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“Love Is Fierce as Death”
FREDERICK J. GAISER
(see full text of essay under “Editorial”)
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Could we not give up
the idolatry of power, and practice even now that kingdom of peace and love
that Jesus announces? Finally, not a love that is weak and sentimental, but a
love that is precisely “fierce as death.”
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Articles
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The Enemy in the Psalms
MARTI J. STEUSSY
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Using the psalms to bring before God our fears and our
hatreds allows us to express such emotions honestly and, perhaps eventually,
even to pray such psalms from the enemies’ point of view. In praying with Christ,
we are permitted to identify with both parties to the conflicts described in
the psalms.
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Love Your Enemies
WARREN CARTER
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Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” is recognized as
an authentic saying of Jesus, one that calls disciples in every age to
imitate both God’s merciful love for enemies (Luke 6:36) and God’s own
perfection (Matt 5:48).
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Envious Enemies of the Cross of Christ (Philippians
3:18)
DAVID E.
FREDRICKSON
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Contrary to the common understanding, the “enemies of
the cross of Christ” in Phil 3:18 are the same people who “proclaim Christ
from envy and rivalry” in 1:15. These “enemies” want Paul’s fame, but not the
suffering that is built into loving.
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Satan the Enemy
WALTER SUNDBERG
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The figure of Satan is deeply woven into the fabric of
the Bible and theology, including the theology of Martin Luther. Satan
symbolizes evil better than any other symbol in history.
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Islam as an Enemy? A Study in the Social
Construction of “Realities”
STEVEN A. HAGGMARK
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Too often in our reflections about Muslims, we create an “enemy” that
is based on our own cultural biases and generalizations. Genuine human encounter
can undermine this process.
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Resisting the Human Need for Enemies, or What
Would Harry Potter Do?
MARY HESS
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Most mass-mediated popular cultures surround us with enemies, offering
up vivid depictions of a world seen as either “for us” or “against us.”
Christian faith, on the other hand, draws us towards love even in the
presence of hatred. A close look at the surprisingly countercultural world of
Harry Potter provides some ways forward in walking the path of love.
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“Changing the Face of the Enemy”: Martin Luther
King, Jr., and the Beloved Community
GARY M. SIMPSON
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Martin Luther King, Jr., begins with Jesus’ command to love the enemy
and moves to an understanding that in the “beloved community” God is “changing
the face of the enemy.” In that beloved community, where all are brought
together in a way that changes all, true freedom is
found.
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My Sinful Self: The Self as Enemy
STEVEN D.
PAULSON
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“We have met the enemy, and he is us,” said Pogo. The “us” is our
sinful self, which can be disposed of only by dying to faith in our own power
to believe and rising to faith as the daily gift of Christ. For this, we need
a preacher, the bringer of an external word to which we can cling.
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The 2007–2008 Word
& World Lecture
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The New Green Christianity: Why the Church Is
Vital to Saving the Planet
MARK I. WALLACE
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In the present environmental crisis, only religion has the moral authority
to motivate us to look beyond our private self-interest to the greater good
of the planet itself. We must do this now, before it is too late.
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Resources
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Texts in Context:
“Do not repay evil with evil”: Preaching Romans 12:9–21
ROY A. HARRISVILLE
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This text from Romans contains thirty imperatives—which would merely be
another set of moralisms and religious requirements were it not for the
“renewing of your mind” that Paul commends in Rom 12:2. Only God in Christ can
work that transformation, and only then do Paul’s commands become
possibilities.
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Face to Face:
Weekly Confession and Forgiveness?
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We, as God’s People, Have Been Set
Free
DAVID HOUSHOLDER
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We, of All People,
Know the Need
JOHN B.
VALENTINE
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Reviews
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Solving the Romans Debate, by A. Andrew Das
KYLE
THOMAS FEVER
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Speaking of God: Relational Theology, by Paul R. Sponheim
ANN MILLIKEN PEDERSON
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The Role of Justification
in Contemporary Theology, by Mark C. Mattes
RICHARD J. NIEBANCK
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A Formula for Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in
Congregations, by Timothy J.
Wengert
HANS
WIERSMA
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Rethinking Christ
and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective, by Craig A. Carter
CLINT SCHNEKLOTH
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And Grace Will Lead
Me Home: Images of the Prodigal Son from the Jerry Evenrud Collection, by
Robert M. Brusic
PAUL BERGE
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When Faiths Collide,
by Martin E. Marty
PAUL WESTERMEYER
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The End of Memory:
Remembering Rightly in a Violent World, by Miroslav Volf
ANDREW ROOT
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Coming of Age: Exploring the Identity and Spirituality
of Younger Men, by David W.
Anderson, Paul G. Hill, and Roland D. Martinson
BILLY JOHNSON
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