Magnificently Used Up

2009-12-20 04 Advent C sermon based on Mary's Magnificat in Luke chapter 1; delivered at Wilmington Lutheran Church in Arnegard, North Dakota. Mary's words are to the human landscape what the 'voice crying in the wilderness' are for the geographic landscape. God will use up all things to prepare his way.

The text is available here:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/timothy-j-swenson/magnificently-used-up/211016974705

Sifting, Sifting, Sifting, NOT Shifting, Shifting, Shifting

2009-12-13 Sermon Advent 03C Trinity delivered in Alexander, North Dakota, preached on Luke 3:18, John the Baptist confronts the crowds

You can find the text here:

http://www.facebook.com/tjswenson1?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile

"Forgiven Sinners: Stand Up and Take It"

A sermon delivered on 01C Advent--2009-11-29--in Wilmington Lutheran Church, Arnegard, North Dakota.
The gospel text--Luke 21:25-36

The text can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=90671024674&topic=11964

God's Word Clarifies Us

A Thanksgiving Sermon from Deuteronomy 8:7-13

delivered at Wilmington Lutheran Church, November 23, 2009

God's Word: the Garden

A sermon preached by the Rev. Timothy J. Swenson on the occasion of Wally Samuelson's Funeral Service and Willmington Lutheran Church, Arnegard, North Dakota. Wally was a husband and father of five sons, a veteran of the Korean War, an elevator manager by profession, and a staunch member and supporter of the Arnegard community. He died from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. The texts for the day were Genesis 2:8-10a, 15; Psalm 91:9-16; Revelation 22:1-5; Matthew 4:1-11. The special music was "On Eagles' Wings" and "In the Garden."

"Not I, but Christ"

Dick Smith, preacher, delivers Christ, and him crucified, to a bunch of sinners gathered as the Augsburg Lutheran Churches at its 2009 convention in El Paso, TX at St. Paul's Lutheran Church.

Forging a Fellowship of Preachers

This conference explores the practical implications of establishing preachers as a fellowship held accountable to one another by the “mutual conversation and consolation [AND confrontation] of the saints;” who practice a “theology of friendship” as declared by Jesus: “I call you friends because I have revealed all things to you.” Jn. 15:15; and among whom authority is exercised by the preaching of Word in such a way that the Gospel’s good news establishes the Law within its appropriate boundaries.

Conversation, Consolation, Confrontation: Forging a Fellowship of Preachers

Joining the Unchurched

--James Arne Nestingen

http://www.wordalone.org/docs/nestingen-joining-unchurched.shtml

In its August assembly in Minneapolis, going by the definition set down in Augustana VII, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America effectively declared that it is no longer a church. Among those unchurched by this decision, a poignant question remains: What in the world do we do now? Consideration of this question requires among other things, some careful examination of definitions. Going back to the sources, some alternatives should emerge.

The seventh article of the Augsburg Confession, which has united Lutherans since the l6th century, defines the church as the people of God gathered together to hear the word and receive the sacraments. The term Word of God carries over from John 1 and other biblical references where the Word incarnates God’s power—originally in Christ, now in the biblical word preached and administered in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As such, God’s Word moves to do what it says, accomplishing God’s purposes. It does not float around ethereally in elusive meanings waiting to be unlocked by theologians. Neither does it depend on harried pastors or gatherings of the pious seeking to apply it. Rather, God’s word takes over earthen vessels—human declarations, conversations and correspondence—using such means to seek out sinners. Gathering the lost and the damned in its hearing, it effects forgiveness, reckons righteous, kills and makes alive. Finally, it frees. In this way, God’s Word literally creates the church.

The ELCA has redefined the Word of God. Instead of understanding it in terms of what God does with words, the theologians of the church—with the bishops in tow—have uncritically shifted out of the original Lutheran argument into a scheme in which God’s word depends on its meaning. To no one’s surprise, in this setup the power transfers from the word itself to the interpreters of the word—those who decide what it really means. The biblical text is ambiguous by definition, they say, and consequently only the informed—generally, those who are superior, either intellectually or politically—can finally determine what it says. Old Erasmus, his most sophisticated opponent, tried this on Luther and got the drubbing of his life. But in the ELCA, having long lost its theological moorings, the leadership has gotten away with it. That is how theologians and church leaders could dismiss as unclear biblical passages that produced a two thousand year old, all but universal consensus concerning homosexual practice. This consensus continues to hold with force among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and most Protestant Churches, and because it is biblical, isn’t subject to change. But it no longer holds in the ELCA. In a naked power play by the privileged—the few allowed some actual voice in the proceedings—this mighty consensus fell to a bogus, prefabricated ambiguity crafted to disallow it.

With the action taken in the Minneapolis assembly, the ELCA has made such power mongering official procedure and policy. The Word of God does not create, shape or control it; no, the ELCA controls the interpretation of the Word. Confronted by the Word, it puts the matter to the vote, using all available means to manipulate the outcome. The ploy begins with the best of suburban manners, recognizing various perspectives informing interpretation. But then the knife swings—since all perspectives are equal, no interpretation can claim the authority of the text. On this basis, the Sixth Commandment loses all bearing—the elites of the ELCA’s membership can dismiss what they no longer respect, God’s determination of sexual limits.

In making this move, asserting authority over Scripture by subjecting it to a vote, the ELCA has forfeited obedience for a scheme of management. Traditionally, the church has been spoken of as a steward of the Word. Here’s the difference: stewards tend what belongs to another; managers take control, displacing the original speaker for the ends they have in mind. Like the medieval papacy that Luther and the reformers set off against, the ELCA in its assembly declared itself master of the Word rather than servant. Instead of proclaiming God’s Word, it formally proclaims itself as arbiter of the word. An organization which no longer hears its Lord’s voice cannot be considered a church, according to the Augsburg Confession’s definition. It may still claim religious credentials, but it has decisively broken its continuity in the faith. It gathers together not to proclaim God’s Word but to vote on it.

