Edmund Schlink's Doctrine of Baptism

I'm pleased to announce that Edmund Schlink's Doctrine of Baptism is now available from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, just in time for the Easter season. It is the third volume in a larger project, Edmund Schlink Works, for which I am serving as the editor and principal translator. For ordering information, go here. (Volume 1 of ESW contains fresh translations of Schlink's key ecumenical essays and his book on the Second Vatican Council [After the Council]. Volume 2, which is divided into two separate books, contains his 1277-page Ecumenical Dogmatics. These two volumes [divided into three books] are also available from V&R.)

Some people may be familiar with an earlier translation of Schlink's book on baptism, which was published by CPH in 1972. The ESW edition, which offers a new translation, differs from the CPH version in other significant ways. The CPH version was an abridgement. Several sentences from the German edition were omitted, which reflected Schlink's acceptance of higher-critical conclusions. Many German words were not rendered consistently (and some were mistranslated). Unlike the CPH version, the ESW edition contains introductions by the German editor, Peter Zimmerling, and yours truly, 110 editorial notes/annotations (added by me; not in the German edition), and an extensive bibliography (also missing from the German edition).

Schlink's theology of baptism is grounded in Luther's catechetical teaching, which he thought best captures the fullness of the multiplicity of statements in the New Testament: Baptism is God's salvific action that mediates the forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the powers of evil, and gives eternal life. The Christian life thus entails the daily return to baptism, whereby the old creature with all sins and desires is to be put to death through repentance, and the new person is to arise to live anew before God in righteousness and faithful obedience. For Schlink, it is precisely the biblical evidence that reveals the deficiency of the Zwinglian, Baptist, and late-Barthian understandings of baptism, insofar as they view(ed) baptism solely as a sign of the public confession by the person being baptized.

Schlink dealt with the basic questions of baptism in four main sections. The first chapter analyzes the historical foundation of Christian baptism. In the second chapter, he unfolded the baptismal event in a systematic-theological way. Here he stressed that baptism transfers the baptized into the ownership of Jesus Christ, and this transfer is connected to the forgiveness of sins and the gift of new divine life. Then follows the reception of the Holy Spirit and finally admittance into the church. Crucial here is Luther's teaching that the triune God is the one who is creating anew through baptism. Hence, Schlink's Lutheran stress on the effective nature of baptism. Conceiving the baptismal event as a mere symbol is deficient.

Schlink further justified this theological position in the third chapter by addressing the most important controversial questions regarding baptism, the correlation between faith and baptism, as well as the issue of infant baptism. Because Schlink viewed baptism as a "promise, sign, and act of God," he considered the baptism of children and infants as legitimate. Nevertheless, the most profound difference regarding baptism within the church traditions, still today, is not the acknowledgment or non-acknowledgment of infant baptism but the understanding of baptism as an act of God or as an act of human obedience.

In the final chapter of the book, Schlink dealt with the practice of baptism as it presents itself in the various church bodies. The starting point for his theological assessment is the observation that the immersion or sprinkling of the baptized with water and the invocation of the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit constitute the decisive action in baptism and can therefore be seen as the essential center of the baptismal event. Everything else in the baptismal rite must serve this center.

I'm hoping that the book will be read by American pastors, seminarians, and graduate students, but given the editorial notes that are unique to the American Edition, I think even lay people will find the book's content accessible and edifying.

I'm also hoping that the book might be used in ecumenical study groups or as a text that invites theological dialogue among pastors and other church leaders. It could serve as a discussion starter for a set of pastoral circuit meetings. I'm hoping that at least a few professors of systematic and historical theology will use the book in their teaching, and perhaps will even assign it as a text for their seminarians or graduate students.

Martin E. Marty +

Late yesterday I learned that my teacher, mentor, and friend Martin E. Marty died on Tuesday, Feb 25. He was 97.

I first heard about him when I was a student at Concordia College, Portland, Ore. Three of my professors there had been his undergraduate schoolmates, and two others had studied with him at the University of Chicago, and they occasionally pointed us to his books and essays. During those college years, The Christian Century, for which Marty was then serving as senior editor, became regular reading fare. His “M.E.M.O.” at the end of each issue was usually the first thing I pondered. While at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (his alma mater, too, at least in name), I dove more deeply into his body of scholarship, which at that time included some forty books and countless essays. I took out a subscription to Context, his fortnightly commentary on items he had gleaned from the dozens of magazines and newspapers he read (often while taking a bath, he told me later). His autobiographical work, By Way of Response, convinced me to head to Chicago after seminary. (That book introduces readers to Franz Bibfeldt, a theologian who didn’t exist but who influenced Marty more than any theologian who did. That prank kept him from going to a London pastorate and sent him instead to Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, where he served as an assistant pastor, and to graduate school at the U. of C. Years later he enjoyed learning about my own Bibfeldtian-inspired caper at seminary, but that’s another story.)

By the time I showed up at Swift Hall, in the fall of 1988, Marty was generally regarded as “the most influential living interpreter of religion in the U.S.” (Richard N. Ostling, Time [Dec 22, 1986], 59). Following the publication of his book, Righteous Empire, which won the National Book Award in 1972, and primarily as a result of his frequent public commentary—in essays, magazines (e.g., he once wrote about religion in the media for TV Guide; his Playboy interview), newspaper articles (e.g., the New York Times, etc.), and on television (e.g., Nightline, PBS, etc.)—he became “the quintessential public intellectual and public historian” (Catherine Albanese). In 1978, he was voted by the editors of 26 religious magazines as one of the two people then having the most influence on religion in the United States (the other: Billy Graham). According to historian L. Benjamin Rolsky, Marty was “arguably the public intellectual of the 1980s.”

Six memories stand out for me from my time with him at the U. of Chicago: 

(1) his course on religion in America during the Great Depression, which included his two-page, singled-spaced typed response to the paper I wrote for him in that course (an essay on the LCMS in the 1930s, which he later convinced the editor of The Cresset to publish, in truncated form—my first publication); 

(2) the priceless, truly mind-bending one-on-one seminars I had with him weekly in two different quarters, dealing with matters of nineteenth-century German Protestant history, philosophy, and theology (his question on one of my doctoral exams: “Tell me everything you know about the world of the emigrating Saxons. I want to know what you know about them up to the moment they got on the boat”); 

(3) my first visit to his Riverside home, when he took me on a personal tour of the various libraries throughout the house and commented also on various photos on the walls (including one of him and Peter Berger sitting directly two rows ahead of then Bishop Wojtyła [later Pope John Paul II] at a session of Vatican II); 

(4) his daily list of activities he needed to accomplish, scheduled down to the half minute, which he kept in his vest pocket and followed from the moment he rose each day at 4:57am (a practice I have not followed);

(5) an Easter Sunday where I worshiped at Grace, River Forest, and then spent the afternoon at the home of the pastor and his wife, Pr. Dean and Beverly Lueking, where Marty—Dean’s closest friend—and Harriet were also guests, and then later that evening watching the NBC Nightly News, where Marty was interviewed about the meaning of Easter; 

and (6) his genuine kindness, attentiveness, and generosity to students and others. He was always quick with a smile, a joke, a question (“tell me about your world today”). Already in the late 1980s, he was downsizing his library. Guess where a lot of his German and Lutheran books are now residing? (Some years ago, my Valpo colleague Gretchen Buggeln came back from a visit to Marty, bringing with her a complete set of the fourth edition of Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. “Tell Matt he will likely make more use of these than I will now….”)

