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However, I submit that the possibility of Paul’s trying to limit the women’s disruptive speech at Corinth pushes our understanding off in directions that are speculative at best, and harmful at worst. For example, it should be highly offensive to women nowadays that the apostle apparently pillories them for being “chatty” at church—when Paul is concerned throughout the chapter with order (see especially 14:33a, 40). It plainly is not the case that the apostle singled out women for special censure (14:34a)—when he also enjoins “silence” upon any would-be tongue-speaker (if there is no one to interpret, 14:27-28), or prophet (if a revelation is made to another sitting there, the first should keep silent, 14:30).
When Lutheran seminarians learn about the controversy over the Lord’s Supper, it normally features Luther as protagonist and Zwingli as antagonist in a debate concerning the literal interpretation of the words of institution, all playing out in the public forum of 1529’s Marburg Colloquy. In her most recent book, Amy Nelson Burnett offers an alternative view …
If you asked the proverbial man on the street “What is a Pastor?”, you would undoubtedly get a wide swath of divergent and potentially confusing answers.
Until the last enemy is destroyed (1 Cor 15:26) death will remain a reality for the people of God. Death is, on the one hand, the enemy of the Christian. It is, on the other hand, an enemy that God turns to the good of his people, leading them through death to eternal rest. Blessed indeed are the dead, for they rest from their labors (Rev. 14:3).
In his 1526 German Mass, Luther acted with a stroke of liturgical brilliance in giving us the post-communion collect. It is the genuine “eucharistic prayer” of the Lutheran liturgy.
“The Lord’s Supper is not the private experience of individuals. Rather, it belongs to the Christian community. It unites the many recipients into “one body” (I Corinthians 10:17). It is fellowship, or communion.”
Until the last enemy is destroyed (1 Cor 15:26) death will remain a reality for the people of God. Death is, on the one hand, the enemy of the Christian. It is, on the other hand, an enemy that God turns to the good of his people, leading them through death to eternal rest. Blessed indeed are the dead, for they rest from their labors (Rev. 14:3).
Memoirs are more self-justification than documentary history, so they should be read in that light. Yet they still provide the raw material necessary for documentary history, and these memoirs fit the bill on both counts. David Scaer, longtime professor of systematic theology at Missouri Synod seminaries in Springfield, IL, and Fort Wayne, IN, occupies a chair in systematic theology ironically named after the holder himself. His career has spanned many tumultuous years within the denomination, from its controversial embrace of emerging German theologies in the 1950s when he was a seminarian to the tensions leading to its splintering in the 1970s and the confessional resurgence (and corresponding opposition) of the 1980s and 1990s.
However, I submit that the possibility of Paul’s trying to limit the women’s disruptive speech at Corinth pushes our understanding off in directions that are speculative at best, and harmful at worst. For example, it should be highly offensive to women nowadays that the apostle apparently pillories them for being “chatty” at church—when Paul is concerned throughout the chapter with order (see especially 14:33a, 40). It plainly is not the case that the apostle singled out women for special censure (14:34a)—when he also enjoins “silence” upon any would-be tongue-speaker (if there is no one to interpret, 14:27-28), or prophet (if a revelation is made to another sitting there, the first should keep silent, 14:30).
In his 1526 German Mass, Luther acted with a stroke of liturgical brilliance in giving us the post-communion collect. It is the genuine “eucharistic prayer” of the Lutheran liturgy.
Restlessness. Easily distracted by extraneous stimuli. Diffi- culty in sustaining attention in tasks. Frequent shifts from one uncompleted activity to another. Often talking excessively. Can symptoms attributed to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) be characterized in the demeanor of a congregation?
When Lutheran seminarians learn about the controversy over the Lord’s Supper, it normally features Luther as protagonist and Zwingli as antagonist in a debate concerning the literal interpretation of the words of institution, all playing out in the public forum of 1529’s Marburg Colloquy. In her most recent book, Amy Nelson Burnett offers an alternative view …
If you asked the proverbial man on the street “What is a Pastor?”, you would undoubtedly get a wide swath of divergent and potentially confusing answers.
Memoirs are more self-justification than documentary history, so they should be read in that light. Yet they still provide the raw material necessary for documentary history, and these memoirs fit the bill on both counts. David Scaer, longtime professor of systematic theology at Missouri Synod seminaries in Springfield, IL, and Fort Wayne, IN, occupies a chair in systematic theology ironically named after the holder himself. His career has spanned many tumultuous years within the denomination, from its controversial embrace of emerging German theologies in the 1950s when he was a seminarian to the tensions leading to its splintering in the 1970s and the confessional resurgence (and corresponding opposition) of the 1980s and 1990s.
For this reason alone, the confession of the Holy Trinity is not an anachronism, nor is it an unnecessary formula that impedes the message of the church. The doctrines addressed in the Lutheran Confessions are still relevant today. Therefore the Augsburg Confession remains a necessary antithesis to the doctrines of human reason, which cannot imagine the Trinity and cannot imagine any more that Christ is true man and true God.