Given this reversal in the ELCA’s use of Scripture, it has to be acknowledged that there are many ecumenical churches which work with theories of meaning. The basic assumptions in this way of thinking were set down by St. Augustine, one of the very most important theologians in the history of the church, way back in the fourth century. Since then, if not before, this has been one of the keys to the power of the papacy. Because words mean things, a variety of interpretations are possible. Therefore, the office of the papacy acts as a check, controlling the range of interpretation. The bishops share in this authority.

The Calvinism undergirding much of American Protestantism works with the same theory. The interpreter shows faith the way from the Word to what it signifies or means, thereby bringing the Word and faith together in understanding. Because the process of interpretation always remains vulnerable to the power of original sin, however, it must necessarily be checked. So the congregation, the elders, pastors and theologians are linked together in a system of mutual watchfulness. The lay people, elders, pastors and theologians all look both ways, watching over each of the other layers of authority. Interpretation requires constant scrutiny, lest the interpreters be led astray. In American church life the systems of checks vary from one Protestant church to another, but the necessity gets minded.

While willy-nilly, uncritically taking over schemes of meaning in approaching God’s Word, the ELCA dropped the checks Roman Catholics and Protestants have carefully maintained. It did this in a couple of decisive missteps taken by the Commission for the New Lutheran Church (CNLC), which back in the 1980s put together what became the ELCA.

The first misstep has left its footprint on the underside of the quota system put in place to select voting members at the assemblies. Positive aspects of quotas can still be argued. After 20 years, the ELCA remains 97 percent white. Some significant departures after the August assembly may make the church even whiter. Still the quotas may have brought some people forward who had been otherwise excluded. That would be a matter of thanks. Yet there’s another side to it.

Quotas include but in order to do so, they also eliminate. In fact, they do so arbitrarily, fastening on characteristics like race and gender but not necessarily putting an equal priority on characteristics, like wisdom, fidelity and zeal. In fact, while the evidence has been difficult to come by, extended experience with the system strongly suggests that those most likely to be included are the manageable, those eager to please, no matter what their race or gender, while those most likely to be eliminated are the gifted and challenging, those most likely to make waves. Here the quota systems can claim objectivity—black, white or other, male or female, the strongest are the most likely to get dropped.

This has had a devastating impact on the development of future leadership in the ELCA. The most gifted young men and women, if they survive a candidacy process often enough manifestly hostile, routinely get sidelined. In the meantime, those readily cultivated by the leadership quickly move into chairs left open by the quota system. In fact, elimination may have been the real purpose in drafting quotas. A generation of Evangelical Catholics, many of them highly capable and aggressive, got washed out by the quotas early in the history of the ELCA. The leaders saved themselves some trouble, but at great cost to the church.

Quotas in place, the founders of the ELCA took another, equally troublesome misstep. At least as officially interpreted, the CNLC totally disconnected the assemblies of the church from the congregations that support and by their donations, pay for them. Both clergy and lay people—the voting members, as they are called—get elected to serve in the assemblies. But having been granted such authority, the voting members have no responsibility to represent the people who selected them and consequently, no accountability whatsoever. In a set up that defies all of the usual political logic, the voters can literally do as they please, answering to no one but themselves.

Of course, national officials along with the bishops do whatever they can to stage manage the assemblies, thereby moving the voting members in their own direction. In fact, this appears to have been one of main purposes in changing delegates into voting members. Disconnected from their congregations, voting members are at least theoretically more subject to manipulation. The leadership’s possible gain, however, comes at the congregations’ loss. The local parishes pay the bills for the whole church but for all of that, they have literally nothing to say about the so-called “churchwide.” This arrangement defies some of the oldest and simplest rules in American public life—“whoever pays the piper, calls the tune,” for example, or “no taxation without representation.”

The results of these missteps surface right away in the assemblies. In a predominantly rural church, the meetings are scheduled in August—the busiest time of year in farming communities. They last over a week, requiring both the leisure and the finances to spend that much time away. These two factors by themselves eliminate substantial portions of the membership from ever serving in an assembly. Among those who have the means, the quotas take over. Some voting members manage to get selected for every assembly, others are there taking their turn. Few have had the time or experience to be at home in the proceedings and appear dependent on their bishops. But for all of this, church officials take no chances, carefully instructing voters in the differences between delegates and voting members.

The discussions of controversial issues on the floor follow suit. Though the proceedings have allegedly been opened to deal with an ambiguity in Scripture, they quickly become anything but biblical assessment. Rules of evidence, the normal standards for disciplined consideration go right out the window, replaced by anecdotes about gay friends, psychological caricatures of the Apostle Paul, stereotypes of happy homosexual couples, imaginative descriptions of the real motives of the opponents, personal assertions and the like. With this, the hallways and the back of the assembly fill up with gay advocates bussed in to influence the voters using, commonly enough, intimidation up to and including physical threats. With all of this, the bishops—said to be responsible for the unity of the church—stand by in silence. In their own assemblies, they hide behind punctilious observation of Roberts Rules of Order; at the national, while the gay advocates freely use the microphones, those who are opposed remain conspicuously silent.

Ecumenically, it could hardly be a stranger procedure. Having made the interpretation of Scripture a problem of meaning, the ELCA does not, like the Roman Catholics, bring in the bishops for clarification—with rare exception, the current bishops don’t have the scholarly training commonly available among Roman Catholics. Neither does the ELCA bring together theologians, pastors, elders and representatives of the congregations. With eight seminary faculties to choose from, the national leadership fielded two theologians for the Minneapolis assembly, both of them advocates of practicing homosexual pastors. All of the theologians, who opposed the leadership’s agenda, including some of the strongest and best known in the church, were eliminated. One managed to sneak in below the radar, having been selected as a voting member.

The only precedent for such a procedure goes back to the reformation. Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt, a colleague of Luther’s on the Wittenberg faculty who had three earned doctorates, in Luther’s words “swallowed the Holy Spirit, feathers and all.” He roamed through the streets approaching people with no training whatsoever, asking them to interpret the Scripture to him. Technically, this has been called “enthusiasm,” literally “God within-ism,” the idea that the Holy Spirit in the heart supersedes Scripture and sets aside all the normal standards. Having floated away into such a never-never land beyond the ordinary, in reality the August churchwide assembly has stranded the ELCA ecumenically. By declaring the ELCA no longer a church, by enfranchising the like-minded to perpetuate their power, the leadership has taken the people it was called to serve into isolation. In fact, other Lutherans—particularly the Africans who now represent the largest share of Lutherans in the world—are already registering their objections. Like African Episcopalians, they serve in a context where Moslems are ready to pounce on any evidence of Christian tolerance of immorality. The ELCA betrayed its own brothers and sisters. The survival of the Lutheran World Federation, already problematic, has to be considered an open question.

