Speakers and Themes:

Esko Murto

1. Basic Lutheran Doctrine: Baptism

2. Basic Lutheran Doctrine: The Church

3. Basic Lutheran Doctrine: The Office of the Ministry

Sebastian Grünbaum

1. The Body in the Service of God – in Celibacy

2. The Body in the Service of God – in Marriage

3. The Body in the Service of God – among the Saints

Armin Wenz

1. The Created Body and the Fallen Body

2. The Healing of the Body through Christ

3. The Body Fully Restored – the Future of the Body in the Life Everlasting

Network of Young Lutheran Theologians

To Be Announced

Descriptions of Themes:

Esko Murto

About the Series “Basic Lutheran Doctrine”:

This series will give you insights about central Biblical teachings in a basic, yet thorough way.

Basic Lutheran Doctrine: Baptism

“In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” (1. Cor. 12:13) What does the Bible teach about the sacrament of the Holy Baptism, and why has this sacrament become so often a point of hot debate between Christians? How does our understanding of Baptism affect the way we live our lives as Christians and see our place in the Body of Christ, the Church?

Basic Lutheran Doctrine: The Church and Her Confession

“I appeal to you — that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1. Cor. 1:10) All Christians are “one in Christ” – or are we? Lutherans, Catholics, Pentecostals…what should we think of there being so many denominations? Is ecumenism good or bad? What IS the church, anyways?

Basic Lutheran Doctrine: Pastors and the Congregation

“He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11) What is the purpose of having pastors – is it just a practical arrangement of getting the church business going, or is there more to it? Who are the right shepherds of the church? How can the pastors and the lay members work together for the good of the congregation?

Sebastian Grünbaum

About the series “The body in the service of God”:

Our faith is thoroughly relational. If I ask, “who am I?”, the answer is that I am created, redeemed, and sanctified by God. God has redeemed me through and in His Son Jesus Christ “in order that I may be wholly His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness” (Luther’s Small Catechism). But we do not only exist and live in relation to God, but also in relation to our neighbors. God does not need my good works while my neighbor is in desperate need of them. We serve God and our neighbor through the vocations that He gives us. Being a Christian does not mean having fewer relationships but more and deeper relationships, not only with God but also with each other. This series focuses on two questions that concern our relationships as members of the Body of Christ with other people. First, what kind of identity is bestowed upon us in these respective vocations (as celibate, married, and in the congregation), and secondly what kind of mission and responsibility is given to us in these vocations.

Armin Wenz

1. The created body and the fallen body (The body in the first article)

Not only our soul, but also our body is God’s good gift to us human beings. Therefore, we are both, to enjoy (Latin: frui) and to use (Latin: uti) our bodies first, in order to praise our creator with all our senses and limbs, and second, in order to serve our neighbour through them. But due to sin, we are permanently tempted to make bad use of our bodies, to engage our senses and limbs in ways that are not God-pleasing. As a result, mankind loses God’s blessings for body and soul in manifold ways.

2. The healing of the body through Christ (The body in the second article)

Christ is the only way out of this dead end of sin. As God’s Son incarnate, he is the new Adam who perfectly praises His Father and who lovingly meets the needs of mankind in his human body. He not only heals human bodies from sin, disease, and death through corporeal interventions. He also, through his saving work in his death and bodily resurrection, liberates us from the bondage of sin and death in order that we may enjoy total unity with him through his word and sacraments, and thus bodily follow his footsteps.

3. The body fully restored – the future of the body in the life everlasting

(The body in the third article)

The word of God teaches the resurrection of the body. At the same time, we learn from certain passages in the New Testament (especially 1 Cor 15) that our body will be totally changed through an eschatological divine work which the Bible calls “the glorification of the body”. We will examine what the Bible teaches us about the glorified state of our bodies and how God himself thus invites us to look forward to the heavenly future of our bodies. The Lutheran theologian Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) will help us with insights from his “Freudenspiegel des ewigen Lebens” (“Mirror of the Joys of Eternal Life”).

Short Biographies:

Sebastian Grünbaum (Finland)

Rev. Grünbaum was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland. He studied theology at Åbo Akademi University in Turku from 2006 to 2011. He was ordained as a pastor for the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland in 2011 and served in Turku for 11 years. In 2022 Sebastian moved to St. Louis to work on a Ph.D. at Concordia Seminary St. Louis. His interests are reading, writing, running, motorcycle riding, and ice bathing.

Esko Murto (Finland)

Rev. Murto is a pastor of St John Lutheran Church in Tampere, Finland. He has served Lutheran congregations in the Finnish Mission Diocese since 2007, besides which he has spent four years teaching in a theological seminary in Canada. He met his wife Elisabeth through Corpus Christi, and they are blessed with two children.

Armin Wenz (Germany)

 Rev. Prof. Dr. Wenz is an ordained minister of the SELK (= Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church), was a parish pastor in different places in Germany for 27 years, and is now serving as Professor for Biblical Theology at the SELK-Seminary in Oberursel. He earned a theological doctorate from the University of Erlangen and is still doing research on the history of biblical interpretation. Together with his wife Susanne he lives near Naumburg, Sachsen-Anhalt. They have three adult children and four grand-children.