Global Luther Conference - February 2008

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

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

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.

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

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

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"

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.