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LOGIA is published quarterly (Epiphany, Eastertide, Holy Trinity, and Reformation).                                      

34:2 (Eastertide 2025) — The Atonement - - this is our current issue - purchase here.

How could Lutherans not think, write, preach, debate, commiserate, and think again about the atonement? In his Smalcald Articles, after quoting Romans 4:25, John 1:29, Isaiah 53:6, and Romans 3:23–25, Luther remarks, “Now because this must be believed and may not be obtained or grasped otherwise with any work, law, or merit, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us, as Saint Paul says in Romans 3:28, 26 . . . Nothing in this article can be conceded or given up. . . On this article stands all that we teach and practice against the pope, the devil, and the world. Therefore we must be quite certain and have no doubt about it” (SA II, i, 1–5; Kolb-Wengert, 301).

This issue of LOGIA offers some excellent contemporary writing from Lutheran theologians about this topic for your own thinking. Jack Kilcrease leads off with “Elert on the Atonement.” He unfolds the development of the doctrine of the atonement in the nineteenth century “Erlangen school,” which he notes was really two “schools of thought.” On the one hand was J. C. K. von Hofmann (1810–77); on the other were Theodosius Harnack (1817–89) and Gottfried Thomasius (1802–1875). Then Kilcrease goes on to describe Werner Elert (1885–1954) as the theologian who synthesized these two schools of thought into something new, especially as found in Elert’s The Christian Ethos. I have heard it said in the past that neither the Missouri Synod’s liberals nor its conservatives understood Elert. Kilcrease may be on to something here, which I will let you judge for yourself.

David P. Scaer offers the second article, simply titled “On Atonement.” I am glad that someone is defending the Book of Concord’s position on atonement, and he does a great job of that. I should mention that he has recently published a book of seventeen previously published articles—on the Law-Gospel debate, Third Use of the Law, Christology, Justification, and other key Lutheran doctrines—titled Without the Shedding of Blood There is No Forgiveness of Sins (Colorado: Ad Crucem, 2024). Many thanks to Professor Scaer for supporting the work of LOGIA since our founding in 1992 and for contributing many excellent pieces to our journal and many books for Luther Academy!

The third article comes from Brandon Koble, whose article is a response to some things Jack Kilcrease has written previously and looks at Martin Chemnitz’s doctrine of the atonement in his The Two Natures book. That book was translated into English a number of years ago by J. A. O. “Jack” Preus II. Koble is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Marquette University, writing his dissertation entitled “The Defender of Schwabian Christology: The Christological Development of Jakob Andreae in the Pursuit of Concord.” 

The fourth article by Kendall A. Davis looks at all the dimensions of the “shame of the cross”—not just the physical suffering, but also the rejection and other aspects of dishonor, shame, etc. This will provide good source material for one or more Lenten sermons. Davis is currently a PhD student in New Testament at the University of Edinburgh, writing his dissertation on messianism and Christology in Luke and Acts, examining the uses of the term "christos" and its cognates in the Lukan corpus.

Our last feature article is a “LOGIA Classic” by our long-time editorial associate, Paul Lehninger. He looks at “atonement motifs” in the Formula of Concord. Lehninger notes that “the Lutheran Confessions do not limit themselves to a single atonement motif. Examples can be found of Anselmian satisfaction, the ‘classical’ Christus Victor motif, and the idea of sacrifice and propitiation, among others.” Starting with the first three articles in the Formula, Lehninger goes on to prove his thesis with flourish and superb logic.

Martin R. Noland, for the editors