Notae ecclesiae in Luther's Von den Konziliis und Kirchen

In times of crisis such as the Reformation, the quest for the true Church comes into focus. In Luther's most important contribution to this question, Von den Konziliis und Kirchen (1539), he rejects the idea that the history of Fathers and Councils could be the solution, though the Councils are significant as defence of the biblical faith. Instead, Luther identifies the true Church as the place where the Spirit sanctifies believers through the word of God, which is the most important nota ecclesiae. The presence of the divine as fact and goal is thus what characterises the true Church.     

The Lutheran Church and Lutheran Theology in Korea1

Abstract : Lutheranism came to Korea with the American military chaplaincy of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in conjunction with the Korean War. The initial aim of these chaplains was to help the Koreans to improve their living conditions and to further their acquaintance with the Christian message. The main proponent of Lutheranism was Won Yong Ji, who for many years held a dual appointment at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and at the Luther Seminary in Korea. His brother, Won‐Sang Ji, was the first president of the Lutheran Church in Korea. Though the church has fewer than fifty congregations—most Protestant Christians are Presbyterians—its theological influence is significant.     

Roadmaps to Grace: Five Types of Lutheran Confessional Subscription

Abstract: Though all pastors in North American Lutheran churches are expected to “subscribe” to the Lutheran Confessions, there are many different understandings as to what this means, each of which is tied to a particular understanding of the Lutheran Confessions themselves. Through the use of a methodological tool, the “Confessional Spectrum,” five approaches are presented. The author maintains that one of these approaches, “Roadmaps to Grace,” is the most helpful method for Lutheran Confessional theology in the 21^st Century.     

Countertransference and Large Group Dynamics in the church: Reflections on Pamela Cooper-White’s, Shared wisdom: Use of the self in pastoral care and counseling

This article was presented as part of a 2005 American Academy of Religion book panel on Pamela Cooper-White's recent book on countertransference in pastoral care and counseling. A response to Dr. Cooper-White's contribution is offered from the perspective of large group dynamics and their countertransference implications for pastors and church consultants.Wallace N. Fletcher is an instructor in pastoral counseling at Newman College. He also teaches psychoanalytic theory at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis in Philadelphia, PA.     

RALPH WENDELL BURHOE: HIS LIFE AND HIS THOUGHT

Abstract. This is the first of four installments by the author, presenting an intellectual biography of Ralph Wendell Burhoe. This first segment follows Burhoe from his college years at Harvard through the founding of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in 1954. In this period, after his college and seminary study, Burhoe worked at Harvard's Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory and as executive officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his early life he had been concerned with how religion could maintain its credibility as a bearer of truth vis-à-vis the sciences, which were displacing religion not only among leading intellectuals, but also in other segments of society. The founding of IRAS provided an important instrument for dealing with this concern.     

Autocorrelation of choice-reaction times.

A choice-reaction (CR) task requires that the subject estimate, raking the warning signal or his response on the preceding trial as a reference point, the time when the reaction stimulus is due, so that he can begin deciding on his response at an appropriate time. This paper presents a model for the reproduction of temporal intervals, with particular emphasis on the sequential statistics of a series of such reproductions. When this model is concatenated with the sequential probability ratio test model for 2CRT, it provides a quantitative account of the pattern of autocorrelation found in a series of RTs. There is no corresponding autocorrelation in the incidence of errors, however, because after an error the subject systematically adjusts the epoch at which he begins sampling as a precaution against a further error. These post-error adjustments can readily be incorporated into the model. The ideas presented enable several different CR phenomena to be related, and they have implications for the relation between speed and accuracy, for the form of empirical distributions of RTs, and for the effects of temporal uncertainty.     

A critical comparison of two random-walk models for two-choice reaction time

Two random-walk models for two-choice reaction time, being the sequential probability ratio test model initially suggested by Stone and the relative judgment theory recently proposed by Link, are here compared. The comparison shows the precise mathematical relation between the models, the predictions they have in common, and two points at which they differ. Three experiments concerned with the effect of stimulus probability on two-choice reaction time are examined with respect to three predictions from the models. In this three-way comparison the two models are more like each other than either is to the data; a greater variety of phenomena is revealed than either model can at present accommodate.     

THE CHURCH AS THE AXIS OF CONVERGENCE IN TEILHARD'S THEOLOGY AND LIFE

Abstract. During the lifetime of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Roman Catholic Church passed through deep changes of doctrines as well as ecclesiastical structures, marked by the First and Second Vatican Councils. In that historical period, the perceived threat of the more and more encompassing theory of universal evolution was the main reason that Teilhard was forbidden to publish anything about its theological or philosophical significance. Teilhard survived these lifelong restrictions within his beloved church by embracing the paradigm of the church as “the axis of universal convergence.” His scientific background as a geobiologist gave him the necessary distance from the temporary statements of the magisterium of the Church. Over the whole of human history, however, he believed the Church to be the “phylum” whose development leads to the cosmic Christ as a guidance beam leads to a goal.