Archive for July, 2008

Public Doctrine

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Much fanfare was made when in 2001 when the LCMS in convention affirmed “The book The Voice of our Church on the Question of Church and Ministry, by Dr. C.F.W. Walther…as the definitive statement under Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions of the Synod’s understanding on the subject of church and ministry.”  This is our public doctrine.

Clear enough, right?  So are we bound by Thesis Eight on Ministry from the English translation of the 1851 Milwaukee Synodical convention which reads as follows: “The (more…)

Bonheoffer, Hitler, and Holocaust

Monday, July 21st, 2008

The January Concordia Theological Quarterly has an article entitled “Themes of the Cruciform Life in Bonheoffer.”  Bonheoffer was executed for his participation in the plot to assassinate the one man every man thinks ought to have been: Hitler.

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Cowboy Service and The Lutheran Service Book

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Isn’t this a hoot?  Holy Ghost Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, Texas (ELCA) had their annual Cowboy Service on July 6, 2008.  It begins with the leader saying, “The Lord be with y’all,” and the congregation responding, “And also with y’all.” (more…)

Flotsam and Jastram

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Yes, I know it’s flotsam and jetsam which properly speaking is “wreckage of a ship or its cargo floating on the water or washed ashore.”  It  also means “worthless or miscellaneous things.”  I’m thinking of the later definition.  I haven’t misspelled jetsam but properly spelled Jastram as in the Rev. Dr. Nathan R. Jastram Professor of Theology at Concordia University, Mequon, WI.  While Jastram personally isn’t jetsam, his 2004 article in the January 2004 Concordia Theological Quarterly is the wreckage of a once coherent theology floating on the seas of feminism. (more…)