an ecumenist. He was one of the early progenitors of the "new perspective on Paul" and an early advocate for women's ordination and the full participation of gays and lesbians in the church. He was a pioneer in both ecumenical and interreligious work.

I had the chance to interview Krister Stendahl in 1983 for the Wittenberg Torch. He was on campus to give one of the series of lectures scheduled to celebrate the quincentennial of Martin Luther's birthday. I remember being struck by his complete humility and graciousness. Another giant in the ecumenical movement is gone.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. Amen.

National Workshop on Christian Unity

2008-04-20T16:49:00.009-04:00

This week I attended the National Workshop on Christian Unity, which ironically (or not?) met this year at the same time as the first Papal Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States. The division of the churches and the need for a more united witness was addressed by Pope Benedict during his homily at an ecumenical service at St. Joseph's on Friday. While the Second Vatican Council would commit the Roman Catholic Church to ecumenical work, the NWCU was founded in 1963--before the council concluded--by a group of Roman Catholics to begin educating themselves about ecumenism. In 1969, they invited other Christians to join them and since then, an annual workshop has been held to provide educational opportunities for local ecumenical leaders. Various denominational ecumenical networks, such as the Lutheran Ecumenical Representative Network (LERN), also meet during the NWCU.

The theme for this year's workshop was "Pray without ceasing." Sister Dr. Lorelei Fuchs preached at the opening worship and the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Dr. Michael Kinnamon, gave the keynote address. Workshop seminars were held on topics that ranged from specific bilateral dialogues to the Emerging Church movement. I was unaware of this Workshop until I was invited to be part of a panel for one of the seminars (I was part of a panel on "Beyond Bilaterals"that discussed the significance of the United Methodist Church signing onto the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification).

My purpose in writing this brief post is to draw more attention to this event in hopes that some of my current and former students might consider attending and becoming more involved in ecumenical work!

In memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2008-04-04T09:47:00.006-04:00

Today is the 40th anniversary of the tragic assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many will remember his stirring words about being "up to the mountaintop" and that someday we would see "the promised land" in the powerful speech he gave to striking sanitation workers the night before he was killed. His central message sometimes gets missed in the video clips and sound bites. King was calling the church to church to preach about and work for economic justice:

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful tome, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."
It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.
Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. . .
We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles, we don't need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

As Nadia Stefko reminds us, we're not there yet. She writes, "As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination, there’s a lot of mainstream media focusing on the story of the past, the story of what King and the movement he led achieved. While this is undoubtedly important, this report and these workers serve a vital reminder of all that he left for us to do and all that remains to be done. We haven’t achieved King’s vision of economic justice. Forty years later, we’re still out there wandering—hoping we’ll come upon the Promised Land sometime soon."

May this day remind us not only of the great legacy of this man, but of his vision for racial and economic justice and his call to us to join in this work so that all of God's children are treated fairly and with dignity.

White People Have a Racial History Too

2008-04-03T15:52:00.004-04:00

Thank you to my colleague Kevin Dudley for directing me to this important reflection on race and the 2008 election written by Alice Walker.

Repentant Patriotism

2008-03-20T18:26:00.005-04:00

March 19 was the fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq. Jim Wallis and several other Christian leaders issued a "Call for Lament and Repent" and invited other Christians to sign on in support. They write, "As U.S. Christians, we issue a call to the American church to lament and repent of the sin of this war." The Sojourners campaign is good for what Lutheran theologian Gary Simpson calls "repentant patriotism." Gary presented a paper on this topic at the LWF seminar on "Being the Church in the Midst of Empire" and explores this idea in his new book, War, Peace, and God: Rethinking the Just War Tradition [click here to read a chapter from the book]. Another thoughtful reflection on this idea is offered by Donald W. Schriver in a 2006 speech given at Chicago Theological Seminary: "Repentant Patriotism: An Oxymoron?"

Scharen on Obama and Christian Realism

2008-03-20T18:12:00.006-04:00

In this post, "On Declaring God Damn America: Obama and Wright, Niebuhr and Cone," Chris Scharen offers a very thoughtful reflection on Senator Obama's powerful speech and the theological framework that influences him. An excerpt:

Senator Obama’s favorite theologian is not a black liberation theologian, as is the case for Rev. Wright (who cites James Cone, among others). Obama’s favorite theologian is Reinhold Neibuhr, whose long and influential career at Union Theological Seminary in New York cast a web of influence that caught up preachers and presidents alike, including perhaps most famously Martin Luther King Jr. Asked by David Brooks of the New York Times what he took away from Neibuhr’s writings, Obama said “"I take away the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter realism." Such a perspective embodies what Niebuhr called Christian realism, a counterpoint to what he called America’s tendency to embrace a belief in the doctrine of ‘special providence,’ that is, the idea that we are a redeemer nation called to spread our light to others who struggle in darkness. . .
. . . Why is this sort of perspective hard for many Americans to accept? At present, one of the overwhelming reasons is the hyper-patriotic reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. President Bush has played strongly into the tradition that views America as pure, and as destined to bring our light to the world that still lives in darkness. That framing—good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny—has been powerful in a time of great national anxiety and I think propelled President Bush to a second term despite his gross mismanagement of the nation on many levels, not least of which is the war in Iraq, a war I have called immoral and unjust from the start. When people buy into the rhetoric of America as innocent, as guardian of the moral high ground, as somehow beyond the pale of critique, then a Niebuhrian perspective sounds unpatriotic at best.
If someone has the view of America as innocent, and of patriotism as upholding glory of our nation’s ideals at any cost, then there is little room for a prophetic critique of the sins of the nation—slavery and the legacy of racism as a major case in point.

A Closer Look at Black Liberation Theology

2008-03-19T10:14:00.005-04:00

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, All Things Considered, March 18, 2008.

[The link to this story (printed in full below) and the audio clip can be found here.]

Presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) defended his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, on Tuesday, even as he repudiated some of the pastor's inflammatory sermons. But Wright's comments likely come as no surprise to those familiar with black liberation theology, a religious philosophy that emerged during the 1960s.