After leaving Chicago, our paths continued to cross, often at the AAR, but also elsewhere. My wife Detra and I hosted him and his wife Harriet when he was given an honorary degree at Concordia Portland (of blessed memory) and I was still on the faculty there. That same weekend he was also given a similar honor by the U. of Portland. (Two honorary doctorates in one weekend! It was front-page news in the Portland Oregonian, which prompted retired U.S. senator Mark Hatfield to call me to see if I could set up a meeting between him and Marty, which was impossible, given the packed schedule.)

During my “troubles” in the LCMS, Marty frequently wrote me hard-copy letters (later emails), offering encouragement and counsel. His frequent refrain: “Remember, you are baptized!” Later, he helped pave the way for the publication of my first book, a revision of the doctoral dissertation I wrote for Brian Gerrish and David Tracy at Chicago. Still later, Marty graciously agreed to write the afterword to the first edition of my book on fundamental theology. It was there that he returned to a favorite philosopher and theme of his: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s affirmation: “Respondeo etsi mutabor” (I respond although I will be changed). I was most pleased when he told me that the book caused him to rethink some matters. “I somehow managed to pass through five years of pre-seminary education in a denominational school and then through theological seminary, plus four more years for Master’s and Doctoral work, without ever having taken a course in philosophical theology. For two or three years I roomed with a philosopher, and learned much from him, but would not trust myself to try to show expertise.” Not so! Not so! I can only echo the principal points made today by Richard Rosengarten: “I was privileged to know Marty—first as a student, then as a colleague and ultimately as a dear friend… Throughout Marty treated me as his equal, which was at once characteristically generous and utterly incongruous. To me he was, always, a teacher: remarkable for the breadth and depth of his knowledge, unfailingly interesting, generous, and generative in his attention. I’ve learned a modest fraction of what he made available, yet it is an enormous gift.” (See here.)

Detra and I are grateful for other memories, too, especially of those times when we visited the Marty’s at their home, when they still lived in Riverside, and then later when they lived near the top of the John Hancock Building. I’ve taken the liberty of uploading a photo from a dinner we had with them a few years back, at a little bistro, when they were still living in Chicago. The photo is classic Marty, with that twinkle in his eye. (On that day, I had brought them some wine from Oregon, to thank him for a gift of some books. I was always grateful to receive some of his books, and he was always grateful to receive some Oregon wine! He would then want to know what I knew about the region and the winery. “Tell me everything you know about….” Btw, it was on that occasion, too, that we heard several stories about Marty’s longtime friendship with the television producer Normal Lear [“All in the Family”; “The Jeffersons”; “Maude” etc.] and about their collaborative work, e.g., on the 1982 two-hour television special, “I Love Liberty” [featuring Robin Williams et al.], which Marty helped to write, and about his friendship with Bill Moyers.)

I am grateful for all Marty did for me and for so many others, for all he taught me, all he showed me. It was always a blessing to receive an email or a note from him, often in reply to one of my posts here. He always found time to respond—and to change, if necessary. I certainly would not have had the vocational trajectory I’ve been blessed to experience, were it not for him, his wisdom, guidance, and support. May he rest in God’s peace and may light perpetual shine upon him.

Addendum (3/2/25): Here is a link to Marty's obituary that appeared in today's New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/us/martin-e-marty-dead.html#

Further addendum (3/10/25): Here is a link to additional reflections on Marty's life and vocation:

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/remembering-martin-e-marty-0

I particularly recommend the NPR piece and the "Sightings" article by Bret Colasacco:

https://martycenter.org/sightings/martin-marty-and-the-art-of-modern-american-religion

An Ending and a Beginning

Last week marked the end of my vocation as a professor of undergraduate theology. After thirty-one years of such teaching, twenty of which were spent at Valpo, I have decided to take early retirement.  My last day was August fifth.

Although Valpo's administration recently announced that the theology major and minor will be spared discontinuation, those programs are nevertheless slated to undergo what will likely be a radical process of "reimagining." What will come from that process of revision is unclear to me, but it does seem to indicate that the institution will no longer favor the kind of Lutheran theology that once was crucial toward helping to make Valpo "Valpo."

After the administration announced in late March the possible discontinuation of our theology programs, I was told that if that discontinuation took place, I would lose tenure, I would no longer receive support for my research, I would have a larger teaching load, and I could be laid off "at any time." That announcement led me into a period of careful, intentional vocational discernment....

While Valpo's theology programs will not be discontinued, I have concluded that there doesn't seem to be much of a future at Valpo for the kind of theology I have enjoyed teaching and supporting for the past several decades. More and more, the liberal arts and humanities, including theology and philosophy, have been marginalized at Valpo, a trend that has been taking place at similar institutions as well. (The administration has announced the discontinuation of the philosophy major and minor. It has also announced the discontinuation of the German major, a program I have tried to support by teaching my course on Luther and Bach, as well as one on Christians in Nazi Germany.) 

Consequently, after much prayer and discussion with my wife and colleagues, I decided that it was time for me to move into a new vocation.

Big Canoe

   On June 26, 2024, Big Canoe Lutheran Church and Highland Lutheran Church, two rural congregations near Decorah, Iowa, formally called me to serve them as their pastor. On July 5, I accepted this call. The installation service has been set for Sunday, October 6.

   For more information about these two congregations, go here.

Highland

   While I will still be serving Valpo as a "senior research professor" (and thus will still be engaged in scholarly pursuits, e.g., completing the Edmund Schlink Works project), I will be doing that work on the side, since my principal calling will now be to serve as pastor to these two sister congregations in NE Iowa.

Because of my upcoming transition to Iowa, as well as the basic challenges  of pastoral ministry, I don't  foresee posting to this blog very often in the future. I know that I'll need to focus my time and energy  in  different directions.

I'm grateful for those who have read my posts over the years. Thank you!

A New Petition to Save the Humanities at Valparaiso University

Earlier today, I received the following email:

Dear VU Faculty,

We invite you to sign this petition in support of the Humanities at VU, and to share it widely among your personal and professional networks.

https://www.change.org/SaveTheHumanitiesAtVU

--Friends of VU

Please consider signing this online petition in support of theology and the other humanities at Valpo.