The ELCA’s standing in the ecumenical movement, in which it has historically provided decisive leadership, has also come under review. Benedict XVI, the orthodox patriarchs and commonly the Protestant leaders as well, know both Scripture and the church’s tradition intimately—well enough to recognize the difference between the historically certain and the ambiguity of convenience. They can hardly welcome a church that has defied standards they consider inviolate.

That leaves The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ as the ELCA’s remaining ecumenical partners. The Episcopalians, who in Called to Common Mission treated the ELCA like a source of infection before turning around and endorsing a homosexual bishop, are in the process of losing their standing in their own communion. According to second hand reports, the UCC’s national offices have been taken over by gay advocates. In fact, for all of the ELCA’s vaunted inclusiveness, in the end everybody looks more and more alike.

Having sifted through the definitions, where does this leave those of us who have loved and served the churches that formed the ELCA? One of the great words implied in Augustana VII gets passed over quickly, a “wherever.” Unlike both the Roman Catholic and common Protestant definitions, the Augsburg Confession’s definition of the church involves no specific institutional designs or commitments. It stays ecumenically open in the fullest sense, regarding the governmental arrangements of church bodies as provisional necessities but no more than that. “Wherever” the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, “wherever” sinners gather to hear and receive Word and sacrament, God’s word has become incarnate in down-to-earth community. As much as it may have meant to its members through the years, the ELCA has no ultimate claim on their loyalties.

So, to begin with, since the ELCA has used an unbridled, unchecked assembly to unchurch those who continue to hold to the Word alone, there’s no point wasting either time or money on it. This includes the national church structures along with the synods, whose bishops—even if they didn’t openly advocate dropping the Scriptural priority—remained silent. Like the traditores in the early church who handed over Scripture in the face of persecution, the silent bishops gave up their standing. The only way they can be dealt with is in repentance. A few synods can still claim loyalty, even if they have to be treated cautiously. Already, congregations all over the ELCA have been cutting out all benevolence. This represents a first and minimal step.

Starting here, those voting members in Minneapolis who represented themselves so effectively should be invited to pick up the check—excluded, left voiceless, and now unchurched, there is absolutely no reason for the rest of us to pay their bills. The same goes for the faculties of the church. Their development officers talk Lutheran, especially when the budgets start to squeeze, but with all save a few exceptions, the rest of those on campus—particularly the theologians—find it a strange and in their own eyes, primitive language. With this, they clear the way for the sexual consumerism of the culture. Since they no longer value what we believe and have been carried beyond the Ten Commandments, they also should go Dutch.

Taking the implied “wherever” of Augustana VII, there are still many trustworthy congregations and faithful pastors across the ELCA. Generally, their trademark is the absolution. Where the forgiveness of sins gets declared Sunday after Sunday, Christ is usually preached in the pulpit, as well. So, too, the sacraments are freely bestowed. Such congregations are to be treasured. If you belong to one of them, Christ is blessing you. Faithful congregations, trustworthy pastors deserve all the support they can get.

This appears to be one of the best alternatives available right now. Using the language of the ELCA, two levels or expressions of the church have betrayed it—the national and the synodical. Undoubtedly, if the people in the congregations of the ELCA had been fully represented in the Minneapolis vote, the gay proposals would have failed decisively even while gay and lesbian members within the congregations themselves would have been treated with respect and love. There’s good reason, given such percentages, to hold with the parishes.

Staying in the congregations, however, requires some critical assessment of both the pastor and the parish leadership. Some parishioners wanting out of the ELCA have already learned from their pastors that the respect for conscience called for by the sexuality commission extends only to advocates, not to those being unchurched. Others learned after the fact that their pastor, having kept silence on the issue, went away to Minneapolis to vote for anal and oral sex among the clergy. In such instances, the best alternative may be to look elsewhere.

Still, congregations are multi-dimensional, with many layers of witness. Sometimes, even though the pastor complains about forgiveness as a downer, the choir faithfully preaches Christ Jesus and the liturgy serves him. Often enough, as in the church colleges, faithful lay people in the congregations sustain its witness day to day. One way or another, the good Lord finds a way to sound the Word in the hearing of his people. “Where ever” that happens, the triune God is at work. In such circumstances, people may still find a place in their congregations.

If it is possible to stay, the terms have to be changed. For many faithful ELCA people, the tithe and benevolence have been a joyful way of life. This makes withholding funds from the church particularly painful. There are, however, a number of Lutheran agencies that need support. Lutheran World Relief, for example, has been one of the most effective international agencies for helping victims of catastrophes as well as developing economies. Given the ELCA’s betrayal, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod—which jointly funds LWR—may very well pull out of the arrangement. LWR, like other faithful Lutheran agencies, can use all the support they get.

In those congregations that choose to stay in the ELCA, it would be wise to consider affiliating with other parishes that have refused to accept being unchurched. WordAlone Network people have learned that their parishes become particularly vulnerable to the bishop’s opposition when it comes time to call another pastor. Remaining on the ELCA roster while affiliating with other like-minded congregations offers the possibility of both participation—in for instance, the missions efforts of the ELCA, where some faithful leadership remains—and protection. Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and Lutheran Core are both at work on such affiliations.

A faithful Australian friend suggests still another alternative. That is affiliating with one of the synods in the ELCA where the Lutheran confessional heritage still can claim standing. Though the bishops with rare exception remained silent in Minneapolis, even while whispering their apprehensions to sympathetic ears, there are some indications that two or three of them recognize the debacle they brought on themselves. In repentance, they might restore a possibility for those of us who still confess the biblical word in both law and gospel. Though the connections between such synods and the national offices would have to be carefully tended, finding a reliable affiliation in the structures might be a source of stability for the time being. For very many people, however, the unchurching declared in Minneapolis signals the loss of all three of the ELCA’s alleged levels, congregation included. They have already declared or are carefully considering intentions to leave the church altogether. This involves some deep pain, and has to be respected accordingly. The big question for such people is destination—where do you go?