Black liberation theology originated on July 31, 1966, when 51 black pastors bought a full page ad in the New York Times and demanded a more aggressive approach to eradicating racism. They echoed the demands of the black power movement, but the new crusade found its source of inspiration in the Bible.

"God's presence in the world is best depicted through God's involvement in the struggle for justice," says Anthony Pinn, who teaches philosophy and religion at Rice University in Houston. "God is so intimately connected to the community that suffers, that God becomes a part of that community."

Freedom and Liberation

Dwight Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, says black liberation theology often portrays Jesus as a brown-skinned revolutionary. He cites the words of Mary in the Magnificat — also known as the "Song of Mary" — in which she says God intends to bring down the mighty and raise the lowly. Hopkins also notes that in the book of Matthew, Jesus says the path to heaven is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners. And the central text for black liberation theology can be found in Chapter 4 of Luke's gospel, where Jesus outlines the purpose of his ministry.

"Jesus says my mission is to eradicate poverty and to bring about freedom and liberation for the oppressed," Hopkins says. "And most Christian pastors in America skip over that part of the book."

Hopkins attends Trinity United Church of Christ, where Rev. Wright just retired as pastor. In the now-famous sermon from 2003, Wright said black people's troubles are a result of racism that still exists in America, crying out, "No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that's in the Bible — for killing innocent people."

According to Hopkins, that was theological wordplay — because the word "damn" is straight out of the Bible and has a specific meaning in the original Hebrew.

"It means a sacred condemnation by God to a wayward nation who has strayed from issues of justice, strayed from issues of peace, strayed from issues of reconciliation," Hopkins says.

A Loud, Passionate, Physical Affair

Anthony Pinn of Rice University acknowledges that black liberation preaching often sounds angry. But he says the anger does not advocate violence but is instead channeled into constructive routes. Trinity UCC, he notes, has 70 ministries that help the poor, the unemployed, those with AIDS or those in prison. Pinn says the words can be jarring to the untrained ear, but they're still valid.

"Folks, including myself, may be taken aback by the inflammatory nature of the rhetoric, but I don't think very many of us would deny that there is a fundamental truth: Racism is a problem in the United States," Pinn says.

Black liberation preaching can be a loud, passionate, physical affair. Linda Thomas, who teaches at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, says the whole point of it is to challenge the powerful and to raise questions for society to think about. Thomas says if white people are surprised by the rhetoric, it's because most have never visited a black church.

"I think that many black people would know what white worship is like," Thomas says. "Why is it that white people don't know what black worship is about? And I think that is because there is this centrality with white culture that says we don't have to know about that."

Obama presents himself as uniquely situated to bridge those two cultures because of his biracial heritage. In his speech on race Tuesday, the presidential hopeful said he could no more disown his controversial pastor than he could disown his white grandmother.

"These people are a part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love," Obama said.

He denounced the harshness of Wright's words — not because they were false, he said, but because they did not acknowledge the strides that the U.S. has made in the fight against racism. Obama said his own candidacy shows how far the country has come.

William H. Lazareth, 1929-2008

2008-02-27T22:59:00.011-05:00

The Rev. Dr. William H. Lazareth, Lutheran theologian and ethicist, former ELCA Bishop, and ecumenist, died on February 23, 2008. He was 79 years old. ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said of him: "Dr. Lazareth was a teacher of the Church. The ecclesial, theological and ecumenical legacy that he leaves will bless the people of the Church for generations to come," he said.

As the director the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Secretariat, he oversaw the drafting of one of the most important ecumenical documents of the 20th century: "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" (1982), also known as the Lima Text. He was well-known for his work in Lutheran theology and social ethics [for an excerpt from his last major work, Christians in Society: Luther, the Bible, and Social Ethics, click here and here]. In his final years, he served as the Jerald C. Brauer Distinguished Professor of Lutheran Studies at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and co-founded the on-line Augustine Institute while there.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him.

The New Pew Study and Ecclesiology

2008-02-26T19:52:00.011-05:00

The religious landscape in the U.S. is not only increasingly diverse; it is also more fluid, which means that "loyalities to churches prove [to be] more fleeting" according to a new study released yesterday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. According to the study, 44 per cent of Americans have left the religious tradition in which they were raised for a different tradition--or no tradition at all. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, concluded, "it's a very competitive marketplace, and if you rest on your laurels, you're going to be history." As troubling as the study was to read, Lugo's comment is even more troubling. The language of "marketing" may have entered church discourse more than a generation ago, "but there's a reason Jesus said 'You shall be my witnesses,' and not 'You shall be my marketers'" says Mark Galli in a piece in Christianity Today. He's right!

In my new course, "Pastor as Theologian," we have been talking about the identity and mission of the church. The church is a community (koinonia) of disciples and witnesses, not a product to be marketed. As Reggie McNeal would say, the goal is not "church growth" but "kingdom growth." The church is called to be a sign and instrument of the kingdom of God. At the heart of this witness is the power of God's reconciling love that St. Paul speaks of so elequently in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (among other places):

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Back in 2003, I heard Lutheran missiologist Philip Baker call for a moratorium on the "Great Commission" of Matthew 28 as the foundational text for Christian mission (his article starts on page 39). He suggests instead that we consider this passage from St. Paul. The idea of "reconciliation as a paradigm for mission" has been echoed and developed by others such as Robert Schreiter, the Forum for World Evangelization, and the World Council of Churches. I plan to explore this idea in ecclesiological terms (i.e., how do we understand the nature of the church in light of this paradigm?) in a paper proposal for the Ecclesiological Investigations Group of the AAR.

Detroit Urban Seminar--Initial Thoughts

2008-02-03T00:21:00.002-05:00

I returned home a week and a half ago from my J-term course, an 11-day immersion experience in Detroit with 10 students, and I am still trying to figure out how I want to relay this experience on my blog (In fact, it took me a week to finish this post). The focus of the course was "Racism, Classism, Sexism, and Heterosexism." The city of Detroit was the "lab" for growing in our knowledge of how these "isms" operate in society--and in ourselves. While overt racism is alive and well, we were reminded of the many subtle but insidious ways that racism has been structured into the very fabric of our society, and how the system perpetuates white privilege. Detroit is a city that was shaped by racism: we recall that Detroit was the place of "race riots" (or rebellions depending on your perspective) in the 40s and 60s, but as Kevin Boyle of the Washington Post puts it, "40 years later, the urban crisis still smolders." Detroit continues to be the one of the most segregated cities in the United States (right after Milwaukee, according to the last census). There is no mass transit system linking the city and the suburbs and there is not one major grocery store chain in the entire city of Detroit.