An Article That Refers to Valpo's Plan to Discontinue Its Theology Programs

David Masciotra recently wrote an article for Salon that refers to the recent decision of the Valpo administration to begin the process of discontinuing several academic programs at the university, including theology. David is an alumnus of Valpo. You can read his article here:

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/16/ignorance-and-democracy-capitalisms-long-against-higher-education/

Petition to Preserve Theology at Valparaiso University

Students at Valpo have started a petition that calls upon Valpo's administrators to stop their plan to discontinue the theology programs at the university. If you would like to sign the petition, go here.

Proposal to Discontinue Several Programs at Valpo (Including Theology)

This morning I learned that several programs at my university are now slated for discontinuance. Included in the proposal are all theology programs. Also included are foreign languages, music, and other programs in the humanities and the sciences. To see the list of programs slated for discontinuance, go here.

Many faculty who teach in these programs will likely have their positions cut.

Here is the letter that I received this morning from the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences:

Dear Members of the Department of Philosophy and Theology,

 

I write to inform you that the Theology major and minor, the Theology and Ministry major, and the Philosophy major and minor will be entered into the Academic Discontinuance Process today. I met with your department chair earlier this morning to inform the department via the chair, but I also wanted to directly inform all full-time department members via email before a campus-wide email is sent out by the Provost’s Office.

 

I have attached a copy of the discontinuance memorandum from the Provost’s Office and a copy of the program discontinuance policy. Entry into discontinuance does not automatically mean that a program will be discontinued. Your department will have up to 60 calendar days to respond to the proposed discontinuance.

 

As your department works on its response documents, [name withheld] agreed to provide data and advice. You are also always welcome to schedule an appointment to meet with me or any representative of the Dean’s Office. If you have questions about data and the best ways to present information, both offices have individuals experienced reading, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting both quantitative and qualitative information. We are more than willing to help. Additionally, the Provost and the chair of the Faculty Senate, [name withheld], agreed to host open office hours this afternoon starting at 1 PM. 

 

Finally, I know this is a difficult day. The staff at the Chapel and the Employee Assistance Program are both available. You are, again, always welcome to come talk to me too.

 

Respectfully,

[Name withheld]

My brief commentary: 

Given that Valpo's administration hired the same consulting firm that recommended major cuts to programs in the humanities at West Virginia University (and at other schools), today's overall decision is not surprising, but it is sobering. (One of my younger colleagues, who teaches NT, learned at 9am today that she was promoted to associate professor with tenure, only to learn at 11:30am that her tenure no longer will mean anything. She has a young family and is uncertain about her future employment here.)

Today's decision at Valpo was and is entirely market-driven. No attention seems to have been given to how these proposed program cuts will adversely affect the stated mission of the university.

Some elements in today's announcement did catch me and others by surprise. The proposal includes the elimination of tenure (even for those of us who have been tenured for decades), the establishment of one-year rolling contracts for all affected faculty (which means that any one of us could be told mid-year that our contract won't be renewed for next year), and the requirement (at least for me) to teach an additional course per semester at no additional pay. (I have been teaching a 3-3 load, and occasionally a 3-2 load, since I joined the faculty in 2004. The proposal requires a 4-4 teaching load for all affected faculty--at least those of us who don't lose our jobs [or lose them right away].)

It is not at all certain that the current theology requirement (two required 3-hr courses in the gen ed curriculum) will continue. The basic 200-level "Christian Tradition" course will likely continue, at least for a while, but the upper-division theology courses could easily go away. If that would happen, the dept would eventually disappear, since no prospective faculty member will want to come to an institution where they can't teach in their area of expertise and research. As theology faculty retire (or if their contracts are not renewed), those spots won't be filled. Who would want to join a dept if the university can only offer new faculty a one-year rolling contract, no tenure, no program per se, no support for research, just "service teaching" in the gen ed curriculum at a 4-4 level?

I should add that my department is among the most productive departments in the university with respect to research and publications. Each year, it seems, at least one of us publishes a book or comes out with a major article. These publications help to draw attention to Valpo.

Today's administrative decision, if implemented, will completely dismantle the stated mission of the university, it seems to me. Valpo will no longer be "grounded in the Lutheran tradition of scholarship, freedom, and faith," nor will it really be preparing students "to serve in both church and society." With the elimination of foreign languages, music, the theology programs, and other programs in the humanities, Valpo will no longer be a liberal arts university.

My colleagues and I will put up the best argument we can for keeping the theology major and the current two-course theo requirement, and we will join other departments in defending their important role in our overall university's mission, but we also need alumni and others to let their voices be heard in the coming days and weeks.

One of my friends who taught theology at Valpo for around four decades wrote the following to me earlier today, after learning about this announcement:

"Our world and country are changing in fundamental ways. Training has taken the place of education, and education is little valued. A millennium of thought about what it means to be a university and to educate has come to an end. It's time to grieve, but also to hope and to ponder reinvention."

Please keep us in your prayers.

Fundamental Theology - Second Edition

I'm pleased to announce that my new book on fundamental theology was published today. While technically it is a second edition, no paragraph from the first version has been left unchanged. I also added a few new chapters. To learn more about the book, go here.

Rev. Arthur Simon+

Longtime family friend Rev. Arthur ("Art") Simon died on November 14, 2023. To read an official announcement, go here.

Art's father and my grandfather were colleagues in ministry, serving as fellow Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors in Oregon. Art, his brother Paul (not the famous songwriter/singer but the famous US senator from Illinois, who was also a one-time presidential candidate), my uncle Bob, and my dad were friends when they were active in the LCMS's youth organization, the Walther League. Art wrote briefly about his friendship with my dad in the opening chapter of one of his books, The Rising of Bread for the World (Paulist, 2009). He also wrote about my dad, and about my nephew Andrew, in another of his books, Rediscovering the Lord's Prayer (Augsburg/Fortress, 2005). Art and my uncle Bob were co-students at Concordia, Portland, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. And then, years later, after the death of my dad, Art and my mom became very close friends, not least because of their shared interest in the Oregon Ducks football team. I thought perhaps Art and my mom might get married, but that didn't happen for various reasons. In 2014, when my wife, son, and I visited Art and his wife, Shirley, in Baltimore, he graciously gave me his entire library, which we brought back to Valpo in a large rented van. 

From my time on the faculty at Concordia, Portland, through my years here at Valpo, Art has been a mentor to me, especially in matters regarding the relationship between Christian faith and public service. (When I was facing oppositional headwinds in the LCMS over the issues of women's ordination and six-day creationism, Art was a frequent conversation partner. He provided me with a lot of pastoral consolation in those difficult years!)

I'm grateful to God for Art's life and ministry. I am also glad that some of my former Valpo students, while serving as interns in Washington (or as participants in various summer fellowships), benefited from Art's vision and expertise when they reached out to him. 

