 |
 Sittler
was fascinated by every new development around him — scientific,
technological, political, social, artistic, cultural. Though he found
many of his own models in the past, he constantly worked to relate them
to our life today (or, precisely, his own day). In Gravity & Grace
(p. 95) he writes that “God is interested in a lot of things besides
religion. God is the Lord and Creator of all life, and there are
manifestations of the holy in its celebration or in its repudiation — in
every aspect of the common life.”
In one of his well- known essays he
describes an experience from the 1960s. He and his son watched the first
moon shot together on television. He writes, “I was simply stunned by
the magnificence of this accomplishment....” (GG 98) He never
lost his sense of wonder and awe at the development of the new. At the
same time he constantly warned against the improper use of the new. He
particularly disparaged careless use of technical/industrial development
that resulted in despoliation of the environment.
It is crucial, Sittler
urged, that the church in the modern world learn how to relate to that
world. He writes, for example, about soap operas. “For all their
phoniness,” [they] “say something about our culture.... A necessary
address by the Christian gospel to the problems that the soap opera
dramatizes must probe deeply into the loneliness, guilt, betrayal, and
grief that this kind of program consistently portrays.” (GG, p.
86)
A sample of materials on Contemporary
Life
available from the Archives
-
God, Grace, and the Libido (From The
Lutheran magazine),
Text Material (11/18/64)
-
Reflections on the Papal Visit (Tape # 1 of
“Presentations to ALC Clergy”), Audiotape (10/79)
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