Here Augustana VII’s implicit “wherever” should be helpful. To begin with, there are other Lutheran congregations nearby. The different labels can’t claim nearly as much loyalty as the gospel—it just takes some testing. The president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod made an outstanding statement to the Minneapolis assembly. Any number of faithful Missouri congregations faithfully preach the word and administer the sacraments, even if some of them seem far more interested in who they exclude than whom they include. Given the conflicts within the church, it will be a while before Missouri’s future becomes clear. Just the same, Apostolic Lutherans and Wisconsin Synod people can get carried past inward looking ways into real and powerful witness to Christ Jesus.

Finally, since it isn’t institutional, the strongly suggested “wherever” of the seventh Article of the Augsburg Confession can under some circumstances lead beyond Lutheran parishes into other denominations. Some of the most devout Lutherans, including learned theologians who were formerly part of the ELCA, are now Roman Catholics. It may be premature and even unthinkable for some of us, but on the other hand, where Christ is proclaimed in Word and Sacrament and sinners gather to hear and receive it, the triune God can break beyond misunderstandings to do his work. By the same token, while confessional Lutherans have always had apprehensions, there may be other Protestant churches that have seen the limit of meaning in the sacraments and have to come to concentrate much more on what Christ is actually doing. The test remains the same: are Christ’s gifts really being handed over to sinners?

At any rate, it’s up to you now. In a way that would have been inconceivable even earlier this summer, you are on your own. Having been unchurched by the ELCA assembly; excluded, unrepresented and voiceless, you have been cut loose from that which connected you with believers across the world and across the ages. So you have been numbered among the rejects. But for all of that, you’ve got company. If you don’t find your neighbors in the faith where you usually did, they are out looking for you. Jesus loves sinners—you qualify. He never lost one of us.

ELCA: How Did We Come to This?

by Robert Benne

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11108

During last week's biennial Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the church affirmed major policy recommendations to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions (which practice will soon inflate to same-sex marriage) and the rostering of gay and lesbian pastors in partnered relationships. Earlier in the week it also passed by one vote-out of over a thousand total votes cast-a Social Statement on Sexuality that admitted there was no consensus on the moral evaluation of homosexual conduct, and offered no compelling biblical or theological reasons to support the policies it later in fact adopted.

The Statement was firm and bold on issues that everyone agreed upon-the moral condemnation of promiscuity, pornography, sexual exploitation, etc.-but indecisive and vague about contested issues-co-habitation, premarital sex, the importance of the nuclear family, and, of course, homosexual conduct. Right before the vote on the Social Statement a totally unexpected tornado hit the Minneapolis Conference Center where we were meeting as well as the huge Central Lutheran Church next door, knocking the cross off one of its towers. Orthodox voting members saw the work of God in the tornado's cross-toppling effects and in the vote that passed with a .666 majority. Revisionists noted that the sun came out after the vote. In response the orthodox quipped that the sun comes out almost every day but rogue tornados are pretty rare.

Those in the orthodox camp warned the assembly not to vote on binding church doctrine, especially if it had no convincing biblical or theological arguments to overturn the moral consensus of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church held throughout the ages and by 99% of the world's Christians. Such action would identify the ELCA with a rapidly declining liberal Protestantism while departing from orthodox teaching and practice. Strong arguments against the Social Statement and policy recommendations were made by pastors and laypersons-bishops were for the most part silent-to no avail. The church left the Great Tradition of moral teaching to identify with the United Church of Christ and the Episcopalians.

How did this come to be? On the one hand, the fact that the largest American Lutheran church body had become the first confessional church to accept homosexual conduct was a traumatic shock to many. There was much anger and anguish. On the other hand, the decision was not at all unexpected by those of us who have fought against the underlying currents operating in the church from its very inception. The fight has been long yet predictable. Liberal Protestantism was the ELCA's destination. Indeed, its presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson-is fast becoming the charismatic leader of liberal Protestantism.

"There is nothing but the Social Gospel," shouted a voting member at the assembly. But that is certainly not Lutheran doctrine. The various programs of social change taken to heart by the church are human works in God's left-hand reign, having to do with the Law, not the Gospel. Rather, the real Gospel is clear: the grace of God in Jesus Christ is offered to repentant sinners condemned by the Law and then called to amendment of life by the Spirit. Liberating efforts in the realm of social and political change are possibly effects of the Gospel, but certainly not the Gospel itself.

But the ELCA has accepted the Social Gospel as its working theology even though its constitution has a marvelous statement of the classic Gospel. The liberating movements fueled by militant feminism, multiculturalism, anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, anti-imperialism, and now ecologism have been moved to the center while the classic Gospel and its missional imperatives have been pushed to the periphery. The policies issuing from these liberationist themes are non-negotiable in the ELCA, which is compelling evidence that they are at the center. No one can dislodge the ELCA's commitment to purge all masculine language about God from its speech and worship, to demur on the biblically normative status of the nuclear family, to refuse to put limits on abortion in its internal policies or to advocate publicly for pro-life policies, to press for left-wing public domestic and foreign policy, to replace evangelism abroad with dialog, to commit to "full inclusion" of gays and lesbians at the expense of church unity, and to buy in fully to the movement against global warming. Though it is dogmatic on these issues it is confused about something as important as the assessment of homosexual conduct. Yet, it acts anyway because of the pressure exerted by those who want to liberate church and society from heterosexism.

But how did the liberal Protestant agenda replace the Christian core? There are many reasons, a goodly number that evangelicals share with Lutherans: a culture moving quickly toward permissive morality; the self-esteem movement leading to cheap grace; lay individualism combined with apathy toward Christian teaching; an obliviousness to church tradition and to the voice of the world church; and, above all, the loss of an authentic principle of authority in the church. This last item I will address in more detail later.

