November 2023
Please Note
Please note that all articles posted on this website and downloadable in PDF format are
"Copyright 2023 Lutheran Society for Missiology. Used by permission."
Please include the above statement in any printed reproduction of an article.
Articles
A Lutheran View of Culture; Robert Kolb
Abstract: Robert Kolb has supplied us with a foundational essay on the Lutheran engagement of culture. He references Niebuhr and other renown scholars who posit various definitions of “culture” and various ways the church might engage cultures.
Postmodernism and Mission, James Marriott
Abstract: In my experience teaching in Lutheran academic institutions over the last decade, talk about postmodernism rarely fails to elicit a response. The responses, though, are varied. Some reject postmodernism outright, decrying the propensity for relativism as an affront to the Gospel and to our society.1 For these students, I have tried to gently probe their posture, asking them what exactly they are rejecting, or, more importantly, by what method are they facilitating that rejection (how postmodern of me, I know). Others accept postmodernism rather holistically, embracing its central tenets uncritically and spiraling deeper and deeper into deconstructed identities, whether spiritual, ecclesial, or cultural. Ambiguity, for these students, becomes a captor rather than a liberator. For these students, I have tried to gently pump the brakes, as one does while driving on icy roads with poor traction. Other students, often the ones most educated in philosophy and anthropology, maintain a more nuanced and balanced approach to postmodernism. In this essay, I hope to offer the reader some of my own thoughts and research, closely mirroring what I have taught, seen, and learned from these students who hold this balanced, nuanced approach. This approach is a keen tool for the mission field, as throughout my teaching and ministry career I have witnessed this approach being applied in the pulpit, the choir loft, the classroom, the theater stage, the basketball court, on social media, and in many other places of cultural engagement.
Anthropological Considerations of Acts 17, Jack M. Schultz
Abstract: The following is an explication of the significance of a portion of Acts 17 qua a Lutheran Christian informed by my vocation of anthropologist. This investigation considers the implications of the easily overlooked assertion that St. Paul makes to the people of Athens: God determines the times and places for people to live.
Unfairness Is Not a Virtue: Exploring One of Critical Race Theory’s Concerns, Matthew E. Borrasso
Abstract: The intent of this article is to explore the use of narrative within the field of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and offer some theological reflection on how it comports with Lutheran approaches to theology and ethics. Rather than offer an unfair, quick, or easy answer, this article offers extended engagement with recent scholarship in the field of CRT prior to critical analysis through both broadly Christian as well as specifically Lutheran lenses. Far from being an idea to reject wholesale, the narrative focus common to CRT can dovetail with Lutheran theological and ethical thought and approaches to life in the world.
Confessions Contingent on Culture: Exactly How Jesus Wanted Them, Christian J. Einertson
Abstract: While the cultural distance between the confessional writings of the Book of Concord and today’s mission contexts is readily apparent, how Lutherans should navigate that cultural distance is less apparent. In this essay, Einertson considers three potential approaches to navigating the cultural differences between the situations of the Lutheran symbols and the situations of today’s Lutherans before outlining an approach that is faithful both to the way in which our Lord Jesus has called His Church to continue His mission in the world and to the way in which the confessional writings themselves understand that mission.
Reforming Homo Consumens: Consumer Culture, Consumerism, and Contemporary Christian Witness, William G. Fredstrom
Abstract: God’s people work, play, live, worship, pray, and witness in cultures and societies with various institutions, problems, ideas, neighbors, and conflicts. Because Christians live within such varying cultural contexts, many desire to maintain a clear distinction between themselves and the cultures in which they live. Theologians have described the distinctiveness of God’s people amid their secular cultures by describing the Church as its own culture or public constituted by unique narratives, rituals, and practices that contrast the narratives, rituals, and practices of other surrounding cultures.
How Not to Become God: What Watchmen Can Teach Christians about Living in a Godless World; Benjamin Leeper
Abstract: (None provided)
“Lights . . . Cameras . . . Faith?!” Christian Interaction with the Culture as It is Shared in Cinema; Jeffrey E. Skopak
Abstract: (None provided)
Impacting the Workplace: A New Conceptual Framework Where Vocational Calling Meets Missional Competencies, Lori B. Doyle, Jill L. Swisher
Abstract: While some Christians work in specifically Christian workplaces or contexts, the majority of Christians work in environments that would not be described as Christian or that might even be characterized as hostile toward Christian morals and values. No matter the environment, Christians can embrace a vocational mindset and recognize ways they are able to serve others in both left-hand and right-hand kingdom opportunities as they present in mundane as well as miraculous moments. Yet it is often the opportunities to explicitly share about one’s faith that go unnoticed or even ignored due to feelings of inadequacy, apprehension, or unpreparedness. This is where the concept of missional competencies can be utilized for training, supporting, and encouraging Christians working in secular fields and workplaces. The authors of the current paper suggest a new conceptual framework where vocational calling meets missional competencies and discuss the impact on individuals, churches, schools, and institutions of higher education. Suggestions for future research are also provided regarding ways to measure, analyze, and continue the discussion on how best to apply and study the benefits of this new framework of support for Christians working in but not of the world.
Relevant Gospel Message; Herb Hoefer
Abstract: In my theological training, I was told that the two great messages of the Gospel were the assurance of forgiveness of sin and the assurance of heaven. Those were the burning issues of the church where Lutheranism was born. Central to these messages was the substitutionary atonement achieved by the crucifixion. However, both in my missionary service and in my congregational ministry, these were not the most important messages of the Gospel. In some contexts, in fact, I found these messages to be irrelevant and even counterproductive.
Faith and Culture: An Interview with FLAME; James Marriott
Abstract: Missiology regularly deals with abstract ideas about communicating the Gospel and the reaction to that Gospel in cross-cultural settings. A highly influential crosscultural setting in the contemporary world is the musical genre of hip-hop. The Christian rap artist FLAME recently spoke with an editor of Lutheran Mission Matters, James Marriott, to describe in his own words his personal spiritual journey and the contribution rap music makes to the communication of the Christian faith. LMM thanks him for his contribution. What follows is an edited transcription of the interview, which took place on July 13, 2023.
