Thursday, March 28, 2019

Loving the Feedback

 But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns
Don't bother they're here

I have taught thousands of undergraduate and graduate students, so having everyone agree is not possible or even a good idea.

I work on people making a good argument for their position. That requires research. "Great writing comes from great research." G. Jackson. They call me a fanatic on research. "I have never had any teach so obsessed with research."

I point out that research used to mean driving 50 miles in the snow to the Notre Dame library, taking notes by hand or spending dollars on stinky, sticky photocopies. The students can sit at their computers with a bag of Fritos in one hand, two liters of Diet Coke in the other - weeping about how hard research on the Net is. Boo hoo. It reminds me of the suffering tenured seminary professors who travel to conferences paid for by Thrivent or your offerings. Each year - eight months of teaching half-days. So exhausting!

Lutherans are waking up to the fraud of Objective Justification. The three Watherian synods had Oh Jay! Webber and Jon-Boy Buchholz defend the indefensible at the Emmaus Conference. No heavyweights showed up for that debacle. Why not one of the great professors? One of the giants in synodical leadership?

Did Luther send an acolyte and a sexton to Worms?

It is obvious that Justification by Faith - the Chief Article - is drawing blood all over. The hysterical reactions are popping out here and there. They have to name me and even some of my writings. I chuckle about their struggles.

Meanwhile, Luther is gaining ground. Perhaps millions of Lutherans are suspicious that so little was done about the Reformation's 500th anniversary. After putting a Luther dog collar on their poodle, a Katie Luther spatula in their significant other's hand, and Here I Stand socks on grandpa, some might have thought, "There must be more to the Reformation than this!"

 This is how Herman Otten celebrates the Reformation, selling books against Luther for the most ignorant Roman Catholics, promoting books about Sodom and Rome, hardly news if one has read a little history.