The ELCA has a particular history that has compounded these problems. The mid-80s planning stage of the ELCA was dramatically affected by a group of radicals who pressed liberationist (feminist, black, multiculturalist, gay) legislative initiatives right into the center of the ELCA structures. Among them was a quota system that skews every committee, council, task force, synod assembly, and national assembly toward the "progressive" side. (There are quotas for representing specific groups in all the organized activity of the church. 60% must be lay, 50% must be women, 10% must be people of color or whose language is other than English. The losers, of course, are white male pastors; our Virginia delegation to the assembly, for example, had only one male pastor among its eight elected members.) Further, the prescribed structure distanced the 65 Bishops from the decision-making of the church. The Bishops have only influence, not power. (Aware of their divisiveness, the Bishops voted 44-14 to require a two thirds majority for the enactment of the Sexuality Task Force's policy recommendations, but were ignored by both the Church Council and the Assembly.) Theologians were given no formal, ongoing, corporate role in setting the direction of the ELCA. They, too, were kept at a distance and actually viewed as one more competing interest group.

The radicals so decisive in the defining moments of the ELCA intended to smash the authority of the influential white male theologians and bishops who had informally kept both the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America on course. The radicals wanted many voices and perspectives, especially those of the "marginalized," put forward in the ongoing deliberations of the ELCA. They were so successful that now after twenty years there is no authoritative biblical or theological guidance in the church. There are only many voices. The 2009 Assembly legitmated those many voices by adapting a "bound-conscience" principle in which anyone claiming a sincerely-held conviction on about any doctrine must be respected. The truth of the Word of God has been reduced to sincerely-held opinion.

What was truly chilling about the Assembly's debates was that the revisionists seemed to quote Jesus and the Bible as knowledgeably and persuasively as the orthodox. Passages reinforcing their respective agendas were selected and then brilliantly woven into their arguments. Both sides seemed to have the Bible on their side. The revisionists "contextualized" and relativized the relevant texts. The orthodox claimed a plain sense reading of Scripture. The Lutheran Confessions were utilized effectively by both sides. There was no authoritative interpretation conveyed by any agent or agency in the church. The church was and is rudderless.

Sola Scriptura, a Lutheran principle adopted by evangelicals, did not seem to be sufficient in such circumstances. An authoritative tradition of interpretation of the Bible seemed to be essential. More was needed than the Word alone. Protestants seem to lack such an authoritative tradition so they fight and split. In this situation the option of swimming the Tiber seems all the more tempting

The fall-out of these historic moves by the ELCA is hard to predict, mainly because the Lutheran orthodox have no group of dissenting Bishops around whom to rally. There will be a profusion of different responses by congregations and individuals. Many congregations and individuals will leave the ELCA. Others will bide their time to see what Lutheran CORE (Lutheran Coalition for Renewal) will become as it strives to articulate and then embody the best of Lutheranism. Many will withdraw from involvement in the ELCA and its Synods and live at the local level. Many others will try to live on as if nothing happened. Others will approve of the new direction. But a tectonic shift has taken place, and it wasn't primarily about sex. The ELCA has formally left the Great Tradition for liberal Protestantism.

----Robert Benne was a voting member of the Virginia Synod at the 2009 Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is Director of the Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society

A Clear Eye from the Pig Sty 2009

Hey, folks!

New video here of Lou Hesse, Executive Director, Augsburg Lutheran Churches and former member of the ELCA's Task Force on Human Sexuality--the one who stood before the 2005 church-wide assembly to present a confessional, traditional, and dissenting view, addresses the 9th Annual Convention of the Augsburg Lutheran Churches at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in El Paso, TX. There are four parts to the video.

More on "Repentance"

Was repentance assumed as a necessary component in "the Keys" at least as early as 1547.

This from an article in the online archives of "Logia." (accessed 08-26-2009)

http://www.logia.org/features/feature182.pdf

"If this is indeed so, as Regin Prenter says, that the divine
service is the place of justification, then justification has found
its artistic expression in St. Mary’s Church at Wittenberg. I am
thinking here of the altarpiece by Lucas Cranach, which actually
consists of four pictures.
At the center is the picture of the institution of the Lord’s
Supper. One of the participants is Martin Luther, the man with
the beard who receives the chalice. ŠThis is how Luther looked
when he — safe from his opponents — lived in Wartburg Castle
as Junker Georg. It is no accident that it is he who receives the
chalice. After all, Luther, like Jan Huss a century earlier, had
given the people not only the bread but also the chalice.
On the lefthand side, we see how Melanchthon baptizes a
child, with Cranach himself as a sponsor. It is remarkable that
Melanchthon baptizes, because he was not ordained. On the
right-hand side, Johannes Bugenhagen, the congregation’s pastor,
uses the keys of the kingdom of heaven. On the one side is
a penitent man who kneels; on the other side is an impenitent
man who turns away from him in anger.
Bearing the altarpiece, in the predella, we see Luther preaching
to his congregation to which belong, among others, Luther’s
wife, Catharine; his daughter, Magdalena; and his son, Hans.

The content of the sermon is Christ crucified."

God’s Smile
Worship as Source of Christian Life
Carl Axel Aurelius
Translated by Holger Sonntag

I don't necessarily see this as a "withholding" of forgiveness. More likely the "impenitent man" did not hear the "for you"-ness of the absolution. Still... One can easily understand how eagerly the institutional church would take up this "power" and use it manipulatively.

Furthermore;

1) The declaration of forgiveness to UNREPENTANT SINNERS is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Otherwise, no one would get to hear it and preachers would never get to declare it.

2) The Gospel itself--that is the forgiveness of sins FOR THE UNWORTHY (especially the unrepentant)--works repentance because it is THE WORD that puts sinners to death and raises saints to new life.

3) Such repentance is not the "contrition" which sinners FEEL, but is the actual death of the sinner's aspirations to "storm" heaven with right feelings, right thoughts, and right deeds. Physical death of the mortal flesh finally repents us for good and we cannot "help" ourselves any longer but must simply wait upon God's Word.

4) To declare forgiveness only to the "believing" is to practice the very un-Lutheran doctrine of Limited Atonement.

5) The paradoxical "both/and"--ness of the simul must be maintained. While the sinner may actual "feel" sorry and improve behavior, the saint has already been "taken up" into God with with Christ awaiting revelation in the New Creation.