The pastors of Acts in Common were our teachers along with the many leaders they scheduled for us to meet. Jim Perkinson, professor of theology at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, framed our time in Detroit with lectures on the "isms," drawing from his own work and that of Ched Myers and other biblical scholars who apply a socio-political hermeneutic to the reading of scripture. We learned of the devasting effects of environmental racism from the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion and our tour guide Lila Cabbil who directs Wayne State University's Multicultural Experience in Leadership Development program. We learned about the crimminal (in)justice system from Regina Jemison, a lawyer who also shared her gift of music with us at the Tuesday Night AIC Prayer Meeting (and who also happens to serve on Trinity Lutheran Seminary's Board of Trustees!). We learned about ministry to the homeless during our visit to the Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS). We learned about community organizing from leaders in Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES), the local Gamaliel chapter, and joined them for their annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. banquet. We heard from school principals and superintendents about the challenges of educating children in an urban context. We did ride-alongs one evening with the Detroit Police and even got to meet Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and some members of his staff (one week before this story hit the papers). We were moved by what we saw at the "And Still We Rise" exhibit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. We were introduced to the ministry of the Ruth Ellis Center, one of only four youth social service agencies in the U.S. dedicated to helping LGBTQ teenager and young adults who are homeless. And there was much, much more.

As one who had served as a pastor in an urban setting myself, much of what I saw and heard was not "news" to me. Nonetheless, the experience deeply impacted me and challenged me to do more. In the classroom, I enjoin my students to "open their eyes" to the reality of racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism through readings and discussion, and I will continue to make this a mark of my teaching. But I need to move beyond the classroom and find ways other ways to actively participate in the struggle for a more just and anti-racist church and society.

An LWF Contribution to the Understanding and Practice of Mission

2008-01-25T11:16:00.002-05:00

While I am at it, here is an another helpful LWF (Lutheran World Federation) resource: Mission in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment: An LWF Contribution to the Understanding and Practice of Mission. This document, published in 2004, can be downloaded as a PDF file.

The Role of the Bishop in the ELCA

2008-01-25T10:29:00.001-05:00

I was invited to speak to the ELCA Conference of Bishops on this topic at their annual academy a couple of weeks ago (to which they invite the ELCIC Bishops as well) along with Dr. Guy Erwin who teaches Reformation history at California Lutheran University. I gave two presentations: "The Evolving Office of Bishop in the ELCA" which gave some historical perspective on how oversight was exercised in predecessor church bodies in the U.S., and "The Role of the Bishop in the Lutheran Church Today in Light of the Marks of the Church." I treated the marks of the church in reverse order following the lead of missiologists such as Darrell Guder.

In my research for these presentations, I came across an LWF Document that was adopted in 2007: Episcopal Ministry Within the Apostolicity of the Church. This document is a revision of a 2002 draft that was widely distributed. Responses were invited from various theologians and groups including the WordAlone theological advisory board. In my view, the 2007 Lund Document is a very helpful and clarifying treatment of what has become a contentious issue in the ELCA. My only critique is that the section on Mission (III) should have preceded and thus framed the Biblical and Historical Foundations in II.

"Being the Church in the Midst of Empire" Now Available for Purchase!

2007-11-26T13:54:00.001-05:00

"Being the Church in the Midst of Empire: Trinitarian Reflections," ed. by Karen L. Bloomquist, is now available for purchase from Lutheran University Press! [Note: This book came out of the Lutheran World Federation seminar, "Confessing and Living Faith in the Triune God: Being the Church in the Midst of Empire," in which I was invited to participate this past June and which I further blogged about here and here.]

A book launching event was held on Friday evening, November 18, at First Lutheran Church in San Diego, where several of the authors were in town to attend the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Bishop Murray Finck, bishop of the Pacifica Synod, and several area Lutheran clergy joined us for the book launching event, which began with a dinner that was identical to one served earlier in the day to the homeless by First Lutheran (click here to learn about their ministry to the homeless and underserved). After dinner, each author was asked to share a word about what we had written and then we joined in conversation with the pastors about the realities of "being the church in the midst of empire" with regard to their ministry settings. It was a wonderful evening. Many thanks to Karen Bloomquist and Pastor Wilk Miller for organizing a fine event to launch this book!

Vatican joins historic talks to end 950-year rift with Orthodox church

2007-11-26T13:45:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Bob Abrams for notifying me of this important story, which incidentally appeared in the New York Times on the day I was en route to the American Academy of Religion and various pre-meetings in San Diego--surprisingly, no one at the meeting mentioned this!!

Click here for the English text of the Ravenna document.

Jared Wicks on the Vatican Document

2007-09-25T08:47:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I received two articles addressing the "CDF intervention" in June. The articles were written by my colleague on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, Jared Wicks, SJ and were published last month. Wicks taught for many years at the Gregorian University in Rome and is currently at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. He began his academic career as a Luther scholar but is perhaps now best known as an ecumenist. He is one of two members of the U.S. Dialogue who also serve on the International Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue. The articles are helpful and clarifying in terms of the Roman Catholic position and the specifically the disputes within Roman Catholicism that the Vatican document intended to address. Both articles are available on-line so I am posting the links here:

"Not-so-fully church" in Christian Century (Note: Jared's original title was: "Once More, the Vatican on the Church and the Churches")
"Questions and Answers on the New Responses of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" in Ecumenical Trends

Help me raise money for hunger!

2007-09-19T22:56:00.000-04:00

This Sunday, September 23, I am walking in the CROP Hunger Walk with my alma mater, Wittenberg University. This August marks the 60th anniversay of CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty)--the community hunger appeal of Church World Service--and the beginning of the CROP Hunger Walk season, in which tens of thousands of people in communities across the U.S. walk to to raise money and show solidarity with those who are impoverished. The motto of the CROP Walker is: We walk because they walk!

