Today at General Conference saw approval of both Full Communion with the ELCA (pending the ELCA’s mutual approval next summer), as well as a new hymnal, to be prepared for acceptance and the next GC in 2012. I am excited about both.
I did not get to watch the proceedings today, however, as my wife and I were visiting the Cities for various errands. I went to my favorite bookstore in Stillwater to get some theological books in German (to prepare for my German exam in September)…and I scored big. I really wanted to find some works by Hermann Diem, particularly vol 1 of his Theologie als kirchliche Wissenschaft. Only the second volume is available in English, presumably because it contains the bulk of his argument against Käsemann’s use of “justification” as a hermeneutical key toward reading the unity of the NT. I was disappointed, however, in that they had no books authored by Diem (other than the aforementioned English translation, which I already own). I did find, however, a book that makes significant use of Diem’s first volume – the first volume of Matthias Gatzemeier’s Theologie als Wissenschaft?
In addition to this great find, I also acquired Hans Küng’s Rechtfertigung, Gogarten’s Der Mensch zwischen Gott und Welt, Ebeling’s Das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens (Gerhard Forde’s personal copy) and Eberhard Jüngel’s Gott als Geheimnis der Welt.
As I was about to leave, I also spotted W.E. Sangster’s 1943 dissertation on John Wesley’s doctrine of sanctification, The Path to Perfection. This is one of the earliest works to call attention to the fundamental divergence between John and Charles Wesley on this doctrine (19th century Wesleyana tended to harmonize the two for the sake of hagiography). So I reread that book this evening, which helped to prepare me to learn of Obama’s so-called “divorce” earlier today from his pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. This deserves its own post, however, so I will continue shortly….