6) Remembering the the two kinds of righteousness allows for declaring the saint "divinely righteous for Christ's sake," while visiting the necessity of "civil righteousness"--and the consequences of violation--upon the sinner penitent or not.

Remember Mt. 18

The Law can only go so far. After repeated attempts to garner "repentance" from the sinner, the ultimate answer is to "treat them like tax collectors and sinners." And what did Jesus DO with tax collectors and sinners? He ate with them! He DIED for them! Absolution is finally the answer, even to "absolute" refusal.

Any group whether institutional or not has requirements for membership, some qualities that "define" who's in and who's out of the group. Otherwise it wouldn't be a "group." The challenge to the group comes from a member's "violation" of those requirements. If such violation is allowed to stand, the "viability" of the group is threatened. The challenge to individual member is imposed by the authority of the group when the requirements are violated. Submission to such authority may threaten the life of the individual. This is our predicament "under the Law:" left unenforced, it leads to the "group's" death, enforced totally it leads to the individual's end. The Law can only end in DEATH.

We left then with a paradoxical corollary to Luther's definition of a Christian as "free Lord, AND bound servant." The corollary can be stated thusly: "The individual so forgives the group's enforcement of authority that the individual risks death at the hands of the group. AND... The group so forgives the individual's violation that the group itself risks dissolution (death) from the hands of the violator."

Here we have the paradoxical reign of "justice and mercy," God's two-fisted rule over creation by which he "loves" it. Neither justice or mercy can "rule" alone, their tension must be maintained lest we fall into the tyranny of Nomianism or the tyranny of an Anti-nomian anarchy.

Finally, we must ask ourselves: Does our salvation finally rest on our righteousness according to law which we are able to obey now that we "have" Christ? Or... Does our salvation rest on "CHRIST ALONE?" The first turns us back on ourselves (in curvatus se) to wonder about our "obedience" while the second "straightens" us up (justification) so that we can "behold" our salvation in Christ. Alternatively... Does our salvation rest upon the Word Alone and our hearing of it; or does it rest upon the "fruits" which the Word produces. Faith in Christ means, not only "trusting" in him for salvation but also "trusting" that he will bring about the fruits of such salvation--whether we can SEE them or not (Hebrews 11)--faith is NOT sight!

Tim

NO Repentance Demanded!

Now I know where the reason for the devotion to "repentance" comes from in Lutheran circles (Hat Tip: Kris Baudler on the Applied Theology List Serve)

The opening paragraph of Missouri's (Reu's) "Office of the Keys" reads:

"What is the Office of the Keys?

The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent."

Matthew reads:
"19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

No demand for repentance there. Jesus is giving them the kingdom and telling them that the "Word" they will preach will be an effective and powerful word--literally the "Word of God!" cf. Is 55. Whatever PROMISES they bind to people on earth have been, are, and will be the promises kept in heaven. This is the Gospel that delivers faith. Whatever SIN/LAW/COMMANDS they free people from on earth have been, are, and will be the very same ones they are "loosed" from in heaven. This, too, is the Gospel that delivers faith. Therefore, faith is the only KEY necessary for the kingdom.

Likewise John reads:
23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

No demand for repentance there. Jesus is telling them of the necessity of preaching. The "Good News of "forgiveness" must be delivered personally. cf. Romans 10. Again, this is an effective Word in that when the absolution is declared to someone, his sins are actually and truly forgiven. However, if that forgiveness is NOT delivered personally, that is, not preached "for you," then how is the "one who has never heard" to know that they are forgiven? In such a case, from the unhearing one's perspective, they are not forgiven.

The kingdom depends solely upon the delivery of Christ by a preacher so that hearers may have "faith in Christ" as the Holy Spirit "calls, gathers, enlightens..."

The demand for "visible" repentance is yet another venue of religious manipulation.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

12^th Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel: John 6:56-69

Sunday, August 23, 2009

In verse 56, Jesus says, “He who eats my flesh and eats my blood abides in me, and I in him.” Further on he says, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (6:63).

At first glance one might think that Jesus is contradicting himself. The flesh avails in eating his flesh and then the flesh doesn’t avail. But Jesus is not speaking of the same flesh. In the first statement he is referring to himself, his flesh and blood. In the second comment he is referring to our flesh. This brings to mind his comment to Nicodemus back in the third chapter of John’s Gospel. In speaking of the new life which is ours in Christ he says one must be born again of water and the spirit (a reference to water baptism where one is united with Christ in his death so we die, and where we are given Christ to be the new life in us.) In that dialogue Jesus says “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit” (3:6).

Christ abides in us. Communion is a sign and seal of his life in us. Our flesh is of no avail. That is, our effort, our struggle, to do the good and avoid evil accomplishes nothing but to make matters worse. As our brother Paul wrote, “the good that I would I do not. The evil that I would not that I do” (Romans 7). Further he declares that the law came to increase sin (Romans 5). The end result of the Law is to put us to death, so that CHRIST IS THE LIFE IN US. “…the words I have spoken to you are SPIRIT AND LIFE” (6:63).

That we can do nothing toward God is amplified by Christ in his comment that even abiding in Christ is NOT OUR DOING. In verse 65, he says, “…I told you that NO ONE can COME to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

The question can be asked, if we cannot do the good then how is the Christian life to come about? Jesus addresses that himself in his “abiding” comment addressed to his disciples in the upper room on the eve of his death on the cross. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, he it is that BEARS MUCH FRUIT for apart from me YOU CAN DO NOTHING” (15:5)! Our brother Paul put it this way, “God has done what the LAW weakened by the FLESH could not do; sending his Son in the likeness of Sin and for sin condemned sin the flesh IN ORDER that the just requirements of the LAW might be fulfilled in us who walk NOT according to the FLESH but according to the SPIRIT” (Romans 8:4)!

The Christian life is NOT about you and me; it is about CHRIST alone! As Brother Martin Luther wrote, one thing is enjoined upon the Christian: that each day he remind himself of his baptism, that therein he died with Christ and now Christ is the life in him (from “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church). EVERYTHING STEMS from our baptism. In Him is life abundant and fruit abundant.

