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About Gregory Holmes Singleton

Gregory Holmes Singleton is Professor of History Emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University.

Martin Luther, The Peasants’ War, And Anti-semitism: A Quincentennial Rumination

June 26, 2017 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

(with a bit of ersatz theology thrown in for good measure) In the past, centennial celebrations were times for rejoicing and celebration. Quincentennial celebrations were times for over-the-top rejoicing and raucous celebration.  For the last few decades, however, these milestones have often been the occasion of less than flattering revisionist historical treatments.  Cultural icons and […]

Filed Under: Appreciating Luther, Reformation Jubilee 500

The Laity, Vocation, and the Church: A View From the Pew

June 9, 2016 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

We have been nourished with Word and Sacrament.  We have received the benediction. A lone voice cries out, “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.”  We respond, “Thanks be to God.” I always shout this response. Sometimes this shout is an affirmation.  Moved by proclamation and fortified by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, I […]

Filed Under: The Vocation of the Laity

“A DramaticMixture of Brokenness and Grace”

June 8, 2016 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

Faithful Conversation: Christian Perspectives on Homosexuality, ed.James M. Childs Jr.  Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.  viii + 132pp.  $9.00. A Commentary by way of a Review I had intended to write a review, not a commentary flowing from a review.  Furthermore, the review taking shape in my head was negative.  I now begin this review fully aware […]

Filed Under: Human Sexuality in the ELCA: Perspectives on the Struggle

Stanley Hauerwas: Celebrity, Theologian, and Reviver

June 3, 2016 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

On October 20, 2001, Chicago area Lutherans gathered at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Downers Grove for a Metropolitan Chicago Synod Faith Development event. The featured speaker was Stanley Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. He spoke of Death and Marriage, and that is the sort of juxtaposition/pairing for […]

Filed Under: Leadership and Direction in the ELCA

Struggle and Competition: Two Models for Dealing with Difficult Issues in the Church

June 2, 2016 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

Being the Church is difficult under the best of circumstances. Being the Church in times of internal conflict is even more difficult. Perhaps the most difficult issues we face as the Church are those that have the potential of causing pain and estrangement. Certainly the question of union blessings for gay and lesbian couples is […]

Filed Under: Reflections on the 2000 Synod Assembly

Readers’ Response

February 11, 2015 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

The Spring 2004 issue of Let’s Talk stimulated a number of responses from our readers. Many of the comments referred to an article by Robert Benne, which was itself a “Reader’s Response.” We appreciate the thoughtful responses printed below, which have a variety of points of view. Thanks so much for allowing us to see […]

Filed Under: Festival of the Resurrection

It’s About Time

February 11, 2015 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

It’s about time. Of course, it is not entirely about time. Worship points to eternity beyond time. In the Eucharist we are given a foretaste of the feast to come. In both Eucharist and the daily office we are gathered with others who have been called and baptized, thus bringing us into the communion of […]

Filed Under: Worship and Culture

Diversity of a Different Sort

February 11, 2015 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

Ethnicity is an important factor in understanding diversity within the complex identity of the ELCA. It is one of a number of variables necessary to comprehend the social and cultural complexities of any large pluralistic population in the United States. Other key factors are gender, sexuality, class, region, and local social morphology (urban, suburban, exurban, […]

Filed Under: Hispanic Latino Theology and Ministry II

Programmatic Triumphal Church to Relational Servant Ekklesia: A Conversion Narrative

February 11, 2015 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

I was involved in the initial discussions leading to the Pentecost 2008 issue of Let’s Talk. The editor kindly invited me to write some reflections. Other essays will offer inspiring and informative insights from those engaged in exemplary ministries in the Synod. This essay consists of some reflections based on a career spent trying to […]

Filed Under: Ministries of Word and Service

The Community of St. Francis: How It’s Doing and Being (A Sort-of Ethnography)

February 11, 2015 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

Prologue A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from my good friend and former pastor, Frank Senn. He began by asking if I remember Let’s Talk. Frank must have been grinning at that point, realizing that I have very fond memories of my association with this forum for living theology in the Metropolitan Chicago […]

Filed Under: Other Ways to Do and Be the Church

20.1 Lent 2015

The Catechumenate

19.4: Advent 2014

Communion and Community

19.3: Ordinary Time 2014

Green coffee beans (top left), Nicaraguan red beans (top right), corn (bottom left) and millet, vital Nicaraguan crops, held in women farmers’ hands

Food and Justice

19.2: Pentecost 2014

Latvian Wheat by Dace Kiršpile

Growing Leaders

19.1: Epiphany 2014

archangel gabriel

Religion and the Arts

1996 – 2013

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