Each year more than 2.5 million CROP Walkers, volunteers, and sponsors raise over $16 million per year to help stop hunger around the world -- and in their own communities

If you are not already walking for hunger or supporting another walker, would you please consider making a donation in support of my efforts? Your donation supports programs that work to solve the world-wide challenge of hunger. You can help me by making a donation online. Follow this link to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation.

Luther and Lutheran Identity

2007-09-19T19:37:00.001-04:00

Trinity Lutheran Seminary is now on the semester system! This has meant that some courses have been combined with others. One example of this is "Lutheran Identity in America" which I am teaching this semester. This new 14 week course is a combination of "Lutheran Identity" (known as "Lutheran Confessions" in many seminaries) and parts of "Being Lutheran in America" -- the parts that treated theological issues and debates over the Confessions in the U.S., especially in the 19th century, as well as contemporary challenges to American Lutheran identity. To put all this together in one semester has been challenging!

One of the perennial complaints about such a course is that we do not read enough Luther. We do read some Luther! We read his writings that appear in the Book of Concord: the Small and Large Catechism, and the oft-overlooked Smalcald Articles, which, according to William Russell, provides a "neglected key to the theology of Martin Luther." Those who took Systematic Theology with me last year read "On the Freedom of a Christian," and I think it is the goal of the new Church History II class for students to read all three of Luther's 1520 treatises. But to read more Luther at Trinity, one also needs to take an elective class such as "Readings in Luther" (which many students do).

Of course, in "Lutheran Identity in America," I remind the students that when they are ordained or commissioned, they will promise to teach and preach in accordance with the Lutheran Confessions, and not Luther's corpus. Helmut Lehman (one of the translators of Luther's Works: American Edition), in a piece he wrote several years ago entitled "Luther on the Study of Luther," reminds us of Luther's own estimation of his works and thus suggests a perspective to keep in mind when we study them:

In a variety of formulations and settings Luther speaks of wanting his books to perish lest they, like previous works, detract from studying the Holy Scriptures. Because all sorts of writings by church fathers, councils, and teachers have been collected and stored in libraries, “the divine Word is lost,” and the “Bible lies forgotten in the dust under the bench.” Already in 1528 Luther said he had sought to accomplish nothing else with his writing than to bring Holy Scripture and divine truth to light. He thought he had succeeded in this endeavor to such a degree that divine truth “praise God, shines forth so brightly and powerfully everywhere” that one could now get along without his writings and those of others who shared his views. John the Baptizer is Luther’s model. Through his writings Luther wants to “point toward the Scriptures, as John the Baptist did toward Christ, saying, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’” [John 3:30]. Thus the purpose of the study of Luther’s writings is to point to the study of the Holy Scriptures and to Christ.

Bishop Sklba on the Vatican Document

2007-08-15T21:41:00.001-04:00

The Most Rev. Richard J. Sklba, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of the Roman Catholic Church, was one of several distinguished guests who spoke in honor of Secretary Lowell Almen when he received the Servus Dei Medal at the recent ELCA Assembly. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel interviewed him on August 3, 2007, noting that just one month after the publication of the recent Vatican document asserting that the Catholic Church is the one true church, Sklba "is about to find himself in what some might assume would be an uncomfortable position - addressing more than 1,000 Lutherans. Bishop Sklba, who is the co-chair of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, noted that the tenth round of the dialogue (The Church as Koinonia of Salvation, 2004) proposed that "Catholic judgment on the authenticity of Lutheran ministry need not be all or nothing." The report quoted a 1993 letter from then Cardinal Ratzinger: "I count among the most important results of the ecumenical dialogues the insight that the issue of the Eucharist cannot be narrowed to the problem of validity. Even a theology oriented to the concept of succession . . . need not in any way deny the salvation granting presence of the Lord in the Lutheran Lord's Supper."

George Tavard, 1922-2007

2007-08-15T09:59:00.001-04:00

George Tavard, a giant in the ecumenical movement, died expectedly on Monday, August 13, 2007. He was named by Pope John XXIII to attend Vatican Council II as a "peritus conciliaris" and he served on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue from the beginning. Many of my colleagues from Trinity will remember George from his tenure at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio here in central Ohio, from where he retired in 1990. I was privileged to serve with him on the latest round of the dialogue ("The Hope of Eternal Life"). His gentle spirit and deep wisdom will be missed by all who knew him.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him.

Racism, Classism, Sexism and Heterosexism

2007-08-04T09:40:00.001-04:00

In one of my first posts, I wrote about racism and the need for white theologians to deal with it. This January, I will be leading an interim seminar that is a study of the issues of racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in urban ministry with a focus on the city of Detroit. The class will meet for two days at Trinity where I will introduce the students theoretically to these problems and then we will spend approximately 10 days in Detroit where they will be instructed by pastors engaged in city ministry in Detroit -- "Acts in Common" -- and myself.

I have been doing some research in order to determine what the students should read for this course. The pastors of Acts in Common will help shape the reading list. I probably will show most (if not all) of the excellent PBS series, "Race: The Power of an Illusion" during the two days in Columbus.

Students who took the course previously read The Autobiography of Malclom X and White Women's Christ, Black Women's Jesus by Womanist theologian Jacquelyn Grant.

I just came across this interview in The Other Journal in which second generation Black theologian Dwight Hopkins offers an excellent (and at times personal) introduction to Black Theology [as an aside, his piece, "The Religion of Globalization" appeared in a previous issue of The Other Journal]. He also discusses his latest book (which has since been published by Fortress): Being Human: Race, Culture and Religion. I will probably use at least one chapter from his book in the reader I put together for this new course.

I also hope to include readings by White theologians who are addressing racism and White privilege, such as James Perkinson (who teaches at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit) who has written White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity. On-line articles by Perkinson include "Theology and the City: Learning to Cry, Struggling to See" and "Like a Thief in the Night: Black Theology and White Church in the Third Millennium."

I welcome suggestions with regard to resources (books and other media) from those of you who have taught (or taken) courses on racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism.

