Articles

[1] In his first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI offers a vision of the Christian life with specific directives for the mission of the Roman Catholic Church. His argument is straightforward: God’s love given most concretely in Jesus Christ ought to be manifest in specific practices, such as charity, within the church. […]

[1] The first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, offers a “timely and significant” statement of the “heart of the Christian faith” in “a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence.” Encyclical statements of Catholic teaching have these dogmatic and ethical […]

[1] Love, we know, stands at the heart of both Christian doctrine and ethics: The gospel tells of God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ, and faith in the gospel gives arise to a life active in love for neighbor. The message is clear and simple, yet it leads us into the most basic […]

[1] One of my concerns about Economy of Grace is that most people who read it will probably not know economics or economic history, and will be persuaded by the avalanche of theological arguments that, among other things, private property is unnatural and contrary to God’s ordering of the universe, profits are the result of […]

[1] Several summers ago, I wandered into the Vanderbilt Divinity School bookstore and was surprised to find a large number of economics titles-more, in fact, than are used in the business curriculum. Curiously, all of the economics books were focused on the shortcomings of capitalism in general, and markets in particular, like those by John […]

[1] The final stage through which civilizations pass on their way to social dissolution, according to C. Northcote Parkinson, is “liberal opinion.” His point is that the great spiritual disease of any democratic society is the hegemony of a feeble sentimentality that weakens the thinking and will of its people. Parkinson avers: “What concerns our […]

[1] Can theology speak to economics? Does Christianity provide the principles for action in economic life? Indeed, can it offer a vision of an economic order distinct from the one in which we live today? These are the questions asked by Kathryn Tanner in Economy of Grace. Her answers, not surprisingly, are yes. In this […]

[1] Today, U.S. military commanders in Iraq are teaching classes in “core warrior values.” About 150,000 multinational troops are receiving remedial ethics education during June and July. The action comes in response to backlash over the massacre of 24 civilians at Haditha-and an alleged cover up of the incident. [2] Military authorities emphasize the training […]

3. The politics of good works and contemporary political ethics [1] Now that we have given careful attention to Luther’s thought, I would like to explore its possible implications for contemporary political theory. The first step is an analysis of the relationship of good works to a) the theory of the new beginning in the […]

[1] All Americans are immigrants. Some of us got here sooner than others some of us remember our immigrant roots more clearly than others but at one point in our personal past, a number of our ancestors decided to strike out for a new land and a new life. Their decisions continue to affect us […]