Jan/Feb 2012
ILT
Board of Directors
Anderson, G. Barry
Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court
Contents the Word at Work
Bielfeldt, Dennis
Vice President of Academic Affairs and founding President, Institute of Lutheran Theology
Erickson, Paul
Entrepreneur/Investor, Sioux Falls, SD
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From the President's Desk
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Chapel at the Institute of Lutheran Theology
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Devotion for Romans
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What’s Happening in Academics
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What ILT Offers Lutherans
Baltz, Frederick
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News and Events
Bielfeldt, Dennis
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DTC Soptlight
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ILT Sex Ethics Description
Hesse, Debra
Family Farmer, Moses Lake, WA
Hillerbrand, Hans J.
Professor of Religion, Duke University
Richardson, Mark
Interim Service Coordinator, Augustana District, LCMC; Interim Associate Pastor, Christ the
King Lutheran Church, Hutchinson, MN
Schickedanz, Fred
Real Estate Developer, Calgary, Alberta
Tyler, Kip
Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master, Omaha, NE, and Chair of the Board
ILT
Staff
Interim President
Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dillner, Doug
Registrar & Director of Information Technology
Patterson, David
Director of Information Services
Patterson, Penny Bookeeping
Schmit, Marsha
Dr. Frederick W. Baltz
Tim Swenson
Doug Morton
Dennis Bielfeldt
Paul Knudson
Student Spotlight David Wollen
Going Into the (Real) World Randy Freund
Communications Assistant
Institute of Lutheran Theology 910 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006 Phone: 605-692-9337 • Fax: 605-692-1460 Web Site: http://www.ilt.org 2
Robert Benne
Robert Murrin - Editor Charles Kulma - Graphic Design and production
Epiphany 2012 By Dr. Frederick W. Baltz, President, Institute of Lutheran Theology Epiphany follows Christmas. This event in the Western Church’s calendar always falls on January 6, the same day the Eastern Church celebrates the nativity. From the Greek verb ep•i•fan•a•ró•ō, it means “the revealing.” On this day we remember the arrival of the Magi (Matthew 2). The Epiphany season then takes us on to Lent.
How shall we make sense of this, then? Why is this story told in Matthew, perhaps the most Jewish gospel of the four? The answer comes from Isaiah. That prophet was sent as “a light to the nations” (49:6). Jesus was like John the Baptist, of whom he spoke as “more than a prophet,” (Luke 7:26). Jesus was and is the light of the world (John 8:12). If you were to place a cardboard box over a lit lantern, any tiny hole in the cardboard would immediately be noticeable, because the light would shine out of it. Light leaks out—breaks out. That’s the way light is. The time for Jesus’ revelation to Israel was still thirty years off, and then the light would shine brightly in Galilee (Isaiah 9:2). Yet through a pinhole of sorts, these Magi glimpsed enough light using their own poor arts and sciences to realize that a marvelous birth had indeed taken place. They went to find the one who had been born. Their light came in the form of a star.
I have in mind a movie with a memorable chase scene. The viewer’s vantage point is from the top of a police car, with its lights flashing and siren blaring. You are moving down a street at a furious pace. Then you notice that the street is gone. This chase appears to be moving from one movie set to another, and then another! When the police car speeds through a western, with Native American warriors on horseback chasing the police car, you know something is wrong with this picture. So it is with the arrival of the Magi.
God’s light will shine, even in the darkest places. Epiphany is like Pentecost, in that it points us outward to the world around us, bringing Matthew’s Great Commission to heart and mind. At ILT, we have a critical part to play in bringing the light to the world. We train pastors, after all. Pastors help whole congregations to see the light of Christ. As evangelists, they also help people beyond the congregations to see the light and become baptized.
I have spent more than a little time researching the Magi and the Star. Each year I present planetarium programs about them, as I have for about a decade now. There is a lot we cannot say about the Magi. We cannot say how many there were, because Matthew does not tell us. We cannot say where they were from, because Magi could be found all over. We do know that in the Parthian Empire immediately to the east of Judea, Magi were one of two ruling houses of government. Those particular Magi would have had ambassadorial status. I’m inclined to think Matthew’s Magi were on a mission from their government, and were not independent agents. Maybe they had already stopped at other cities, inquiring about an extraordinary birth, before they reached Herod at his palace in Jericho. Remember, they needed the word of the Scriptures before it was all over to tell them that Bethlehem was the place to go. These Magi are glaringly out of place. Like the police car in the western, they don’t belong. They are wizards, magicians, and astrologers. The arts they practice are denounced in the Scriptures! And they got this far by doing some of those abominable things, by consulting the stars. Most people don’t realize this when they see a manger scene with the adoring Magi holding their treasures.
“This is a computer simulation of a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus as it occurred June 17, 2 B.C. Some believe this was the 'Star of Bethlehem' that prompted the Magi to find the King of the Jews.”