Reformation 2026
Volume 35, Number 4
Editors’ Introduction
Paul Lehninger
ARTICLES:
Anfechtung, Depression, and Pastoral Triage
Rob Carter
Luther on the Practice of Piety
John W. Kleinig
The Distinction Between Depression and Anfechtung in the Pastoral Theology of Martin Luther
Stephen M. Saunders
A Crisis of Faith: Why Lutherans Must Enter the Fray on Care for the Mentally Ill
Todd A. Peperkorn
When You Hear Hoofbeats: Distinguishing Mental Illness from Spiritual Oppression/Possession
Rick W. Marrs
“Do You Want to Be Well?”: Theological Grounding for Human Angst in a Culture that Demands the Extraordinary
Greg Lyon
Addendum: Finlandia and Be Still, My Soul
James R. Eggert
LOGIA FORUM:
When Suffering Is Good for You
Anfechtung and the Simul
“What’s Wrong with Minneapolis?”
Stoicheia
“Amen”: Our Yes to God’s Yes
The Importance of the Threefold Office of Christ
The Nicene Creed in the Confessional Protestant Tradition
The Conflagration
Challenges and Problems
The Lord’s Supper in Recent Lutheran-Anglican Dialogue
The Chief Characteristics of a Good Sermon
Answered Prayer
By John R. Stephenson
PLEASE NOTE: This is the PDF/digital version of the book.
This dogmatic resource is based upon the outline and thought pattern of the Lutheran Confessions. The series is strictly and consciously confessional in its presentation of doctrine and its assessment and analysis of modern theological trends throughout the Christian church.
CONTENTS
General Introduction
Preface
Abbreviations
Part One: Introduction
1. General Apostasy: The Sign of Our Time
2. What Is Eschatology?
3. Realized and Inaugurated Eschatology in Holy Scripture
Part Two: The End of Man the Microcosm
4. Temporal Death
5. The Immortality of the Soul
6. The Intermediate State of Souls
Part Three: The End of the World (Macrocosmic Eschatology)
7. The Signs of Our Lord’s Coming
8. The Parousia and Its Concomitants
9. The Consummation of the Law in the Finally Impenitent:
Hell and Eternal Damnation
10. The Consummation of the Gospel in the Heavenly Life of the Blessed
Bibliography
Indexes
From the book
“The signs of the end times listed by our Lord in the ‘little apocalypses’ of the synoptic gospels (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) have known some measure of fulfillment in every age of Christendom, so that the fathers from the New Testament onwards have confidently looked for the imminent consummation of all things at Christ’s return in glory. While emphasizing the ‘generic’ quality of the pointers to the end, a recent writer in this field observes a marked ‘intensification’ of the signs in our own day. This phenomenon can be discerned most readily in the swelling apostasy within Christendom itself from ‘the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). We live in the throes of a tragic intra-ecclesial defection from Christ which currently poses a massive threat to the integrity of His church as she subsists in a multiplicity of confessions and denominations.” (p. 3)
“Dogmatic discussion of eschatology fitly ends by encouraging and praising the labors of the pastors of the church who are called to refresh the often weary pilgrim people of God . . . The testimony of St. Augustine fifteen and one-half centuries ago comes from the pen of a theologian who was never for a moment disengaged from the rigorous demands of pastoral life. The four activities of the unnumbered company of the saved highlighted in the celebrated closing words of The City of God recapitulate themes central to Biblical eschatology. ‘Stillness’ describes the perfect repose in God of those who in earthly time were justified by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. ‘Vision’ denotes the fulfillment of human intellect in its beholding the Truth which is God Himself. ‘Love’ as it wells up from God to saturate His people and flow back to Him satisfies the heart and will of men and women made for personal communion with their Maker and with each other. ‘Praise’ is both the creaturely response to the divine mercy which gladly gives God His due and also the voice of Christ in calling out to the Father. Held before the struggling church of Christ on earth is the sure hope of the endless end of enjoying Almighty God forever. The ancient witness of the fifth-century bishop of Hippo remains unwrinkled to this day, since the mystery of God in Christ is and will remain an ever-fresh fountain of life:
There we shall be still and see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise. Behold what will be in the end, without end! For what is our end but to reach that kingdom which has no end? [City of God, 22.30] (p. 133).
By Klaus Detlev Schulz
PLEASE NOTE: This is the PDF/digital version of the book.
Physical copies of the book can be purchased here:
Contemporary descriptions of who humans are and what belongs to their humanity are diverse and always changing, according to what various groups or individuals imagine them to be. Against this plurality, treatments on anthropology demonstrate a longing for clarity that is able to set right confusions and error. Theological Anthropology and Sin, volume 5 of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series, allows Scripture and theology to speak to this question, yielding a permanent and essential portrayal of the human’s nature and structure, identity, sex, and personhood—constants that can stand against the whims of human imagination and the spirit of the age.
The image of God, sin’s pervasiveness in each person’s life and in society, individuals’ relationship with their Creator, the tragedy of its corruption, and the ethical responsibility of humans are considered from a comprehensive evangelical Lutheran perspective, pointing the way forward for current and future generations of pastors, theologians, teachers, students of theology, and laypeople.
Klaus Detlev Schulz is professor of pastoral ministry and missions and director of international studies at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.