This is one of the petitions of the so-called High-priestly Prayer of Jesus in John 17. The prayer was spoken (made) before Jesus’s ascension and even before his passion. In church, however, it is heard on the Sunday after the Ascension and before Pentecost. What matters (and seems to be appropriate) is the fact that ..
Two big earthquakes recently hit, one in Taiwan (7.4) and one on the east coast centered in New Jersey (4.8). This provides the opportunity to think about earthquakes from a biblical perspective. What does an earthquake mean? It means that human creatures are not in total control of planet earth. Earthquakes are neither caused by ..
The Theological Symposium committee invites proposals for open sectionals for the 34th Annual Theological Symposium, September 17-18, 2024, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The title this year is “Technology and the Church: Promise and Peril.” Major technological advances are not for gamblers. They often fail to live up to their promises, but they never fail ..
This is part five in a series of posts by Dr. David Maxwell. The first was “What Should You Do With Anger and Desire?” The second was “Gregory of Nyssa: Direct the Passions.” The third was “Cyril of Alexandria: Lull Your Passions to Sleep.” The fourth was “Lutheran Theology: Kill Your Passions.” I said in the last post that I ..
This is part four in a series of posts by Dr. David Maxwell. The first was “What Should You Do With Anger and Desire?” The second was “Gregory of Nyssa: Direct the Passions.” The third was “Cyril of Alexandria: Lull Your Passions to Sleep.” My sense is that Lutheran spirituality leans more in the Stoic ..
This is part three in a series of posts by Dr. David Maxwell. The first was “What Should You Do With Anger and Desire?”The second was “Gregory of Nyssa: Direct the Passions.” Cyril of Alexandria is a good example of a Christian appropriation of the Stoic view of the passions. The goal is not to ..
This is part two of a series of posts from Dr. David Maxwell. The first post was “What Should You Do With Anger and Desire?” Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Soul and the Resurrection is a treatise that demonstrates what a Platonic spirituality of the passions looks like when Christians adopt it. The dialogue is ..
You have two jet engines in your soul: anger and desire. What are you supposed to do with them? Should you try to shut off the engines, or should you try to aim them in a constructive direction? This is a question that Western civilization has been grappling with for centuries, and Christianity is a ..
Would you like to be a fly on the wall of a Concordia Seminary classroom, overhearing conversations between professors and students? You have the opportunity to do just that as Dr. David R. Maxwell gives an overview of St. Cyril of Alexandria’s theology from his commentary on John during an hour-long class presentation. Watch ..
Over seventy years ago, Martin Franzmann blessed the Church with an article entitled “The Marks of the Theologian” found within the February 1953 edition of Concordia Theological Monthly. The article is comprised of a series of three chapel addresses delivered at Concordia Seminary-St. Louis. Theologians are called to be fools, children, and slaves. None of ..
The following paper was delivered by Dr. Joel Biermann at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society on November 14, 2023. There are few foundational axioms as pervasive and powerful as the declaration of human dignity and the corresponding affirmation of inherent human rights. The charter of the United Nations exemplifies this thinking as ..
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis welcomes three new faculty members this year. In this article Dr. Kevin Golden writes of the important role that professors play in mentoring future pastors and deaconesses. Meet the new faculty members in the video interviews highlighted in the article. Take a look!
The Missouri Synod will have a convention this summer, and that raises an important question. The question that hits me and should be on the mind of everyone in the Missouri Synod is this: What is the future of the Missouri Synod in the United States? And that is part of a larger question: What ..