Dr. Michael Root
Michael Root is Professor of Systematic Theology at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC. He served as Dean from 2003-2009, after having earlier served on the faculty from 1980 to 1988. He is also Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France, where he served as Research Professor and sometimes Director from 1988 to 1998.He also has taught at Davidson College in Davidson, NC and Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH. Since January 2006, he has been Executive Director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.
Root is a native of Norfolk, Virginia. After attending public schools in Chesapeake, Virginia, he studied at Dartmouth College (B.A., summa cum laude), and Yale University (Ph.D. in theology). He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wittenberg University (Springfield, OH) in 2002 in recognition of his contribution to the unity of the church.
Root is a member of the US and international Lutheran-Catholic dialogues and has served on the US Lutheran-United Methodist dialogue, the Anglican-Lutheran International Working Group, and the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission. He was the Faith and Order Commission Observer for the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. He served as coopted staff at the 1990, 1997, and 2003 Assemblies of the Lutheran World Federation and the 1993 World Conference on Faith and Order and was a consultant at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. He served on the drafting teams that produced the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and Called to Common Mission, which established full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church. He is the author (with Gabriel Fackre) of Affirmations and Admonitions (Eerdmans 1998) and editor of Justification by Faith (with Karl Lehmann and William Rusch, Continuum 1997), Baptism and the Unity of the Church (with Risto Saarinen, Eerdmans 1998), and Sharper than a Two-Edged Sword: Preaching, Teaching, and Living the Bible (with James Buckley, Eerdmans, 2008).
Southern Lutheran Seminary They have a Methodist and a Babtist program of studies. True.
August 27, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Thank you, Prof. Root. Many of us know that there is more wrong than we are able to articulate. I hope that you and others can help us with the historical/theological background to think this through.
We need more than anger, and more than the usual answers of “denominational” Lutheranism. I too have the same 2:00am thoughts.
August 28, 2009 at 5:23 am
I would love to hear more of your thoughts on numbers 3 and 4. It seems to me that last week’s decision was a furthering of the errors of ELCAism. We seem content to be a permanently separated church body and to be more sectarian than ever.
I am angry but more than that I am deeply saddened. Lord have mercy on us!
August 28, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Thanks Dr. Root for being a recognizable voice in the midst of so many others.
August 28, 2009 at 5:40 pm
True to the wishes of the governing Bishop, Mark Hanson, I wish to remind you, Mr. Root, that we are not to speak ill of the ELCA. As a current professor of Southern Seminary, unless you have tendered your resignation, we are called to speak well of each other and lift each other up in prayer. This constant bashing does no good. Bound conscience, as I read it says that we are to respect the other persons conscience and not use it as a personal tool. I hope, as a called faculty member of Southern Seminary, you keep personal opinions to yourself and teach the Systematic Theology class to which you have been called. Peace
August 29, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Joel, would you have made such a request of Martin Luther? I pray that Michael does not retreat to his faculty office but speaks the truth in love.
August 30, 2009 at 5:44 am
As I read Joel Brown’s response I wonder when it ceased to be a scholar’s legitimate role to publicly state his opinions – in this instance a professor of theology’s opinions regarding theology. I find no bashing here, and appreciate Professor Root’s establishing this blog, and the content he’s posted here already.
August 30, 2009 at 7:06 am
Mr. Brown should meditate on the Psalm for this Sunday: Who shall dwell on God’s holy hill? The person who speaks the truth from the heart. The issues we face involve commitments to truth on which there cannot be compromise — including that sin of remaining silent when we should have spoken. As Bonhoeffer noted in “Life Together,” nothing is more unloving than the silence that leaves another Christian in his sin, and nothing is more loving than a word of reproof (I Tim. 4.2) that calls a fellow Christian back from his sin.
August 30, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Joel, are your joking?? Please clarify that you are. To invoke the “governing” bishop Hanson by name in a call to “not speak ill of the ELCA” is almost camp!
C’mon, you sound like me making fun of the “inside ELCA” liberal culture that seems to, from my perspective, exist.
