LOGIA

Epiphany 2012, Volume XXI, Number 1
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(A feature article from the journal: Confessional Fidelity by Bo Giertz) Ruben Josefson takes the designation "confessional" from those in the current debate concerning women pastors who have incorrectly taken the title for themselves, and gives it back to those who deserve to wear it.

So says Ingmar Strom in Woman, Society, Church concerning Ruben Josefson's essay, "The Evangelical-Lutheran Position," in the same book. Thus, those are truly "confessional" who find no opposition in the Bible or the Confessions to opening the office of the ministry to women. One who honestly desires to be faithful to the Confessions naturally listens with interest. More so, his own faith and work as a pastor stand endlessly in debt to the Confessions. If it is true that it can be shown with good reason that our Confessions represent a view of Christianity and biblical interpretation that naturally leads to introducing women pastors at an appropriate time, then this whole controversy can be ended — certainly a relief for all parties involved. What are the reasons, then?

Reformation 2011, Volume XX, Number 4
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(A feature article from the journal: The Lutheran Codicil: From Augustine’s Grace to Luther’s Gospel by Phillip Cary) Because Luther’s doctrine of justification belongs to the broad stream of the Augustinian doctrine of grace in the West, we can see what is distinctive about it by noticing how it differs from Augustine’s teaching. The best way to do that, I propose, is to observe that where Luther distinguishes law and gospel, Augustine distinguishes law and grace. The difference is encapsulated in what I call “the Lutheran codicil to the Augustinian heritage,” in which Augustine’s insistence on fleeing for grace becomes Luther’s insistence on fleeing to the gospel.