Toward an Uncommon Churchmanship

Stephen C. Krueger When I was a second year student at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (’72-’73), I happened to catch a course offered by Dr. Oliver Harms, the then past president of the LCMS. The course was entitled, “Christian Churchmanship.” The course was a treat, offered by that Texas, Christian gentleman who oversaw some of…
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Avoid Them

Another Look at Romans 16:17–20[1]  By William J. Hassold              Paul’s directive in Romans 16:17, “avoid them,” has significantly influenced the attitude of some in the LCMS as to the proper way in which to relate to other Christians and even other Lutherans. This passage helped to shape the attitude of the fathers of the…
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Concordia: A Reader’s Edition (Review Article)

By Matthew Becker Concordia: A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, ed. Paul McCain et al. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005). The editors of Concordia state in an appendix that their “text for the Book of Concord is not a new translation from the original German and Latin texts” (p. 680).  Rather, Concordia…
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Becker’s Self-Giving God (Review Article)

By Karl Wyneken What will be the result if a gifted and erudite German Lutheran theologian on one of the more conservative mid-19th century German Lutheran faculties embraces notions such as the following? Consider— His desire, as he puts it himself, is “to teach old truths in a new way.” The overwhelming focus of his theology…
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Some Thoughts on “Order of Creation”

By Arnold Voigt Where one begins determines where one will come out. The New Testament is problem-solving literature. The writers are addressing audiences who lived in real-time real-world environments, environments that were frequently antithetical to the Gospel. Conflicting ideologies and theologies impacted communities of faith and demanded responses. Not only did the external environments raise…
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Rites and Wrongs in God’s Lifetime

By Mary Todd I have a number of friends who were quite sure that I would leave the Missouri Synod as soon as I finished my dissertation a decade ago. My work examined the synod’s identity over its 150-plus-year history through the lenses of authority and gender and used the issue of the service of…
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Defining Terms or Defined by Terms

By Mary Todd I have moved from a small-e evangelical campus to a capital-c Catholic campus. In learning about my new Catholic world, I find that, more and more, we need not only to understand the words we use but to ask—in an attempt to understand—about the words others use. When I heard that the…
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Neurobiology of Gender

By Robert Sylwester Dr. Robert Sylwester is professor emeritus of education, University of Oregon. He has published numerous articles on the subject of how new developments in science and technology impact education and is the author of 20 books and curricular programs. His most recent books are A Biological Brain in a Cultural Classroom (2003) and How…
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The Naked Truth

By David Stein “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there” (Job 1:21). The truth is “male and female were created in the image of God,” and God blessed them. And everything God made was very good. Three thousand years later the ancestral shepherd boy laments: “You have searched me…
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