What and How of North American Lutheran Preaching

Abstract : This article suggests that an emphasis on how to preach, evidenced in the New Homiletic, can assist preachers in struggling with questions of what to preach. The narrative model of “problem”→“solution”→“what now?” has potential homiletical ties to Law (2^nd use)→ Gospel→ Law (3^rd use) theology. Since preaching 3^rd use of the Law can lead to a kind of works righteousness for hearers of such sermons, strategies are offered for dealing with preaching challenge. Preachers can put challenge before their hearers as a noun rather than as a verb; they can preach challenge as identification or questioning rather than as something hearers must do of their own accord.     

What Lutherans Have to Offer Mission in Preaching

Abstract: What characterizes Lutheran preaching and how can this aid preachers in bringing the gospel to north American culture in a post‐Christian and post September 11^th era? Lutheran preaching is distinct in its juxtaposition of Word and sacrament, mandate and promise, and oration and art. Preaching should address the futility of the human condition and proclaim the promise of the gospel that gives hope and brings salvation to a fearful and fragmented world. In our preaching moralism needs to be superceded by grace and proclamation of the Word needs to be honest about life events and always have Christ as the center.     

Enabling diverse learners to thrive in the online homiletics classroom

Many early efforts at teaching preaching online incurred disastrous losses in quality. Revamped versions now claim to meet, and in some areas even exceed, classroom learning effectiveness, with potentially significant gains for students from non‐dominant cultures. Students preach in local ethnic and denominational contexts, so a wider range of sermon styles can flourish in indigenous soil. Students hear immediate feedback from their community, and from their online peers and professor. Online discussion formats level the playing field for non‐native speakers. By remaining embedded in their denominational and ethnic environments, student's cultural differences may be simultaneously affirmed and critiqued. This article describes capacities which predict success among preaching students, and how culture may influence the manifestation of these capacities. It details best practices and continuing challenges for professors making the transition to online preaching courses, as they seek to build culturally sustaining learning environments in which diverse students may flourish.     

When to Preach About Poverty: How Location,Race, and Ideology Shape White Evangelical Sermons

Social scientists have long been interested in how intergroup contact or elite messaging can reduce or eliminate racial biases. To better understand the role of religious elites in these political questions, we show how a church location's income and racial characteristics interact with racial and economic ideologies to shape the political content of sermons. Testing our theories through both quantitative and qualitative analysis of an original data set of more than 102,000 sermons from more than 5200 pastors, we show that contact is only effective as a means of decreasing prejudice to the extent that actors—in our case, pastors—are ideologically capable of reconciling their potential role in economic inequality. White Evangelical pastors rarely preach about issues of poverty or racial justice overall, but the context of the preaching matters. We find that the greater the share of Black population there is in a church community, the less likely White Evangelical pastors are to mention issues of poverty or racial justice, and when they do mention it, they hold to ideological commitments that avoid blaming systems for racialized economic inequality.     

Queering “Straight” Preaching

Abstract

Well-meaning straight preachers may approach the issue of LGBTQ equality in the church from a standpoint of compassion, but queer theorists such as Lee Edelman have critiqued “compassion-compulsion” as a subconscious selfprojection, requiring that others become just like us. This article presses straight preachers to go further than simply preaching to include “others,” instead challenging such preachers to open themselves and their congregations to the risk of transformation. Drawing from the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, this article suggests that preachers move towards others in a gesture of “recognition” that resembles gratitude, and by such a gesture to receive the risky gifts others have to offer. This gratitude for the gifts of others becomes a motive for engaging in queer theory and queer theology, but this motive also puts us at risk. The risk of preaching that seriously engages the gifts of others includes queering ourselves, allowing ourselves to be scandalized by the risk of transformation asked of us by the gospel we preach.     

That All Might Proclaim: Continuing Luther's Legacy of Access

This article proposes that the next century of Lutheranism focus on equipping the priesthood of all believers to proclaim. Access was one of Martin Luther's central reforms and continues to be a hallmark of the Lutheran church. However, access to the pulpit has not gone far enough. For the sake of the gospel, a robust movement toward homiletical education for the laity must accompany a movement toward lay preaching.     

