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Many lament the vast diversity of Protestant denominations on the American landscape: Why cannot we Christians agree more often? Denominations allegedly undermine the unity of the church. Let me suggest it is not denominations that undermine the unity of the church, but rather the way in which most Americans relate to church in the first […]
Individualism is the problem. Community is the solution. That's what they are saying. First the philosophers, sociologists, political theorists, psychologists, and theologians were saying it. Now I hear pastors, church leaders, and impressionable young seminarians saying it. Individualism is what bedevils culture and church both; community is what will save them. Last Thanksgiving I was […]
For good or for ill, we live in a postmodern age. Among the many facets of this paradigm shift are a suspicion of order and objectivity, truth and reason, tradition and institutions; and the church has often devolved into this very institutionalism: with its rigid and distant authority structures, its attachment to traditions, its passion […]
My current pastor demonstrates energy and skill as he works to build a viable congregation in Southern California-and as a Lutheran pastor and professor, I assist him in his ministry; but neither of us foresaw in 1972 (the year of my ordination) the challenges we both face today. The Lutheran theological categories of law and […]