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Chapel at the Institute of Lutheran Theology Rev. Timothy J. Swenson
“Come! Let us go to Zion to worship the Lord our God!” (Jer. 3:16b) Before I can tell you about chapel at the ILT … The first music festival I ever sang in was as a first grade student at Hawkeye Township School. One of the songs our school sang was “Church in the Wildwood.” Its chorus invites: “Come to the church in the wildwood; come to the church in the dell; No spot
the faith worked hard to establish this institutional model, which anchored families and communities with the church buildings’ constant presence. I thank God for them and their work. Our children’s children, and their children, though, will no longer have a culture of Christendom. Change is being thrust upon us. As Lutherans, we can welcome this; after all, Luther presided over the greatest change in the church since Constantine and Theodosius. He was confident that the Holy Spirit would go to work to preserve the main thing, the main thing. At the end of the instructions to his German Mass, Luther made a very unsentimental reference: “Even the brass serpent became something the people idolized and it had to be smashed,” (2 Kings 18:4). Lutherans “travel light.” The “main thing” is the Gospel and the preaching of it: Wherever and however people assemble around the preaching of the Gospel, there is “church,” (AC7). Jesus preached it: “[T]he Son of Man must be killed and on the third day rise,” (Lk. 9:22). Peter preached it: “This Jesus whom you crucified…,” (Acts 2:36). Paul preached it: “I knew nothing among you except Christ and him crucified,” (1 Cor. 2:2). Luther preached it as the cornerstone of his theology: “The cross alone is our theology.” We at the chapel of the pan-Lutheran Institute of Lutheran Theology share Luther’s confidence that the Holy Spirit works through the preaching of this gospel. We are confident as well that wherever, whenever, and however people assemble around this preaching, there is church. This is church without walls, like ILT is a seminary without walls. This is church with no limitations imposed by denominational or national boundaries; we go worldwide on the world-wide web. ILT Chapel is church for the twenty-first century, just like the Institute is the seminary of the twenty-first century. We of the Institute’s staff and faculty, together with other pan-denominationally recruited preachers and theologians of the cross, are a cadre of preachers confessing that “the cross alone is our theology,” so that the main thing will be the main thing. This is the stark center of worship: the Word of God and prayer.
is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the dell.” Every one of us sang that song knowing—knowing—exactly of which church we sang: our “home” church, of course. We didn’t know just how much we were like the ancient Israelites who identified worship with the Temple on Zion. Going to church has meant going to a specific building, at a specific time, with a regular group of people. Our forebears in
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We preach “live” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00 AM Central Time. Through use of the chapel archives, church can be had on demand—gospel preaching is always available. Visit www.ilt.org and click on the “Come to Chapel” button at the appointed times, or click on the “Video Archive” button for preaching on demand. Come— come hear the gospel and worship the Lord!
When Justification Rules By Rev. Doug Morton As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:1-12; ESV) 1
R. C. H. Lenski was a great Lutheran exegete in the first half of the twentieth century who wrote an extensive multi volume commentary on the entire New Testament. In his volume on Romans, he makes the following statement at the beginning of his chapter on Romans 14. Justification by faith enables the Christian to take the correct view of adiaphora.1 It leads him to treat the over scrupulous and thus weak brother with helpful forbearance; and it leads the weak brother to refrain from judging harshly the wellinformed stronger brother. Through this effect, justification by faith creates harmony and unity among believers.2 “Adiaphora,” or “things indifferent,” deal with what is neither commanded nor forbidden in the Bible. The sixteenth Century Lutheran confessors dealt with these things in Article 10 of The Formula of Concord. The Apostle Paul tells us not to quarrel over opinions when it comes to these things. However, in reality, “things indifferent” are often at center stage in congregational struggles, particularly if the doctrine of justification through faith alone in Christ is not placed at the center.
The constant problem before the church is the temptation to lose the freedom of the Gospel for a life lived under the Law, a life of dos and don’ts in which everything is regulated. Our lectionary reading deals with two of these temptations faced by Christians in the first century. There was the temptation to regulate what one ate and the temptation to regulate the day one hallowed. It seems there were Christians in the church at Rome whose “weakness” would not allow them to recognize that all foods could be eaten. Rather, they were convinced only vegetables could be eaten (Rom. 14:2b). Why they believed this we do not know. However, it may have had something to do with what they believed was the Creator’s original intention. The original diet in Paradise before the Fall into sin was held to be vegetarian. “And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food," (Gen. 1:30; ESV). It was only after the Fall, particularly after the Flood, that the killing of animals for nourishment came into the picture. “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything,’” (Gen. 9:1-3; ESV). New Testament scholar Roy Harrisville notes what possibly might have been the view of these “weak” Christians. That God’s blessings should somehow include the option of killing meant only that something absurd, contrary to sense inhered in present existence. For the “weak” at Rome or anywhere else, a vegetarian diet might well have stood as symbol that the Creator’s original intention had come to its realization.3 Others have thought these “weak” Christians to be Jews who continued to follow some kind of dietary food laws even after becoming believers in Christ.4 Still others see in the “weak” Christians of Rome a concern for not eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, something Paul had to deal with in 1 Corinthians 8 - 10.5 The second temptation Paul addresses is that of a person’s attitude towards the days he or she esteems. The “strong” Christian realizes all days are the same when it comes to God. In his freedom in the Gospel, he “esteems all days alike,” (Rom. 14:5). On the other hand, the “weak” Christian “esteems one day as better than another,” (Rom. 14:5).
