Robert Saler

The Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) sponsors a fine online journal entitled “Let’s Talk,” which is a venue for Chicago-area pastors, theologians, and laity to contribute articles about issues facing the Lutheran church in the urban . . . . Continue Reading »

The season is upon us where culture junkies such as myself become enjoyably worked up over various year-end “Best of 2011” lists - best album, movie, novel, etc. Adam Kotsko of Shimer College wonders what this drive towards “spurious ‘ranking,’ that is, the expression . . . . Continue Reading »

Much recent Luther scholarship has focused upon his incisive use of economic metaphors to describe the (deceptively) profound daily actions of Christian believers. Over at Lutheran Forum , Sarah Wilson reports on her discovery of a whimsical, yet well-crafted, plan by Luther to convey . . . . Continue Reading »

The 20th-century German theologian Erik Peterson, whose conversion from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism was the occasion for a great deal of ecclesiological soul-searching after the second World War, has had a substantive influence on theology both in Europe and in the English-speaking world. . . . . Continue Reading »

On the plus side: the Atlanta Diocese of the Episcopal Church is taking on a substantive theological question concerning the patristic heritage of the church. On the negative side: well, let’s listen in : Whereas the historical record of Pelagius’s contribution to our theological . . . . Continue Reading »

The blogosphere has rightly settled down from the fevered discussions on universalism occasioned earlier this year by, among other things, Rob Bell’s writings. However, distance has its advantages. In this case, the fact that universalism (or threats of it) is not quite the hot topic among . . . . Continue Reading »

The bit of revisionist history (summarized by Scott McLemee) concerning the decline of mainline denominations in the U.S. that David Hollinger offers will, I suspect, not be overly surprising to those of us who have actually experienced the seemingly chronic inability of many mainline Protestant . . . . Continue Reading »

Theologians working in the key of Hans Urs von Balthasar or, more recently, David Bentley Hart have come to a renewed appreciation of the deep links between truth and beauty. Because I have great sympathies for this line of thought, I am often self-conscious of how mainline Protestant traditions - . . . . Continue Reading »