©Dick Smith

The Need to Be Right

The Reverend Lenae Rasmussen preaches at the second night worship service at the 9th Annual Convention of the Augsburg Lutheran Churches at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in El Paso, TX

"The end of Free Will is the beginning of Faith."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Sunday, August 9, 2009

9^th Sunday after Pentecost

From an old sinner for whom Christ Died.

Gospel: John 6:35, 41-5

“Jesus said to them; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (verse 35)…”No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (verse 44).

There is NO FREEDOM OF CHOICE here; NO FREE WILL. The Father will draw the person otherwise it won’t happen. All the invitations in the world by preachers to come to Jesus fall flat and accomplish NOTHING because Jesus says it simply can’t happen that way.

God does the choosing. It is out of our hands. It is in his hands ONLY.

SO where does that put you and me? Are we excluded or included?

The answer is found only in an outside Word that comes to us. “FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of CHRIST” (Romans 10). Paul therefore writes, “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news’” (Romans 10:15). They come, not on their own free will, (because there is no free will), but because they have been sent.

They are sent to speak the Word: “YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN FOR JESUS’ SAKE!” And where there is forgiveness there is already before the forgiveness the real presence of CHRIST in you as a redeeming reality. He is now your LIFE, “for you are dead and your life is now hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3-4)! That Word is proclaimed here: “you are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It is proclaimed here: “Take and eat. This is my body given for YOU…This is the cup of the New Testament which is shed for YOU…”

Oral Word, water Baptism, Holy Communion, all three; declare God’s action for you and NO ACTION on your part AT ALL.

As Salvation is TOTALLY an act of God in Christ for you so also those who are to declare this WORD are totally chosen by God. There is no FREE WILL here either. Baptism (yours and all others) is the authority to declare this WORD to the world. All baptized are “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and those who are perishing; to one a fragrance from death to death to the other a fragrance from life to life” (II Cor. 2:15-16).

As Jesus said to his disciples so he says to YOU and ME: “You did NOT choose ME, but I chose YOU and appointed YOU that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide… (John 15:16). “I am the vine, YOU are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, FOR APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING” (John 15:5)!

SOLA DEO GLORIA!

©Dick Smith

"Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!"

The Reverend Richard Smith preaches at the first night worship service of the 9th Annual Gathering of Augsburg Lutheran Churches, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, El Paso, Texas.

2009-07-26 Sermon on Mark 6:7

The Reverend Timothy J. Swenson preaches at the pre-convention worship service of the 9th Annual Gathering of Augsburg Lutheran Churches, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, El Paso, Texas.
Mark 6:7--"Jesus called the Twelve to himself and then sent them out two-by-two."
(three videos)

Part One



Part Two



Part Three

Christianity Complements Citizenship

Roger Scruton

Forgiveness and Irony

What makes the West strong

Here's an excellent and well-written piece from the City Journal that describes the necessity of the Christian virtues of forgiveness and irony to "fill up" citizenship with meaning. The author contrasts these "virtues" with the culture of repudiation that has driven them from the public square and with existential threat posed by a "terrorism" which has as its target concepts abstracted from its victims.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_1_the-west.html

Here are the essay's concluding paragraph's:

What, then, should our stance be in this existential confrontation? I think we should emphasize the very great virtues and achievements that we have built on our legacy of tolerance and show a willingness to criticize and amend all the vices to which it has also given undue space. We should resurrect Locke’s distinction between liberty and license and make it absolutely clear to our children that liberty is a form of order, not a license for anarchy and self-indulgence. We should cease to mock the things that mattered to our parents and grandparents, and we should be proud of what they achieved. This is not arrogance but a just recognition of our privileges.

We should also drop all the multicultural waffling that has so confused public life in the West and reaffirm the core idea of social membership in the Western tradition, which is the idea of citizenship. By sending out the message that we believe in what we have, are prepared to share it, but are not prepared to see it destroyed, we do the only thing that we can do to defuse the current conflict. Because forgiveness is at the heart of our culture, this message ought surely to be enough, even if we proclaim it in a spirit of irony.

The Breath of God

In and Out
...so goes the breath of God
gathering in disciples to their death and the revelation of Christ their life,
and scattering out apostles to the death of Christ their life and the revelation of their life as
disciples needing the "discipline" of the Word once again.

Read the sermon:
"In and Out"

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

From an old sinner for whom Christ died.

6th Sunday after Pentecost July 12, 2009
Second Lesson Ephesians 1:3-14

This is a remarkable passage about predestination: how God has chosen
us from the foundations of the world, as it reads, "...even as he
chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons
(/daughters) through Jesus Christ,..."(1:4-5a).

God does the choosing and declares us holy and blameless through
Christ, regardless of our sins as well as our sinfulness that is
hidden from our conscious minds.

THE QUESTION AT HAND is this: Do we fit in here somewhere or we are
excluded? Is predestination for others and not for us?
If one views the message of Scripture in a static sense, that is,
ideas on a page, then one can step back from it and look at it from
afar. This allows for all kinds of speculation about God, others,
ourselves, whose saved, whose not, etc.

HOWEVER the Message of Scripture is not a static reality but a DYNAMIC
REALITY. That is, it draws us into the message and places the message
around us and in us.

SO when it reads in this Lesson, "you" its means you, the one reading
this. When it reads "us" it means you and me as well as others. This
is the significance of predestination. It places all of the action
with God and none with you and me.

Verse 13 emphsizes the fact that "believing" is an act of the Holy
Spirit not our doing. Thus the words apply to you and me.
"In him YOU also, WHO have heard the word of truth, the gospel of YOUR
salvation, and have believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy
Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until WE acquire
possession of it, to the praise of his glory"(1:13-14).

As Brother Martin Luther wrote and we learned in Confirmation
instruction, from his "Small Catechism," "I believe that I CANNOT by
my reason or strength (understanding or effort) believe in Jesus
Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel enlightened with his gifts and sanctified and kept me in
the true faith."

And so he has for YOU and for ME.

THANKS BE TO GOD in Jesus Christ our Lord!

@ Dick Smith

CRAZIER TALK than "Crazy Talk" #1

Rolf Jacobson edited a book of theological definitions entitled "Crazy Talk"--a fun read that makes even the most boring theological words interesting. And, after all, we are "theological beings" and should at least know the language of our "being-ness."

