In the United States pragmatism is the very air we breathe. It goes back to our country’s roots with Benjamin Franklin and others. We are continually inundated with videos and blogs and books from self-improvement gurus. There is a lot of pressure on preachers and teachers to make every message about you, your daily life, ..
The familiar words of the Patriarch Joseph, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20 ESV) capture something of the uniqueness of Luke’s account of Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection. Enemies, faithless disciples, hapless crowds, pragmatic powerbrokers, and Satan himself are all arrayed against the perfectly innocent ..
Here’s the understatement of the New Year: Pastors are busy people! Coming out of the hectic Christmas season, pastors look a bit worn out as Epiphany begins. Yet the tasks and demands of pastoral work are ongoing: Preaching, teaching, worship, spiritual care and visitation, mission and evangelism, leadership and administration, and works of mercy and ..
The journey from text to pulpit can be a long and winding road, filled with false starts, surprising discoveries, and hard choices along the way. On a semi-regular basis, the homiletics faculty of Concordia Seminary invites you to walk the road with the preacher in The Preachers Studio series. Each sermon was preached during chapel services ..
Now I understand Lionel Richie. “Easy like Sunday morning.” While serving in the parish, Sunday mornings were busy, and they gave birth to more activity as conversations with members would prompt follow-up visits. Sunday mornings are far more relaxed now. Christmas, too, was a far more relaxed pace than what I have known in the ..
Browse the interactive version above, download here as a pdf, or purchase print copies at the online store. Going beyond H. Richard Neibuhr’s famous paradox model on “Christ and Culture,” Dr. Paul Raabe contends for a biblical, dynamic tension that exists between the culture and the faith. Using the image of a house, Raabe explores ..
Browse the interactive version above, download here as a pdf, or purchase print copies at the online store. From Dr. Sánchez: According to the United Nations, more than 65 million people (about 23 million of them refugees) are counted as forcibly displaced due to persecution, war, and violence. Only one percent are resettled each year, ..
Browse the interactive version above, download here as a pdf, or purchase print copies at the online store. In this Concordia Pages Dr. Raabe has us focus on the earth as a new creation. He says “‘Daddy, will animals be in heaven?’ That is a common question and a good question. It gets at the ..
Editor’s Note: At the start of this New Year we are pleased to publish this fresh translation of Bonhoeffer’s poem “Von guten Mächten” by Pastor Timothy Boerger. Included below is his translator’s note. Translator’s Note: Dietrich Bonhoeffer included this poem (“Von guten Mächten”) in his final letter to his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer in December, 1944. ..
I do not regard myself as a movie-buff, by any means. I watch movies but most of the time I only have the energy for a brightly colored Marvel romp or some kind of comedy that makes all of my children fold over in laughter. Thoughtful, philosophical works of art that explore perennial human themes ..
Concordia Seminary President Dr. Thomas J. Egger sits down with Dr. Jon Vieker, who became associate professor of Practical Theology in August 2021. He also serves as dean of chapel. Vieker previously served as senior assistant to Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) President Dr. Matthew C. Harrison (2010-21) and assistant director for the LCMS Commission on ..
Concordia Seminary President Dr. Thomas J. Egger sits down with Dr. Ely Prieto, who became associate professor of Practical Theology in July 2021. He also serves as the Lutheran Foundation Professor of Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry, and associate dean for Urban and Cross-Cultural Ministry. Prieto previously served as the executive director/urban mission developer at ..
Dr. David Schmitt, the Gregg H. Benidt Memorial Professor of Homiletics and Literature at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, chats with Lutheran theology scholar Dr. Dean Nadasdy about his recent publication of The Beautiful Sermon: Image and the Aesthetics of Preaching. The book is the first title in The Conversations in Preaching Series from Concordia Seminary Press, the publishing arm ..
In this blog post of Forming Lutherans, Dr. Rhoda Schuler, posts a video interview with Rev. Dr. Dien Taylor who explains how one may mark the beginning of the ritual formation of the catechumenate at Advent, the beginning of the church’s liturgical calendar. Dr. Taylor is a pastor at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, ..
Browse the interactive version above or download this issue as a pdf. The full catalog of back issues of the Concordia Journal (1975-present), along with the indexed volumes of its predecessor Concordia Theological Monthly (1949-1974), are available online at AtlaSerials® (Atlas®). Atlas is an online full-text collection of major religion and theology journals used by libraries, librarians, scholars, theologians, clergy, ..
“Why do we teach Greek and Hebrew at the seminary? Don’t we already have good translations of the Bible?” … We don’t teach Greek and Hebrew so that the students can produce their own translations of the Bible, but so that they can understand the decisions that the translators have made on their behalf