Michael P. O'Connor

For this Lutheran Carnival I will look at a confessional Lutheran of recent times: Bo Giertz. I picked Bo Giertz because one of my pastors (Pastor Eric Andrae) has studied and written on Bo Giertz extensivly.

Bo Giertz was born August 31, 1905. Bo Giertz served as Bishop in Gothenburg, Sweden from 1949-1970. Bo Giertz was one of the youngest pastors to be named to be a bishop in the Church of Sweden. Under pressure from the government of Sweden, the Church decided to ordain women in 1958; in response the bishop invited confessional groups to form “The Church Coalition for the Bible and Confession,” which stood for the Biblical and Confessional position on women’s service in the Church. Because of the breadth and depth of his writings, Giertz has been compared to C. S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One of Bo Giertz’s books, The Hammer of God, is required reading for all first-year students in the seminaries of the LCMS. Until recently the last chapter (chapter 9) had never been translated for any English edition, but through the efforts of Pastor Hans Andrae the new revised edition (2005) now contains the complete novel.

I would like to thank Pastor Andrae, Campus Pastor at First Trinity Lutheran Church, for help on this article and the use of his books. For more information on Giertz, please contact Pastor Andrae at ERA@FirstTrinity.net

Sorry about getting this up late in the evening, but I ended up at church from 8:30am till 7:15pm today. (see other posts on this blog if you even care why 😉 But now on to the Carnival

Preachrblog
“The Girl is Dead, the Mourners Weep”
A hymnic meditation on Jesus’ power to raise from death.

Blog My Soul
Designated: U.A.C.
Many older congregations, including that which I serve, have or have had the designation U.A.C. in their legal name and even on their cornerstone. The use of that designation often causes questions as to what it means. The commemoration of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession last Sunday (June 25) offered a tailor-made opportunity to answer the question as well as teach how confessional subscription is not something isolated to the 16th century. This post was originally published as an insert to Sunday’s bulletin.

Daylight
The Furniture Expert from Alpha Centauri
Rick Ritchie discusses how when doctrines aren’t allowed the time to become permanent mental furniture in people’s minds, even bright people can fail to see when they are talking nonsensically about them.

Aardvark Alley
Reaching Out to Mormons
Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Confessor
The Aardvark talks about Christian-LDS differences and points out some sites that might be helpful for personal and congregational outreach in Reaching Out to Mormons. He also noted several commemorations during the previous fortnight, including one of those most responsible for Theotokos in our Christian vocabulary, Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran
Meeting Former LCMSers
Description of the post: Dan met a few former LCMS people at his new church and describes what they discussed. He also talks a little about culture shock.

Horn+Swoggled
LCMS Pastor Seeks Input for “Good Order”
Inspired by Rome, a Lutheran pastor decides to cut down on liturgical innovation

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Horn+Swoggled
PCUSA Issues Spiritual Thesaurus
The PCUSA follows its renaming of the Trinity with a few more linguistic adjustments.

Necessary Roughness
Feast of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Dan outlines some basic criteria as to how he chooses churches on the
road and includes notes from a Bible Study at St. Mark Lutheran Church
in Conroe, TX.

Necessary Roughness
Sunday School in Lieu of Worship
For various reasons some churches are opting to hold Sunday School
during church. Dan addresses these reasons and evaluates the practice in
light of scripture and Luther’s Explanation of the Third Commandment.

Ask the Pastor
The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Rev. Snyder of Ask the Pastor marked this years commemoration of The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession with an historical overview and a summary of the chief teachings of this seminal Lutheran document. As is most certainly Lutheran, his emphasis centered upon justification by grace through faith.
Ask the Pastor
Two Wines? Too Much!
Triggered by a letter to the paper carrying the print version of Ask the Pastor, Rev. Snyder detailed and rebutted some of the places where sectarians are completely wrong in attempting to remove alcoholic wines from the Lord’s Supper (and from all human consumption) in Two Wines? Too Much!