Continued on page 6
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When Justification Rules, continued from page 5 Paul deals with something similar to this in his letter to the Colossions. Here he writes, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ,” (Col. 2:16-17; ESV). It is not important for us to fully understand the situation in Rome when it comes to the “strong” Christian living in the freedom of eating meat and the “weak” Christian abstaining from meat and eating only vegetables. Nor is it important we fully understand the historical situation of the Roman Christians when it comes to the esteeming of days. Scholars have, and will continue to disagree with each other over these things. What is important is that there were dangers present that could have disrupted the fellowship of this Christian congregation. We also have many temptations in our day to engage in disruptive disputes that can shatter the fellowship of our congregations. This is where Justification by grace through faith alone in Christ comes into play. Paul’s concern is that both the “weak” and the “strong” have been welcomed into the church by the Lord himself. Paul is convinced that the “strong” Christian is the one who truly understands the Christian’s freedom in Christ. Yet he is willing to bear with the “weak” since he or she is still connected to Christ by faith and thus is a brother or sister in Christ. Paul’s desire is for both to welcome each other because of Christ. Both groups do what they do “in honor of the Lord” who saved them. “The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God,” (Rom. 14:6; ESV). However, it is an assault on the Gospel when one demands another be like him or her in adiaphora, or face being considered a lesser Christian or no Christian at all.6 I remember someone once stating that if drinking a beer would cause a person to stumble in his or her faith, then he would refrain from drinking. In his Christian freedom, and out of love for his “weaker” brother or sister, he would abstain from drinking alcohol. On the other hand, if a person declared it was wrong for a Christian to drink, then he would go to his refrigerator, pull out a beer, pop open its lid, and drink it in front of the person. Why? Because now the Gospel is at stake. Now justification by grace through faith alone is being challenged. No longer is one talking about his or her private devotion to the Lord. No longer are we dealing with simply an over scrupulous person, but rather we are entering into the territory of what makes one a Christian. And, according to Paul, only faith alone in Christ does this. Love bears with what it considers the “weaknesses” of another. It is willing to not despise or sit in judgment of another person. Yet if someone turns his or her devotion into a law for the entire church, then love for the Gospel and for the neighbor compels a person to stand up and confront this infringement on the Gospel. Theologian Steven Paulson writes:
Lutherans make a distinction between the way one treats a fellow Christian privately–and public teaching. Privately, one deals with the concerns of a fellow Christian about vegetarianism by using the “measuring stick of love” (canon caritatis) that goes beyond the negative form of the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Love goes further–to “be a Christ” for such a one, praying for her, bearing the burdens that come with little faith and always putting her actions in the best of possible light. But if such a person wants to turn her burden of vegetarianism into a law for the whole church–then a Christian must speak out publicly against her. It is one thing to confess to another Christian; it is another to turn and teach the faith falsely in public and impose it as a law for others, because then “little faith” turns into a law that justifies.7 Martin Luther was willing to put up with the “weaknesses” of others. This is what love does. Yet, according to Luther, love does not allow one to obscure the Gospel. We are surely prepared to observe peace and love with all men, provided that they leave the doctrine of faith perfect and sound for us. If we cannot obtain this, it is useless for them to demand love from us. A curse on a love that is observed at the expense of the doctrine of faith, to which everything must yield–love, an apostle, an angel from heaven, etc.!”8 Again, Luther writes, “It belongs to love to bear everything and to yield to everyone. On the other hand, it belongs to faith to bear nothing whatever and to yield to no one.”9 Luther had learned this stance from the Apostle Paul himself. Paul had often put up with the “weaknesses” of people. He could follow Jewish custom when it served the preaching of the Gospel, but could protest against that very custom when it stood in the way of being justified by grace through faith alone in Christ.10 The earlier Lutheran confessors understood this danger of making a command out of something indifferent. Thus, they write: For here we are no longer dealing with the external adiaphora, which in their nature and essence are and remain of themselves free and which accordingly are not subject either to a command or a prohibition, requiring us to use them or to discontinue them. Here we are dealing primarily with the chief article of our Christian faith, so that, as the apostle testifies, the truth of the Gospel might be preserved (Gal. 2:5). Any coercion or commandment darkens and perverts this article because the adversaries will forthwith publicly demand such matters of indifference to confirm false doctrines, superstition, and idolatry and to suppress the pure doctrine and Christian liberty, or they will misuse them and misinterpret them in this direction.11 Christianity is strewn with the wreckage caused by wellmeaning people who sought to force their freedom or their abstention on all Christians.12 “Oh, if you want to be a truly free Christian, then you must . . . [add whatever you want here].” Those who don’t follow in this freedom are then easily despised. Continued on page 7
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When Justification Rules, continued from page 6 On the other hand, a person may say, “No, if you want to be a truly dedicated follower of Christ, then you must . . . [once again, add whatever you want here].” The one who fails to follow this way is judged as an inadequate Christian, or maybe even as no Christian at all. I can think of people who doubt a person’s Christianity—or at least his or her commitment to Christ—because he or she smokes, or drinks alcohol, or votes for a certain political candidate, or any other number of things. What is Paul’s word to this kind of thinking? “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand,” (Rom. 14:3-4; ESV). It is the Lord Jesus himself who rules over each person, both “weak” and “strong.” This is the Lord who does not coerce obedience out of us by the power of his might and glory. Rather, he uses his Lordship to redeem us from our very disobedience to him. As Luther tells us in the Small Catechism: I believe that Jesus Christ … is my Lord. He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. He did this not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, so that I may be His own.13 The Lord Jesus does this for both “weak” and “strong” alike. He