# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S31
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

DOCTRINAL ESSAY 31

faith. The term “orthodoxy” is scorned and made to resemble
a fierce-looking scarecrow of which not only children but also
adults need to be afraid. And so we find that the many formula-
tions of Christian doctrine compiled in the days of the Reformation
have hardly more than passing historical significance and carry
little, if any, weight in many Protestant churches.

What is stressed in our day by many Protestants is not “doc-
trine” but the “proclamation of the Gospel,” for which an impor-
tant Greek New Testament word is “kerygma.” Thus we hear
a great deal about “kerygmatic preaching.” Let us, so it is said,
not take creeds, confessions, doctrinal formulations too seriously,
for we have a superhuman job to do, we must “evangelize” the
world. For, so it is sometimes put, faith in the New Testament
is not faith in any creedal or doctrinal statement, but is faith in
the person of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, God is not an “it”
about which we make statements and formulate definitions. He is
not even a “He” regarding whom we might say many good things.
God is rather a “Thou.” Therefore let us stress the “I-Thou”
relationship between the sinner and God, and we will revitalize
the faith of the church and pave the way, in addition, for
a coalition and unification of all Christian bodies. A distinguished
theologian puts it this way:

Our dealing with God is of the nature of a dialogue rather

than philosophic reflection. Revelation, then, in the Biblical

sense, is a personal matter, not academic, as with a set of
truths or propositions. Much Christian theology, it is true,
has caused confusion here. Both Catholic and Protestant
thinkers have been at fault, and have made the mistake of
treating the Gospel as if it were philosophic, or speaking of it
in terms of truth, but forgetting that it is always personal
truth. But recent Biblical scholarship has shown how mis-
leading this is. (E. C. Blackman in Biblical Interpretation.

Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1958, 26, 27)

Now, no one acquainted with the history of the church will
deny that Christianity has in some periods of its history created
the impression that a set of doctrinal statements and creeds ap-
proved, confessed, proclaimed, and taught by the church was
sufficient evidence of a vibrant living and personal faith. Every
confessional church can, without a doubt, succumb to this danger.
For it is possible to know and believe a great deal of “doctrine”
and yet to stand in no believing and trusting relation to God and
the Savior Jesus Christ. “Doctrine” can be so one-sidedly stressed
and its content so meticulously and exhaustively phrased and
organized that a score of volumes may be needed to make explicit
many of its implications. Nor will anyone deny that a living
faith in the living God must always be a personal faith and a faith
which does stand in an “I-Thou” relationship to God and Christ,