As a confessional church, the Lutheran community affirms the normative authority of Scripture and tradition. Lutherans also insist that Christ and the gospel are the hermeneutical key for interpreting both Scripture and tradition. The gospel, which always points us to Christ, is, therefore, the interpretative lens in light of which the biblical and theological heritage of the church must be understood, evaluated and affirmed.
As a Lutheran community, part of the body of Christ, we also share with you our experience of Christ’s refreshing spirit in our seminary community. Here at LSTC, we have been blessed by lively and faithful conversations with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender students and pastors in our midst about matters of sexuality, gender identity, and committed relationships to human partners and God. We see firsthand the hope, the pain, and the joy in these conversations. While we do not always agree with each other, we discover Christ’s spirit in this fellowship. Deeply committed to our unity in Christ, we once were emboldened to ordain free and former slaves, whites together with peoples of color, women and men alike, to serve as pastors of the church. We must now broaden that circle to include a yet more full company of God’s children who confess the gospel and the lordship of Christ Jesus.
The undersigned members of the LSTC faculty:
Klaus-Peter Adam
Terrence Baeder
Kathleen D. Billman
Kurt Hendel
Esther Menn
Raymond Pickett
José D. Rodriguez
Craig Satterlee
Lea Schweitz
Michael Shelley
Benjamin Stewart
Rosanne Swanson
Linda E. Thomas
Barbara Rossing
David Rhoads
Peter Vethanayagamony
Christine Wenderoth
Vítor Westhelle
We also refer to the ‘Appropriate Next Steps for the ELCA’ that can be found under http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/
| Lutheran School of Theology Faculty Statement, 2009 | |
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GJ - I spotted this, trying to find out why the LSTC president resigned. It was not directly because of this, but I do imagine that funding has dropped like a stone since 2009. LSTC was a sucker's bet from the beginning, Conrad Bergendoff's dream of having his denomination sharing space with his alma mater, the U. of Chicago.
I used to go there and use the seminary library for research on my dissertation.