September 1, 2009 at 9:33 am
I believe that to squelch the voice of dissension from within is a step from the light of truth and toward the darkness. If Dr. Root cannot – as one of the premier teaching theologians of the ELCA – publish a blog discussing his concerns with good theological and biblical grounding, then we have truly failed to be the church.
This blog is no different than 95 theses posted on a door in Wittenberg. A call to conversation and serious consideration that there may be other issues to consider in this process.
I for one want no part of religious institution which will not allow me to voice a disaggrement, concern, or attempt to hold accountable that which I in good conscience see as error. I EXPECT the teaching theologians in this institution that we call the ELCA, to TEACH and not tow the party line.
September 4, 2009 at 10:53 am
Exiling Dr Root to his classroom with a gag order is hardly a Lutheran perspective and totally un-American. I have heard many say we stood by quietly without voicing our opinion – guilty! Several years ago in the adult class I lead I uttered the phrase “political correctness gone totally awry.” I hear that sentiment spoken by many others now, but fear that it is rapidly moving downstream as if propelled by a jet engine!
August 28, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Professor Root, I give thanks for your clear head, theological and biblical clarity, and couragous willingness to speak the truth in love. You have not simply called a spade a spade, but in the words of a friend of mine called it what it is … a &*%$ing shovel.
Blessings to you for your voice and clarity.
A former student.
August 29, 2009 at 4:42 am
That’s right: now it moves into teaching. The first action I am going to take is to raise awareness in our congregation of what the CWA has done and its implications for the in-house Augsburg published materials. Specifically with my fellow SS teachers, who are accountable in preserving the faith. We have plenty of sound options. The Institute for Lutheran Theology comes to mind.
August 31, 2009 at 11:51 am
Brian, thanks for that additional resource…I have been wondering where I COULD turn in light of Augsburgs relationship with the ELCA and subject to its CWA actions.
August 29, 2009 at 6:19 am
I will pray for you Dr. Root. IMHO, Joel’s option above will soon become the norm within the church. Now that the advocates have “won,” they will work tirelessly to stifle dissent.
Long term the issue is about teaching. As a generation passes away that was trained to think as Lutheran theologians and is replaced by post-modern, argue from personal experience folks, the ability to produce pastors who can actually think critically about our “place in life” through the lens of scripture, the confessions and a proactive understanding of the paradox will become problematic. The slide away from the historic, orthodox church will accelerate.
August 29, 2009 at 7:55 am
Der Mike,
I fear that your 2am thoughts may be close to correct. The sickness of Lutheranism goes very far back. If Luther’s theology was creative in agood way, and if that of the Lutheran scholastics was fine, that is about the last period in Lutheran history where slogans about “law and gospel” or “justification” were not harmful to the faith.
Jens
August 29, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you, Dr. Root, for doing exactly what I expect from a professor of theology and teacher of the Church. I imagine there were a good number who told Luther, “Father Martin, go back to teaching your Bible classes and stop posting your personal opinions on the church door.” I am glad Luther didn’t listen to his critics.
The ELCA is in need of sound theological teaching. I will be interested in reading future posts.
August 29, 2009 at 10:13 am
Hopefully Pr. Brown will offer a tempering of his words, especially in light of a Facebook “conversation” we had when he expressed a similar sentiment to my posting of of the link to Dr. Root’s blog.
Thanks, Dr. Root, I look forward to reading more.
August 29, 2009 at 5:33 pm
At our Synod Gathering this week a colleague of mine said that the reality of “bound conscious” seems to be playing out in a simple phrase that we can all understand, “Shut up and play nice.”
We are not to challenge one another, we are not to redirect benevolence, we are not to do anything that could possibly be construed as standing against the decision of the CWA.
Unfortunately I am afraid that many of us will be called to task for doing just that, dissenting. I can only pray for some Wise Fredericks among us.
Thank you for your words Dr. Root – and blessings to you and to your clarion call.
August 29, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Today, as I was communicating with a Roman Catholic friend, I needed to confess my sadness, distress, and shame over the actions of our denomination. I, too, think that we have abrogated our theological heritage, our oneness with the “… one holy catholic and apostolic church …,” and have become an occasion for scandal for people seeking spiritual wholeness. In abandoning the canonical form of the scriptures as the norm for our faith, life, and practice we have become an apostate church. RCIA anyone?
