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A friend just reminded, once again, of the role that St. Bernard of Clairvaux played in the formation of both Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s theology, respectively; the latter quoted or alluded to Clairvaux in his Institutes more than any other author. It was this spiritual, even mystical tradition that stood in the background to the foremost of these magisterial Protestant Reformers; it wasn’t Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. I am bringing this up within the ambit of my last post with reference to the retrieval work being done by people like Matthew Barrett and Craig Carter, for the Baptists. When…

Situation: The Horn of Africa is in the midst of one of its worst droughts in recent history, severely impacting more than 15 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Water is needed for drinking, cooking and hygiene, so the lack of water has greatly affected people’s wellbeing. Food security is also a concern as the drought is causing families to lose livestock used for food and livelihoods. Extreme droughts, such as this one, will become increasingly more common as changes in climate affect rainfall patterns. Response: Lutheran Disaster Response is supporting an ACT Alliance appeal to address the humanitarian crisis…

When war came to Ukraine and desperate people began streaming across the international borders in the frigid days of late winter and early spring, the Rev. Miroslav Mató knew he and the members of his parish would be called upon to help.  Located in Gerlachov, a small village in Slovakia about 200 miles from the Ukrainian border, Rev. Mató and his wife, Rev. Jana Matóva, prepared to offer refuge. Rev. Miroslav Mató with some of the refugees from Ukraine that his congregation in Slovakia is hosting. “Our congregation has three buildings that were used for summer camps for youth,” he…

Karl Barth is often said to be a proponent of Christian universalism. The logic is that Barth’s doctrine of election, whether he likes it or not, commits him to affirming some form of a Christian universalism (i.e., the notion that all people of all time will eventually freely submit to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord; even if that finally only happens in hell itself). But Barth adamantly rejected this supposed necessity of his theological trajectory. As Douglas Campbell writes: Barth has often been accused of universalism, but he steadfastly denied it (see the final paragraph of CD III/2),…

My Freedom Day as a Female, Black and Queer Pastor   To be a female, Black and gay pastor on “Freedom Day” necessitates a certain amount of introspection, for my relationship with the church has long been a queer dance whose steps I don’t often apprehend.   Galatians 3:28 says: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Yet this oneness has been elusive in the ELCA and elsewhere, has it not?   There are still churches in…

These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod. Intercession prompts:  For those grieving, injured, and displaced after the earthquake in Afghanistan, and for all relief and aid efforts… For the people of Ethiopia, as their nation is torn apart by civil war… For those whose lives have been upended by the…

The incarnation (homoousion) implies that all of humanity is re-created in the image of God, insofar that Christ is the second and greater Adam. In other words, the incarnation works from the reality that Jesus is the image of God (Col. 1:15) for us, and as such as He assumes our humanity as His own, He re-creates and exalts humanity in His humanity for us; just as His humanity is archetypal humanity, such that what it means to be genuinely human before God, is who Jesus is for us in His vicarious humanity. This presents us with what might be…

Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available. U.N. | Arizona | California | Colorado | Kansas | Minnesota | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Virginia | Washington | Wisconsin   U.N. Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc Dennis Frado, Director In a May 18 letter, bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) urged congressional leaders to support the transfer of much-needed funds to the U.S. Agency for…

by the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Senior Director, ELCA Witness in Society In her sermon, my pastor lamented that “each person killed was a precious and irreplaceable child of God,” on the Sunday following the racially motivated massacre of 10 shoppers and workers at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. The irreplaceability of each person made in God’s image stands in marked contrast to so-called “Great Replacement” theory, the fear that stoked the White shooter’s hatred and motivation to target and gun down people of African descent. The Great Replacement is a far-right conspiracy theory that claims there is a…

Covenant theology in confessional Reformational theology is its hermeneutical key. Karl Barth, a Reformed theologian, doesn’t stray from this key, but as is typical with Barth he reformulates Covenant (or Federal) theology such that Jesus Christ becomes the key, the regulative ground and condition of the covenant itself. Indeed, rather than operating with two aspects of the covenant—i.e., the covenant of works, covenant of grace—as classical Covenantal theology does, Barth retextualizes this framework by reducing the two covenants into one; viz. the covenant of grace. For Barth, the covenant of grace is the supralapsarian (before/above creation)/fall) basis, the inner reality…