As the founder and first president of Bread for the World, Art tirelessly worked to end poverty and hunger. His engagement with these issues initially grew out of his pastoral ministry on the lower east side of New York City. Along with a dozen other church leaders in his region, Art began to brainstorm about how they could address the local and global root causes of hunger. They wanted to lead Christians to try "to prevent hunger from happening in the first place rather than just reacting to it." So toward that end, Bread for the World was founded in 1974. (If you watch Rick Steves' travel show on PBS, you'll see a brief promo for Bread. I once had a brief conversation with Rick, in which he shared how much Art's first book about hunger had changed his whole outlook on that issue.)

To learn more about Bread for the World, go here.

To quote from Bread's announcement about Art's death: "His work has helped initiate programs that have reduced hunger, decreased poverty, and improved nutrition, impacting hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world."

Bread's current president, Eugene Cho, nicely summarizes Art's legacy: "To this day, I’m inspired by the three ideas he had in the founding of Bread: to prevent hunger from happening in the first place rather than just reacting to it; to work within the system of American democracy to ensure political leaders hear about hunger from their constituents; and to organize Christians to speak up collectively against hunger – these speak to things that are as relevant in the 2020s as they were in the 1970s."

Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. May light perpetual shine upon Art, and may God grant comfort and peace to Shirley, their family, and all who mourn Art's death.

Crossings Table Talk about Atheism

On Tuesday, Nov 28, at 1pm (Central Standard Time), I will be leading an online Crossings "Table Talk" discussion about atheism, based on a chapter from my upcoming book, Fundamental Theology , 2nd ed. (Bloomsbury, 2024). 

For an introductory "trailer" for this Table Talk, go here.

This talk is free, but you must pre-register with Cathy Lessmann via email. After registering, you will receive an invitation to join our Zoom-based Crossings Table Talk. 

To register, go here.

The Beauty of Dusk

On the morning of Christmas Eve 2018, after getting out of the shower, I couldn't see very well. The vision in my right eye was clouded by large blind spots, scattered gray areas, splotches of nothingness. I initially thought I was suffering from an optic migraine, which I have experienced several times throughout my life. But the blind spots didn't go away. During that night's Christmas Eve service, all I could do was to keep wondering, "Why can't I see out of my right eye? What has happened? Lord, why this blindness?" Needless to say, my Christmas that year was a bit more anxious than normal.

Because of the holiday, I couldn't get in to see an optic specialist until after January 1. From him I learned that sometime during my sleep on the night of December 23 I had suffered a stroke to the optic nerve in my right eye. The technical term for my condition is NAION: non-arteritic ischemic optic neuropathy. Thankfully, I was on sabbatical for the spring semester of 2019. I ended up spending a huge chunk of that term in and out of doctor's offices and hospital testing rooms. What was supposed to have been a period of writing a book, ended up being a time of getting pricked and prodded, scanned and studied.

For nearly five years now, I've been mostly blind in my right eye. The optic nerve specialist whom I visit twice a year has told me that there's about a 15% chance that I will suffer a stroke to the other eye as well. It turns out that I was born with abnormally narrow retinal blood vessels, the ones leading to the optic nerve in each eye. Ah, those blessed genes! Nevertheless, so far, so good--other than the blindness in the right eye, which, barring a miracle, will remain permanent. (Btw, my optic nerve specialist happens to be a close friend of a friend of mine who graduated a few years ahead of me at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Small world. The Doc and I occasionally discuss a little theology in between our focusing on optic issues.) 

While I can still see a little out of my right eye (which used to be the stronger of the two), most of that right-eye vision is dark and gray and blurry, a milky cloudiness. It's been a real cross to bear. But I'm managing. My brain has adjusted so that my left eye is doing a double load, so to speak.

For the first few years, I suffered pretty bad headaches most days, mainly as a result of the challenges of reading and working on my computer for long hours. Using a very large monitor (and enlarging my documents to 200%), I have been able to keep on writing. In fact, since 2018 I've published three books, totaling more than 2,000 pages. But I'd be lying if I said it has been easy. Much of that writing has been downright painful. The right-eye vision has been just good enough to interfere with the left eye's better vision. The result: some nasty headaches. Depth perception is non-existent. I have a lot more bruises, too, the product of accidentally running into things that I don't see on my right. I try not to drive at night. But now, after my brain has had a few years to adjust to the blindness, I don't suffer as much discomfort as I did earlier--or at least I know now when to stop reading and typing, and  when to give my one good eye a rest.

What Frank Bruni suffered and has written about so eloquently in his recent book, The Beauty of Dusk, is what I have been facing each day. (Mr. Bruni also experienced a stroke to the optic nerve in his right eye, in 2017.) I highly recommend his book, which is about more than just the loss of his vision and the challenges it has created for him. (He had been a columnist for The New York Times, and now he teaches journalism at Duke.) In that book he writes about a number of people who suffer from various levels of blindness. I was heartened and encouraged by the stories he narrates, including his own autobiographical reflections. 

I should add that my dad became legally blind after suffering a terrible battle injury in the Korean War. He was mostly blind from the age of 19 until his death at the age of 73. So his example of living many decades with near blindness, of leading a remarkably full and active life with only one half-way decent eye, has been encouraging to me as well. There's not a day that goes by when I don't think, "If Dad could live his life the way he did, I should be able to do so, too. Just take each day as Dad did, one day at a time." If my dad were still alive, he'd have been a good candidate for a Bruni interview!

The stroke I suffered in 2018 was not a Christmas gift I had wanted to receive that year. It's not the kind of set-back you want anyone to get in any year! But I have grown to see it as a gift of sorts. In a basic way, my partial blindness has led me to be otherwise grateful for things I had previously taken for granted. I'm grateful for the vision I still have. I'm grateful when I wake up each morning and can still see relatively well out of my left eye, that I can then see my beautiful wife across the breakfast table. I'm grateful that I have had to slow down in my reading, to slow down in my writing. I have to pay closer attention to details, to work hard at developing more patience. I'm now a strong proponent of "slow reading" and "slow writing." I think I'm a bit more patient and empathetic with students of mine who suffer from dyslexia or from other vision challenges. I'm grateful to learn from people who are blind, some of whom I've met in a doctor's waiting room, to be inspired by how they are navigating with their disability, with their cross. This blindness, this earthly cross I've been bearing, has taught me to see things in a new way.  I agree with Bruni: there is a new beauty that one can experience from such a loss. I am learning, slowly, the truth and wisdom conveyed in St. Paul's statements in Philippians 4:11-13 and 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. (That Paul wrote the ending to his letter to the Galatians "in such large letters," suggests that he likely suffered from a vision problem as well, maybe as a result of the blinding revelation of the risen Christ that he received on the road to Damascus.)