welcomes both into his presence and into his people. This same Lord comes to both “weak” and “strong” in the proclamation of the Gospel, in Holy Baptism, in the Absolution and in the Table where he feeds both with his body and blood. This is the Lord whom all—whether they be “weak” or “strong”—stand before at this very moment and on the Last Day. To this Lord “all authority in heaven and on earth” has been given (Matt. 28:18; ESV). This is the Lord to whom judgment over all has been given. And it is this judge who takes upon himself at the cross the judgment due to all and drowns it in the sea of forgiveness. Thus, how can we pass judgment against the one God has acquitted, or despise the person whom the Lord Jesus does not despise? Let us hear Lenski once again. Justification by faith enables the Christian to take the correct view of adiaphora. It leads him to treat the over scrupulous and thus “weak” brother with helpful forbearance; and it leads the “weak” brother to refrain from judging harshly the wellinformed “stronger” brother. Through this effect justification by faith creates harmony and unity among believers.”14 As we center on this great life giving word of our justification in Christ, a justification received not by works but through faith alone, our eyes will be opened to see our fellow brother and sister in Christ in a new light. “Weak” or “strong,” they too have the same Lord, the same justification. Knowing this, we can learn to avoid quarreling over opinions. Instead, we can
welcome the other as a fellow servant of the same Lord who bought us “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”15 Think of the fights that have erupted in the congregations you have known. It may be true that some of these fights have been over the very important doctrines of the faith and thus needed to be fought. Yet, how many of the fights have been over indifferent things, things in which we could cut our brother or sister some slack and welcome him or her with God’s accepting love in Christ. It is God who is our judge before whom we all stand. It is God to whom we will all have to give an account. Thank God he judges us in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Jesus who took the judgment against our sin upon himself. To this God both “weak” and “strong” flee for refuge and mercy in Christ. In Christ, God justifies “weak” and “strong” alike, and places both in the fellowship of his church, the Body of Christ. Now, because of this, we can reach out our hand to accept that brother or sister in Christ even though his or her practice may not be quite like our own. This is what happens when Justification by grace through faith alone in Christ truly rules!
Notes 1 The word adiaphora “is of Greek origin and means ‘things which are neither commanded nor prohibited.’ In English usage there are two terms available, ‘middle things’ and ‘indifferent things,’ both sounding strange to non-theological ears. The word adiaphora (this is really the plural of adiaphoron) is used for the sake of economy. It is a substitute, whenever it is used, for an entire sentence like this: ‘things or acts which are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Word of God.’” [Theodore Graebner, The Borderland of Right and Wrong (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941), 5, note.] 2 R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 811. 3 Roy A. Harrisville, Romans (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1980), 214- 215. 4 This view does not seem to fit with what Paul is saying, since Jews were never forbidden to eat any meat at all, only meat from animals that were “unclean.” 5 This seems unlikely because of the fact that Paul juxtaposes the eating of vegetables with the eating of meat. None of this is seen in the text of 1 Corinthians 8-10. 6 “Paul here contends for Christian freedom, for the right of both weak and strong.… This is not just an arbitrary indulgence, by which Paul lets both groups continue side by side in the church. On the contrary, it is manifest that it is only in this way that he can be true to the gospel. But if he had prescribed a Christian course of action, as was desired of him, it would have involved a surrender of the evangelical position. That would have been the result, whichever side he had espoused. Continued on page 8
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What is Happening in Academics? By Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt, Academic Affairs As I write today, we are a week away from the start of spring classes. Our spring courses in the Pastoral Ministry Certificate (PMC) program include New Testament Theology and History, History of the Christian Church 1500 to Present, Lutheran Reformers and the Book of Concord, Systematic Theology, Defending and Spreading the Faith, and Pastoral Care and Counseling. When we began the PMC program, we asked ourselves, “If a person could only take twelve two credit courses before engaging in full Lutheran Word and Sacrament Ministry—that is, if he could only be in-class a total of about 350 hours over two years—what should that person take?” We think we came up with exactly the right balance among Bible, theology, history, and practical ministry courses. Our Masters of Divinity offerings this semester include New Testament Greek, Lutheran Biblical Interpretation, Wisdom and the Prophets, Romans, Theology and World Religions, Christian Sexual Ethics, History of Christian Thought II, Twentieth Century Theology, Creation and the Triune God, Lutheran Worship, and Homiletics I. The first things to notice about these offerings is that they are part of a fully workedout curriculum and that the names of the offerings connote a particular academic rigor. We want our students to know the history of Christian thought because we want them to recognize
religious motifs and trends that have repeatedly emerged over the last two thousand years. Moreover, we want them to know what the Church regarded as “right belief ” in the face of these challenges, and why the Church formed these beliefs. The second thing to note is that our offerings are not parochial. While we understand the hot button topics of the day, we are Continued on page 9
When Justification Rules, continued from page 7 If he had declared that all Christians were to follow the example ‘of the weak’ and abstain from eating meat and drinking wine, the legalistic character of such an enactment would be clear. Or, if he had chosen the other position and decreed that all Christians should, without misgivings, eat meat and drink wine, the result would likewise have been a victory for legalism. To be Christian would have meant to follow certain outward usages, to eat, or not to eat. Against this Paul says, ‘The kingdom of God does not mean food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (vs. 17).” [Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1949), 444-445.] 7 Steven D. Paulson, Lutheran Theology (London: T & T Clark, 2011), 262-263. 8 Martin Luther, “Lectures on Galatians 1535: Chapters 5 - 6", vol. 27 in Luther’s Works (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964), 38. 9 Ibid. 10 Acts 16:3—“Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek” (ESV). Galatians 5:2—“Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you” (ESV).