August 30, 2009 at 3:18 am
Thank you Dr. Root for starting this site, we need it. I think some of us are wondering if within Lutheranism there is not a recessive antinomian gene that keeps showing its ugly face throughout history. It does seem to me that the most pressing item right now is to give a theological and ecclesiastical framework for the discussion going on in Lutheran CORE that will lead up to the September national gathering. I am also aware that the crisis in the ELCA expression of Lutheranism can benefit from the Lutheran developing world perspective.
August 30, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Thank you D. Root. I need trusted voices to speak out, as I struggle with these issues, not just as a pastor but as a person of faith.
August 30, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Dr. Root, your point three is gut puncher for me… when I first learned _theologica crucis_ and of the Lutheran similitudes under Hank Kadai it was refreshing stuff in the midst of Springfield Sem’s theological stuffiness… Your “Work of Christ and the deconstruction etc.” devastes my remembrances and use of these strains pastorally over the years… While you argue their thin use in Luther, can they be used wisely as new Lutheran thought as well as a flimsy basis for some our present weak footings? Harvey Mozolak
August 30, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Thank you Dr. Root for leading this discussion and for standing firm in the historic, catholic and apostolic faith. Thank you Nathan Hilkert for posting the link to this blog on Facebook. I frankly was appalled to read so few responses, pro or con, this week by my colleagues to the actions taken by the CWA. It seems that now we are beginning to find our voices.
This morning, as I was standing before the altar leading the prayers of the people to God, I was overcome with such a deep sense of grief and shame at what our denomination has done that the words simply would not come. What prayer can I possibly utter that adequately expresses or explains to God what we have done?
And now we are being asked to play nice together as if this were some sporting event where the winners and the losers all shake hands after the game and go out to have a few beers together. That attitude would have us believe that it is only a group of people who have lost, but I maintain that the argument is fundamentally flawed, for it is not a group of people who have lost, but rather it is the cause of the proclamation of the gospel and our life together as a community that lives into the gospel proclamation that have been damaged.
As one of you so astutely observed, it is now the teaching of Lutheran theology that will be affected. Perhaps the task that lies before us now is to begin the process of teaching our congregations exactly what the far-reaching ramifications of these decisions are, and the effects that they will have on our life of faith.
Not only have we gone from Luther’s doctrine of ‘sola scriptura’ to a new doctrine of ‘sorta scriptura,’ but the ELCA has also declared that it is now possible to change any doctrine or dogma of the church by a simple majority vote. All we have to do, we now discover, is to gather enough folks together in a room, have a straight up or down vote, and we can declare the divinity of Jesus to be null and void. I know, let’s make it easy for those who can’t grasp the concept of one God in three persons and do away with the doctrine of the Trinity.
August 31, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Evidently the only one who can have voice are those who disagree with what the way 2009 CWA voted. I understand that your bound conscience says that the ELCA has strayed, but how can we live into that difference and continue to be church.
August 31, 2009 at 5:28 pm
As far as I can see now, the ELCA can “live into” these decisions only if it is willing think through ways of living in impeded, or impaired, or partial communion within its own life. We will have to see.
You are certainly free to have a voice here.
Michael Root
August 31, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Joel,
I am still waiting for your response to my question as to whether you were joking in your first post. I was seriously asking if you were joking. Because if you weren’t, then you could have only been issuing a threat.
August 31, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Not sure HOW you consider ANY of that a threat, and I was serious. Conversation is good, but evidently only for the dissenting. Peace, out!
September 1, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Joel,
Let me quote you:
“I wish to remind you, Mr. Root, that we are not to speak ill of the ELCA.”
“As a current professor of Southern Seminary, unless you have tendered your resignation, we are called to speak well of each other.”
“I hope, as a called faculty member of Southern Seminary, you keep personal opinions to yourself and teach the Systematic Theology class to which you have been called.”
To paraphrase: “You had better not express a differing opinion, Mr. Root, or you may well lose your job with the ELCA.”
That’s HOW, Joel.
Joel, your comments sound like something Dean Wormer from “Animal House” would say.