Transcript Slide 1

II. Some Test Cases
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And it is enough for the true unity of the
church to agree concerning the teaching of
the gospel and the administration of the
sacraments. Article VII of the Augsburg
Confession
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Some Lutherans are more “conservative,” some
more “liberal”
All agree that the authority of Scripture has to do
with its central saving message—yet some
recognize or emphasize the human limitations of
the scriptural authors more than others
The ELCA is not the Democratic Party (or the
Republican Party) at prayer
The ELCA is a church body, united by the Gospel,
in which sisters and brothers disagree on
important issues—we have a unity in reconciled
diversity.
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This term does not appear in the Lutheran
Confessions
Is Sola scriptura another way of saying Solus christus?
Popes, councils, churchwide assemblies, pastors, and
especially seminary professors may err
Have the Scriptures ever been alone?
◦ The words of Jesus were preserved in tradition before they
were cited in the gospels
◦ The ongoing role of Tradition in formulating the doctrine of
the trinity, two natures of Christ, ordination, etc.
◦ The assumptions and presuppositions of the biblical
authors
◦ The assumptions and presuppositions of biblical
interpreters
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I know that finally the Bible is forceful and
consistent in its main theological claim. It
expresses the conviction that the God who
created the world in love redeems the world
in suffering and will consummate the world in
joyous well-being. Walter Brueggemann
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The Word of God in the biblical text is refracted
through many authors who were not
disembodied voices of revealed truth but
circumstance-situated men and women of faith
who said what their circumstances permitted and
required them to say. It is this human refraction
that makes the hard work of critical study
inescapable, so that every text is given a
suspicious scrutiny whereby we may consider the
ways in which bodied humanness has succeeded
or not succeeded in bearing truthful and faithful
witness. Walter Brueggemann
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Their passion for justice
The significance of the beloved community
Advocacy of living righteously
Focus on the gospel
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At times the church has fallen well short of an
appropriate reading of the biblical text
At other times the church has correctly
contradicted what the biblical text seems to
affirm
At still other times the church has moved
beyond where our ancient biblical colleagues
were ready to go
How we might proceed when issues posed by
contemporary society are not directly normed
by the Bible
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We are all committed to the high practice of
subjective extrapolations because we have
figured out that a cold, reiterative objectivity
has no missional energy or moral force. We
do it, and will not stop doing it. It is,
however, surely healing and humbling for us
to have enough self-knowledge to concede
that what we are doing will not carry the
freight of absoluteness. Spirit-filled
interpretation is given us by and through
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bodied authors who must make their way in
the world—and in making our way, we
humans do not see so clearly or love so
dearly or follow so nearly as we might
imagine. Walter Brueggemann
On the basis of the Bible
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Ham’s seeing the nakedness of his father =
some kind of overt sexual act of incest
The curse
◦ Canaan would be a slave of Shem (Israel)
◦ God would enlarge the tents of Japheth (Philistines)
in shared territory with Israel
◦ Canaan would also be a slave of the Philistines
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Why should one people be enslaved by
another?
How should nations or faiths relate to each
other?
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“God himself had inaugurated the institution
of human bondage since Noah spoke under
the impulse and dictation of Heaven. His
words were the words of God himself, and by
them was slavery ordained.” The Rev.
Alexander McCaine
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“It is generally believed that the Africans or
Negroes are descendants of Ham. The judicial
curse of Noah under the posterity of Ham
seems yet to rest upon them.” The Rev.
Samuel Dunwoody
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A slaveholder himself
The institution of human bondage had been
initiated by God in the decree of Noah
“Nature had stamped on the African race the
permanent marks of inferiority.”
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Did these 19th century clergymen realize how
their biases dictated their exegesis?
And how do our biases affect our exegesis?
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You shall not do any work—you, your son or
your daughter, your male or female slave. 3rd
commandment
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or
male or female slave. 10th commandment
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Paul again and again admonished masters
and slaves to fulfill their respective duties to
one another without ever so much as
intimating that a human being had no right to
enslave his or her fellow human being.
H. Sheldon Smith, In His Image, but…
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There can be no doubt that the New
Testament shows no urgency in the matter of
emancipation of slaves.
Does the New Testament contain elements,
glimpses which point beyond and even
“against” the prevailing view of the New
Testament church? Krister Stendahl
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Amos: The Israelites sell the righteous for
silver and the needy for a pair of shoes.
Nehemiah was outraged at the enslavement
of fellow Israelites.
All human beings are created in the image
and likeness of God.
