The Faithful Middle: Lutheran Theology in a Polarized Extremist World
January 4 – February 1, 2026, 11:00 am
Jim Aageson
Fellowship Hall
In the acclaimed movie, Conclave, Ralph Fiennes, playing the role of Archbishop Lawrence, dean of the conclave to select a new Pope, announces to the assembled Cardinals at the beginning of their work that the ultimate sin is certainty. He then proceeds to affirm the necessity of doubt. Presumably he means that certainty without doubt can be misguided, even dangerous. And we might add that doubt without conviction leads to hopeless confusion that makes living well difficult. In other words, conviction (certainty) and doubt ought always to be in dialogue, in tension. But we need look no further than our own Lutheran historical and theological tradition. Luther, working and writing in the sixteenth century and heavily influenced by St Paul and St Augustine, developed his own theological polarities and tensions. What all these examples and these traditions have in common is that the polarities must necessarily work together in some kind of balance and harmony, the one without the other makes no sense or leads to extremism or both.
Topics:
I. Introduction
II. Law and Gospel
III. Saint and Sinner; Spirit and Flesh
IV. Freedom of the Will and the Bondage of the Will (Predestination)
V. God Controls Everything and God Controls Nothing (Providence)
VI. Kingdom on the Right and Kingdom on the Left
VII. Christ True Man and Christ True God
VIII. Written Word and Spoken Word; Visual Word and Embodied Word
IX. Biblical Text and the Biblical Interpreter
X. Certainty and Doubt; Faith and Uncertainty
XI. Questions and Answers
XII. Truth is Singular and Truth is Plural
XIII. Certainty and Doubt; Faith and Uncertainty; Questions and Answers; Truth is Singular—Truth is Plural: An Interlude
XIV. A Confessional Church—Or A Dogmatic Church
XV. Conclusion: Charting Our Way Through the Polarities of Life and Faith
Sessions:
Click on a session to watch on YouTube.