“Women in Times of War” is the theme of a conference to be held March 27 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
Sponsored by the seminary’s Center for Lutheran Theology and Public Life, the conference is the first in a two-part series titled “Male and Female He Created Them (Genesis 1:27).” Part 2 of the series, to be held next year, will focus on men.
“In both events, theologians and other scholars have been invited to explore the secular — not the ecclesiastical — roles of men and women in God’s order of creation,” said Dr. Uwe Siemon-Netto, director of the center.
The conference will explore the nurturing role of women at wartime — how they must hold their families together while their husbands are on the battlefront — as well as women’s roles in rebuilding their homelands without men.
The conference will begin at 3 p.m. with an exegesis of Gen. 1:27 by Dr. Andrew Bartelt, the seminary’s vice president for academic affairs and professor of exegetical theology. This will provide the biblical framework for the forum, according to Siemon-Netto.
Other speakers and their topics include:
- Dr. John Gresham, associate professor of systematic theology at Kenrick Glennon Seminary, St. Louis, who will speak from a Roman Catholic perspective on “Reading Genesis 1:27 in Light of Pope John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body.”
- Dr. Karla Poewe, professor emeritus of anthropology, University of Calgary, Canada, “How Women Bore the Brunt of Germany’s Defeat.”
- Gunter Nitsch, author of Weeds Like Us, a new autobiographical book about the expulsion of Germans from territories that are now part of Poland, Russia, and the Czech Republic, who will second Poewe’s view.
- Dr. David Wollenburg, associate professor of practical theology at Concordia Seminary, “Women in Combat — Not a Faith Issue.”
- Rev. Heath Curtis, pastor of Trinity and Zion Lutheran Churches, Worden and Carpenter, Ill., “Women in Combat Versus Natural Law.”
A panel discussion including presenters and women veterans will be followed by a wrap-up by Dr. Timothy Saleska, the seminary’s associate professor of exegetical theology. Siemon-Netto, the seminary’s scholar-in-residence, will moderate.
Admission to the sessions is free, but registration by March 19 is required. A buffet dinner will be available for $25.
For more information or to register, contact the seminary’s Office of Continuing Education and Parish Services at (314) 505-7486 or ce@csl.edu. Or, visit the seminary’s Web site at www.csl.edu.
Posted Feb. 20, 2008
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