Carl E Braaten

Clara Agnes Braaten kept a diary from the year she married the author's father, Torstein Folkvard Braaten, in 1922 until she was ninety-four-years old. Three weeks after they were married, they departed Minneapolis by train for New York City to board the Stavangerfjord, a fine Norwegian ocean libber, to cross the Atlantic Ocean on their way to Bergen, Norway. The author's father had accepted a call from the Foreign Mission Board of the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America to become a missionary to Madagascar. The couple decided to visit Norway on their way to Paris, France, where they were to spend one year learning the French language. In this book, the author draws on his mother's diaries to highlight why his parents obeyed the Great Commission and how they lived it every day in Madagascar. The book includes excerpts selected from his mother's diary as well as a brief narrative of what the author remembers about growing up in Madagascar. Whether you're interested in missionary life, the Lutheran Church, the history of Madagascar, or genealogy, you'll enjoy Living the Great Commission in Madagascar.

This single volume of dogmatics is an introduction to the Christian faith as such, written from an intentionally ecumenical perspective. Although this book is written by a Lutheran, its aim is to draw from the deep wells of the Christian tradition, its creeds and confessions, common to all denominations. Denominational dogmatics tends to define and defend the teachings of the Christian faith from the perspective of a particular church, in distinction from others. Ecumenical dogmatics is a relatively new attempt to focus on the beliefs and teachings fundamental to all communities that call themselves Christian. Such a project aims to be more irenic than polemical, intent on seeking and serving reconciliation and unity in Christ. The trinitarian and christological confessions of the first five centuries are foundational for all Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Reformation churches and, despite all their subsequent differences and divisions, are quintessential in their journey toward reconciliation and reunion. These ancient creeds also suggest the appropriate outline for the organization of the contents of dogmatics even today, following the works of the triune God--creation, redemption, and sanctification.

This single volume of dogmatics is an introduction to the Christian faith as such, written from an intentionally ecumenical perspective. Although this book is written by a Lutheran, its aim is to draw from the deep wells of the Christian tradition, its creeds and confessions, common to all denominations. Denominational dogmatics tends to define and defend the teachings of the Christian faith from the perspective of a particular church, in distinction from others. Ecumenical dogmatics is a relatively new attempt to focus on the beliefs and teachings fundamental to all communities that call themselves Christian. Such a project aims to be more irenic than polemical, intent on seeking and serving reconciliation and unity in Christ. The trinitarian and christological confessions of the first five centuries are foundational for all Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Reformation churches and, despite all their subsequent differences and divisions, are quintessential in their journey toward reconciliation and reunion. These ancient creeds also suggest the appropriate outline for the organization of the contents of dogmatics even today, following the works of the triune God--creation, redemption, and sanctification.

Carl Braaten's memoirs tell the story of his life as a theologian, from his early years as a missionary kid in Madagascar to his years of study at the universities of Paris, Harvard, Heidelberg, and Oxford to his decades of teaching. Throughout the book, he delves into the many theological movements, controversies, and personalities that shaped his thinking and writing. Braaten's fight for the faith is reflected in his theological work―spoken and written―that tangles with the ""isms"" of the surrounding culture of American religion. Because of Christ is more than simply a biography; it is a chronicle of the chief theological conflicts of the twentieth century that put the integrity of the gospel to the test. Carl E. Braaten is one of the leading theologians in American Lutheranism. He taught Systematic Theology for a generation at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and was founding editor of the popular theological journal Dialog. He has written or edited many foundational works in Lutheran theology, among them is a two-volume Christian Dogmatics (1985) edited with Robert Jenson, and Justification: The Article by Which the Church Stands or Falls (1990). For thirteen years Braaten has been director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and editor of its journal, Pro Ecclesia.

Karl P. Donfried -- Smith College ""A penetrating analysis of western Christianity in crisis as well as an incisive and compelling guide for course correction. Written with clarity, insight, and conviction, That All May Believe is Braaten at his very best. A must-read for Christians in the northern hemisphere."" Gabriel Fackre -- author of The Church ""Who else but Carl Braaten could show us an ecumenical vision of theology as evangelical but not simply Protestant, catholic but not just Roman, orthodox but not only Eastern? Here is a needed call to share our ecclesial gifts with mutual affirmation on classical convictions and mutual admonition regarding teachable differences. Yet all this is done with a well-known Braaten 'edge' -- indictment of conventional Christianity and a drifting academic theology. We are in the author's debt for charting the right course toward visible unity and full communion for a church solid in its centralities and passionate about its mission."" Frank C. Senn -- Immanuel Lutheran Church, Evanston, Illinois ""Employing his gift for incisive analysis of theological movements and trends according to the criterion of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, Braaten affirms the catholic tradition with its canon of Scripture and historic dogmas as the indispensable bearer of the gospel. With evangelical passion for the missionary enterprise, he shows how the church must move toward ecumenical unity in order to bring the world to belief. He does not ignore the reality of the powers of evil that strive against the mission of the gospel. Nor does he shrink from saying that dialogue with the religions must not blunt the apostolic imperative to proclaim the gospel and bring converts into the community of faith in the crucified and risen Christ. This timely book, confessionally anchored and ecumenically hopeful, will engage theological readers from beginning to end."" Carl E. Braaten is one of the leading theologians in American Lutheranism. He taught Systematic Theology for a generation at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and was founding editor of the popular theological journal Dialog. He has written or edited many foundational works in Lutheran theology, among them is a two-volume Christian Dogmatics (1985) edited with Robert Jenson, and Justification: The Article by Which the Church Stands or Falls (1990). For thirteen years Braaten has been director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and editor of its journal, Pro Ecclesia.