Articles

A previous version of this article was presented to the Bonhoeffer Group at the American Academy of Religion, November 2003. It represents a concise summary of ongoing research involving a broader historical argument; please contact the author with any further questions about research texts. The author is especially indebted to Charles Marsh, whose own works […]

[1] News reports of the report and recommendations of the task force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality displayed various headlines. “No change” was followed by “Gays Win,” “Tolerate” and “Be Flexible” as news outlets tried to characterize the recommendations. Those unfamiliar with the history of the issue in the ELCA, the present regulations, Lutheran […]

“We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn” -M.C. Bateson In the last years of study in the ELCA, we have learned that: Even as we confess one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, we hold different points of view about human sexuality; especially our church’s willingness to bless same-sex […]

[1] “Christians are called to nonviolence not because we think nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war; but rather in a world of war, as faithful followers of Christ, we cannot imagine being anything other than nonviolent” (236). [2] From the outset, Hauerwas makes it clear in Performing the Faith that he […]

[1] A Word about the Book’s Author Dr. Hauerwas is a widely respected theologian-ethicist in ecumenical circles today. He occupies the chair of Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University, and is well known as a most influential teacher, with “disciples” (if that is not an overly dramatic term) in nearly all […]

[1] “[T]he ethical cannot be detached from reality…,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics. [2] It is questionable whether Stanley Huaerwas’s book, Performing The Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence, a collection of essays, is primarily concerned with Bonhoeffer. Also, the link between Bonhoeffer and the practice on nonviolence is never made clear. There are two chapters […]

This article was excerpted from a pastoral letter from the bishop to the Northeastern Iowa Synod. [1] The participation I have seen in the conversation on the “Journey Together Faithfully” materials has been quite inspiring. As enriching as the conversation has been, however, I am not convinced that we have yet done our very best […]

[1] What’s a Lutheran to say about Mark Noll’s essay “None of the Above: Why I’m not Voting for President”? Noll says he’s not voting. In fact, he hasn’t voted in years — not because he’s too lazy to go to the polls or because he doesn’t care about the issues, but because American politics […]

[1] I asked students in a course I teach that is required of all students at Lenoir-Rhyne College about the major election issues. Their responses were fairly uniform: the economy (and unemployment), the war, and education. Interestingly the African American students and the Hispanic students have similar concerns, but they were stated somewhat differently. These […]

[1] I admit to being something of a partisan of lost causes, and voting for none of the above is surely a lost cause. Mark Noll, a fellow partisan in at least this one respect, will continue his practice of the past few presidential elections in voting for none of the above; if I vote […]