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11 Solid Declaration, X, 14. The Book of Concord, trans. & ed. Theodore Tappert, 613. 12 Anders Nygren makes the following observation: “[I]n issues between the strong and the weak, the latter is by no means always the wronged party. On the contrary it often happens that in his very weakness he has an effective weapon for making the circumstances comply with his view. Not infrequently it is the weak who is the real tyrant. In his judgment of others he finds a compensation for his weakness. Therefore Paul turns to ‘the weak’ first and says, ‘Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand.’ When people set themselves to judge others, they stretch forth their hand to something which God has reserved to himself and to Christ.” [Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 445.] 13 Small Catechism, Second Article. Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 2nd edition., ed. Paul Timothy McCain (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 329. 14 Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 811. 15 Small Catechism, Second Article, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, 811.
What ILT Offers Lutherans Excerpts From ILT’s Promotional DVD What is different about the Institute of Lutheran Theology? ILT uses new methods for bringing the message of Christ to people. Because ILT is not a traditional brick and mortar institution, it can focus its resources entirely on using the best professors to deliver quality religious and theological instruction to the most interested and able students. It can do this more economically than conventional seminaries, and it can do it while allowing students to remain at home with their families and work a job while they study. This is especially attractive to nontraditional students. They have a huge amount of life experience and wisdom, and often make wonderful pastors. Yet in the past, many were unable to afford the time and money necessary to go to a seminary. All of this changes with ILT! We can connect students and teachers in ways never before imagined. ILT’s technology can greatly benefit pastors and congregations. While there are people in congregations seeking educational programming, pastors are often overworked and have neither the time nor background to offer it. ILT, however, can provide quality educational opportunities to interested congregational members within the context of their own congregations. Congregations can rally around their students while the students remain within the congregation. Moreover, the pastor can participate in a number of ways, e.g., discussion leader, mentor, lecturer, etc.
An important difference between ILT and traditional seminaries is that ILT courses can be taken online in real time or, if a class is missed, it can be viewed later since every class is recorded and archived. Courses can be taken from the comfort of one’s home or within one’s congregation. ILT seeks to provide intellectually rigorous education—perhaps more so than occurs at many seminaries across the United States. Because we believe that the contemporary intellectual and cultural horizon demands the finest theologically-minded preachers and teachers, our curriculum is more rigorous than most. Moreover, because our professors can live anywhere in the world and yet teach our classes, our students have access to the best theological minds. ILT attracts the best professors and connects them to the brightest and most interested students. Geographical location no longer limits educational development. ILT is committed to building an association of congregations that support the mission of ILT; congregations that are tied into the purpose, function, and structure of the seminary itself. These congregations, called DTCs (Designated Teaching Centers), actually become the physical campus of ILT. Programming uploaded from one DTC is downloadable in real time to all others. The financial support of our generous donors allows for the growth of our programs, development of our faculty, expansion Continued on page 12
What is Happening in Academics? Continued from page 8 much more interested in long-term historical trends of Christian belief and practice. We are interested in such issues as: What problems bequeathed by the Enlightenment have proved intractable for Lutheran theology as it was practiced in the last century and is practiced today? What are those cultural and intellectual motifs within the contemporary horizon that link to confessional Lutheran teaching and proclamation? How are the truths of theology related to those of the sciences, be they physical or social? Our newly-minted Masters of Theology program already offers quality courses and is producing quality student work. Last semester, Dr. Jonathan Sorum’s class on Bonhoeffer gave even our best students challenging fare. We believe the market for this program is especially great. Consider the hundreds of theologically-interested Lutheran pastors serving in major Lutheran traditions all over the world. Now they can study with
well-known Lutheran professors, receive a legitimate graduate degree, access our library for research, write publishable articles and monographs, and never have to leave their own parishes. The Institute of Lutheran Theology seeks to connect the most knowledgeable and faithful Lutheran thinkers with the most interested and able of Lutheran students. The goal of this connection is to create Lutheran preachers and teachers that know Christ, Scripture, theology, and enough of the historical and cultural situation to be able to preach for our time. We want to give preachers and teachers the tools to evangelize into our context, into a world dominated by technology and the devaluation of the human spirit. Your support makes all of this possible! May God bless all of you in 2012.
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News
Events
From the Tech Corner Adobe Connect has responded to feedback from their users (which include us) on their Service Pack 2, which will go into effect in a few days. This Service Pack addresses the synching problem between audio and video that some have experienced during the playback of recordings.
If you experience a problem in this upcoming semester, please be sure to email me (ddillner@ilt.org) so that I can forward your feedback to Adobe Connect. They do listen!!
From the Registrar As I look over my records, I am pleased to see that we have some students approaching their graduation from ILT! This will be our first round of graduates, and I am very pleased to see all their hard work come to fruition. We at ILT are planning our
graduation proceedings as I write this, and I look forward to rejoicing in their achievement.
Spring Theological Conference The Institute of Lutheran Theology and the Augustana District of the LCMC have joined together for a joint theological conference scheduled for February 5-7 in Bloomington, MN. Titled “The Meaning and Means of Conversion,� this conference is intended for all those wanting to explore what conversion means for Lutherans. We examine the topic historically, with
an eye towards appropriation: What has the language of conversion got to do with gospel proclamation and Lutheran evangelism? Presenters for this conference include Dr. Steven Paulson, ILT faculty and board members Dr. Hans Hillerbrand and Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt, ILT President Dr. Frederick Baltz, ILT student Pr. Becky Hand, and Augustana District pastors Dave Christensen and Kelly Wasberg.