Metaphors for Spirit

2007-07-18T10:43:00.001-04:00

Debra Bendis blogs on "Metaphors for Spirit" on Theolog--the weblog of the weekly magazine Christian Century.

Vatican Document on the Nature of the Church

2007-07-14T10:35:00.000-04:00

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) of the Roman Catholic Church recently issued a document entitled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church." This document has elicited strong reactions from many Protestant communions, including the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation. ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, in his response to the CDF document, reaffirmed the ELCA's commitment to on-going dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church particularly with regard to the difficult questions of ecclesiology and ministry.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council on Christian Unity, in a Vatican Radio address, sought to reassure Protestants that the Roman Catholic Church is still committed to ecumenical dialogue. He stated that the "declaration is not taking back anything of the ecumenical progress already reached, but drawing attention to the ecumenical task that still lies ahead." Ann Riggs of the National Council of Churches, in her official response to the statement, reminds Protestants that this was an "in-house" document, i.e. written for Catholics, not for Protestants. Even so, she argued that "it affords us all an opportunity for more dialogue and more insight. This reaffirms that the ecumenical nature and purpose of the Second Vatican Council is still very much alive within and outside Catholic circles."

John Allen, of the National Catholic Reporter, offers a less sanguine perspective in this piece: "Struggle to Reassert Traditional Catholic Identity Scores Two Wins." The Catholic News Service, in its story on the document, also raised the question of why it was released at this particular moment. "The Vatican said it was because of possible confusion in theological and ecumenical circles. Those who see a grand design in Vatican actions, however, suspected it may have been another olive branch to the breakaway traditionalist followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre -- just three days after the Tridentine Mass decree. In this reading, the Vatican has delivered a double demonstration, liturgical and doctrinal, that answers some of the Lefebvrites' strongest objections about the modern church."

As a newly appointed member of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue (which is now in Round XI), my first reaction to the release of the CDF document was one of frustration even though it did not state anything new. Mostly, I was frustrated with the way in which the document was presented. Although it was written to Catholics, it was not written in a spirit of ecumenical sensitivity nor in a way that emphasized the real -- though imperfect -- communion that Catholics claim to have with other Christians in spite of our on-going differences in how we each understand "the church."

More Reports on Empire Seminar

2007-07-14T10:21:00.002-04:00

The Lutheran World Federation this week issued a press release on our seminar: "Theologians Propose Responses to Counter Empire."

One of participants, Michael Hoy, offers his reflections on the seminar in "Thursday Theology #474: The Confessing Church in the Midst of Empire." Thursday Theology is part of the ministry of the Crossings Community of which Michael is a member.

Being the Church in the Midst of Empire: An Initial Report

2007-07-01T09:14:00.000-04:00

I just returned from the LWF Seminar, "Confessing and Living Faith in the Triune God: Being the Church in the Midst of Empire." The impetus for the seminar came in part from the work that the Reformed churches are doing on this issue. Some Lutherans participated in the ecumenical consultation sponsored by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches held in Manila, July 13-15, 2006, that resulted in this document: An Ecumenical Faith Stance Against Global Empire. In the same year, the United Church in Canada issued the statement "Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire"(also known as "The Empire Report"), that was drawn from background papers by Douglas John Hall ("Christianity and Empire"), Ofelia Ortega ("When the Empire Lies, People Suffer, They are Exploited, and Life Becomes Death"), Nestor O. Miguez ("Jesus and Empire: Then and Now"). [Note: Miguez has also written "The Empire and After: Biblical Hope in the Midst of Oppression."]

One of the topics of conversation, of course, had to do with defining what is meant by "empire." Some members of the seminar cited the book Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri--which stipulates "empire" as a supranational global-network of sovereignty--rather than a single country (e.g. the US). The Global Policy Forum offers many excellent resources on the question of the US as empire; this link examines the concept of empire in political discourse today and provides a general analysis of the unilateralist agenda of the US. A wide range of materials are posted, including articles from pro-imperialists (e.g. The Project for a New American Century) and critics of empire, as well as those that debate whether it is appropriate to attribute the term "empire" to the US. Other perspectives are offered in articles by Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, "American Empire, Not 'If,' But 'What Kind';" and Michael Walzer, "Is there an American Empire?"

However empire is defined, we all agreed that it is important for theologians to wrestle with the disturbing features of this emerging economic and political reality, such as the unlimited quest for power and profit (if not territory) and the avoidance of moral accountability. This is especially important, because as Karen Bloomquist (who convened this seminar) noted, “From the outside, Christians in the US seem mostly silent and complicit with the assumptions and policies of empire, reinforced by expressions of religiosity that are the handmaiden to empire.”

Because of the theme, the seminar met in the U.S. and a number of U.S. scholars were invited to participate; however, those of us from the US were joined by several scholars from the global south which led to a rich conversation on the topic. To give a sense of voices around the table and the variety of perspectives that were heard, I will list the names of the participants and hyperlink an article or book review (if one could be found on-line):

Charles Amjad-Ali (Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN); Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar (United Theological College, Banglaore, India); Karen Bloomquist (Director of the Department for Theology and Studies, LWF); Hans-Peter Grosshans (Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät Tübingen, Germany--but soon to join the LWF DTS staff); Guillermo (Willy) Hansen (Instituto Superior Evangelico de Estudios Teologicos, Buenos Aires, Argentina); John Hoffmeyer (Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, PA); Michael Hoy (St. Louis, MO); Allen Jorgensen (Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Waterloo, Ontario); Peter Lodberg (Aarhus Universitet, Denmark); Deenabandhu Manchala (Faith and Order, World Council of Churches); Cynthia Moe-Lobeda (Seattle University); Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN); Cheryl Peterson (Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH); Gary Simpson (Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN); Bill Strehlow (Geneva); Deanna Thompson (Hamline University, St. Paul, MN).

Also participating were several international graduate students: Mary Joy Philip (India) from LSTC, and several from Luther Seminary: Faith Lugazia (Tanzania), Elieshi Mungure (Tanzania), Margaret Obaga (Kenya), and Johannes Swart (South Africa). Unfortunately, two South African scholar/church leaders, Musawenkosi Biyela and Puleng Lenka Bula, who had been invited to participate were not able to attend.

