Category: Lutheran

James D.G. Dunn Critiquing the ‘Lutheran’ Paul and the E.P. Sanders’ Paul

In an article titled ‘The New Perspective on Paul’ (1983) [1] James D.G. Dunn addressed E.P. Sanders’ ground breaking work Paul and Palestinian Judaism. After complementing Sander’s work for giving “us an unrivalled opportunity to look at Paul afresh, to shift our perspective back from the 16th century to the first century, to do what all true exegetes want to do–that is, to see Paul properly within his own context, to hear Paul in terms of his own time, to let Paul be himself”, Dunn states, “The most surprising feature of Sanders’ writing, however, is that he himself has failed to take the opportunity his own mouldbreaking work offered.” (100)

Dunn was not satisfied with Sanders’ assumption that Paul must have characterized Second Temple Judaism (hereafter STJ) as legalistic when in fact STJ was not a legalistic religion. In fact, according to Sanders STJ was a election and grace based religion. Paul’s defaced STJ because it was not Christianity; Paul was against STJ because it did not acknowledge Jesus as Messiah.

Dunn sees this as wrongheaded. Although Dunn was not willing to go back toward Luther he was not willing to allow Paul to appear to be either ignorant of the Judaism of his own day or deceptive of it in his criticism. Dunn writes this,

The Lutheran Paul has been replaced by an idiosyncratic Paul who in arbitrary and irrational manner turns his face against the glory and greatness of Judaism’s covenant theology and abandons Judaism simply because it is not Christianity.

Hence, we see the starting point of Dunn’s own perspective within the New Perspective(s) on Paul. Dunn, unlike some, bought into Sanders’ Judaism but not Sanders Paul. Those like Heikki Raisanen bought into Sanders’ Judaism and therefore rejected Pauline thought.

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[1] Dunn, James D. G. “The New Perspective on Paul.” BJRUL (Manchester, 1983). Pp. 95-122.

Gregory Boyd Responds to John Piper Regarding the Tornado

I think Gregory Boyd has written a fair-minded response to John Piper regarding the Minneapolis, MN, tornadoes, which Piper understood as a warning from God, to the ELCA, regarding homosexual ordination here. I will quote his final two paragraphs:

Far from supporting John’s speculation about why a tornado broke a church steeple, it seems to me this passage directly assails it! It makes me want to ask John, “do you think that the folks at Central Lutheran church are more guilty than you or any others living in the Twin Cities?” And the only answer this passage allows us to give is an unequivocal “no!” In the fallen world in which we live, towers sometimes randomly fall; bridges sometimes randomly collapse; and tornadoes sometimes randomly do property damage – even to churches. That’s all there is to be said about it.

Rather than speculating about how God is judging others through natural calamities, Jesus tells his audience they should be concerned with their own relationship with God. “Unless you repent,” Jesus said, ” you too will perish.” Jesus boldly confronts our tendency to find a speck in another’s eye and our temptation to assume God is involved in their misfortune as we overlook the two-by-four sticking out of our own eye (Mt. 7:1-3). Instead, we should follow Paul’s example and consider ourselves worse sinners than others (1 Tim. 1:15-16) and concern ourselves with the judgment we ourselves will receive if we don’t repent and throw ourselves on God’s mercy.

It’s a warning I think we all do well to adhere to.

Are The Lutherans Following the Episcopalians Regarding Homosexual Clergy?

On July 17th, 2009, the Episcopal Church voted in favor of resolution C056 at the 76th National Convention. This resolution included the following:

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm its financial commitment to the Anglican Communion and pledge to participate fully in the Inter-Anglican Budget; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm the value of “listening to the experience of homosexual persons,” as called for by the Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988, and 1998, and acknowledge that through our own listening the General Convention has come to recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships “characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God” (2000-D039); and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God’s call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church, and that God’s call to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention acknowledge that members of The Episcopal Church as of the Anglican Communion, based on careful study of the Holy Scriptures, and in light of tradition and reason, are not of one mind, and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.

