wfn.org | LWI 2009-026 Relationship with God Does Not End with Death

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>Relationship with God Does Not End with Death
>US Theologian Questions the Existence of Hell

AUGSBURG/GENEVA, 30 March 2009 (LWI) – "Hell, if it exists, is
temporal, not eternal," claimed Rev. Dr Kristin Johnston Largen,
associate professor for systematic theology at Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA. 

"If Christ has gone even there, to the deepest pit of existence,
what of 'hell' is left?" Johnston Largen challenged 120
theologians on 28 March at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
consultation "Theology in the Lives of Lutheran Churches –
Transformative Perspectives and Practices." 

In her presentation, Johnston Largen explored the relationship
between creation and salvation, and the ramifications of that
relationship for Christian eschatological thinking, particularly
as it pertains to non-Christians. She summed up her position in
three central affirmations: "First, God is the creator of all;
second, God is in a loving relationship with all; and third, that
relationship does not end at death." Ultimately, she claimed,
"the very fact of God’s relationship with creation is
salvific." 

"In Christ, God is conjoining all creatures and takes part in
the very biological tissue of creation," underlined Dr. Niels
Henrik Gregersen from the Theological Faculty of Copenhagen
University, Denmark. "God becomes Jesus, and in him God becomes
human, sparrow, and grass, soil." Moreover, Gregersen declared,
the most high and the very lowest are united in the process of
incarnation that "signifies coming-into-flesh, so that God the
creator, and the world of the flesh are conjoined in Jesus
Christ."

In an interactive plenary session on "Integrative theological
Formation" Rev. Dr Norma Cook Everist from Wartburg Theological
Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, USA, asserted that "transformative
theology connects not only with our minds, but also with our
hands and hearts." 

Cook Everist facilitated the participants' work in small
discussion groups to identify existential issues in their own
churches and do theology inductively beginning with daily life.
"Using integrative approaches means not that we need specific
theological disciplines less but that we need them more." These
disciplines ought to constantly interact and thus "mutually
inform and transform people in our theological schools and
churches," she stated. 

Over 120 theologians from more than 30 countries are taking part
in the consultation "Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches:
Transformative Perspectives and Practices Today" in Augsburg,
Germany, under the auspices of the LWF Department for Theology
and Studies (DTS). The 25 to 31 March meeting, held in
collaboration with the Institute of Protestant Theology of the
University of Augsburg, is the culmination of the DTS study
program "Theology in the Life of the Church," which has been
ongoing since 2004.

The main lectures are available in English as PDF files on the
LWF website:
http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/DTS/TLC_Augsburg/Presentations.html

>*        *          *

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