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Scholarship Awarded This spring, ILT has awarded $2,000 in need-based tuition scholarships and $1,500 in travel scholarships to ILT students. These scholarship funds were provided through the generosity of supporters of ILT. This year, ILT has also established two endowed scholarships.
The Pamela Morton Memorial Scholarship and the Hill Family Scholarship have both been established to support the theological education of the next generation of faithful Lutheran preachers and teachers. To contribute to either scholarship, please contact ILT at admin@ilt.org.
Student Paper Published by Logia A paper written by Rev. David Jay Webber (Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Scottsdale, AZ and MTh student at ILT), “Mystical Union with Christ: The New Finnish School Compared with Early Twentieth-Century American Theology,” has been published as a feature article in the current issue of Logia. This paper was originally written for the
Master of Theology class Luther: Justification and/or Deification, taught by Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt, offered in the fall of 2010. This article exemplifies the scholarship of the students of the Institute of Lutheran Theology. Congratulations Rev. Webber!
New Staff Join ILT ILT would like to welcome two new staff members to our team. Constance Sorenson, former Executive Director of the Lutheran Bible Institute of California, has been brought on board as our DTC (Designated Teaching Center) recruiter. Rev. Douglas Morton, Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod pastor,
has been brought on board as our student recruiter. Both are highly respected individuals in the Lutheran community and bring enthusiasm and passion to our mission. They will be contacting congregations, so should you hear from them, please welcome them with open arms.
Faculty Notes Rev. David Berg On January 8 and 9, Dr. Berg represented the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy at the annual meeting of the COMISS Network in Alexandria, VA. The Network is a coalition of ministries in specialized settings that includes a variety of pastoral care cognate groups, military chaplains, and representatives from more than thirty denominations from across the country; establishes professional standards; interfaces with other health professionals; funds The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling; and sponsors Pastoral Care Week every October. At the Alexandria meeting, Dr. Berg was privileged to second the motion to receive the North American Lutheran Church into membership in the Network.
On May 17, Dr. Berg will be speaking on "Faith Issues in the Final Decades of Life" at a conference on aging to be held at the Rockville, MD campus of John Hopkins University. The conference is sponsored jointly by Fellowship Square Foundation and the National Lutheran Communities and Services under the theme, "Vibrant Living, Vibrant Faith: Inspiring a New Culture of Senior Ministry." Other speakers for the interfaith conference include Rabbi Dayle Friedman from the Center for Aging and Judaism in Philadelphia and the Rev. Dr. David Gallagher, Pastor Emeritus, Palm West Community Church, Sun City West, Arizona.
Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt Papers "Theological Realism," Lutheran Forum 45:3 (Fall 2011)
Jennifer Dragseth (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011)
"Luther's Philosophy of Language," The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition, ed.
"On Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation," Journal of Lutheran Ethics, November 2011 Continued on page 12
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Presentations "Response to Hillerbrand and Paulson on the Meaning and Means of Conversion" at the Institute of Lutheran
Theology and Augustana District Theological Conference, took place February 2012, Minneapolis, MN.
Dr. John Eidsmoe Dr. Eidsmoe’s latest book, tentatively titled Historical & Theological Foundations of Law, will be published jointly and released by American Vision and Tolle
Lege Press later this year. It is about 1,500 pages, in five parts, 37 chapters, and will be published in three volumes.
Dr. Paul Hinlicky Seminars and Lectures Dr. Hinlicky will be conducting a seminar at the International Luther Congress in Helsinki, August 5-11. His topic is "A Post-Modern Luther? The Critique of Epistemology and the Revision of Metaphysics."
Dr. Hinlicky will be one of the main lecturers at the CORE Theological Conference at Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, MN, Aug 15 and 16. His topic is "The Law, the Gospel and the Beloved Community."
New/Upcoming Publications Contributions to Books
“Luther’s Atheism,” When Reason is a Whore: The Dilemma of the Lutheran Philosopher, ed. J. Hockenberry (St Paul, MN: Fortress, 2011). “A Leibnizian Transformation? Reclaiming the Theodicy of Faith,” Transformations in Luther’s Reformation Theology: Historical and Contemporary Reflections, Vol. 32, Arbeiten zur Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte. ed. C. Helmer and B. K. Holm (Leibzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt , 2011). “Problems of Evil: For Julius Filo on his Sixtieth Birthday,” V Službe Obnovy: Vedecký zborník vydaný pri príležitosti 60. Narodením Dr. h.c. prof. Th.Dr. Júliusa Fila ed. M. Jurík and J. Benka (Bratislava: Evanjelická bohoslovecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského v Bratisalved, 2010) 65-74. “Staying Lutheran in the Changing Church(es),” Afterword in Mickey L. Mattox and Gregg Roeber, “Changing
Churches” (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011). “The Bible and Fascism,” Encyclopaedia of the Bible and its Reception (Berlin & NY: DeGruyter, 2012). “Verbum Externum: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Bethel Confession,” International Bonhoeffer Interpretations ed. R. Wüstenberg (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2012). Peer Review Articles “Leibniz and the Theology of the Beloved Community,” Pro Ecclesia Vol. XXI, No. 1 (2012) 25-50. Works in Progress “Immanence and Imminence: Rethinking Theology and Philosophy with Deleuze,” (Continuum, 2013) co-authored with Brent Adkins.
