By Matthew Becker Law, Life, and the Living God: The Third Use of the Law in Modern American Lutheranism. By Scott R. Murray. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2002. 250 pages. This book began as a dissertation at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. The author, Scott R. Murray, is a 1983 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary,…
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By Matthew Becker DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: THEOLOGIAN, CHRISTIAN, MAN FOR HIS TIMES. A BIOGRAPHY. By Eberhard Bethge. Revised edition. Revised and edited by Victoria Barnett. Translated by Eric Mosbacher, Peter and Betty Ross, Frank Clarke, and William Glen-Doepel under the original editorship of Edwin Robertson. Foreword by Clifford Green. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. 1048 pages. Paper….
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By Matthew Becker Daystar began in 1999 as a small online network of individuals in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) who were concerned about theological issues and problems in and beyond their church body. Organized by Professor Robert Schmidt and Professor Matthew Becker, along with the help of two other LCMS members, the network grew…
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By Matthew Becker INTRODUCTION[1] Christians are taught to be mindful of the future, “to watch the signs of the times,” so that they will not be caught unprepared when the Son of Man and his Kingdom fully arrive (see Luke 21:25-28). Yet, Christians also know from experience that the signs…
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One of the theological gems from the history of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is a set of 32 theses against “unevangelical praxis” that was prepared for the 1862 Convention of the Central District of the LCMS. Unfortunately the original document has never been translated completely into English–until now. These 32 theses are just…
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By Matthew Becker Some years ago a Lutheran editor of a church newsletter asked me to write a brief essay that would answer the question, “What good is theology?” At the time I thought it a bit strange that a Lutheran who writes about and for Lutherans would ask that question. Don’t Lutheran Christians have…
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By Dr. Matthew Becker Next summer will mark the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of a controversial and divisive document at the 1973 Convention of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). “A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles” appeared in 1972 and was adopted by a slim majority of LCMS convention delegates a year later. When…
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By Matthew Becker[1] One of the more controversial matters among some Christians today is the relation of Christian faith in the triune God to scientific knowledge of the natural world. Disagreements about this relationship have led to conflicts within many church bodies, including the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). While educated Christians cannot avoid the knowledge that arises from…
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By Matthew Becker For those who were classically trained in the Missouri Synod (or almost classically trained; I graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1988) and who stayed awake during Dogmatics 101, 102, and 103, where the main textbook was either Franz Pieper’s Christian dogmatics or J. T. Mueller’s compendium, there was no one…
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By Matthew Becker This past year marked the 400th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest painters of all time, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), not to be confused with the person whom Caravaggio sought to surpass in artistic greatness, namely, the more well-known Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). While I had learned of Caravaggio…
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