Brief Videos from Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb

Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is the founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem, the West Bank. From 1987 until 2017 he was the senior pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. He is also the co-founder of Bright Stars of Bethlehem, an organization that helps to support Dar al-Kalima. Dr. Raheb has published more than 40 books. For more information about him, go here. For information about Bright Stars of Bethlehem, go here.

Dr. Raheb is a friend of mine. He has been on Valpo's campus many times. He has taught me much over the years, and my wife and I do what we can to support Bright Stars of Bethlehem.

Last week I contacted him to share my wife's and my support for him and those he works with in this very difficult situation, following the attacks by Hamas and Israel's retaliatory actions. Detra and I condemn in the strongest terms what Hamas has done in attacking Israel. We also continue to criticize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Israel's actions against  innocent civilians there and in Gaza. We should not forget that around 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, many of them displaced after 1948. For a basic overview about them, go here.

I encourage you to watch a brief video that Dr Raheb has published about people connected with Dar al-Kalima and its satellite school in Gaza. You can view it here. 

Along with more than 4000 other individuals, I have signed Tikkun's statement in solidarity with Palestinians and Jews. You can read that statement here.

Rev. Dr. Hans G. Spalteholz+

It is with deep sadness, tempered by faith and hope in the risen Christ, that I announce the death of my dear friend, mentor, and colleague, Professor Hans G. Spalteholz. After a brief illness, he died very peacefully last night in his living room. He was 92 years old. 

I am grateful that I was able to speak with him last weekend before he had to be more heavily sedated during this past week. I am also grateful that his suffering has now ended and that he has entered that perfect peace prepared and granted by the risen and glorified Christ. 

I will say more about him at his memorial service, but these are a few thoughts that come to mind this morning: Professor Spalteholz taught me to love the Holy Scriptures, to wrestle with them for the sake of faithful interpretation, and to apply them to the world’s deep needs and hurts. He taught me the distinction between law and gospel by unpacking the theology of the Lutheran Confessions. His love of books and of learning and of the German language rubbed off on me. He pointed me the way to the University of Chicago, and he later carefully proofread my doctoral dissertation. He modeled a truly ecumenical approach to the question of theological truth. He and Professor Richard Reinisch made room for me to join the faculty of Concordia University, Portland. In so many ways, the death of Hans marks the end of an era. He and others in his generation were among the best and brightest that the Missouri Synod educational system ever produced.

Since the fall of 1980, down through these many decades, Hans became a second father to me. At various times of crisis he was a spiritual counselor (serving multiple times as a "paraclete" when I was facing one charge or another in the LCMS). More importantly, he became the most influential and significant theological conversation partner in my life. For more than two decades we worked very closely together on several book projects, including the first two volumes of our translation of the writings of the German Lutheran theologian Edmund Schlink.

Since Hans and his wife Christa had no biological children of their own, I became one of their "adopted children." On many occasions, he let me know that he considered me his son. My son Jacob calls him "Opa Hans." So his death is hitting us hard, even though we knew this day was coming. We are experiencing what Hans' and my teacher and friend Martin Marty has called "the cry of absence."

The memorial service for Hans will be held at St. Michael Lutheran Church, Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, May 13. Dr. Robert Schmidt, our former colleague in the theology department of Concordia, will be preaching. 

Please keep Christa and her extended family in your prayers.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his saints, who from their labors rest, and who sing their songs in endless light. Shalom, shalom, dear Hans!

P.S. Linda Borecki interviewed Hans two years ago and uploaded her three-part interview to Youtube. Below are the links to that interview. Thank you, Linda, for doing that! This interview is so meaningful to me. It really captures Hans' personality as well as his spiritual and intellectual depth. What an amazing  person he was!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

A New Republic Article on the Controversy at Valparaiso University

David Masciotra, a Valpo alumnus who writes for The New Republic, has published an article in the current issue of that national magazine: "A Georgia O’Keeffe Painting and the Battle for the Soul of a Liberal Arts College."  

The article is given prominence at the top left corner of the homepage of the online version of the magazine: https://newrepublic.com/

In my judgment, Mr. Masciotra frames the issues in precisely the right way. 

"What is the purpose of studying at a university beyond job training? How can schools like Valparaiso, which emphasize learning outside of vocational courses, survive when a corporate-consumer model has overtaken higher education and exerted a powerful influence on administrators and students alike?"

Masciotra writes: "Valparaiso University’s student body is shrinking and its dormitories are aging. But is selling the campus museum’s most famous artwork the right solution to the problem?"

As you can tell from the quotations by yours truly that he included in his article, I think Valpo can take a different, better path here. 

(The university recently constructed a huge, expensive residence hall, Beacon Hall, which is only partially full--and partially paid for. Valpo has also recently built a couple of rows of sorority houses down the hill from our athletics building, and Valpo has recently made renovations to at least one of its freshmen dormitories. These expensive on-campus housing projects have largely gone unmentioned in the reporting. Valpo has been making capital improvements to its campus housing in recent years.)

A larger issue, at least in my view, is the expensive and oversized role that athletics plays on our campus.  We are moving toward becoming an athletics institution that offers some college-level classes on the side. Toward that end, the university's administration wants to build a huge, new, very expensive athletics complex. In my judgment, that will be a mistake. We will be digging ourselves into an even deeper hole of debt--and then forced to make even more cuts to our academic programs (further weakening the liberal arts).

Meanwhile, in light of the reporting by Mr. Masciotra, one wonders, "From where will the funding come?" Part of the administration's answer to that question, at least so far, has been: "We'll sell off what we consider to be our non-essential assets to raise the money."

And that is how a church-related academic institution eventually loses its soul.

To read the entire article, go here.

P.S. I also encourage you to read another piece on the Valpo situation that came out today. John Fea is a former Lilly Fellow at the university. To read his article, "What Is Going on at Valparaiso University?," go here.

P.P.S. Inside Higher Education also ran a piece today on the Valpo matter. To read it, go here.

A New York Times Article on the Valpo Controversy

The New York Times published an article today on the decision of Valparaiso University's board of directors to deaccession three paintings from the university's Brauer Museum. The article contains a link to the letter I wrote, opposing this decision. This letter was signed by more than 90 current and former Valparaiso University faculty members (75 current ones; 17 former ones; and two staff members who work at the Brauer).

I'm grateful for the service and leadership of John Ruff and Dick Brauer, who are dear friends and valued colleagues! Stop the sale!

To read the NYT article, go here.

Stop the Sale!

On February 8, 2023, in a campus-wide email, Valparaiso University’s president, Jose Padilla, announced that he and Valpo’s board of directors would be selling three masterpieces of art from the university’s Brauer Museum to provide funding for the renovation of two on-campus residential buildings. Here is a link to his statement.

In a subsequent statement, President Padilla said, “Our actions will be based on the best interests of our students, mission, and entire campus. Not just one small piece of it, especially when that piece is not part of our strategic plan and our core mission of educating students and giving them the best campus residential experience.” 