What ILT Offers Lutherans, continued from page 9 of our technology, scholarship opportunities for students, and the general continuation of our work. ILT has multiple ways people can offer their financial support. Specific information on how someone can give can be found on our website at www.ilt. org. Please pray for ILT and tell others about what we are doing. We offer courses to laity within their congregations, courses of pastoral preparation through our Pastoral Certificate program
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and our Masters of Divinity, graduate education through our Masters of Theology program, continuing education events for clergy and church leaders, a “Luther Year” for clergy from other traditions wishing to acquire deeper knowledge of the Lutheran tradition, courses preparing lay ministers and other church leaders, and lively theological dialogue. Please visit us at www. ilt.org!
DTC Spotlight To Defend and to Bear Witness: Reflections on ILT and Apologetics and Global Mission By Pr. Paul Knudson, Faith Lutheran Church, Hutchinson, MN To defend the faith in the face of growing skepticism, even cynicism, is no longer an option. Dr. Dennis Biefeldt and other faculty of ILT have thankfully brought to the table the growing need for pastors and all who would bear witness to be able to engage those who are shaped more and more by the secularity of our day. We at Faith Lutheran are presently in the midst of a sermon and adult forum series that is building on, among other themes, what we call the need for apologetics, the need to challenge the wise of this world with a defense of the faith. Such a defense inevitably needs to recognize the philosophic and religious assumptions that give no quarter to a God who interacts with the human family in any meaningful manner. Such a defense also needs to own the distinctive Biblical world view that the Creator and Redeemer of us all still needs to be heard from pulpit and classroom. This defense of the faith is leading me personally, in retirement, to a whole new area of reading that assists me in interactions
with those either skeptical of or searching for a faith that rings true. I am thankful for ILT refusing to minimize the need for such reasoned defense, even as it will never replace proclamation. We at Faith Lutheran Church find ourselves in the midst of the reconfiguring of the Lutheran Family in North America. In particular, I am more and more immersed in the calling for a renewed passion for evangelical witness among the nations and unreached people groups. I would lift up a challenge here to ILT. We need you to bring voices together to awaken in congregations, pastors, and pastors in training to own Great Commission testimony. It is a different era, in that indigenous churches are taking the lead in this effort in their own lands. They will not, however, have the partners they need unless much more effort is given to build the case for passionate and effective support for going global for Christ. ILT could help us by bringing together a convocation of missiologists who still believe in a strong evangelical witness among the nations. We in the Augustana District would love to partner with you to such an end.
Student Spotlight
By David Wollen
“Okay, God, the only way I’ll become a pastor is…”
the Bible that covered much of the Old and New Testaments (my class on Paul and his letters is still my favorite ILT class).
That’s how my bargain with God started. I told Him that my pastors would have to tell me so, I wouldn’t uproot my family, and I wouldn’t quit my job. Basically, it wasn’t happening.
The process has made me a better minister of the gospel. Much of what I have learned has filtered into my work as the Director of Youth and Family Ministries at Faith Lutheran (because, after all, what teen doesn’t want to learn about Immanuel Kant!?). My preaching has improved as I’ve learned more about the focus and purpose of preaching and received guidance in developing my style and voice. I think that is what I appreciate the most about the ILT format; that I can be learning head-scratching philosophical concepts from the Enlightenment or diving deep into Greek translation difficulties and their implications while still staying grounded in the everyday messiness, demands, and joys of ministry.
And then ILT happened, and my pastors recommended I go for it. Once again, God wins! That was over three years ago. Now, five terms (plus one summer term) later, I am more than halfway done with my Master of Divinity degree through the Institute of Lutheran Theology. It’s been a crazy ride; sometimes frantic, other times stressful, occasionally frustrating, but always enlightening. I’ve been immersed in philosophy, from Plato to Nietzsche to (by the time you read this) Barth. I’ve studied all things Lutheran, from Luther to the confessions to Lutheran worship. I’ve had practical ministry training, including two preaching classes that have been the most valuable classes I’ve taken so far. I’ve even endured Greek! Most importantly, I’ve taken many classes on
It works, thanks to the support of my wife and kids, the camaraderie of my classmates, and the encouragement of my congregation. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to study at a school like ILT, and thank all of you who support this awesome endeavor!
