Adoration of the Magi Bartolomé Esteban Murillo 17th Century

12
The Ruins of Christendom
An Institute of Lutheran Theology
Conference was held October 22-24,
2012.
Nearly fifty people gathered at the Old
Sanctuary in Brookings, South Dakota
for this important discussion on life
in the twenty-first century, wherein
Christianity does not enjoy the respect
of or the establishment within our
culture as it did in the opening decades
of the twentieth century. Embedded
in a post-modern culture, this post-
Christendom era shares several of its
features: 1) a retreat into the self as a measure of all things, 2)
a retreat away from objective truth, and 3) a retreat from the
objective reality of God as a being distinct and separate from
the self. Three pairs of presentations and responses stimulated
much discussion from the gathered participants. The first pair—
Dr. Jonathon Sorum and Dr. Jack Kilcrease—tackled the first
issue of the self-retreating into the self. Here, law and gospel
preaching break through this “in curvatus in se” (being curved
in upon one’s self). Dr. Sorum used the writings of Phillip Reif
and his concept of vias (a culture's way of being in the world at a
By Rev. Timothy J. Swenson
Director of Student Services
Fall Theological Conference in Brookings SD
Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt giving a
lecture at the Conference
particular stage of its development) to lay this out for the crowd.
The second pair—Dr. Mark Hilmer and Dr. Dan Lioy—looked
at how the Word of God establishes Jesus Christ as the way,
the truth, and the life. Dr. Hilmer surveyed the bible, drawing
out Christ as the Word of God present throughout the scope
of scripture. The third and last pair—Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt
and Dr. George Tsakiridis—dealt with scripture’s revelation
of the one true God as an objective reality who engages in
theophysical causality. Dr. Bielfeldt drew on the theological
and philosophical tradition, demonstrating the historical nature
of having a God who creates and then acts to establish things
within that creation. Much discussion ensued; the gathered
crowd participated nearly as much as the paired presenters.
The conference concluded with a panel discussion about how
the presentations could be applied to preaching in the parish.
At the end, the participants were gratified, knowing they’d
contributed to an important conversation for addressing these
post-Christendom times. The conference proceedings will be
published as a journal and in DVD video format. Watch the
Institute’s website for announcements this winter.
Dr. Jack Kilcrease &
Dr. Jonathan Sorum
fielding questions
Informal discussion between lectures