Forde Lives

Well it’s the political season and in honor of Chris Matthews and his love for the republican candidate for president (Matthews: “He’s kind of like a Martin Luther.”) we who like to think we know a few things about Martin Luther present the following of ways John McCain is not actually that much like Martin Luther, for your edification and enlightenment:
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In Theology is for Proclamation, Dr. Forde wrote

The preacher must claim the audacious and unheard-of authority to say who is intended to actually speak for God. The answer to anticipate, is always you: ‘You, now that you are in earshot.’

Supposedly this answers the ‘problem of God.’

Well, I suppose. If you search a bit on “problem of God” you get some interesting results. My favorites are links to Richard Dawkins and a link to a student paper on The Brothers K. In this they quote Ivan: “It’s not God I don’t accept, understand this, I do not accept the world, that He created, this world of God’s, and cannot agree with it.” The problem of God in a world like Dawkins’ or in the world of people who think the way the Brothers K do, is that God doesn’t seem to be around to defend God’s self in the matter of these problems. It’s a heck of a deal.

What Forde suggests we do is a little bit crazy, a shift of the ground everyone is standing on. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s google results for the four candidates (President and VP of each major party) and the phrase justification by faith: Barack Obama and Joe Biden vs John McCain and Sarah Palin.

The news cycle is such that it was Sarah Palin’s name who had the most relevant hits related to Justification. The second search result for Sarah Palin justification by faith, at the time of this writing, turned up with links to Time magazine articles, actually about justification! At first you get excited that the doctrine of justification has some bearing on current political events. But you realize quickly that they’re items linking to articles from 1963 and the other plops you into the midst of one from 1967!

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Greetings. This blog announces the “reboot” of FordeLives.com. The silence and lack of posts is ended. We’ve received reports that some folks back in the day ordered stickers and didn’t get them. This is deeply dismaying. Please. Please forgive me for the misplacement of so many things and any inconvenience caused by a lack of follow through.

Anyone who ever ordered stickers and did not receive them should click and email your mailing address right now.

I’m rereading Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life because it’s just so good. I think it should be required reading somewhere. I’m not sure where, maybe if you’re thinking about a career in ministry. Maybe if you’re an angsty teenager who needs to read something good for you (this book is post-confirmation goodness, folks!). Maybe if you’re an old salt who needs a balm for your weary theological muscles. Anyway, I’m going to write a study guide for it, mark my words. Read the rest of this entry »

Thoughts for church leaders:
Do you use a confession of sins in your worship?
Do you use terminology like “we are in bondage to sin” “what we have done and what we have left undone” ?
Is confession corporate?
Do you feel like we lost something in not naming particular sins?

This writer agrees with the reformers’ sentiments “who can enumerate all his errors?” because that is a cry of confession against the whole of sin, the many powers that devastate us. But I wonder if also we (from the reformation tradition) have misplaced our ability to confession actual sins when we have begun to confess Sin.

There’s something in Forde’s language around the specificity of love and proclamation, the reality of it, that I think we can also acknowledge in sin. In their preparations for worship, perhaps leaders can take time to address a particular sin, or ask the community to speak a particular sin in the act of confessing.

So Nestingen’s retired. Yeah, for real! Jim Nestingen retired. Believe me, we here at Forde Lives are trying our darndest to get some more details about what in the sam hill is going on and we’ll get the straight dope by hook or by crook. Meanwhile, here’s a note from Luther Seminary President Rick Bliese:

On January 31, 2006, Dr. James Arne Nestingen announced his intention to retire as of January 31, 2006. Professor Nestingen offered his retirement as part of an effort to resolve some claimed interpersonal difficulties within the faculty. Luther Seminary has asked Professor Nestingen to continue to teach on a limited basis and direct graduate students as Professor Emeritus of Church History and he has agreed. Both Luther Seminary and Professor Nestingen are pleased to have arrived at a solution that enables the Seminary to take advantage of his skills as a theologian and gifts as a teacher.

In accepting Professor Nestingen’s decision to retire, while asking him to continue teaching, Luther Seminary emphasized that Professor Nestingen’s retirement is not due to any allegations of heresy or misconduct, sexual or otherwise. In addition, the Seminary did not ask Professor to retire or resign.

Rick Bliese
President
Luther Seminary

Jim Nestingen
Professor Emeritus of Church History
Luther Seminary

————–
May I just say, I have never once doubted Jim about anything. So what is UP with putting “there’s no allegations” language in that note?!

I choose to believe that Nestingen is retiring because he’s going all Obi Wan on us, so he’s headed for a “Tatooine of the mind” to study the work of our own late lamented Qui-Gon Jinn.

I don’t like where this metaphor is going because there’s sure do be a Darth somebody if I keep pushing it and we don’t want that.

I found this book called “Luther & Cromwell” at the sem library the other day. It’s from 1850 (and looks like that may be about the last time it was checked out.

Obviously the Stephenson is getting to me if I’ve suddenly got an interest in Cromwell. But if I were more of a church historian I might be interested in drawing up three parallels: Luther, Cromwell, fin de siècle USA.
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