Then there was this update today on Twitter:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted 619-402 in favor of “Resolution 2″ which adopts “Step 1″. According to ELCA’s website this includes the following:

Step one asks the assembly whether, in principle, this church is committed to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships.

It will be interesting to see how this effects evangelicalism in the United States. The decision of the 76th National Convention of the Episcopal Church has already threatened the unity of the world-wide Anglican community and it likely made Archbishop Rowan Williams lose several nights of sleep. Bishop N.T. Wright said that the American church knows that such a decision can only end in schism. Now evangelical denominations in the United States will be discussing this very serious subject. The PC (USA) appears to be one of the next denominations to debate the subject. Will C056 split the Anglican church? Will resolution 2, step 1 split the ELCA? How would the PC (USA) handle a similar outcome?

UPDATE: Christianity Today’s Ted Olsen weighs in here.

UPDATE: The ELCA had adopted all four steps to the resolution opening the door for committed, monogamous homosexuals to serve as clergy.

Does God Use Nature to Judge? Scot McKnight Discusses John Piper

I wrote yesterday about some comments made by John Piper through Twitter and on his ‘Desiring God’ website that have upset some people. Piper equated the small tornado that occurred in Minneapolis, MN, as a warning from God to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The ELCA was meeting for a national convention in Minneapolis and one of the subjects being discussed was the validity of ordaining homosexual clergy. When an unexpected and rare tornado did some damage nearby this led Piper to claim that is is “…a gentle, but firm warning to all of us: Turn from the approval of sin”.

This led to several bloggers writing against Piper. Adam Walker Cleaveland said that Piper is contributing to a culture of fear. Drew Tatusko said that Piper’s statements are, “…not theology, it’s insurance to justify one’s own ideology.” Jenell Williams Paris wrote a bit of satire critiquing Piper. And there were others who wrote on the subject as you can imagine.

Scot McKnight has joined in today as well. He asked these questions:

The issues here involve these questions: How do we know these things? How consistent are we in making such discernments? And this: Have you ever seen a calamity or a disaster and truly believed you knew why that event happened or why God made that event occur? How did you know that sort of thing?

To join the discussion on McKnight’s site go here.

I think this is a good series of questions to ask. Does God use natural disasters to judge? Did God use Hurricane Katrina to judge New Orleans? If an earthquake occurred in San Francisco is that the judgment of God as some have “prophesied”? What about natural disasters in other parts of the world? Or does God no longer use nature to judge?

And what about Romans 8:19-22 that suggest that nature herself groans in angst because of our current fallen status as humans?

UPDATE: Greg Boyd weighs in here.

Twitter Opinions on Minneapolis Tornado During ECLA’s National Convention

It appears that John Piper is of the opinion that the tornado that formed in Minneapolis, MN, yesterday during the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s national convention was the result of participants discussing whether or not to ordain active homosexuals. Yes, Piper is suggesting it is a literal act of God. Piper explained on the ‘Desiring God’ website why he thinks this was a message from God that he interpreted as “…a gentle, but firm warning to all of us: Turn from the approval of sin” (see article here). Here is one of several of his Tweets on the subject:

On the other hand, emergent church personality Tony Jones did not take so kindly to Piper’s suggestion. In fact, he posted a few times on the subject as well. Each time he linked the aformentioned article by Piper.

Jones has recently posted a handful of videos on his YouTube page defending the concept that a Christian can be actively participating in homosexuality (see here). Piper sees it as something warranting the immediate judgment of God. This is one of those debates that can turn ugly, fast. It seems that the topic of homosexuality will be something evangelicals struggle to address for some time. Let us only hope that Twitter doesn’t complicate the matter any further!

UPDATE: Adam Walker Cleaveland writes that, “John Piper Contributes to a Culture of Fear”. Drew Tatusko criticizes Piper as well here.