A Time of Transition

Currents in Theology & Mission
April 2009, Volume 36, Number 2

In the fall of 1974, my academic Dean, John Damm, asked me to take over the duties of editing Currents in Theology and Mission. Currents is a descendant of the Concordia Theological Monthly (CTM), the journal of the faculty of Concordia Seminary that began in the 1930s. When the Missouri Synod controversy came to a head in 1974 and Christ Seminary-Seminex was formed, it was decided by the Seminex faculty that we would publish our own journal, and the words of the name of this journal would maintain the initials CTM.

I decided to downplay that heritage and have consistently referred to this journal as Currents, not CTM. I began editing with volume 1, number 2, and this issue is volume 36, number 2. I never knew that this would be a thirty-five year assignment, but it has indeed lasted that long. I also decided early on that this would not be an organ of the Missouri Synod controversy, but it would publish articles that would help pastors and laity throughout the church carry on their ministries well informed, and with eyes focused on ministry and mission, and affirming wherever possible the unity of the church.

In 1983 Currents moved with me to Chicago. As now, Currents came out six times a year, but in the other six months Preaching Helps was published as a separate magazine. After a couple years in Chicago, Preaching Helps was merged into Currents, since postal rate increases were killing us. The deployment of Seminex meant that Currents would now be published by LSTC, in cooperation with Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and Wartburg Theological Seminary, a cooperative effort that continues until today.

This will be the last issue of Currents that I will edit, and this comes at my request. With more than 200 issues under my belt, I think I have done my share (I have always been a fan of litotes). I must say I have enjoyed these thirty-five years, soliciting and editing articles, and introducing all the issues with these editorials in which I tried to write gracefully and hopefully, and even with an occasional bit of humor. I hope you enjoy this last feast that I serve up in the following pages.

Richard D. Nelson argues that public theology must be publicly persuasive. Public theology is theology, that is, it is founded on and advocates values derived from our religious tradition, but it seeks to coordinate that tradition with values that an outside audience already shares with us. The Old Testament reminds us of important truths that must inform our work and it is a well-known classic text, with powerful stories such as Exodus 16, powerful characters such as Bathsheba and Nehemiah, and a captivating poetic vision such as Genesis 1 and Psalm 104. In the Old Testament, religion was not predominantly a private affair as it has increasingly been thought among us. Any public theologian who reads the stories of the Old Testament will resist letting privilege define truth. Because the Old Testament shares so much context with modern life, it can shed light on our dilemmas in a non-authoritarian way.

Ralph W. Klein presented the Lutheran Heritage Lecture at LSTC in 2008 and now publishes it for Currents readers. We Lutherans read the Old Testament with Martin Luther since we take the Bible literally, acknowledge that there are passages in the canon that do not urge Christ or that contradict the gospel, find the Bible’s central message in its word of promise, and recognize the ongoing activity of the Spirit in Scripture and in inspired tradition. We depart from Luther in recognizing in Judaism a faithful understanding of the Old Testament, in reading the text with the tools of modern biblical criticism, and in learning more about God from a distinctively Old Testament perspective, confident that that knowledge will complement and expand the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ,

Paul A. Tidemann calls attention to a freedom song “Maccabee Version” by Rastafarian Max Romeo. This song describes what happened to slaves who were forcibly translated to the West Indies and elsewhere in the new world. Max Romeo charged that white people fashioned dangerous weapons in order to kill resistant and rebellious Black slaves. Even as the British slave trade was coming to an end, the London Missionary Society sent preachers to use the gospel to make the existing slaves more compliant. In 1827 the British and Foreign Bible Society decided to print Bibles without the Apocrypha, lest books like 1 and 2 Maccabees give slaves too many ideas about freedom. Some slaves, nevertheless, identified with Judas Maccabaeus and with Moses. The Bible has been abused and can continue to be so used by powerful forces of oppression.

