When Theologies Fail (and Worlds Fall Apart)

Rev. Dr. Niedner taught biblical studies in Valparaiso University’s Department of Theology for 40 years. He currently serves as Senior Research Professor, working with Valparaiso’s Institute of Liturgical Studies. He has taught several classes for Lutheran School of Theology that have promoted growth in theological and biblical understanding.

Class Description:
Theology is made on earth, not in heaven, and sooner or later, in the face of crises, chaos, or even unanticipated questions, every working theology fails or falls apart, along with the world it has  created for those who live by or inhabit it. Babylon’s destruction of Judah and Jerusalem in 587 BCE saw the ruin of Israel’s covenant theology centered on God’s promises concerning land, king, and temple. More than mere teachings and traditions proved obsolete when Paul and Peter embraced non-Jews as God’s people, Copernicus knocked humankind from the center of the universe, the Nazi Holocaust made God look powerless, and feminists claimed God did not invent patriarchy. To what do we cling, and how do we rebuild, when the world falls apart around us?