Fourth International LWF Conference on Hermeneutics

Paul is one of the most influential shapers of the Christian faith and global culture. Sixteenth-century Christian Reformers found in his letters new language and ideas on how to revitalize the church and order human relations in society. As the Lutheran World Federation's five-year hermeneutics process reaches its climax, we are pleased to hold our fourth international hermeneutics conference with the theme, The Power of the Gospel: Developing Pauline Hermeneutics. The previous three conferences focused on the Gospel of John, the Psalms and the Gospel of Matthew.

This conference creates an inter-disciplinary space for critical discussion of biblical texts, drawing on Paul’s letters, Lutheran resources and contemporary socio-political, economic and theological questions. The academic papers read by some 35 leading scholars across different disciplines of theology will lead the conference discussion. Furthermore, participants will study passages from Paul’s letters and examine ways in which they apply to different contexts. Morning devotional reflections and prayer will be held throughout the conference.

In addition to invited guests and facilitators from Africa, Asia, Latin and North America and Europe, the conference is open to self-funded participants. We encourage theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, theology students and others interested in the influence of biblical texts on our shared life in the world to attend.

This event is held in partnernship with Aarhus University.

Aarhus speakers

Profiles of eminent speakers at the hermeneutics conference.

Prof. Dr Eve-Marie Becker is professor of New Testament exegesis in the Department of Theology, Institute of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts at Aarhus University, Denmark. Becker will present various types of traditions Paul uses and compare their authoritative status and argumentative function.

Reverend Dr Samuel Dawai is a New Testament scholar and director of the Lutheran Brethren Theological Seminary at Kaélé, North Cameroon. Dawai will be speaking on 1 Corinthians 14.

Dr René Falkenberg is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University. Falkenberg’s reading of Luther’s Lectures on Romans (esp. Rom 5:12–21) will form the basis for a comparison with Paul himself, Pauline state-of-the-art scholarship, and its relevance for a current understanding of Adam/Christ speculation in a Lutheran context.

Rev. Dr Hans-Peter Grosshans is professor of systematic theology (chair), director of the Institute for Ecumenical Theology and vice dean of the faculty for Protestant theology, University of Muenster, Germany. Grosshans’s presentation will focus on the relationship between the citizenship of Christians in heaven (Phil 3:20) and its relationship to the citizenship of Christians on earth. On the basis of an exegesis of the letters of Paul, special attention will be given to how Martin Luther interpreted this Pauline concept in light of today’s social realities and Luther’s hermeneutics.

Dr Eneida Jacobsen is graduate assistant in the department of philosophy at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, USA. Jacobsen will speak on Paul and liberation theology. Liberation theology today has been informed by Pauline themes in its analyses of the role of religious and political laws, the exclusionary dynamics of homogenizing globalization, as well as the resisting and transformative force that lies with the oppressed.

Prof. Craig Koester is Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Professor of New Testament and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Koester will be presenting “‘Now concerning food sacrificed to idols’ (1 Cor 8:1-11): Theology and Practice in the Contexts of Paul, Luther and Global Lutheranism.”

Dr Peter Lodberg is associate professor for systematic theology at the School of Culture and Society, University of Aarhus. Lodberg will introduce the role of Lutheran theology and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark in relation to the establishment and development of the Danish welfare state.

Reverend Dr Rospita Deliana Siahaan is a lecturer at the Theological Seminary of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Siahaan will speak on the diversity of charismata for community edification.

Lauri Thurén is professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Thurén will be comparing the classical Lutheran view of a Christian as a new person with recent biblical scholarship.

Prof. em. Dr Dr h.c. Oda Wischmeyer is professor emeritus for New Testament at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Wischmeyer will show how Paul develops a new way of understanding Scripture under the authority of Christ and the Spirit.

The Rev. Dr Magdalena Naanhule Ya-Shalongo is principal of Engela Parish Institute, Namibia. She will be speaking on "Freedom and hope in Namibian church and society: some challenges".

 

Prof. Dr Bernd Oberdorfer is professor of systematic theology at the Institute for Evangelical Theology, University of Augsburg, Germany. Oberdorfer will present a paper titled, “A New Life in Christ: Pauline Ethics and its Lutheran Reception”

Dr Mercedes Laura García Bachmann is professor at the Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr Bachmann will examine ideas of holiness that Paul might have adhered to.

Magnus Zetterholm, Phd, Associate Professor of New Testament Studies, Lund University, Sweden, will contend that if Paul can be seen as a representative of first century Judaism, as suggested by recent Pauline scholarship, Jewish hermeneutics can help us develop strategies for dealing with difficult texts, such as those that use slavery as a positive metaphor.

Rev. Dr Roger Marcel Wanke is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew and Academic Dean at the Faculdade Luterana de Teologia, in São Bento do Sul, Brazil. Wanke's presentation will focus on the relationship between creation and reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5.

 

Dr Bo Kristian Holm, is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Aarhus University, Denmark. In his presentation, “Freedom from and Freedom to: Paul and Luther in Critical Dialogue,” Holm will address discontinuities and possible continuities in both Paul and Luther’s understanding of Christian freedom.

Rev. Dr Ella Thompson is senior pastor at the Truth and Life Christian Church, Newport News, VA, United States. Thompson’s presentation is entitled, Re-imagining the unimaginable through Paul, prophetic access and the Holy Spirit’s role in creating, ordering and revitalizing community.

Dr Urmas Nõmmik is associate professor of Old Testament and Semitic Studies at the Faculty of Theology, University of Tartu, Estonia. Nõmmik will review the discussion on homosexuality and related questions of biblical hermeneutics in Estonia over the last 10 years.

Anders Runesson, Professor of New Testament, University of Oslo, Norway, will speak about the way in which translations of the Greek of the New Testament can lead to either violence and persecution or to insight and understanding across religious and cultural boundaries. His paper will explore translations of Paul and how they may affect church and society in a time when antisemitism and xenophobia are on the rise.

Dr Lubomir Batka is Dean and Head of the Department of Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Lutheran Faculty, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. Batka will present a paper titled, Paul on Citizenship: Pauline Hermeneutics in Philippians 1:27 and 3:20.

Dr Marianne Bjelland Kartzow is professor of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway. Kartzow will speak on “Towards an Intersectional Hermeneutics: Constructing Meaning with Galatians 3–4.”