Julius Mutugi Gathogo demonstrates that African Religion is a force to reckon with even after globalization. The concept of Ubuntu (humanness) can be exploited for the good of all. Various elements in African Religion may require revision so as to be compliant with the realities that are defining the people of modern Africa. This essay revisits the definitions of African Religion and the environment within which African Religion is done. Study of African religion provides an understanding of the African personality and is essential to make meaningful religious dialogue.

Luther A. Gotwald, Jr. tells a fascinating story about his great-grandfather, Luther Gotwald, a professor at Wittenberg College and Seminary. Wittenberg had been established by the General Synod, which at one time followed the teachings of S. S. Schmucker that departed in some sense from a strict Lutheran Confessional position. The more confessionally loyal Lutheran denomination was called the General Council. Gotwald was charged by three accusers of teaching General Council theology in a General Synod seminary. The article maintains that the General Synod had long since departed from Schmucker’s teaching and solidly affirmed the Augsburg Confession. In a sense Gotwald was accused of being too conservative in a school with a “liberal” tradition. In any case, Gotwald was acquitted. The author adds an epilog in which he advocates that the ELCA should follow the theology of his great-grandfather in its ecumenical activities. (From the start I have never insisted that articles follow my own viewpoints).

On November 9, 2006, as part of a commemoration of Kristallnacht, LSTC also reflected on the Barmen Declaration of 1934. The following addresses were given on that occasion.

Victoria Barnett reflects on the altered landscape between Christians and Jews brought about by the Holocaust in general and Kristallnacht in particular. Some 2,500 synagogues were destroyed throughout the German Reich in 1938, and these dreadful events still have far-reaching consequences today. The continued violence against people and the misuse of religion and religious space in our time require people of all faiths to walk this altered landscape together.

Robert A. Cathey points to other confessions that followed the courageous precedent of the Barmen Declaration. The Presbyterian Confession of 1967 addressed questions of reconciliation between formerly segregated African Americans in the southern states and between middle class whites in the suburbs and urban poor in the inner cities. Even more important was the Kairos Document of 1985 that criticized the claims to legitimacy by the South African government, based on Romans 13, argued that neither Scripture nor Christian tradition rejected lethal force in every situation of aggression, and called for social action to bring down the ruling South African regime and create a new society. Barmen and Kairos still speak disturbing words of comfort and hope.

Kurt Hendel describes the historical conditions that led up to the Barmen Declaration, beginning with the racist policies of Hitler, who was criticized by the Pastors’ Emergency League. By the end of 1933, the German Christian movement, favorable to the Nazis, was opposed by the Confessing Church, and the church struggle had begun. The Barmen Declaration was issued in 1934, but it does not specifically mention the persecution of the Jews. The Confessing Church was not effective in defending the Jews, and there was little response in the German church to the events of Kristallnacht.

Vítor Westhelle calls attention to the importance of understanding the context of the Barmen Declaration. It spoke to Christians within a Christian context, and a similar document today could not make such exclusivistic claims. Its central point that God makes a claim upon our whole life, of course, was well taken in targeting Nazi idolatry. It also criticized the notion that reason was autonomous, not subject to the control of beliefs, emotions, dispositions, or aesthetic values. This notion of autonomy had been used by Hitler to extend the power of the state into affairs of the church. In a different, non-totalitarian and pluralistic circumstance, the Barmen strategy would represent a totalitarianism of the church and its mission. Barmen needs to be celebrated within its context so that we might have the vision to detect the cracks and fissures that need to be exposed in the dominant systems of our day.

Beginning with the June issue of Currents, a new editorial team will take over, composed of LSTC colleagues Kathleen D. (Kadi) Billman, Kurt K. Hendel, and Mark Swanson. I look forward eagerly to what they will do. At the same time, I suspect that you have not heard the last of me. I hope to publish essays here from time to time, and continue my review of books, primarily dealing with the Old Testament.

The Germans have a wonderful word for it: Gott befohlen! May you be entrusted to God’s care!

Indeed!

Ralph W. Klein,
editor

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