Articles

A Foolish Vocation

[1] During my freshman year in college, four college students were shot to death by National Guardsman in an incident now only known as Kent State. In the days that followed, college students around the country experienced the anger, anxiety, and confusion that my own students experienced after 9-11. Many asked, how could death happen […]

Indivisible Day and the Pledge of Allegiance: One Nation Under God?

[1] In Minnesota, the ever-controversial Governor Jesse Ventura is under fire for declaring this 4th of July “Indivisible Day” at the suggestion of the Atheists of Minnesota for Human Rights. In the wake of a federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel decision declaring that the language “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates […]

Practicing Faith and Practicing Law

[1] My topic for the conference is the practices of faith and the practice of law, and I begin by offering a story that presents these two sets of practices in sharp relief. I will then make some general remarks on the subject of practices in general, what practices are and do, and then conclude […]

Religion in Sport

[1] Any religion worth its salt embraces all of life, not just the recesses of the heart, the sacred hour on Sunday, or the intimacies of family and friendship. A serious Christian, Jew, or Muslim who participates in sport also practices that athletic activity in the light of his or her faith. So there is […]

Workplace Justice and the Church

[1] The parish served by the young minister was in a small town with several factories, one of which was owned by a family prominent in his congregation. The workers were poorly paid and unorganized, and the pastor helped them form a trade union. He was invited to speak at the local Workers’ Association, and […]

Lazareth on Luther

[1] Writing in the season of Lent, I might helpfully begin with an act of confession. My first published comments engaging the work of William Lazareth included a vigorous critique. Writing on the topic of sexuality and the Lutheran church, I challenged Lazareth’s strong position against blessing gay unions and ordaining those gay and lesbian […]

A Review of Let Christ be Christ: Theology, Ethics & World Religions in the Two Kingdoms. Essays in Honor of the Sixty-Fifth Birthday of Charles L. Manske

1] This volume, a Festschrift for Charles Louis Manske, a decades-long leader in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), reads as a veritable “Who’s Who” of LCMS theologians. However, the volume is, shall we say, “inter-synodical,” containing essays by ELCA theologians George Forell, Ben Johnson, William Russell, and Trygve Skarsten. Naturally, the collection of essays […]

La Crisis Argentina: Economía, Sociedad y Etica en tiempos de la Globalización

Donde estamos [1] La dimensión que ha alcanzado hoy el conjunto de la economía, significa una concentración tal de poder y de influencia penetrante de tipo económico, político, social y cultural, que el carácter de la sociedad capitalista contemporánea tiene está experimentando transformaciones fundamentales con repercusiones significativas sobre las poblaciones de los países desarrollados y […]

Preaching Justice: The Ethical Vocation of Word and Sacrament Ministry

This article is James Childs’ address from February 4, 1998, when he was installed in the newly established Sittler Chair. Copyright © 1998 TRINITY SEMINARY REVIEW, Trinity Seminary. Used with permission. From Trinity Seminary Review, Number 20, Spring/Summer 1998. [1] I am keenly aware that whatever shine is on me is that of reflected glory […]

Revisiting the Question of the Muslim Deity

[1] The question is whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This question has been posed, and answered in the negative, by Walter R. Bouman (JLE, 4/8/02). Harold Vogelaar has weighed in on the other side (JLE, 4/24/02). I would like to affirm everything Professor Vogelaar has to say, especially in his distinction between […]