Both slaves and free people are sinners for
whom Christ died
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all people (actually men) are created equal
And how did that work out in the U.S.
Constitution?
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The moral imperative of antislavery forced
many evangelical Christians away from
Biblicism into a less literal reading of
Scripture.
The study of slavery in the Bible teaches
theology that biblical criticism is seldom able
to settle Christian moral debate, but Christian
moral debate can and does shape broad and
influential trends in biblical criticism. J. Albert
Harrill, writing on slavery in NIDB.
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Deuteronomy 15:13-14 versus Exodus 21:111
◦ Women as well as men are to be freed from slavery
after seven years
◦ The master is not to send the slave away emptyhanded lest he or she fall back immediately into
debt-slavery
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Deuteronomy 15 is at least two centuries
later than Exodus 21
Recalling the process
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But I want you to understand that Christ is the
head of every man, and the husband is the head
of his wife, and God is the head of Christ
Any woman who prays or prophesies with her
head unveiled disgraces her head—it is one and
the same thing as having her head shaved.
Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not
independent of man or man independent of
woman. For just as woman came from man, so
man comes through woman; but all things come
from God.
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(As in all the churches of the saints,
34 women should be silent in the churches.
For they are not permitted to speak, but
should be subordinate, as the law also says.
35 If there is anything they desire to know, let
them ask their husbands at home. For it is
shameful for a woman to speak in church.
36 Or did the word of God originate with you?
Or are you the only ones it has reached?)
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Note parenthesis in NRSV
An editor inserted it to bring it into
conformity with the practices regarding
women in his own time
Conflicts with earlier passages in Corinthians
Paul’s followers felt increasing pressure to
accommodate to the social structures and
practices of their unbelieving neighbors.
What if we could not agree this was an
insertion? Would we not still discount it as
time and situation bound?
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Let a woman learn in silence with full
submission. I permit no woman to teach or to
have authority over a man; she is to keep
silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman
was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet
she will be saved through childbearing….
Adam or Eve as first to be created or first to sin
In Genesis 2, man is
created at the beginning of
the chapter and woman
toward the end of the
chapter—both are favored
positions. Ring
composition.
The woman at least carried
on an adult conversation
with the snake
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Lutheran women ordained in Denmark 1967,
Czechoslovakia 1953, Sweden 1959, Norway
1961, Germany 1968
Changing role of women in wider society
Voice vote in LCA
57% approval in ALC
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If we are right in describing the statements of
I Corinthians 11:11-12 and Galatians 3:28 as
pointing beyond what is actually implemented
in the New Testament church, then they must
be allowed their freedom; and the tension
which they constitute must not be absorbed
or neutralized in a comprehensive and hence
harmonized “biblical view.” Krister Stendahl
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The ELCA social statement on genetics
focuses on fundamental affirmations, general
analysis, overarching values, directives and
principles for teaching, deliberation, policy
advocacy and pastoral guidance rather than
providing ethical prescriptions for a multitude
of specific issues.
It thereby recognizes that decisions on
particular issues may not be governed by
Scripture.
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We stand with the faith claim that to be
human is to be mortal and believe we should
not seek to circumvent mortality through
reproductive cloning.
Should reproductive cloning “progress,” this
church would honor the God-given dignity of
cloned individuals and would welcome each
to the baptismal font like any other child of
God.
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If individuals are cloned despite societal and
ELCA rejection, this church will respect their
God-given dignity and will welcome them to
the baptismal font, like any other child of
God.
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Many in this church believe that the practice
of regenerative medicine (based on stem cell
research) could benefit millions of people
whose lives are burdened, if not threatened,
by a host of serious diseases.
Others in this society and this church believe,
however, that only those forms of stem cell
research should be pursued that do not
require the destruction of viable human
embryos.
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In the meantime [this church] accepts the use
of surplus frozen embryos that were created
for infertility treatment but are no longer
needed.
Topic dropped in final document.
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The Scriptures
Church tradition
Gains in human knowledge
Personal experience
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None of us comes to the Scriptures as an empty
slate
The Spirit has sometimes led the church beyond
the plain sense of Scripture to reject all slavery
and to recognize the full equality of women
In countless biblical words we hear the
authoritative voice of the author and finisher of
our faith
We need to live boldly and faithfully in paths
uncertain and on ventures of which we cannot
see the ending.
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The authority of Scripture, for Luther and his
followers, was affirmed with respect to its
chief purpose of declaring the gospel of
Christ for faith and salvation. Carl Braaten