Both the decision and the justification for it deeply disturb me. As someone who regularly takes students to the Brauer Museum as a part of my teaching, and who frequently visits the Brauer for my own edification and enlightenment, and who works closely with people who support the mission of the Brauer, I consider that museum to be near the core of Valpo’s mission and a key feature of its unique identity. The artwork there relates directly to my vocation as a university professor of theology and the humanities. I have a particular interest in Christian theological interpretations of art, about which I have written in my book on fundamental theology. I am especially pleased that we have three central works  that demonstrate excellence in the visual arts, precisely the three pieces that the university board wants to sell. These three pieces comprise the anchor for the whole collection.

I should add that I had met privately with President Padilla in his office exactly one week before he made his announcement. It was my first face-to-face meeting with him. I presented him with my recently published edition of Schlink’s Ecumenical Dogmatics, I explained a little about it and my scholarly work in ecumenical theology, and I discussed matters of shared interest (e.g., politics). We had a very pleasant meeting. I wanted him to know that he could count on me to help him as a resource, especially with respect to Lutheran theology and the American church scene. 

My meeting and conversation with him that day would have been very different had I known about this  secret board decision. 

So on February 9, I began to write a letter to our faculty senate, to criticize this presidential/board decision. That letter, whose rough edges were polished with the help of a few others, was sent to the faculty. After only two days, 75 current faculty had signed it, as had 17 emeriti or retired faculty. To read the letter, go here. (At last week’s faculty senate meeting, President Padilla referred to the letter as “the Matthew Becker letter,” but it is not my letter. I may have written the first four drafts, but it was ultimately submitted as a letter from the faculty who signed it.)

For more details on this controversy, go here. 

The New York Times has assigned a reporter to the story. I learned today that her article will be coming out perhaps already next week.

Yesterday, at a special meeting of Valpo’s faculty senate, a few of us presented a memo, which we hope will become the basis for a senate resolution that would call upon the president and board to rescind their decision. Here is the content of that memo: 

1. The sale constitutes a gross violation of professional museum ethics. VU will be censured by professional organizations, lose credibility with those associations, and the museum will be unable to lend, borrow, or collaborate with other museums in the world. The president claims he has his own “ethic” to uphold—a confusion of ethics and expediency? Will that “ethic” trump ethical standards across all disciplines, professional schools, and university organizations? 

2. The sale violates the trust of artists, the public, donors, and faculty. The Brauer Museum is at the core of Valpo’s liberal arts identity. The three masterpieces anchor the collection and its international reputation. Artists want their work to be displayed in notable public collections. Donors expect their gifts to contribute to the strength of the museum in perpetuity. Faculty count on these works as crucial pedagogical resources. This action tramples on the generosity and trust of current and past donors. It conflicts with the strong support for the arts and humanities in the Lutheran intellectual tradition. What is the presidential and board rationale for breaking these basic and long-term trusts for the sake of short-term, perishable goods? 

3. The sale may be illegal. The sale clearly violates the terms of the trust agreement signed by the VU board president when the core collection was acquired in 1953. The Church painting was part of that gift; the other two paintings in question were purchased with funds from the restricted Sloan endowment fund. The president claims that will not be a legal problem. That remains to be seen. And, does it not matter that violating the trust is clearly unethical? 

4. This sale is a poor management of assets. To sell an asset of appreciating value and use it to buy something of depreciating value (dorms) is problematic. Furthermore, by selling these pieces through a private auction, Sotheby’s will be entitled to at least a 25% commission. Add in PR and legal fees, and that is a very poor return on the value of these assets. Selling university assets in a reckless and/or unethical manner has already resulted in the loss of major donors and negative press. More will come. This could also have a negative effect on our bond rating. Is this short-term sale really worth the net outcome, especially in view of Valpo’s long-term future? 

5. This sale seems very rushed. Do we understand why a dorm renovation suddenly rose to the top of the university’s priority list? What is the urgent necessity for this project? The administration could provide no concrete evidence. 

6. The process of making the decision to sell these masterpieces lacked transparency. The plan to select and sell the works has been conducted with deliberate secrecy. The paintings were selected purely for cash value, without any investigation into or concern for their importance to the museum and the community it serves. No one with any knowledge of the collection was consulted, as if the details of the works themselves were irrelevant to the process. This is a shocking way to approach the sale of university assets, and not a path to a sustainable future. 

7. The administration’s withholding of knowledge of the impending sale resulted in an unethical hiring process. Last summer, while in the process of finding and hiring Jonathan Canning, representatives of Christie’s Auction house were on campus. This information was withheld from the search committee, and more importantly from Canning when he accepted the job. Any association with this sale will be devastating to his career. The university asked Canning to participate in a sale that would violate his professional ethics. 

8. This impending sale represents a further attack on the arts and humanities at VU. Student response has been spontaneous, strong, and often emotional. They immediately connected this action to the administration’s ongoing dismantling of the arts on campus. Notably, among the nearly 400 signatories on the student petition, approximately half are STEM majors. The board/presidential decision is contrary to Valpo’s stated mission. 

I don’t know what will happen here. We want to stop the sale of the paintings.  Thankfully, for now at least, the masterpieces remain on the walls of the Brauer. But as I indicated at yesterday's senate meeting, my confidence about the leadership of the president and the board has been deeply shaken by the decision and by subsequent presidential behavior that I will not write about here. Indeed, I wasn’t able to control my emotions very well yesterday as I tried to thank the students who publicly spoke so eloquently, passionately, and persuasively about their reasons for opposing this decision. Those students give me hope. My heart is not the only one around this place that is broken right now.

If you want to sign a petition to stop this sale, please go here.

Rev. Dr. John Scheck+

On Sunday night I learned that Dr. John Scheck died on Christmas Eve. Some of us had him as our beloved professor at Concordia University, Portland, Ore. He was my academic adviser, and I think I took every course he offered during those four undergraduate years (1980-1984), e.g., freshman humanities, several courses in American history, one on American thought and culture, and his introduction to philosophy. In addition to being a great teacher, he was an excellent preacher and musician. He wrote the lyrics for the school song. (A few decades later, he also composed a hymn for my son's baptism.)

John was among the shining stars that Dr. Thomas Coates, president of Concordia, Portland, brought to the school during his tenure (1946-1957). People called those faculty members "Tommy's boys." In addition to John, that illustrious group included Art Wahlers ("Mr. Concordia"), Don Lorenz, Dick Reinisch, Karl Keller, George Weller, Al Roth, and Hans Spalteholz.

When I started teaching at my alma mater, John helped to mentor me. (It took me a while to become comfortable using the first names of people who had been my esteemed professors just a few years earlier. They kept insisting that I was now their colleague, not merely their former student, and that I should thus call them by their Christian names, but every now and then I still referred to them as "Dr." or "Prof.") John graciously gave me many of his course notes and teaching aids, and he kindly took time to offer advice on how to deal with various higher-ed situations. 