Vocation for planetary citizenship: Lutheran liberal arts education in the Anthropocene

The focus question of this article is, “In what ways should Lutheran higher education's teaching on vocation be revised to include the fact that we are living in a natural world massively impacted by human behavior, the Anthropocene Era?” This can be broken down into two more explicit questions: “What is the role of liberal arts education in such a changed context?” and “What resources in the Lutheran tradition can contribute to preparing students to become effective sustainability leaders?” The thesis of this article is that Lutheran liberal arts education, to foster planetary citizenship, must move students from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric understanding of vocation, preparing them to become leaders for a sustainable, interfaith society. This change can be accomplished by reaffirming the value of the liberal arts to foster sustainability education and retrieving Luther's understanding of creation to elicit wonder and appreciation of the natural world.     

The Holy Spirit,Eco‐Justice,and an African Lutheran Response to Ecological Peril

In response to the environmental degradation that is taking place right now in much of Africa—and in light of a traditional African emphasis on interdependence—this article seeks to provide an African Lutheran “eco‐pneumatological” contribution to the ongoing conversation about eco‐justice. To do so, it draws on classic Lutheran understandings of creation and grace, even as it calls for a more expanded—and more deeply biblical—understanding of the Holy Spirit's presence and activity throughout all of creation.     

‘Naturally More Vehement and Intense’: Vehemence in Calvin's Sermons on the Lord's Supper

This article focuses on the remarks of Conrad Badius – in the preface to his publication of Plusieurs sermons of Calvin's – about the ‘vehemence’ of sermons relating to the Lord's Supper. By comparing two of Badius's prefaces in editions of Calvin's sermons, it becomes clear that he chose his words intentionally. On examining here the rhetorical background of vehementia/véheménce, its use in the final part of Calvin's sermons is clarified. Some contemporary witnesses to Calvin's habit are cited. Moreover, in light of the role of vehemence in Calvin's preaching in general, it is shown that the context of the preparation for the sacrament and its celebration prompted Calvin to preach even more vigorously. The outcome is that Badius's comments on Calvin's preaching underline the vital importance of the Lord's Supper for the Reformer, a sacrament which required intensive and sanctifying preparation.     

Sola Scriptura: Strengths and Challenges

When Luther's notion of sola Scriptura is nuanced and properly understood, it is engaging and true in its assertions. However, in today's world, the use of the expression sola Scriptura may be more problematic than helpful. This point is argued for three reasons: Lutheran relationships with Catholics; the rise of American fundamentalism; and the parallel rise of “nones,” that largely young group of agnostics (sometimes atheists) not affiliated with any organized religion. By considering these issues, we can see how the notion still has relevance for theology and for the broader church, and how this notion helps us to preach, teach, and live the gospel in this time and place.     

Preaching a Risen Christ of Resistance among "Captive" Americans

Abstract: In the midst of the current captivity of Americans to governmental policies which most of the rest of the world finds objectionable, what are the challenges facing those who preach? How can these be addressed biblically and theologically, grounded in what it means to be part of a global communion, and empowered by faith in the Resurrected Christ? How can preaching form faith communities through conversion, confession and conversation so that they might confront and change what is occurring, for the sake of the whole world?     

Sex and the Statehouse: The Law and the American Same‐Sex Marriage Debate

Abstract : Same‐sex marriage remains a point of contention in American politics. The recent history of this conflict suggests that the Court's attempt to frame issues of sexual politics through paradigms of the right to choose and the tolerance principle, and constitutional ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’ cases raises difficult questions of justice. This article proposes that a Lutheran response, grounded in an understanding of the orders of creation, might interrogate these assumptions, particularly about the appropriate reach of government in sexual and family matters.     

A Paradoxical Theology of Biology

Abstract

This article examines a sermon in which Desmond Tutu advocates for gay rights in light of his activism against apartheid in South Africa. In doing so it uncovers a paradoxical theology of biology that enables him to advocate universal notions of justice simultaneously with love for particular persons and bodies. This advocacy, however, is susceptible to the critiques of queer theorists and theologians who worry that liberationist frameworks unwittingly reinscribe injustices against a variety of queer persons. The article concludes by raising new questions to be asked about Desmond Tutu’s theology, and liberation theologies in general, about the potential of liberationist and prophetic frameworks for achieving social justice. It also raises questions for queer theology about the possibility and political efficacy of queering the act of preaching.     

Theme Articles: Luther,Feminism, Friendship and the Future

Abstract : This article traces the author's journey of becoming a Lutheran feminist theologian. Drawing on insights from both Lutheran and feminist traditions, the author proposes a shift in Christian vocation imagery from that of servant to friend. She then argues that call to friendship includes subverting global structures of domination. The article ends with an invitation to join the expanding conversation about how Lutheran and feminist frameworks address the needs of our contemporary world.     

