Denise Rector

Posts by Denise Rector

Peace, Peace, When There is No Peace

A reflection on the excising of military imagery from church, and reasons to maintain it.

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The Epistle of Eutyche

A satire of typical arguments against the ordination of women, in the form of a supposed letter from one medieval abbess to another, responding to the fear that God went astray in conferring the apostolic office on men.

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Speak the Truth in Love

Suggestions for responding to the sexuality study and ministry proposals to be voted on at the 2009 ELCA churchwide assembly.

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Ecumenical Liturgy, Its Possibilities and Problems

A review of the development of ecumenical liturgies, such as the Lima Liturgy, with theological critique and suggestions for the future.

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Why Stay

Arguments in favor of staying within the ELCA while dissenting from the churchwide assembly vote in 2009.

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Joyful Exchanges, Part I and Joyful Exchanges, Part II

An exegesis of Luther‘s use of the joyful exchange motif in The Freedom of a Christian, followed by the application of that motif to the practice of infant baptism, ethics, and ecumenism.

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A Thousand Miles in the Footsteps of Martin Luther

Invitation to follow the author and her husband‘s re-enactment of Martin Luther‘s pilgrimage from Erfurt to Rome, 500 years after the fact.

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Mildly Opposed to Infant Communion

Consideration of 10 arguments in favor of infant communion, and reasons why they fail to commend the practice to American Lutherans in the 21st century.

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Tradition, Priesthood, and Personhood in the Trinitarian Theology of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel

A detailed study of Orthodox arguments against the ordination of women in the past 50 years, matched with an account of the rebuttal offered by the 20th century French Orthodox theologian Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, concluding that patriarchy and radical feminism share the same flawed assumptions about gender.

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