When Shauna K. Hannan teaches homiletics to her students at Lutheran Theologi- cal Southern Semi- nary, Columbia, S.C., she urges them to stop being lone rangers and talk about the upcoming texts when they visit people.


The uphill struggle is not theologi- cal or ecclesial, but with ingrained cultural patterns that avoid the incar- national and dust-to-dust dimensions of death.


Rolf Jacobson Associate professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.


I teach Old Testa-


Benjamin Stewart Gordon A. Braatz assistant professor of worship; dean of Augustana Chapel, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago


The connection between wor- ship and ecology


is central to my work. People often think these are strange things to put together, but I think both try to com- prehend big questions. What holds everything together? What’s truly valuable in this great cosmos? I’m now working on Christian theology for the ecological burial movement. These are old practices animated by cutting-edge science and ecological concerns. It ritualizes a return to the earth, and reminds us that our bodies are earth, and that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is therein.”


For younger people today, the con- nection between earth and bodies, life and death, is especially intriguing.


ment, especially the psalms and the prophets, classes on Scripture and parish leadership, and also law and gospel. I don’t think we get how utterly disconnected worship is for most people. What happens when a new- comer visits? First we hit them with confusing words like confession and absolution, then kyrie, then we read a lesson—say from Daniel, chapter 1. They don’t know who Daniel is, when it was written or why. Then we quickly move to three other lessons. I invite seminarians and pastors to think about what a person needs to know to understand the readings, art, music and symbols of our worship. Everything we do in worship was designed to make sense, but the world is changing. Are we going to ask ourselves hard questions, or continue doing worship exactly the same way?


Anthony Bateza Doctoral student, Princeton [N.J.] Theo- logical Seminary


My interest is theological ethics


and the virtue tradition. One narrative among academics is that after Martin Luther, ethics fell out of the picture. The extreme focus on justification by faith, the sense that we don’t con- tribute to our own sanctification, has tended to produce a certain quietness


and confusion among Lutherans. How are we formed by how we


act? That is one of the harder things to get across in the parish. I’d like to teach pastors how to preach justice without betraying our commitment to being justified by grace alone. I’d also like to give them tools to create space to reflect on basic practices like welcoming folks, catechesis, out- reach and advocacy.


When pews were full we didn’t have to reflect intentionally on our values and how we pass them on. Now that pews are thinner and soci- ety more splintered, we need to make our implicit beliefs very explicit. We might see ourselves as a wel- coming and open church but not recognize the ways our behaviors convey the complete opposite. The job of the pastor and theologian is to generate conversation about the way forward.


Jessicah Duckworth Assistant professor of congregational and community care leadership, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.


I am a practical theologian. While I may listen to a biblical text or theo- logians John Chrysostom, Immanuel Kant or Paul Tillich, my primary starting place is Christian communi- ties and what is happening in them now.


My particular work is equipping Christian leaders or pastors to listen, interpret and respond. I’m excited about exploring ways to shift from


Basye, a freelance writer living in the Pacific North- west, is the author of Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal (ELCA, 2007).


For a study guide, see page 26. February 2013 21


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