Of interest was the take on the CHURCH:

I quote--

God's action is key in the definition of the church in the ancient creeds, which describe the church as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic:

• The oneness of the church refers to the fact that although th church, like amoebae in a petri dish, disagrees and divides, God keeps it spiritually united under the one Christ.
• The holiness of the church refers to the fact that although the church is full of sinners, God forgives them and makes them holy.
• The catholicity (that means"universality") of the church refers to the fact that although human beings set up churchly insitituions that are specific to time and place, God unites the church in all ages and places.
• The church is apostolic (meaning "sent") because althou it is always turning in on itself and serving its own needs, god is always at work to send it out into the world as part of God's mission to save, love, and bless the world.

NOW...

Let's take take this crazy talk and make it even CRAZIER by radicalization in the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed categorically; that is, in light of Galations 2:20 "It is now longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" and, Colossians 3:3 "You are dead. Your life is hid with Christ in God."

So, then...

Oneness: the church is one because it has only one living member, Jesus Christ. To say that it is "spiritually" united with Christ is to tempt sinners into examining and emphasizing their own 'spirits' and how they may or may not be united with Christ. Spiritually must refer to the Holy Spirit only who puts sinners to death that their life may be Christ alone and hid with him in God for safekeeping during this between the times.

Holiness: Since Jesus is the only living member of the church, his holiness suffices for all. The church is indeed full of forgiven sinners but they are still dead. The righteousness of Christ will not be revealed in his saints until that day when they stand with him in glory. For now those saints are protected by being hidden away in God.

Catholicity: sinners are limited to the particulars of space and time. Jesus Christ is not. To say that the church is "catholic" is to recognize the ubiquitous Christ filling all space and all time.

Apostolic: The church is sent into the world because Jesus Christ was/is sent into the world bearing witness to himself as the breaking in of the Kingdom of God, that is, the new creation. This is God's mission through the church: to bear witness to such a Christ. Everything else the church might do in love and in blessing is our very human task of having dominion over creation.

Mt. Carmel Theological Conference

What a night!

Jim Nestingen delivered a powerfully prophetic speech: The Gospel Will Not Be Contained!

Despite all the efforts to manipulate the work of the Holy Spirit, God continues to call forth a remnant of preachers to see that Jesus Christ will be proclaimed as The Way, The Truth, and The Life--and that categorically!

We are that remnant!

The Institute of Lutheran Theology will be the ongoing training ground to bring the theological education of such preachers back into the congregation!

There is more to come on Monday and Tuesday!

Becker Course Group Study Opportunity

The Opportunity:

The California-based Zur Institute is now offering an online course on Ernest Becker, entitled “Transference, and Transcendence: Generative Death Anxiety in Psychological and Pastoral Counseling.”

This course, organized by Daniel Liechty, can be taken for continuing education (CE) credits and is approved for psychologists.

The Zur Institute is offering a 10% discount to those who use the EBF discount code, BECKER88. See the course homepage for more information.

The cost: $69.00 for 7 CE’s.

What I propose:

Let’s sign up as many participants as we can, read the material on a schedule, and then gather online to discuss it. Daniel Liechty, the course author, has indicated he’d be available for questions or discussion.

Generally, one CE credit corresponds to one hour of reading. This course has 7 CE’s, so about seven hours of reading.

Let’s start on June 15^th and plan to end on July 1^st. Our discussion schedule could be Wednesday, June 17^th,

Saturday, June 20^th, Wednesday, June 24^th, Saturday, June 27^th, and Wednesday, July 1^st. How about 11:00 AM or 12 noon CDT for our discussion? We could get everyone on a Skype call. The latest version of Skype offers simultaneous text messaging and file sharing. I recommend installing it. This timing is negotiable.

Let’s carry out our planning for this in the comments below. That way we’ll have one central place where all the discussion is happening.

What is the process?

1. Sign up securely online: http://www.zurinstitute.com/ernest_becker_course.html

2. Read the articles via online links (the articles may be downloaded and/or printed).

3. Take the Post-Test for the course and pass it (instantaneous grading).

4. Complete the course evaluation.

5. Print certificate of completion.

General Course Description

This intermediate course provides an overview of the works and ideas of Ernest Becker (1924-1974) and points toward ways these ideas can be useful to those engaged in the practice of clinical psychotherapy and counseling. Becker's work was motivated by one large and overarching question, “What makes people act the way they do?” Becker consciously ignored the restraints of standardized disciplinary boundaries, and although he was thoroughly grounded in the literature of psychology and sociology, he also pursued his data widely into other disciplines, such as educational philosophy and even into religious studies.

Becker's work culminated in his award-winning classic 1973 book, The Denial of Death, in which he defended the thesis that one of the major forces in both individual and collective human behavior is the need to defend ourselves against constant conscious awareness that we are mortal creatures destined for death. An enormous amount of our individual (psychic) and collective (cultural, political) energy is devoted to the construction of monuments and actions which prove on a physical, but mostly symbolic, level that we are substantial beings engaged in a vital pageant of action within a cosmos of significant and eternal meaning. All societies are structured to maintain the plausibility of this belief. When individuals or groups of people start to doubt this belief about themselves, rational action begins to break down into recognizable patterns of depression on one side and manic frenzy on the other.

Through examination of some of the main tenets of Becker's work, this course casts light on the role of mortality awareness and death anxiety in human behavior. Although human beings share much of their cognitive and social characteristics with other species, particularly the higher mammals, it has become popular in circles of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology to suggest that the study of animal behavior is the key to understanding human behavior. However, human beings are the only species (as far as we know) who are aware of mortality and must, therefore, construct psychological defenses against death anxiety as an ongoing condition of the existence of being. Here we explore some of the most important implications of this fact about human psychological, emotional, and spiritual development. Although Becker did not attempt or intend to outline a separate 'school' of therapeutic practice, we will see that his ideas are compatible with many of the major schools of therapeutic practice and extend the knowledge-pool concerning human behavior on which the various schools of thought draw.

Course Syllabus:

Follow this link and scroll down

http://www.zurinstitute.com/ernest_becker_course.html