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Editor's Comments |
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Authority in the Church, Part II
by Kaari Reierson
Welcome to the continuation of the excellent papers presented at the Association of Teaching Theologians. The papers posted this month, still heeding the call to address the theme of authority, are threefold. |
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Featured Articles |
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Rethinking Authority in the Church Today
by Darrell Jodock
My concern is to sort out the kinds of authority that exist in the church. Three basic, interlocking questions need to be considered: 1) What is the nature of authority? How is it to be defined and understood? 2) What is the nature of authority in the church? Is there anything distinctive about authority in the church as compared with elsewhere? and 3) How does the contemporary context affect the exercise and understanding of authority in the church? |
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The Americanization of American Lutheranism: Democratization of Authority and the Ordination of Women, Part I
by Maria Erling
The decision by American Lutheran churches to ordain women, made in stages through joint study and church convention, used modern denominational structures and inter-Lutheran councils to study an issue and through convention action, act on the results of the study. Though traditional authorities for deciding ecclesial polity were consulted, primarily scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, the witness from these sources was, as the study commission determined, inconclusive. |
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The Americanization of American Lutheranism: Democratization of Authority and the Ordination of Women, Part II
by Susan Wilds McArver
Asked to examine the issue of women's ordination on behalf of all the member churches, LCUSA's Division for Theological Studies assigned the task to a special sub-committee, who asserted from the beginning that "while the Gospel is determinative for the church's ministry, not contemporary developments, and that Gospel does not change from age to age, nonetheless it is necessary to ask from time to time whether areas of the church’s life ... do properly reflect that Gospel and the will of the church's Lord in the world amid the new situations."
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Articles from Part I of this Series (September) |
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Sources of Authority in the Lutheran Tradition: Back to the Future
by Kathryn A. Kleinhans
Let me begin by saying that I am not an historian; I am a theologian who works within a confessional tradition, frequently drawing on historical sources for constructive purposes. Reflecting this orientation, the appropriate hymn text to accompany this presentation is "The Church of Christ in ev'ry age...must claim and test its heritage." |
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There will be an answer...
by Dave Brauer-Rieke
I grew up in Seattle. My father taught law at the University of Washington. My mother was a speech pathologist doing research with special needs children, also at the university. Language was important to both of them and if I had a dime for every time I was told, "Words have meaning, use them carefully." I would be a rich man. |
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Sources of Authority according to the Lutheran Confessions
by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
A lot of our talks have been focusing on the issue of authority as power and process. I am going to focus on the issue of authority as truth, with power and process coming into play only in relation to the question of truth. |
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How It Is and How It Might Have Been Otherwise
by David E. Fredrickson
The Christian historian Papias of Hierapolis surprises us when he lays down a principle (which turns out to be quite conventional) of assigning higher value to oral sources than written ones. Early in the second century he wrote, "But, if perchance there came also anyone who had followed the presbyters, I made inquiry concerning the words of the presbyters: what Andrew or what Peter had said, or what Philip or what Thomas...[had said].... For I did not suppose that the things from the books would aid me so much as the things from the living and continuing voice." |