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Going Into the (Real) World By Pastor Randy Freund The call of every Christian is straightforward; it is “The Great Commission.” According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ parting words are urgent and clear: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you,” (Matthew 28:19-20). It’s all right there: Christ’s sovereign authority, the Trinity, baptism, teaching, discipleship, obedience, and the nations. In order to go “into the world” with such a message, we need to know the world into which we go. The general perception of Christianity in our culture is not altogether favorable, to say the least. There are numerous reasons for that. Therefore, there are methods and strategies that Christians should reassess as we attempt to make a faithful witness in a challenging time. That is the topic for another article and is already the subject of countless books. It is clear, however, that Christians must go into this particular world and time with a creative, honest, reasoned, and persistent apologetic. For the purposes of this article, let us consider how Christians have tended to view and engage our culture. With this, we can then ask how a Lutheran hermeneutic might apply to the Great Commission. In his book, To Change the World: The Irony, tragedy and possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, James Davison Hunter suggests that there are three ways the church has tended to view the world/the culture: “Relevance To, Defense Against or Pure From.” In an effort to gain importance and find partnerships, the church has tended to seek “relevance to” the culture by chasing it. The church often imagines that this is the only way it can be palatable, acceptable, and capable of engaging the culture in order to make a difference. At the same time, the church has often gone in a completely different direction and has taken the position of “defense against” the culture. In this view, rather than chasing the culture, the church sees that it is called to conquer or dominate the culture. God’s sovereign reign requires this. God so loved the world that He sent His Son with a conquering love. One can find a third alternative completely separate from both views. This view holds that, because a Christian can easily be tainted by a sinful and fallen world, the church should seek to remain “pure from” the culture. Here, the church sees that it has a unique role in this world. We are a “holy” (set apart) people. In order to faithfully live out this calling, the church should keep
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distant from the culture and even be disengaged from the culture as an expression of that holiness. While each view has some merit, Hunter suggests that none of these alternatives address the command of Jesus in Matthew 28 and, in fact, are the very reason the church’s witness is hampered. Is there another alternative? The uneasy relationship between church and culture has always been and will always be. It is, in fact, a necessary tension. On the one hand, we affirm the goodness of the world God created. To suggest otherwise would be unfaithful. But on the other hand, we must live in an antithetical relationship with the world. We live “as-over-against” the world because it is a fallen world. It is here a Lutheran hermeneutic may provide help in the way we think about the Great Commission and how we engage the world into which we are called to go. We usually tend to think of the Great Commission as exclusively a “Kingdom of the Right” matter. It is surely that, for it is about the spread of the gospel and naming the “name above all names.” But the call of the great commission is to go into the world. We are called into the world by God through any number of vocations, both sacred and secular. The Sovereign reign of Christ Jesus is over both the Kingdom on the Right and the Kingdom on the Left. They are connected, but distinct. Both are a part of this good, yet fallen, world into which we are called. In the current Word at Work class entitled “Discipleship Delivered: Disguised and Daring,” we are considering this Lutheran hermeneutic (and particularly the doctrine of vocation) as we look at the urgent call of the Great Commission in a challenging time for Christianity.
ILT Sex Ethics Description By Robert Benne, Director, Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society Jordan Trexler, Professor of Religion Emeritus Perhaps the strongest challenge to the Christian life in these last decades has been the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s and mainstreamed in the ensuing decades. One by one, the Christian ethical norms that had been so painstakingly built up over the centuries by mainstream Christianity have been relativized, ignored, and debunked by an increasingly pagan culture. The cultural restraints against pre-marital sex, contraception, divorce, cohabitation, homosexual conduct, abortion, pornography, sexual humor, sexual display and nudity, and immodesty have all fallen. Child pornography, forcible rape, and the sexual abuse of children seem to be the last clear prohibitions we have, so we punish those who engage in them with compensatory fury. Indeed, our surrounding culture not only does not support Christian sexual norms, it is often downright hostile to them. Many of the mainstream Protestant churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have been unable to resist the pressures of a permissive culture, and have accommodated it. This became clear in the ELCA Churchwide Assembly of 2009, in which that church broke with Christian teachings on many fronts, but most dramatically on the moral assessment of homosexual conduct. In this situation, orthodox Christians need to return to and revive the great teachings of the Christian tradition on sexual ethics, not simply to fend off cultural depredations, but to lead lives that are God-pleasing, full, and fruitful. My course on Christian Sexual Ethics (EPR 490) is aimed exactly at reclaiming and reviving those teachings that are anchored in the Bible, developed in Christian history, including the Reformation, and articulated forcefully by many Christian writers. I have offered this course—or distillations of it—in many contexts and have been pleased by the positive responses. The most notable responses have been those that encourage me to write the course up into a small book for congregational use. Perhaps doing it again for the ILT will stimulate me to put it all down on paper, or online, as the case may be. The course begins with C.S. Lewis’ reflections on sexual morality in Mere Christianity. Master that he was in pithy summaries of Christian teachings, Lewis articulates the high ideals of Christian sexual life clearly and persuasively. As do all major Christian writers, Lewis notes that Christian sexual ethics revolve around the Christian doctrine of marriage.
Witte begins with biblical teachings and then works through Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, and Enlightenment traditions. He shows how theologians in each tradition affected the law and practices of whole civilizations in the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican lands. He ends with the gradual leaching out of Christian substance in those lands by the Enlightenment notion of marriage as contract. The course moves on to a modern Catholic text by John Grabowski entitled Sex and Virtue—An Introduction to Sexual Ethics. Though the book has Catholic teachings that are critiqued and supplemented by Lutheran ones, the exposition of the central virtue of chastity is common to all Christian traditions. The book provides a powerful, positive vision of Christian marriage and sexual life. The course concludes with a lively practical text on Christian sexual ethics: Real Sex—the Naked Truth about Chastity by Lauren Winner, a Jewish convert to Christianity who believes that, as a new Christian, she is obligated to live up to high Christian ideals after living a fairly dissolute sexual life. She provides a fine example of how young people can actually live up to Christian ideals in a culture that mocks them. I have found that these books and the supplemental lectures and readings that accompany them give students a new and robust vision of Christian marriage and sexual life. It is heartening for me to see the continuing relevance of Christian truth.
Following Lewis, the course includes a major swatch of time on a very important book, John Witte’s From Sacrament to Contract—Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. This remarkable book traces the way that Christian biblical and theological notions about marriage and sexual life decisively shaped the law and culture of the entire Western world, right up until 1960s America.
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