Interesting But Not Shocking Review of Higher Education, From the Ovaltines

 

As I told more than one person, I would not recommend Yale Divinity School even if the student was offered 100% tuition, room, and board. On Linn Tonstad - "Professor Tonstad is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of systematic theology with feminist and queer theory."

FULL BIO

Peter Speckhard, nephew of Father Richard Neuhaus, has retired from the Ovatines, a respite for elderly Lutheran liberals and a few other denominations. I got interested when I saw he was quoting Robert Benne, who was a conservative in the LCA. Shocking? Yes, I read his articles and skipped the rest, long ago. Benne knew and discussed higher education with the former Notre Dame Provost James T. Burtchhaell. The provost died in 2015. Burtchhaell was removed - for cause - as provost and priest. He and Benne exchanged views about the growing secular attitudes of religious schools, including Roman Catholic and Lutheran.

The LCA colleges were examples, which became more secular as they grew richer and more Left-wing. My mother attended Augustana when chapel was required daily, and they had a Christianity department, later a Religion department. When Christina and I went there, we either had  weekly chapel or a program once a week. I skipped a few programs and was punished by being forced to attend twice as often, a program plus chapel once a week. Christina said, "I have been watching the punch cards and I saw your name coming up twice a week." She was paid to police attendance with punch cards to feed the college. 

It is easy to see how faculty in the Religion department were hired for their academic degrees (PhD or go home) and their apostasy - Bultmann and Barth. That attitude infiltrated the college and now - though named after the Augsburg Confession - aka Augustana - they had no interest in anything more than a growing school. 

Never mentioned in the courses was the Swedish American move to emphasize the Confessions and Lutheran identity. The Augustana pastors did not want to stay with the loosey-goosey General Synod. The great William Passavant supported Augustana's conservative stance. He was the one who paid for land on Lake Michigan for a seminary, because the Chicago Luther pastors were too stingy to get a seminary going. That land was sold to build a seminary in Maywood, and Wrigley Stadium was built on Passavant's land. No wonder that baseball fans had a special feeling for the Cubs.

Once the doctrinal rot begins, it is difficult to stop. Although I am not a fan of papal infallibility, the graduate class at Notre Dame's seminary - mostly Roman Catholic - were definitely against infallibility. A parish priest in the class was furious - "How can you call yourselves Roman Catholic if you deny the infallibility of the pope?" The Roman Catholic Frank Fiorenza was unruffled and eventually moved to an endowed position at Harvard. 

It may be easier to see, the old Roman Catholic Church becoming much more like Unitarians, the college faculties fanning the flames.

Likewise, the hip liberal denizens of the ALPB Online Discussion Group (the Ovaltines) are watching in horror as their liberal colleges are going under without much dismay. They thought the bad leaven was good to improve upon the old ways. It was only a little change each time.

For example, at Augustana, lots of kids expected to have a position as a Lutheran pastor (men only) and Lutheran staff (teaching, music). The college not only has its own DEI department, but also boasts that their new president was already a DEI specialist! Oh my. The Bored of Directors were ecstatic about their new president, the first ever female president. 

Where does this go? When ELCA was formed in 1989, the new organization stressed they would hire non-Lutherans as much as possible. I was standing in line (post LCA-ELCA) at an ELCA convention when one man asked a staffer about which Lutheran church he attended. The man said, "I am not a Lutheran." Diversity!

When I talked about the ELCA merger disaster, the WELS DP got very nervous, because he was on the ELCA Board for Relief. Though WELS was always bragging about fellowship and pure doctrine and shunning people, they did not want to offend ELCA with all the money the big boys seemed to have. The DP felt overshadowed by the power, might, and education of ELCA leaders. 

Higher education is bound to become more DEI because it is infectious and difficult to remove. 

"Since 1936, the bell tower or klockstapeln, has stood at the base of Zion Hill, between Ascension Chapel and Old Main. The bell tower has been an iconic symbol and a focal point for college lore; many marriage proposals and wedding photos often take place beneath the tower." (Yes, I took Christina to the Plantation restaurant, Augies's Handel's Messiah, and the Bell Tower, where she got her ring.)

