Report from Denmark

Report from Denmark October 3, 2015

Hej.  That’s a Danish word pronounced “hi.”  It means “hi.”  We’re really enjoying Denmark.  Yesterday I gave two lectures sponsored by the conservative theological faculty at the University of Aarhus.

My topic went something like this:  In our increasingly secularist postmodern times, the objective world has been drained of God and thus drained of meaning.  This was due not only to the science of the Enlightenment, but also to theological movements that relocated Christianity from the realm of objective truth to “the heart.”  As a result God (along with meaning) is thought of as an abstract or mystical concept or as an inner personal experience.  The physical realm of ordinary life has little religious significance, either for unbelievers or for believers.  This, however, comes at a cost.  I then argued that Lutheran spirituality can help bring back the significance of the physical realm.  I used as examples Lutheran Christology–the emphasis on God incarnate in the human being Jesus, who took the world’s evils and sufferings into Himself on the Cross; His manifestation in the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of Holy Communion; and God’s presence in ordinary human vocation.

I thought there was good attendance, lots of people bought the translations of my books The Spirituality of the Cross and God at Work, and my talk seems to have been well-received.

Gabriel, the commentor who lives in Denmark and who has been posting about my visit on this blog, showed up.  It was good to meet him.  I always like to meet you readers of this blog.  He even gave me a bottle of that elderberry-infused beer available only in Denmark that he was talking about!  I just finished it.  It was so very good.  Thanks, Gabriel.

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