(When Martin Marty received an honorary degree from Concordia, John served as the M.C. at one of the accompanying events--Marty had been John's resident assistant [is the right term "dorm buck"?] at Concordia College, Milwaukee, Wis. Needless to say, that evening we learned some new things about Marty and about John that we hadn't known before. Indeed, I need to underscore that John is the one who introduced me to Marty's writings when I was an undergraduate. In one of John's classes, we used a Marty book on American religions as one of our texts. I don't think I would have gone to the U. of Chicago had it not been for that introduction to Marty and for the encouragement that John Scheck and Hans Spalteholz gave me to go to there.)

I got to know John's first wife because she was a librarian at Concordia. I have known John's second wife, Nan, my whole life. She, her first husband, and their family spent a lot of time with our family when I was growing up in Salem, Ore. (Nan, whose father was Rev. Amos Schmidt [who served at St. Michael's, Portland, and was at one time the LCMS' campus pastor at U.C.L.A., and who was also a close friend of my grandfather Emil], is the baptismal sponsor for my sister.) Nan and John were joyfully married for more than thirty years.

In so many ways, John represented the best that the Missouri Synod produced among its clergy in the twentieth century. Today, more than one of my former classmates has commented that Dr. Scheck helped them to know what the gospel is and how to preach it effectively. Many of us are remembering sermons he preached in Concordia's Chapel of the Upper Room and at St. Michael's. His wry humor always helped to bring a little spice to the message he shared.

John was a gentleman and a scholar. He was a kind man--and a forgiving grader of freshmen term papers (!). Always prepared to offer a quick and witty reply to an offhand comment by one of his conversation partners, John modeled the kind of Christian humanism he hoped his students would embrace, one that would resist the inroads of Protestant fundamentalism in the church body that he served, but also one that would maintain the essential, mandatory content of the classic Christian faith. Needless to say, his relationship to the Missouri Synod was always tenuous, especially after 1969, and he wasn't too surprised when some of his former students were eventually pushed out of the LCMS. (His funeral will be taking place at the main ELCA church in Salem.)

I will always be grateful for all that Dr. Scheck taught me, and for how he did that teaching and preaching. I am so grateful for the mentoring he later provided. I wouldn't be where I am today were it not for him and his example.

Here is a link to his obituary:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/salem-or/john-scheck-11078414

Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. May John rest in the peace of the Lord, and may the Lord's light shine perpetually upon him.

Edmund Schlink's Ecumenical Dogmatics

I’m pleased to announce that Edmund Schlink’s Ecumenical Dogmatics will be published in early December, just in time for Christmas. It is coming out in hardcover in two half volumes (1277 pages total). The work is really the equivalent of four 320-page volumes of church doctrine. It is the culmination of Schlink’s many decades of ecumenical work and teaching (principally at Heidelberg University, where he established an ecumenical center after WWII). The work reflects his deep understanding of both Western and Eastern traditions of Christian doctrine and practice. (Schlink has influenced many American Lutheran theologians, including esp. Walt Bouman, Won Yong Ji, Robert Jenson, Carl Braaten, Eugene Skibbe, and others.) He was the principal Lutheran participant in the WCC in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, and he served as the official observer from the German Protestant Church at Vatican II, where he became a leading spokesperson for the non-Roman observers. 

    His dogmatics is the most significant summary of Christian doctrine written between Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics and Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Systematic Theology. Indeed, his work contains material that is found in no other dogmatics text with which I am familiar. While Schlink is most known among Americans for his Theology of the Lutheran Confessions and his little book on baptism, his Ecumenical Dogmatics was his opus magnum. It has never been translated into another language until now. In its German form, it has continued to be an important resource for university theology students who are preparing for their exams in Christian doctrine. I’m hoping that the book will be read by American pastors, seminarians, and graduate students, but given the editorial notes that are unique to the American Edition, I think even lay people will find its content accessible and edifying.

Pannenberg (who was Schlink’s assistant for many years), wrote the preface. One of the two forewords was written by Schlink’s long-time friend, the Roman Catholic theologian Heinrich Fries. The other foreword was written by another of Schlink’s friends and WCC associates, the Greek Orthodox theologian Nikos Nissiotis. The afterword is by one of Schlink’s last assistants, Michael Plathow. In addition to serving as the principal translator (assisted by Hans Spalteholz, Robin Lutjohann, Mark Seifrid, Ellie Wegener, and Ken Jones), I wrote the 25-page introduction and all of the editorial notes (more than 500 of them). 

The abiding strength of the work is the way in which Schlink brings theological insights from all of the principal church fathers and subsequent key theologians (both Eastern and Western) into conversation with one another, identifying points of convergence and areas of ongoing disagreement (and suggesting ways forward for overcoming the differences/historic conflicts). While Luther is clearly Schlink’s most important non-biblical influence, other thinkers who receive significant attention include Irenaeus, Augustine, the Cappadocians, Cyril of Jerusalem, John of Damascus, Gregory of Palamas, Anselm, Aquinas, Calvin, but also Schlink’s most important contemporaries (e.g., Barth, Bultmann, Rahner [who was also a friend, as were Ratzinger and Kueng, who also make appearances in the book], Fries, and the principal Orthodox participants in the WCC). So the book is not only a contemporary summary of the Christian faith but also an excellent resource for gaining a deeper understanding of the history of Christian doctrine. There are more than 2000 Scripture references, but Schlink also draws heavily upon the Lutheran confessional writings and other historic confessions in the history of the churches. 

I’m hoping that the book might be used in ecumenical study groups or as a text that invites theological dialogue among pastors and other church leaders. It could serve as a discussion starter for a set of pastoral circuit meetings. I’m hoping that at least a few professors of systematic theology will use the book in their teaching, and perhaps will even assign it as a text for their seminarians or graduate students. And I do think that the work could serve as a kind of “refresher course” in Christian doctrine for pastors and other church leaders.

The book is now available to be pre-ordered: 

https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/detail/index/sArticle/57719

Also on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ecumenical-Confessional-Writings-Dogmatics/dp/3525560753/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZJH7VMB0D6S5&keywords=schlink+ecumenical+dogmatics&qid=1665606738&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAzIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=%2Caps%2C316&sr=8-1

If someone wants to order a review copy, it will be available through V&R’s American distributor in Bristol: tel. 860-584-6546

Even if you don’t want to add this important resource to your personal theological library, may I encourage you at least to encourage your regional church-related college or seminary library to add the book to its holdings? Or perhaps to your congregation's library? 

May I also encourage you to share the above links and phone number with professors and pastors whom you know who might want to purchase the book or review it for a journal?

