For the last five years, I have been the only Lutheran teaching at my ecumenical seminary. Having taught at a Lutheran seminary prior to coming here, I was surprised by the negative reaction of other Protestants (evangelicals, Disciples of Christ, Reformed, Methodist, Episcopalian, etc.) towards the mention of Luther. This negativity has less to do […]
Mixed Constituency Classrooms in Theological Education: Some Thoughts from the Field
“Out There” or “In Here?” When I was in seminary, a thread that ran through most of the M.Div. classrooms in which I was a student (and later a teacher) had to do with how future pastors would be expected to “translate” the fruits of their ostensibly growing theological erudition – terminology, historical themes, exegetical […]
The Church’s Mission in a World without “Nature”
A Confession Recently I had the privilege of teaching a seminar at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) entitled “Nature Writing in Theological Perspective,” which was the follow-up to a previous year’s seminar on “Theologies of Creation.” Where the first class had focused on constructive theological texts by academic theologians, the second course […]
“Without” Hope? Internality and Externality in Preaching Difficult Texts
Within the realm of Christian theology (both as academic discipline and as reflection that fuels the life of the church), a great deal depends on the intellectual frameworks that are brought to bear on particular issues. As in the sciences, the same data can give rise to differing conclusions depending on the analytical framework to […]
Joseph Sittler as Theologian of the 21st Century
To a large extent, Joseph Sittler was a theologian of his time and place. While his reputation as an academic theologian is not sufficient to place him among the giants of 20th-century theology (in the manner of, say, Barth, Tillich, Rahner, or von Balthasar), his life and work do serve to reflect many of the […]