Passing through the Wall into the last East Berlin train station on a characteristically grey day over a decade ago, I made my way to various sites, arriving finally at the Bundesmuseum, which housed some of Germany's finest paintings. In each room a guide was positioned who could explain each piece. One older woman, whose […]
Martin Luther opposed the "theology of the cross" to all "theologies of glory." The latter can be generally placed into three categories: three types of "ladders" we try to climb in order to see "God in the nude," as Luther put it. These ladders were mysticism, speculation, and merit. I would like to suggest a […]
At the end of Shisaku Endo's novel Silence (the silence of God is meant), the Japanese convert Kichjiro comes to a fallen Portuguese missionary priest, seeking absolution for trampling on the image of Christ. The priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, has earned the epithet "the Apostate Paul" by succumbing to torture and trampling on the image of […]
The pattern that Christ has established for his ministers is his own path of suffering and joy. This understanding was impressed upon me in a very powerful way a few years ago when I returned home from Saudi Arabia, where I had served as a military chaplain in a Marine infantry battalion as part of […]
An important aspect of the Christian gospel that seeks to proclaim the love, mercy, and compassion of God is the affirmation of God’s identification and solidarity with human suffering. A suffering humanity needs a God who knows what it means to suffer. The church has traditionally met this need by emphasizing the passion and death […]
The following are excerpts from plenary addresses delivered at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in April. The theme was "The Theology of the Cross." The Centrality of the Cross Alistair BeggPastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland …We are not surprised by the antithetical nature of world religions. We have grown accustomed to the marginalizing of essential […]
