American Specator Book Review
I do not buy modern theology books or keep them in my library. During graduate school I had to read many modern theologians and met many of them.
Hauerwas was right out of Yale when I was a freshman at Augustana College. They did not renew his contract ("They fired me," he said) because he did not harmonize with Swedish Pietism. He took a pay cut to teach at Notre Dame, where he achieved great fame. Pope John Paul II visited Notre Dame, picked up an honorary doctorate, and told the school to get rid of its Protestant and liberation theology faculty members in the theology department.
Hauerwas left for Duke. Wilken (LCMS apostate) joined Duke. Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenze departed for the Episcopal school near Harvard. Her fellow-professor husband, Frank, left for any job available. Both Fiorenzas ended up with endowed professorships at Harvard. Being a Roman Catholic feminist (Elisabeth) or a Marxist (Frank) will not hurt a job search at Harvard Divinity.
I was at Notre Dame before the JP.2 purge, so I had a rainbow coalition of professors: Hauerwas (Methodist), Yoder (Mennonite), Hommes (liberal Dutch Calvinist), both Fiorenzas, Primus (Rabbinic Judaism), and guest lectureships from Ahlstrom (Yale Lutheran), Wiesel (Judaism), and many others. The most fun was having a long conversation with Prince Charles' personal guru, Laurens van der Post. Laurens was being ignored during a long break at the Jung conference on campus, so I struck up a conversation with him. After he lectured, a knot of people surrounded him. Such are the vicissitudes of fame.
I used to think that years of studying modern theology were an enormous waste of time, which I might have spent in taxidermy or another useful profession. However, seldom does anyone have the time and energy to study hundreds of related books, only to burrow through the library again to study a more focused topic for a dissertation, taking notes, interviewing people, writing letters, reading archives.
According to WELS' ecumenical Pietism, I cannot be trusted to discern the spirits because of my first-hand knowledge. One publisher asked me to review a book before publication because I studied under Hauerwas and Yoder.
WELS honors those who study at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity School - as long as they lie about it.
Hauerwas and Yoder are both examples of Enthusiasm. Neither one had a real confessional base. Hauerwas is associated with Methodism, Anabaptism, Roman Catholicism, and the Episcopal Church (Peace-nik conference). Yoder got involved with the Cambellites (Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ) - influencing them so much that they write about him long after his death.
Hauerwas is a kindly man who cares about other people and relates well to his students. Although I have not been in contact with him for decades, I still remember his thoughtfulness at critical times.
Two people influenced my approach to publishing: Bainton and Hauerwas. Whatever theological journals or books I searched through, those names jumped out everywhere. Their publication list was endless, it seemed.
I thought it worthwhile to do the same for traditional Lutheran theology. I could not stay in the LCA, so I wrote about that in 1987, knowing my PhD gave me credibility.
I have experienced two dominant responses among the "conservative" Lutherans.
The first was a demonic hatred for Lutheran doctrine and anyone connected with it. Some (like John Seifert) tried to ascribe this to a local phenomenon, such as the long-standing wobbly nature of Columbus, Ohio. Some of the poison-pen responses on this blog are nothing compared to the things said and done by WELS and Missouri leaders, not to mention the odious ELS and CLC (sic) cults.
The second was an overwhelming effort to silence me in every possible way. This recently came from a source: "Synod and professors seem more worried about Seminary students wasting time on Ichabod."
The silencing has been more extensive than that. UOJ Enthusiasts made sure that Otten never published anything by me again, and never published anything positive about what I wrote. Some long-term readers sent in comments about Thy Strong Word. Otten refused to publish them. Trinity in Bridgeton refused to give Christian News money until I was banned. Money talks at the "independent" Christian News. And Otten listens closely to all the synodical spin-doctors, who are appointed to keep him in line.
An independent publisher asked me to provide him with book manuscripts to publish and sell. When Bivens and Valleskey heard about it, the same WELS printer said he had to protect his income. He could not afford a WELS boycott. He refused to print what he asked me to give him, and he kept all the photographs for the book about Bethany and Erin - Angel Joy. I asked for them repeatedly, but he kept them forever, finally sending them when the book was printed elsewhere. Like many in WELS, he complained about how mean WELS was. Like many in WELS, he was ready to turn on a dime when commanded.
I could not even buy an ad in Marvin-Schwan's-Logia at one point, and they refused to review anything. The most shunned book has been Thy Strong Word, but it remains the most influential (in my opinion), although that has taken a long time to develop.
The silence and shunning prove to me how dangerous the Church of the Augsburg Confession appears to the Synodical Conference franchise. The Syn Conference seminaries are expensive introductions to New Age ecumenism, whether the graduates stay to wreck the sect, move to Rome, or openly join the Methodobapticostals. The shards of the Syn Conference are no better, so they should not rejoice in the breakdown of the Mother Ship. They are worse than their parents, typical of incest.
The financial fraud in WELS-ELS-LCMS is a wonder to behold, because everyone is so greedy for money but they do not notice the skimming of funds for everything except the true purpose of the Church. Mostly, the money goes to the managers who manage the money - not to mention the lawsuits they bring against the innocent and defend against the guilty. As WELS Pastor Fred Adrian said when WELS lost a $400,000 - "It doesn't matter. Insurance is paying for it." DP Seifert said about the disgraced Adrian, "We have to get him back in the parish!" (My words - Seifert's apostasy).
The worst part of this financial fraud is the doctrinal fraud, because the apostates have their claws and hooves in the treasury, doling out funds to one another and rejoicing in the confessional orthodoxy of Holy Mother Sect.
As I told one or two people, the WELS/LCMS reporting is getting repetitive. The Spineless Presidents are too timid to annoy the Daddy Warbucks and their allies, making the SPs the enablers. They throw a little raw meat to the base from time to time, but the trend line is pure apostasy, funded apostasy, planned and programmed apostasy.
I am going to do a long-term study of the Formula of Concord, starting with the beginning and going through every article - though not every word of it. I will label it so people can find the parts from clicking the label.
The Book of Concord annoyed him for naming his sect as wrong about doctrine.
But he did the same about the Book of Concord.
