Prof. John T. Pless teaching Lutheran theology and practice

I am grateful to Dr. Wilhelm Weber for the invitation to teach two advanced courses in the intensive term (February 28- March 11) at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria).  I also wish to thank Benediction Lutheran Church (Milwaukee) and their pastor, Rev. Donald Hougard for providing funds for my flight to South Africa. This term I taught “Catechetics” and “The Theology of Law and Gospel” with 16 students in each class and several students who listened in as their schedules allowed but did not take the classes for credit Each class met for two hours each of the ten days.

The Catechetics class sought to examine the history behind Luther’s development of the Small Catechism, the theology of the Catechism, and approaches to teaching the Catechism. Using Oswald Bayer’s Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation as the text for the class, students were exposed to the Catechism as a framework for Luther’s doctrine. Students worked on developing outlines for teaching particular parts of the Catechism in the congregation.

“The Theology of Law and Gospel” was primarily based on C. F. W. Walther’s classic treatment, Law and Gospel with secondary reading from Hans Joachim Iwand’s The Righteousness of Faith According to Martin Luther and my Handling the Word of Truth: Law and Gospel in the Church Today. Although we able only to cover in detail the first nine theses of Walther’s book, students were eager to engage questions relative to the application of the law and the Gospel in preaching and pastoral care in their various African contexts.

The generosity of Salem Lutheran Church (Taylorsville, NC), Trinity Lutheran Church (Reese, MI), Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church (Coldstrip, MT) and numerous individuals made it possible for each student to receive a personal copy of the above-mentioned books. This funding enabled me to take 150 pounds of books for use by students and for the permanent collection at the LTS library.

While at the seminary I preached for two chapel services (March 3 and 10), attended the Divine Service at the Zulu-speaking congregation at Daveytown on March 6, and participated in a seminar on “Women’s Ordination” with Dr. John Kleinig who was also teaching an intensive term course at LTS. Given the pressures put on African churches by the Lutheran World Federation to ordain women, there is interest in a follow up seminar on this topic in August.

Overlapping with my time at LTS was a visit by Dr. and Mrs. Carl Rockrohr and their son, Ted. Dr. Rockrohr has accepted the call to serve LTS and the LCSA, and Mrs. Debra Rockrohr, a deaconess, has accepted the call to work with deaconess education. I fully anticipate that the considerable insight, talent, and energy that Dr. and Deaconess Rockrohr bring to the work in South Africa will be a blessing for Lutherans throughout Africa.

Dr. Michael Rodewald, Area Director for LCMS World Missions, has always been supportive and encouraging of my teaching trips to South Africa. I appreciate his collaborative spirit and thoughtfulness. He and his wife, Cindy, hosted Dr. Kleinig, the Rockrohrs, and me for an enjoyable dinner at their home.

I continue to be impressed with the potential for LTS as it is strategically located to have tremendous influence for confessional Lutheranism in all of Africa. With a student body that includes seminarians from South Africa, Botswana, Uganda, Liberia, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, LTS is well-positioned to provide sound Lutheran theological education and formation for pastors and deaconesses so desperately needed in Africa today. The establishment of a Lutheran Chair at the University of Pretoria is still in progress. This Chair along with a continual program of short-term, visiting professors from our LCMS seminaries will go a long way in building the capacity of LTS for the challenges that face African Lutheranism. LTS has a vital role to play not only in preparing future pastors and deaconesses but also in raising up confessional Lutheran theologians from Africa and for Africa.

I see these short-term teaching trips by LCMS professors as an important component of the overall work of LTS. In addition to covering courses in the LTS curriculum, we are able to identify, nurture and give guidance to individual students who might be promising candidates for STM or PhD programs at our seminaries in the USA. Visiting professors are also able to assist with continuing education events for the deans and pastors of the LCSA as we did with the seminar of women’s ordination.

This was my fourth teaching trip to South Africa in the last eighteen months. Going back to LTS on a fairly frequent basis has allowed me to establish a good mentoring connection with several of the students and to build an approach to Lutheran pastoral theology incrementally in the courses I teach. I have appreciated the opportunity to visit with some the LTS students also cross-registered in degree programs at the University of Pretoria. The majority of the faculty at the University of Pretoria are either classically Reformed or Barthian in their approach. It is important for our Lutheran students to be well-resourced with Lutheran texts and opportunities for constructive but critical engagement of the lectures they hear at the University.

Dr. Weber has asked me to return again in August to teach a class on “Luther’s Ethics.”  This course would be a good follow up to both the Catechetics and the Theology of Law and Gospel course, as I would be able to address issues of natural law, two governments, orders of creation, etc. in light of Luther’s exposition of the Decalogue using Albrecht Peters’ Commentary on the Catechism: Ten Commandments.  I am eager and willing to do this if funding can be found.

Prof. John T. Pless

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana USA  – March 13, 2011