II. Some Test Cases

And it is enough for the true unity of the church to agree concerning the teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Article VII of the Augsburg Confession

Some Lutherans are more “conservative,” some more “liberal”

All agree that the authority of Scripture has to do with its central saving message—yet some recognize or emphasize the human limitations of the scriptural authors more than others

The ELCA is not the Democratic Party (or the Republican Party) at prayer

The ELCA is a church body, united by the Gospel, in which sisters and brothers disagree on important issues—we have a unity in reconciled diversity.

This term does not appear in the Lutheran Confessions

Is Sola scriptura another way of saying Solus christus?

Popes, councils, churchwide assemblies, pastors, and especially seminary professors may err

Have the Scriptures ever been alone?◦ The words of Jesus were preserved in tradition before they

were cited in the gospels◦ The ongoing role of Tradition in formulating the doctrine of

the trinity, two natures of Christ, ordination, etc.◦ The assumptions and presuppositions of the biblical

authors◦ The assumptions and presuppositions of biblical

interpreters

I know that finally the Bible is forceful and consistent in its main theological claim. It expresses the conviction that the God who created the world in love redeems the world in suffering and will consummate the world in joyous well-being. Walter Brueggemann

The Word of God in the biblical text is refracted through many authors who were not disembodied voices of revealed truth but circumstance-situated men and women of faith who said what their circumstances permitted and required them to say. It is this human refraction that makes the hard work of critical study inescapable, so that every text is given a suspicious scrutiny whereby we may consider the ways in which bodied humanness has succeeded or not succeeded in bearing truthful and faithful witness. Walter Brueggemann

Their passion for justice The significance of the beloved community Advocacy of living righteously Focus on the gospel

At times the church has fallen well short of an appropriate reading of the biblical text

At other times the church has correctly contradicted what the biblical text seems to affirm

At still other times the church has moved beyond where our ancient biblical colleagues were ready to go

How we might proceed when issues posed by contemporary society are not directly normed by the Bible

We are all committed to the high practice of subjective extrapolations because we have figured out that a cold, reiterative objectivity has no missional energy or moral force. We do it, and will not stop doing it. It is, however, surely healing and humbling for us to have enough self-knowledge to concede that what we are doing will not carry the freight of absoluteness. Spirit-filled interpretation is given us by and through

bodied authors who must make their way in the world—and in making our way, we humans do not see so clearly or love so dearly or follow so nearly as we might imagine. Walter Brueggemann

On the basis of the Bible

Ham’s seeing the nakedness of his father = some kind of overt sexual act of incest

The curse◦ Canaan would be a slave of Shem (Israel)◦ God would enlarge the tents of Japheth

(Philistines) in shared territory with Israel◦ Canaan would also be a slave of the Philistines

Why should one people be enslaved by another?

How should nations or faiths relate to each other?

“God himself had inaugurated the institution of human bondage since Noah spoke under the impulse and dictation of Heaven. His words were the words of God himself, and by them was slavery ordained.” The Rev. Alexander McCaine

“It is generally believed that the Africans or Negroes are descendants of Ham. The judicial curse of Noah under the posterity of Ham seems yet to rest upon them.” The Rev. Samuel Dunwoody

A slaveholder himself The institution of human bondage had been

initiated by God in the decree of Noah “Nature had stamped on the African race

the permanent marks of inferiority.”

Did these 19th century clergymen realize how their biases dictated their exegesis?

And how do our biases affect our exegesis?

You shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave. 3rd commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave. 10th commandment

Paul again and again admonished masters and slaves to fulfill their respective duties to one another without ever so much as intimating that a human being had no right to enslave his or her fellow human being.

H. Sheldon Smith, In His Image, but…

There can be no doubt that the New Testament shows no urgency in the matter of emancipation of slaves.

Does the New Testament contain elements, glimpses which point beyond and even “against” the prevailing view of the New Testament church? Krister Stendahl

Amos: The Israelites sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes.

Nehemiah was outraged at the enslavement of fellow Israelites.

All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.

Both slaves and free people are sinners for whom Christ died

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people (actually men) are created equal

And how did that work out in the U.S. Constitution?

The moral imperative of antislavery forced many evangelical Christians away from Biblicism into a less literal reading of Scripture.

The study of slavery in the Bible teaches theology that biblical criticism is seldom able to settle Christian moral debate, but Christian moral debate can and does shape broad and influential trends in biblical criticism. J. Albert Harrill, writing on slavery in NIDB.

Deuteronomy 15:13-14 versus Exodus 21:1-11◦ Women as well as men are to be freed from

slavery after seven years◦ The master is not to send the slave away empty-

handed lest he or she fall back immediately into debt-slavery

Deuteronomy 15 is at least two centuries later than Exodus 21

Recalling the process

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ

Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved.

Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman. For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God.

(As in all the churches of the saints, 34 women should be silent in the churches.

For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.

35 If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

36 Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)

Note parenthesis in NRSV An editor inserted it to bring it into

conformity with the practices regarding women in his own time

Conflicts with earlier passages in Corinthians Paul’s followers felt increasing pressure to

accommodate to the social structures and practices of their unbelieving neighbors.

What if we could not agree this was an insertion? Would we not still discount it as time and situation bound?

Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing….

Adam or Eve as first to be created or first to sin

In Genesis 2, man is created at the beginning of the chapter and woman toward the end of the chapter—both are favored positions. Ring composition.The woman at least carried on an adult conversation with the snake

Lutheran women ordained in Denmark 1967, Czechoslovakia 1953, Sweden 1959, Norway 1961, Germany 1968

Changing role of women in wider society Voice vote in LCA 57% approval in ALC

If we are right in describing the statements of I Corinthians 11:11-12 and Galatians 3:28 as pointing beyond what is actually implemented in the New Testament church, then they must be allowed their freedom; and the tension which they constitute must not be absorbed or neutralized in a comprehensive and hence harmonized “biblical view.” Krister Stendahl

The ELCA social statement on genetics focuses on fundamental affirmations, general analysis, overarching values, directives and principles for teaching, deliberation, policy advocacy and pastoral guidance rather than providing ethical prescriptions for a multitude of specific issues.

It thereby recognizes that decisions on particular issues may not be governed by Scripture.

We stand with the faith claim that to be human is to be mortal and believe we should not seek to circumvent mortality through reproductive cloning.

Should reproductive cloning “progress,” this church would honor the God-given dignity of cloned individuals and would welcome each to the baptismal font like any other child of God.

If individuals are cloned despite societal and ELCA rejection, this church will respect their God-given dignity and will welcome them to the baptismal font, like any other child of God.

Many in this church believe that the practice of regenerative medicine (based on stem cell research) could benefit millions of people whose lives are burdened, if not threatened, by a host of serious diseases.

Others in this society and this church believe, however, that only those forms of stem cell research should be pursued that do not require the destruction of viable human embryos.

In the meantime [this church] accepts the use of surplus frozen embryos that were created for infertility treatment but are no longer needed.

Topic dropped in final document.

The Scriptures Church tradition Gains in human knowledge Personal experience

None of us comes to the Scriptures as an empty slate

The Spirit has sometimes led the church beyond the plain sense of Scripture to reject all slavery and to recognize the full equality of women

In countless biblical words we hear the authoritative voice of the author and finisher of our faith

We need to live boldly and faithfully in paths uncertain and on ventures of which we cannot see the ending.

The authority of Scripture, for Luther and his followers, was affirmed with respect to its chief purpose of declaring the gospel of Christ for faith and salvation. Carl Braaten