Not the Words: Hymnody,Enacted Theology,and the Lutheran Inupiat

Abstract : The theology of hymnody is not text‐bound. This article asserts that for the Lutheran Inupiat of Anchorage (Alaska), the practice of singing enacts the important theology. The Lutheran Inupiat still use the missionary hymns of the 1880s—early 1900s. This article explores how singing hymns simultaneously perpetuates Inupiaq spiritual culture and participates in the adopted Lutheran heritage. Inupiaq naming‐practices and song‐genealogies enrich Christian understandings of the ‘communion of saints’, which is enacted through singing.     

Coram Meipso: Presence,Privilege, and Vocations in Feminist and Lutheran Languages

Abstract : Themes of simultaneity and complex identity emerge when considering the human person using Lutheran theological constructs and feminist theoretical analysis. Focusing on human life coram meipso does not mean committing the error of pride that Luther and his Augustinian brothers so feared. Instead, coupled with a robust understanding of interlocking systems of privilege and oppression, looking into ourselves illuminates multiple vocations for justice that we have in the world.     

Reading Paul in post-Lutheran Sweden

This article brings a contextual approach to Paul and Christian origins. By suggesting a way to re-imagine Paul in the context of a disestablished Lutheran church in a post-Lutheran and post-homogenous Swedish society, the article strives to contribute to contemporary Lutheran theology as well as to the understanding of Swedish identity. Even if the relevancy of this relatively new social context might seem obvious, it is far from obvious how it affects a Lutheran self-understanding. This emerging context, it is argued, challenges Lutherans to revisit the writer that meant most to Luther: Paul. Beginning with the Tübingen school, the article shows how Pauline scholarship has been characterized by a problematic contrasting between Jewish particularism and Pauline universalism. A similar contrasting, it is further shown, can be found in the so called New perspective on Paul. With special attention to the Pauline vision of unity in Christ (Gal 3:28) the article strives to move beyond the New perspective. By proposing a re-imagining of Jewishness as an open ethnic category, I suggest that Paul and Christian origins could be re-conceptualized in a way that is Lutheran, but that is also sensitive to issues of ethnic difference, margins, and belonging in contemporary Sweden.     

The Bible among Lutherans in America: The ELCA as a Test Case

Abstract: This article describes the biblical hermeneutics that inform the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by comparing the ELCA's tradition of biblical interpretation with that of the Lutheran Church‐Missouri Synod. It sets both against the great social and intellectual challenges of the early twentieth century, including the modernist/fundamentalist controversy. One commonality that surfaces is that both church bodies appropriated pre‐modern hermeneutical impulses for “counter modern” biblical apologetics. In this process the LC‐MS privileged the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy (17^th century) while the ELCA constructed its hermeneutical paradigm through a recovery of the early Reformation (Luther). This observation suggests that both interpretive trajectories need further historical as well as theological review and revision.     

The Baltic Churches and the Challenges of the Post-Communist World

This article analyses and describes the recent history of the Baltic churches, their theological reorientation and the challenges they have encountered in the post-Communist Baltic society. The focus is on the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Lutheran churches whereas the Catholic and Orthodox churches receive less attention. It is first demonstrated that much has changed since the Second World War regarding the churches' membership numbers and their societal position. The article then pays attention to two phenomena that have caused much discussion not only within the churches but also among foreign observers: the fear that the Lutheran Church will surrender to the Catholic Church, and the quite opposite anxiety that the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod will grow too influential within Baltic Lutheranism. Finally, the author examines the way the Baltic churches have been involved in politics during the last two decades.     

Mystical union and spiritual desire in late-Reformation devotion: The case of Martin Moller's The Great Mystery (1595)

This article examines the complex relationship between early-modern Protestantism and medieval mysticism. It does so through a case study of a late-Reformation work of devotion, The Great Mystery (1595), which has received very little scholarly attention. The author of this treatise, Martin Moller, an experienced Lutheran pastor, was familiar with mystical literature and drew on it directly in his numerous works of devotion. Especially evident in The Great Mystery, which presents the relationship between Christ and the Christian as a spiritual marriage, is a theme which rarely appeared in the Lutheran devotional literature of the sixteenth century: spiritual desire for God. Moller developed an evangelical theology and spirituality of desire, which marked a crucial development in early-modern Lutheran devotion. The presence of this theme also provides a potential clue for the ‘mystical turn’ in the late Reformation and why this period may have experienced a ‘crisis of piety’.