Given the book’s size and quality, it is reasonably priced. (Comparable volumes by Barth and Pannenberg are more expensive, at least according to what I saw this morning on Amazon.) Whatever proceeds I receive from the sale of the book will be given to charities, e.g., Bright Stars of Bethlehem, the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, as well as local Lutheran congregations.

Here is a sampling from the table of contents:

Chapter I: The Knowledge of God
1. Beginning with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
2. The Hiddenness of God in the Gospel
3. The Revelation of the Divine Mystery
4. The Knowledge of God by Faith
5. The Knowledge of God as Being Known by the Triune God
Chapter II: The Knowledge of the World
1. The Self-Knowledge of the Human Being
2. The Knowledge of Other Human Beings
3. The Knowledge of the History of Humanity
4. The Knowledge of the Universe
5. Believing and Knowing
Chapter III: The Knowledge of God and the Doctrine of God
1. The Basic Forms of the Theological Statement
2. Structural Issues Regarding the Dogmatic Statement
Excursus: The Relationship between the Theological and Philosophical Analysis of Language
3. The Task of an Ecumenical Dogmatics
4. The Doctrine of the Acts of God
5. Theology as Doxology
6. Anthropology as Repentance
7. The Organization of Dogmatics

FIRST PART
The Doctrine of Creation
Chapter IV: The Creation of the World
Introduction: The Starting Point for the Doctrine of Creation
1. The Freedom of God the Creator
2. The Act of Creation in the Beginning
3. The Universe
4. The Purpose of Creation
5. The Originally Good Creation
6. The Order of Creation
7. God’s Continuous Creative Action
Chapter V: The Purpose of the Human Being
Introduction to Chapters V-VII: The Starting Point for the Doctrine about Human Beings
1. The Response That Is the Image of God
2. The Community That Is the Image of God
3. The Dominion That Is the Image of God
4. The Life That Is the Image of God
5. Origin and Purpose
Chapter VI: The Failure of the Human Being
1. Turning Away from God
2. Imprisonment in Guilt
3. The Urge to Sin
4. The Dominion of Sin
5. The Judgment into which Human Beings Have Fallen: Death
6. Origin and Failure
Chapter VII: The Preservation of the Human Being
1. The Preservation of the Sinner in the Midst of Having Fallen into Judgment
2. The Witness of God through the Works of Creation
3. The Commandment of the Preserver
4. The Establishing of Just Authority
5. The Conservation of the Distorted Image of God
Chapter VIII: The Preservation of the World
1. The Corruption within the Creation
2. The Service of the Angels
3. The Dominion of the Powers of Corruption
4. The Judgment into which the World Has Fallen: The End
5. The Time of Divine Patience
Chapter IX: The Governance of the World
1. God’s Dominion over World History
2. The Hiddenness of God in World History
3. The Mystery of World History: Jesus Christ and the New Creation
4. The Revealed Action of God through the Gospel
5. The Humiliation of God in His Governance of the World
6. Theodicy
7. Providence
Chapter X: The Confession of God the Creator
1. God the Father, the Creator
2. God the Eternal Father

SECOND PART
The Doctrine of Redemption
Chapter XI: The Old Testament Law
Introduction to Chapters XII and XIII: The Exaltation of Jesus as the Presupposition for the Doctrine of the Humiliation of the Son of God
1. The Honorific Titles of Jesus
2. The History of Jesus as the Basis for His Honorific Titles
3. The Reversed Sequence of the History and the Recognition of Jesus Christ
4. Historical Investigation into the Earthly Jesus
5. The Apostolic Message as the Basis of Faith
6. The History of Jesus and Christological Dogma
7. The Organization of Christology
Chapter XII: The Humiliation of the Son of God
Chapter XIII: The Exaltation of Jesus
Summary of Chapters XII and XIII: The Doctrine of the Threefold Office of Jesus Christ
Chapter XIV: The New Testament Gospel
Summary of Parts A and B: God’s Action of Grace and Human Action
Chapter XV: Baptism
Chapter XVI: The Lord’s Supper
The Conclusion to Chapters XIV-XVI: The Richness of God’s Action of Grace and the Number of Sacraments
Summary of Chapters XI-XVI: The Distinction between Law and Gospel
Chapter XVII: The Confession of God the Redeemer
1. Jesus the Redeemer
2. The Eternal Son
3. “Truly God and Truly a Human Being”

THIRD PART
The Doctrine of the New Creation
Chapter XVIII: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Chapter XIX: The Church
Chapter XX: Spiritual Gift and Ministerial Office
Chapter XXI: The Preservation of the Church
Introduction: The Indestructibility of the Church
A. Holy Scripture
B. Confession
C. Church Order
Chapter XXII: The Unity of the Church and the Disunity of Christendom
1. The Dangers of Ecclesial Self-Preservation
2. The Scandal of a Disunited Christendom
3. The Question Concerning the One Church in a Disunited Christendom
4. Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Traditions of Christendom
5. Apostolic Tradition and the Traditions of Christendom
6. Recognizing the One Church in a Disunited Christendom
7. Representing the One Church in the Unification of the Separated Churches
Chapter XXIII: The Consummation of the New Creation
Chapter XXIV: The Confession of God the New Creator
1. The Holy Spirit, the New Creator
2. The Eternal Spirit of God

FOURTH PART
The Doctrine of God
Chapter XXV: The Adoration of God
Chapter XXVI: The Triune God
Introduction to Chapters XXVII-XXIX: The Holy God and the Doctrine of the Divine Attributes
Chapter XXVII: The Lord
Chapter XXVIII: The All-Consuming God
Chapter XXIX: The Self-Giving God

CONCLUDING PART
Chapter XXX: God’s Decree of Love
1. Solely by Grace
2. The Eternal Decree of the Triune God
3. The Issue of Double Predestination
4. Election
5. Rejection
6. The Incommensurability between God’s Electing and Rejecting
Excursus: On the Issue of the Theological Syllogism
7. The Warning to the Church and the Invitation to the World

A Christmas Message from Valparaiso University's President

I haven't uploaded a post in recent weeks, mainly due to a whirlwind of activity since the start of November. 

But I couldn't pass up the opportunity today to share the link to this year's Christmas message from our university's new president. You can access it here.

God's peace and joy in Christ Jesus be with you this Christmas season and always!

The Paraklotos - Valpo's Morning Chapel for 10/25/21

This fall semester, the theme for Monday's morning prayer at Valpo's Chapel of the Resurrection has been the comfort that God provides us. The chosen biblical text for these prayer services has been Isaiah 1.1: "Comfort, comfort my people...."

With the permission of the our campus pastors, I was able to use a different pericope today, namely John 14.25-41. The focus of my message was on the Holy Parakletos, i.e., the comforting Advocate, our advocating Comforter, the Holy Comforter.

For the link to the video recording of that service of prayer, go here.