Early Christian Witnesses – Selected Essays by Victor C Pfitzner

Description

The articles and talks included in this collection cover fifty years of theological engagement, the primary focus being on education for ministry in Australia and abroad. Despite the diversity of topics, such as hermeneutics, New Testament theology, preaching, ecumenical relations, and early church history, there is a connecting concern to listen to the unique voices of early Christian witnesses as foundational for the faith and the apostolic claims of the church in its present-day witness. The publication of these essays has been suggested for some time. Despite my reluctance to reissue articles written over a period of more than five decades, I have relented in the hope that there will be enough to engage the interest of a variety of readers, and not only former students in seminaries and theological colleges in Australia and various places overseas. Included here are mainly articles written specifically for publication in journals, but also lectures and talks to various groups of clergy, lay people, and theological students. Of prime concern has always been the explication of the Christian faith according to its earliest witnesses in the early church of apostles and martyrs. Faith remains attested and lived, approved not proven.

This book of essays by Dr Victor Pfitzner, pastor and lecturer for thirty-six years from 1968–2004 in New Testament Studies, Homiletics and Christian Spirituality at the Lutheran Seminary, now the Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide: Serving as Academic Dean, vice Principal and Principal of the College. The book evinces at once an author with complete mastery of the subjects he addresses, New Testament studies and its multifarious dimensions, ranging from detailed and critical discussion of hermeneutics, the themes of the principal Gospel writers, the nuances of Luther’s exegesis, the practical work of pastoral ministry, conflicts in the church relative to its theology and polity, such as the ordination of women to the office of Pastor and ecumenical encounter reflecting differences in theology concerning the meaning and purpose of the church’s ministry and mission. These all find their place here in an ordered array of profound learning and skilled presentation. It is uncommon to find a book that is historically rigorous, theologically rich, lucidly written and at the same time directed toward the communication of the essence of the Christian tradition. This book is a mine of sanctified learning that will enrich readers from students to scholars of both theology and the New Testament from a variety of Christian traditions.

Dr W Gordon Watson
Sometime Head of Systematic Theology, Trinity College Brisbane and Visiting Fellow in Humanities at Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland.

Dr Vic Pfitzner is a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand. He gained his doctorate at Münster University in Germany in 1964 and has spent most of his ministry teaching New Testament to future pastors at Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was principal for nine years. Some of his many books have been translated into Finnish, German, Indonesian, Japanese and Mandarin, including commentaries on John, First and Second Corinthians, and Hebrews. He has lectured extensively overseas, with a special interest in the churches of Southeast Asia.