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Monthly Archives: October 2010
Life: Monopoly vs. Chess?
Some people think that life is like Monopoly or Risk. The better you play, the more stuff you get, the more you can control! That’s the way Zacchaeus had lived. He was wealthy, and he was a high-ranking professional. In … Continue reading
Reading Is Dangerous
“One sentence can change the trajectory of your life. -Mark Batterson cwg13
Christian Voting? Nuance, Gray and Paradox
Voting was easy. Then Francis the Brit messed up my politics. I had grown up with a set of moral and political values that integrated beautifully. Why didn’t everyone agree with me? My wife and I were living in a … Continue reading
Confession for People Who Don’t Feel Sinful
How can people confess sin that they do not feel? In an era of self-esteem, confession seems counter-intuitive to many. Even if people grasp something of God’s holiness and our sin, how do we lead them to worship? In previous … Continue reading
Smalcald Articles and Treatise
The Smalcald Articles were a theological last will and testament written by Luther for a papal council but set aside by Melanchthon. Melanchthon added a “postscript” on papal authority related to the larger document, although Luther had been too ill … Continue reading
Formula of Concord
A generation after Luther died, in 1580, Lutheran scholars sought to write the conclusive statement on theology, the Formula of Concord. In 1521 Luther and his followers were outlawed. After Luther’s death in 1546, Emperor Charles V won a military … Continue reading
Augsburg Confession
Were the Lutheran leaders still Catholic? That was the question behind the imperial summons. The evangelicals, or Lutherans, came to Augsburg to find a path forward within the Roman Catholic church. They left with a resolve to forge a new … Continue reading
Apology of the Augsburg Confession
This Apology does not mean saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s more like the opposite of that. Lutheran princes and theologians had answered the Holy Roman Emperor’s summons to explain their teaching. Six weeks after the Lutheran princes submitted their response, the … Continue reading
Large Catechism
Much of what Luther preached on the catechism—the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayers and the Apostles’ Creed— forms his Large Catechism. It reads like a sermon and shows how Luther preached: “To have a God, as you can well imagine, … Continue reading
Book of Concord
The Book of Concord is both a theological touchstone and publishing casserole. In the Lutheran vein of the Reformation, The Book of Concord is the secondary document. The primary document of the Lutheran Reformation, of the entire Reformation, is Luther’s … Continue reading
