Jim Martin-Schramm is a professor of religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Lutheran Theology and the Environment: Bonhoeffer, the Church, and the Climate Question
March/April 2013: Environment (Volume 13 Issue 2)
Copyright 2013, Lutheran University Press, reprinted by permission. This essay is one of the papers presented at the 2012 Convocation of Teaching Theologians. All papers are available in the Lutheran University Press book, Eco-Lutheranism. http://www.lutheranupress.org/Teaching-Theologians-books [1] The Lutheran tradition contains a host of theological perspectives that can and should form the foundation of a robust […]
Conventional Energy Options
November 2009 (Volume 9 Issue 11)
From Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Public Policy copyright © 2010 Fortress Press. Reproduced by special permission of Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Complete copies of the book may be ordered at www.augsburgfortress.org Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Public Policy: Conventional Energy Options Energy is the world’s biggest industry, by far . . . . All told, […]
Assessing Climate Policy Proposals: Ethical Guidelines
[1] Debates about climate policy will be prominent during 2009. Barack Obama addressed the issue during his campaign and has indicated he intends to make it a priority during his first year in office. As a result, leaders in both chambers of the Democrat-controlled Congress have pledged to pass domestic climate policy legislation during 2009. […]
Human Rights and Climate Change
February 2009: Human Rights and Family (Double Issue) (Volume 9 Issue 2)
[1] Heavy reliance on fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) together with ecologically damaging land use patterns have produced grave threats to justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. The related challenges posed by global warming and climate change are unprecedented in human history. The first half of this paper summarizes recent scientific findings […]
A Lutheran Ethical Tradition: Distinguishing Features and Discernible Threats
November 2006 (Volume 6 Issue 11)
[1] Is there a Lutheran intellectual tradition?[1] [2] When my academic dean, Bill Craft, invited me to answer this question I decided to run some quick keyword searches in a couple of databases. The results were not very encouraging. When I searched for “Lutheran” and “intellectual” in an on-line database for periodical literature in religion, […]
Skull Valley: Nuclear Waste, Tribal Sovereignty, and Environmental Racism
October 2005 (Volume 5 Issue 10)
The following article is revised and excerpted from a book co-authored with Robert L. Stivers, Christian Environmental Ethics: A Case Method Approach, Orbis Books, 2003. [1] The energy bill that President Bush signed into law this summer included several features designed to benefit the nuclear power industry. For example, the legislation authorized research, development, and […]
Harvesting Controversy: Genetic Engineering and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
December 2003 (Volume 3 Issue 12)
Case [1] “It’s been quite a year,” thought Tom Moline.” On top of their normal efforts at hunger advocacy and education on campus, the twenty students in the Hunger Concerns group were spending the entire academic year conducting an extensive study of hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. Tom’s girlfriend, Karen Lindstrom, had proposed the idea after […]