New Augustana president. Will this DEI fad fade away? Missouri and WELS have quotas for their kin, a quirky kind of diversity, where only DNA matters. 

Reformation Seminary - Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz

 

Reformation Seminary 

Luther, was born in 1483 and died in 1546. He favored the Small Catechism and the Galatians commentaries (shorter and longer).

1. He was well trained could have become a leading figure.

2. The storm threatened his life (sword cut) and he pleaded for mercy, became an Augustine monk and priest.

3. He was urged to earn a doctorate in Biblical studies, which slowly dissolved his Medieval training and Roman Catholic rituals.

4. He kept what was Biblical and discarded papal dogma over time.

5. The printing press started its own revolution, in all languages. Profitable - for others.

6. He argued from the Bible and emphasized the sermon as central to Christian growth.

Melanchthon was born in 1497 and died in 1560. He was the author/editor of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology. He also wrote the Treatise on the Pope.

1. Melanchthon was considered the greatest language scholar after Erasmus.

2. His character was just as irenic as Luther's was polemical. 

3. The two worked closely together, which is clear with Melanchthon's work in the Book of Concord.

Chemnitz was born in 1522 and died in 1586. He was the senior editor of the Book of Concord, 1580.

1. He studied under Luther and Melanchthon.

2. Oddly, he cast horoscopes for a wealthy man, which gave him access to all the ancient Christian authors, invaluable for his battles with Rome and the sects.

3. After Melanchthon's death, Chemnitz began to pull the Lutherans (Evangelicals) together.

4. Chemnitz was widely ignored and probably still is, but his books are available in English.

5. He is most famous for the Book of Concord and the Examination of the Council of Trent.

Easter 3 - Jubilate - "But the really great sorrow above all sorrow is for the heart to lose Christ, so that he is no longer in view and there is no hope of further comfort from him. There are few who are so sorely tried."

 

Complete Sermon - Third Sermon: Christ’s Death and Resurrection; the Comfort Christ Ministers to his Disciples, and the World’s Joy

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

II. THE COMFORT CHRIST MINISTERS TO HIS DISCIPLES IN THEIR SORROW, AND THE JOY OF THE WORLD.

A. THE SORROW OF THE DISCIPLES AND THE JOY OF THE WORLD.

7. We must learn here now what it is that the Lord says: “A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while and ye shall see me,” etc. This passage is fraught with as much meaning as that other: “Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice,” etc. “But your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” A rare saying: A little while not see and be sorrowful, and yet a little while again see and be joyful.

8. According to the letter and history, it is indeed easy to understand what these words mean, especially in our day. In the confession of our faith even the children say: “I believe in Jesus Christ,” etc; “was crucified, dead and buried; the third (lay he rose again from the dead.” These are the two “little whiles,” of which Christ here speaks. But since there is deception where we also seek, and taste it, and we should try to bring it into life or experience, the words have a wonderful depth of meaning — that we should lose Christ, whom we believe to be God’s Son, who died and rose for us, etc; that he should die in us, as the apostles experienced until the third day. A terrible crucifixion and death begin when Christ dies in us and we also in him. As he here says: Ye shall not see me, for I am to depart from you. That is, I die, hence ye also will die, in that ye will not see me; and thus I will be dead to you and you will be dead to me. This is a special, deep and severe sorrow.

9. As there are many kinds of joy, so there are many kinds of sorrow. As, for example, when one is robbed of his money and property, or is reviled and disgraced when innocent, or loses father and mother, child and dear friends, etc; likewise, when Satan afflicts and martyrs one’s soul with sad thoughts, as Satan so easily can, though one knows not why or whence.

But the really great sorrow above all sorrow is for the heart to lose Christ, so that he is no longer in view and there is no hope of further comfort from him. There are few who are so sorely tried. Surely not all even of his disciples experienced this. Perhaps not St. Thomas, St. Andrew, St. Bartholomew, and others, who were such good, common and plain people.

But the other tender hearts, St. Peter, St. John, St. Philip and others, to whom these words applied, as they all had heard that they would lose Christ and never see him again.

***

PS - Someone wrote anonymously to this blog - "Everyone will be so happy when you finally die."