We discussed our papers for the first two days and on the third day we explored how our papers relate to one another and suggested revisions, in preparation for an LWF book that is anticipated for publication later this year.

The Holy Spirit in the Church

2007-06-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

Each July, the Ecumenical Institute at Strasbourg hosts an Ecumenical Summer Seminar. This year, the topic is "Church-State Relations as an Ecumenical Issue." The topic last year (the 40th anniversary of the seminar) was "The Holy Spirit and the Church." In his paper, "Breathed, Justified, Anointed, Enlightened, Filled: The Churches' Life, Separation, and Hope in the Spirit," theologian Telford Work offers an interesting typology of the Church's distinct relationships with the Spirit. Other papers from last summer's seminar can be found by clicking on the "Summer Seminar" link to the left and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Bishops in the Church

2007-06-10T12:08:00.000-04:00

This was the theme of the 2007 Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) which I joined a couple of years ago. In spite of the name, membership in this professional organization is open to Protestant as well as Catholic theologians. Although the flavor of the conversation is decidedly Catholic, there is also a clear commitment to ecumenical theology and dialogue (not to mention reform and renewal--which has not always been appreciated by all members of the church hierarchy. Click here for an anti-CTSA editorial written in June 1997 by Cardinal Bernard Law and here for a forum on the Cardinal's criticism.) For an idea of what topics were addressed at the 2007 convention, check out John Allen's "Daily Column" at the National Catholic Reporter.

One of the plenary addresses was given by Michael Root, Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and fellow member of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue. His presentation was entitled: “Bishops, Ministry, and the Unity of the Church in Ecumenical Dialogue: Deadlock, Breakthrough, or Both?” [As an aside, the person who introduced him quoted Bishop Richard Sklba (Auxiliary Bishop of Milwaukee and co-chair of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue) who quipped to her that "Professor Root knows more about indulgences than most Catholics do." For those interested in a primer, check out Root's article, "Indulgences, Again."]

Being the Church in the Midst of Empire

2007-06-03T08:31:00.000-04:00

I am working on a paper for a seminar of the Lutheran World Federation that will meet in St. Paul, Minnesota at the end of June. The theme of the seminar is "Confessing and Living out Faith in the Triune God: Being the Church in the Midst of Empire." This consultation is part of the larger theological initiative of the LWF, "Theology in the Life of the Church: Confessing and Living out Faith in the Triune God."

The purpose of this seminar is "to probe and further develop key theological motifs (especially as interpreted through Lutheran lenses) that are counter to the assumptions, power dynamics, and outcomes operating under empire and can nurture resistance to such, especially in and through local churches." Approximately 15 Lutheran theologians will participate, at least six from outside the U.S. My paper will focus on the subtitle "being the church in the midst of empire." Up this this point, my work on ecclesiology has focused more on mission and witness in terms of evangelistic outreach. These concerns, of course, are not unrelated to "being the church" in the midst of empire; even so, I am glad for the opportunity to think about ecclesiology more explicitly in light of this reality.

There is an increasing amount of material available on the theme of empire, much of it by biblical scholars. A couple of background articles were suggested to us in preparation for the seminar, including "Paul's Gospel and Caesar's Empire" by N.T. Wright and "Up Against Caesar: Jesus and Paul against Empire" by John Dart.

In my research for my paper, I also found this piece by William Cavanaugh: "The Empire of the Empty Shrine: American Imperialism and the Church." This was his keynote address to the 2005 annual gathering of the Ekklesia Project. [For those unfamiliar with Cavanaugh, he is part of the newer theological movement called "Radical Orthodoxy." Several of his articles can be found on-line via this link.]

More of what's new in pneumatology

2007-05-14T23:02:00.000-04:00

In a recent article, "Poured out on all Flesh," Pentecostal scholar Amos Yong suggests that "Christian systematic theology itself can benefit from a pneumatological (as opposed to creational or christological) reframing, a ‘starting with the Spirit’, as it were." This move to "start with the Spirit" is not an idea that originated with him; he notes that it has been suggested in the works of Henry van Dusen (Spirit, Son and Father: Christian Faith in the Light of the Holy Spirit, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), J.V. Taylor (The Go-between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission, Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1973), Clark Pinnock (Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit, Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1996), and my dissertation advisor, Lyle Dabney (Starting with the Spirit: Task of Theology Today II, ed. Gordon Preece and Stephen Pickard, Adelaide, Australia: Australia Theological Forum, Inc., 2001).

A name that should be added to that list is Stephen Bevans, who in "God Inside Out: Notes Toward a Missionary Theology of the Holy Spirit," writes "I’ve come to see that it is indeed the Spirit that we know first, who precedes Jesus not only in our own lives but in the history of the world and in cultures which have not known him." [Props to Kelly Fryer for pointing me toward this article when I met her at the recent Southeast Michigan Synod Assembly where she was the keynote speaker].

Congratulations, Pastor Phetsamone Vannavong!

2007-05-14T10:49:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago, it was my honor to preach at the ordination and installation of Phetsamone Vannavong, who has been called to serve as pastor (alongside of Pastor Donna Brown--who is pictured to the right of Phetsamone and his wife, Inthaly in the photo) of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I served from 2000-2005.

Phetsamone came to St. Paul's in the fall of 2001 with the desire to reach out with the gospel to the Lao immigrant population in Milwaukee. In 2002, St. Paul's voted to establish a Lao Ministry as part of their neighborhood outreach. Phetsamone was hired as part-time minister to the Lao community in Milwaukee while preparing for ordination in the ELCA through the TEEM (Theological Education for Emerging Ministries) process. It was wonderful to be a part of the beginning of this ministry at St. Paul's which under Phetsamone's leadership is steadily growing. My prayers are with him, Inthaly, Donna, and the Lao- and English-speaking members of St. Paul's as they continue to respond in faith to Jesus' command to "Go and make disciples of all nations!"

