Kierkegaard on Luther

Last updated on: August 11, 2015 at 8:30 pm By Gene Veith

We keep hearing that today’s church needs to change; that is to say, it needs reformation. What will it take to reform the church? The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, credited or blamed for inventing existentialism, took up this same question. First of all, he said, we need a reformer. And the reformer needs to be like Martin Luther.

It’s fascinating–and perhaps an entry into the mindset of today’s existentialists–to see what Kierkegaard saw in Luther. Read that after the jump, and click the link to see what he had to say about reform and false reform in the church. (more…)

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Who really played the music

Last updated on: August 10, 2015 at 7:40 pm By Gene Veith

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If you grew up in the 1960’s or 1970’s, if you love the music of that time, and if you listen to the oldies stations to this very day, you have got to see the documentary The Wrecking Crew. (Shot back in 2008 but just released this year, the film is available for instant view on Netflix.)

It turns out that a single group of studio musicians known as “the Wrecking Crew” played on virtually all of the hit records that came out of California during that time period. It didn’t matter whose name was on the record or what the style of music was–rock ‘n’ roll, surf, soul, pop, jazz, standards, ad jingles, movie scores, TV themes, or whatever–these musicians were playing it. (more…)

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Jesus walking on the water

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 7:26 pm By Gene Veith

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We had a great sermon last Sunday on Jesus walking on the water (Mark 6:45-56), bringing in the ups and downs of the spiritual life, Christ’s presence in the ordinary, vocation, the Word, law, gospel. . . . (more…)

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Marva Collins, who brought classical education to the poor, dies

Last updated on: July 1, 2015 at 7:35 am By Gene Veith

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A pioneer in the rediscovery of classical education died last week. Marva Collins was an inner-city school teacher who rebelled against the failures of the educational establishment by teaching her students Shakespeare, Socrates, and other challenging–but inspiring–subjects. The obituary excerpted after the jump is illuminating but it calls her method “back-to-basics,” as if Shakespeare and classical philosophers were merely “basic.” Rather, her method, which employed great books and dialectical pedagogy, was genuinely classical, as is evident in her book The Marva Collins Way. She is important in showing that classical education is not “elitist,” as it is often described, but that it can be especially liberating for the poor or otherwise disadvantaged.

Some years ago when I was at Concordia Wisconsin, we had a Martin Luther King Day program. The speaker was one of her students. He couldn’t have been more than 13, but he gave an oration, in his high piping voice, that was as eloquent, learned, and inspiring as anything I had heard from a student at any age.

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“Conscientious objection against the state”?

Last updated on: June 29, 2015 at 4:54 pm By Gene Veith

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LCMS president Matthew Harrison has issued a response to the Supreme Court marriage ruling. It’s a strong statement, but what’s most striking and surprising, coming from a Lutheran with a Two Kingdoms theology, is his quotation of the anti-Nazi theologian Hermann Sasse on signs that the state has lost its Romans 13 legitimacy. President Harrison concludes that “Christians will now begin to learn what it means to be in a state of solemn conscientious objection against the state.”

Is he saying that the United States government is no longer legitimate? Wouldn’t that mean we don’t have to follow any of the laws it passes? The Lutheran theology of culture, the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, has sometimes been interpreted to mean that God rules through the state, so that we need to submit to the secular authorities no matter what. But I think the Two Kingdoms offers a mechanism for critiquing the state. If God is the King, hidden in secular institutions and vocations but working through them with His moral law, then states and rulers who repudiate that moral law are in rebellion against His kingship. Right? But presumably He would still be working through them, despite themselves, in other ways, so that Christians would still be obliged to submit to their authority where it doesn’t conflict with God’s Word.

How else might a Two Kingdoms approach to the gay marriage decision help us navigate these controversies? Read President Harrison’s statement, after the jump. What do you think about it? What else might be said?

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If you embrace nature, embrace natural law

Last updated on: June 24, 2015 at 8:21 pm By Gene Veith

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The Pope’s encyclical “Laudato Si” is winning fulsome praise from the left for its embrace of environmentalism. But, as the editors of The Stream point out, those folks aren’t saying anything about 11 other teachings in that document that don’t accord so well with the spirit of the times. These include the condemnation of abortion, a rejection of sexual immorality, and a tempering of feminism. (See the 11 after the jump.)

The Pope is indeed advocating environmentalism, but he is doing so in the context of a larger theological perspective on matter, the physical universe, and objective reality. Let me sum it up this way: Embrace nature, but that means also embracing the natural purpose of sex (conceiving children), the natural body (so no transgenderism), the natural difference between men and women (so feminism will have its limits), and natural law in general (the connection of moral truth to objective reality).

We can still quarrel with the Pope’s environmentalism and his theology, but he is working from a worldview that flies in the face of most postmodernists who, in believing that there is no objective reality they are subject to, reject the very concept of nature. That number includes, ironically, many environmentalists. (more…)

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