Matt O’Reilly offers a vision of forgiveness rooted in John Wesley’s life and ministry. Directing our attention to the relation between the fear of death, anxiety, and forgiveness, O’Reilly calls pastors to proclaim the Gospel of assurance—the Gospel that proclaims we are forgiven, that death is defeated, and that we as individuals and congregations can live in forgiving relationships with one another, and so be transformed by the Spirit of Christ.
Dave Morlan takes us into the challenges of depression and anxiety that pastors face. For many pastors, admitting the emotional and mental-health challenges we face is itself anxiety producing. Morlan invites us into Paul’s own challenges with anxiety, the rise of depression in our society, and the reality that depression is to be expected in the pastoral calling. He then provides us with a practical way to determine if we are experiencing depression and anxiety and encouraging us as pastors to take steps to deal with the emotional challenges we face in the pastorate.
Scott Hafemann explores the relation between the new and the old in 2 Corinthians 5, arguing that it is the eschatological social location of the new creation that calls us to live the cross-shaped life, a way of life that has forgiveness at its very core. Hafemann explores the pastoral guidance that Paul gives the Corinthian believers in his call to love one another, a love which is lived out in forgiving relationships among the new community.
Ed Gerber offers an exposition of Matthew 5:21-26. His exegetical study helps us to see that anger is part of the human experience, and that we are justified in being angry with those who do us harm. However, the Gospel calls us beyond our right to anger, into a divinely empowered act of forgiveness that enables us to move past the natural life into the supernatural life of God. As such, we witness to, and embody, the love and grace of God.
Adam Copenhaver demonstrates the relationship between Paul’s letter to the Colossians and his letter to Philemon, making the case that the theology of Colossians is the theological background to Paul’s call for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and accept him back, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. In making these connections, Copenhaver takes us into the deep logic of Gospel forgiveness, allowing us to see how the theology of forgiveness is not merely an abstract theological construct, but is the driver behind forgiving acts within the Body of Christ.
Chris Castaldo starts us off with a historical treatment of the doctrine of justification in Peter Martyr Vermigli’s theology. In dialogue with Calvin’s vision of the duplex gratia, Castaldo shows how Vermigli offers insight into the nature of human need and Divine forgiveness through the doctrine of double justification.
Herein the essay offers a reflection on the cruciform nature of pastoral ministry and its life- giving implications for the oppressed. In particular, the essay invites us to consider the question of women’s ordination in light of the legitimate feminist quest to “break the tradition of male destructive domination of [the woman’s] body and soul.” The first section utilizes the liberationist paradigm of El Salvadorian theologian Fr. John Sobrino for assessing the historical ways in which oppressive male power has all too often “put women on the cross.” The second part examines the self-denying example of the crucified Jesus, and how his cruciform use of power has helped to liberate women. The third section considers St. Paul’s pastoral ministry as a continuation of Jesus’s cruciform “cross-releasing” mission. The final section concludes with some reflections on how all of the above, combined with the work of the German theologian Susanne Hiene, informs our understanding of Jesus’s maleness, the feminist telos of male power, and the logic of women’s ordination.
With God Every Day
BOBBIE SCHAEPERKOETTER
ARTICLE: Revival For All of Us
JOSEPH LEAR
ARTICLE: Why Church Identity Really Matters
JOEL LAWRENCE
From Word to Worship
MICHAEL NIEBAUER