What's new in pneumatology

2007-05-06T16:52:00.000-04:00

In the recent issue of Trinity's alumni magazine, Te Deum, I was the featured faculty member to offer some theological book recommendations. Two of my recommendations were in the area of pneumatology--an often neglected topic in Lutheran theology and one of my particular scholarly interests. One is the important work by Michael Welker, God as Spirit. The basic outline of Welker's book can be found in his earlier article in Theology Today, "The Holy Spirit." The other is the excellent resource Advents of the Spirit: An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology, ed. by Bradford Hinze and Lyle Dabney. Dabney was my dissertation director at Marquette University. For an introduction to his concept of a "theology of the third article," check out these on-line articles and papers: "Jürgen Moltmann and John Wesley's Third Article Theology," "The Church as a Community of (Un)Common Grace: Toward a Postmodern Ecclesiology," and "The Possibility of God: The Spirit in God’s Creation and in God."

For a helpful review of what is new in pneumatology, check out "Current Trends in Pneumatology" by LeRon Shults, professor of theology at Adger University in Kristiansand, Norway. This is a draft of a paper he gave at the Nordic Conference in Systematic Theology in January 2007. Shults is a prolific Reformed theologian whom I met at the Future of Lutheran Theology Conference in Aarhus, Denmark back in January 2003. I also recommend checking out his blog where you can read what he is working on (and much, much, more!). For a survey of feminist pneumatologies, check out "Feminist Voices on the Spirit of God" by Helen Bergin.

The Suffering God?

2007-03-02T21:30:00.000-05:00

In my systematic theology class last week, we had a rousing discussion about theopachism. This topic arose during my presentation of the two natures of Christ and the communicatio idiomatum (communication of attributes.).

The Lutheran Confessions clearly affirm that "the Son of God suffered" because of the communication of attributes; yet at the same time, is reticent to speak of divine suffering. Because of the hypostatic union, "not only the bare human nature (which possesses the characteristics of suffering and dying) suffered for the sins of the entire world, but the Son of God himself suffered (according to the assumed human nature) and, according to our simple Christian creed, truly died--though the divine nature can neither suffer nor die" (The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article VIII).

Since the mid-twentieth century, however, a whole spate of theologians--Catholic and Protestant--have reconsidered the traditional teaching of the impassibility of God and affirmed theopaschism. In an article entitled, "The Suffering of God: A New Orthodoxy," Ronald Goetz remarked that after the atrocities of World War II, "talk about an impassible, immutable God was for many simply inconceivable. How could God be love and not lay wounded on the battlefields of France? Only a God who suffered with the victims of the war could speak to the disillusionments created by the war."

A counter-perspective was recently offered by Thomas Weinandy in "Does God Suffer?" Weinandy thinks this "new orthodoxy" leads down a dangerous road theologically. He states that while "we may intellectually grapple with the mystery of God in the midst of our suffering," theologians must resist the idea of theopachism and reaffirm God's impassibility. He writes,

In the Church’s most important public task of communicating the gospel, speaking of the God who does not suffer as we suffer may go against the cultural grain, but such is the God of Scripture and normative Christian tradition. As I have tried to show, the truth that God does not suffer is at the heart of the gospel, making it truly good news. This is especially in contrast to the bad news, which has become something like a “new orthodoxy,” that God is in as much trouble as we are.

I admit that my own perspective has been shaped more by perspective of the "new orthodoxy," but I also believe that Weinandy's concern warrants some serious reflection and response. Though written well before Weinandy's piece, Richard Bauckham (a Moltmann disciple) offers these intial thoughts in response to the kind of concerns that Weinandy raises. In "Only the Suffering God Can Help: Divine Passibility in Modern Theology," Bauckham writes:

It seems increasingly obvious that the Greek philosophical inheritance in traditional theology was adopted without the necessary critical effect of the central Christian insight into the divine nature: the love of God revealed in the cross of Christ. For the Greeks, suffering implied deficiency of being, weakness, subjection, instability. But the cross shows us a God who suffers out of the fullness of his being because he is love. He does not suffer against his will, but willingly undertakes to suffer with and for those he loves. His suffering does not deflect him from his purpose, but accomplishes his purpose. His transcendence does not keep him aloof from the world, but as transcendent love appears in the depth of his self-sacrificing involvement in the world. Finally, if Christians know anything about God from the cross, it is that 'the weakness of God is stronger than men' (1 Cor. 1:25). The cross does not make God a helpless victim of evil, but is the secret of his power and his triumph over evil. This is why 'only the suffering God can help.'

A New Vision for Marriage?

2007-02-20T23:28:00.000-05:00

The February 2007 issue of The Journal of Lutheran Ethics focuses on human sexuality. Laurie A. Jungling joins other Lutheran theologians and ethicists who are finding resources in the Lutheran tradition (such as Jacqueline Bussie's "Scarred Epistemologies: What a Theology of the Cross has to Say About the Gay Marriage Ban") to support same-sex marriage. In her article, "A 'New' Vision for Marriage as Vocation in the Lutheran Tradition," Jungling argues:

During this time of discernment for the Lutheran church as it attempts to define and understand the various social and sexual relationships from which Christians follow their vocational call, Lutherans need to consider alternatives to form-based definitions of marriage and sexuality. Instead, a better criterion is the call itself – the call to serve life with and for the neighbor – as the fundamental criterion for defining marriage. Definitions and understandings of marriage that use "appropriate to form" as the primary criterion in defining marriage not only exclude certain relationships from being a legitimate support to society for little reason other than physical form and its humanly constructed meanings, but they also construct a social order that is often hierarchical, exclusionary, and oppressive to those who do not fit certain forms.

For awhile now, I have been convinced that the theological debate over same-sex marriage needs to engage more robustly questions of theological anthropology (in particular, what it means to be created imago dei). A couple of years ago, I came across this article in the Christian Century that is helpful in this regard: "An Argument for Gay Marriage" written by Eugene Rogers from an Orthodox perspective in which he takes on the "complementarity" argument against same-sex couples held by Karl Barth and others.

Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

2007-02-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I attended the installation of the Rev. Elizbaeth A. Eaton as the Bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She was elected to this office on December 2, 2006, the first woman to be elected bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod and the first in Region 6 (which includes six synods covering Ohio, the lower peninsula of Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky). Her election brings the total of female bishops in the ELCA to nine (out of sixty-five), two of whom were elected last year. This is a hopeful sign that the "stained glass ceiling" is beginning to crack, but there is much to suggest that women still have a way to go to achieve equity with their male colleagues in ministry.

The installation was poignant for its historical signficance, but in my case, it was also poignant for its personal significance. In the fall of 1980, Liz arrived at my home congregation, All Saints Lutheran Church in Worthington, Ohio, to be our intern (she ended up being called as assistant pastor and stayed another 10 years)! I was a member of her high school youth group that year and she became an important mentor for me, eventually serving as the sponsor at my ordination. Until I met her, I didn't even know that women could be pastors. She has been a model for me and my pastoral ministry in many ways. It was an honor to be at her service and to have been among those asked to participate in the service (I read the second lesson). [Note: The picture of us above is from her 25th Ordination Anniversary Celebration this past June, at Messiah Lutheran in Ashtabula. For pictures from the installation, click here].

I know that the Northeastern Ohio Synod will be led ably by Bishop Eaton, who will bring energy, compassion, wisdom, a love for the whole church, and a clear passion for sharing the good news and speaking out for the poor and marginalized to her new office (not to mention a killer sense of humor). Godspeed to you, Liz, and the people of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, as you begin your new call and ministry!

Faith as a Way of Life--A Vision for Pastoral Leadership

2007-02-04T07:59:00.000-05:00

One of the neat things about the blogosphere is that you never know who you will "meet" on it. Christian Scharen, a fellow Lutheran theologian and pastor, posted a response to my first post. He is the director of the Faith as a Way of Life Project, an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. He is also in the process of revising a book on this topic, entitled "Faith as Way of Life: A Vision for Pastoral Leadership" (Eerdmans Publishing Company, due out in fall 2007).

Here is what he says about the project and book (and those who know me will see why I am excited about it):

The Christian faith is a coherent vision for a way of life in response to Jesus' invitation to “follow me.” The life of faith lived in response to Jesus’ invitation--and the leadership called to guide and foster faithful lives—follows a basic pattern. That pattern is one of gathering and scattering; gathered into the life of God in Christ the life of God in Christ through the power of the Spirit and scattered for the sake of witness and service in daily life. In an era when many churches focus almost exclusively on gathering, the reassertion of this pattern has very real power.
Yet simply pointing to this pattern isn’t enough. It needs to be further said that the new way of life this pattern implies finds its intellectual and moral content in God's action for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is, faith is a shorthand way of saying the creedal orthodoxy of the Christian faith--the beliefs summarized at the climax of Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts of the Apostles 2:38 “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The story of Jesus Christ as gospel is the faith we confess and that faith, rather than some conglomeration of vague beliefs, is the shaping force orienting Christian faith.
Yet our way of life is not simply an interconnected set of beliefs, either. We must go one step further to finally get the necessary picture. The Christian faith as belief gives shape to a life lived daily in and for the sake of God’s reconciling work in the world. Yale theologian Miroslav Volf, who wrote the proposal for the FWL Project, argues that “the core task of pastoral leadership today—and a signal mark of its excellence—is the task of shaping persons and communities for living faith as a way of life in the world.” Christian discipleship, and the life of the Christian ministry that serves such discipleship, is, as Volf so plainly states, a way of life not for its own sake, as if sectarian purity were the goal, but for the sake of the world. Christian ministry is deeply concerned with connecting faith to the daily lives of
disciples.
Pastors will be able to impart this vision of faith only if they themselves are compelled by it and if their parishioners find that the model helps them make sense of life as a whole. One of the most pressing needs of pastoral ministry is therefore to develop, sustain, and legitimize reflection on Christian faith not simply as a set of propositions to believe, commandments to obey, or rituals to perform but as an orienting force that impacts every aspect of daily life."

The Religious Cancer of Racism

2007-01-27T22:21:00.000-05:00

Almost two weeks ago, our country observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I attended an MLK event at my alma mater, Wittenberg University. Michael Eric Dyson--pastor, professor, author, NPR commentator, and cultural critic--was the keynote speaker. As expected, he was both inspiring and provocative (yes, he went after Bill Cosby). His message to the white people in the audience was to stop investing in the psychological privilege of whiteness.

Dyson's challenge brought to mind an article by James Cone that I first read a few years ago called "The Religious Cancer of Racism". In this piece, Cone calls on white theologians to study racism as seriously as they study the historical Jesus. "From Jonathan Edwards to Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr to the present, progressive white theologians, with few exceptions, write and teach as if they do not need to address the radical contradiction that racism creates for Christian theology," states Cone.

He continues, "Race criticism is just as crucial for the integrity of Christian theology as any critique in the modern world. Christianity was blatantly used to justify slavery, colonialism, and segregation for nearly five hundred years. Yet this great contradiction is consistently neglected by the same white male theologians who would never ignore the problem that critical reason poses for faith in a secular world. They still do theology as if white supremacy created no serious problem for Christian belief. Their silence on race is so conspicuous that I sometimes wonder why they are not greatly embarrassed by it. "

I have made it a goal to address racism in all of my theology courses. I also am committed to doing what I can to work for long term anti-racist tranformation in the institutions in which I work and do ministry--with the help of organizations such as Lutheran Human Relations Association and Crossroads Ministry. Would you join me?

Finally up and running!

2007-01-13T21:19:00.000-05:00

Last spring, the students in my "Being Lutheran in America" course told me that I needed to create a blog so that I could share theological resources with them once they graduated. Since then, I have been pondering what name to give this blog. I almost went with "Blogylonian Captivity" (my spouse's contribution) but I decided that was a bit arcane. So I am calling my blog "Theology for the Church" because that describes how I understand my own call as assistant professor of systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. The seminary's mission is to "form leaders for Christ's church at work in the world." I understand my call as teaching theology for the church, that is, to help the church reflect critically on what it believes, as it is sent out to bear witness to the gospel. So, as promised, I will post thoughts, book and article suggestions, links to resources for doing ministry and mission, and anything else I can think of that could help Trinity graduates and anyone else serving in Christ's church at work in the world!