Articles

[1] Introduction. The process of globalization of the world economies has recently generated severe protests from many quarters, including on the pages of this journal (Moe-Lobeda, 2001; Yutzis, 2001). Among these critics, almost every social ill from poverty to pollution to pestilence seems to be caused by globalization and the evils of capitalism. In this […]

[1] In recent months, the President and other members of his administration have openly declared their desire and intent to achieve “regime change” in Iraq. And since previous methods of ousting Saddam Hussein-economic sanctions and coup d’etat-have obviously failed, the President is seriously considering even more dramatic options, including full-scale military invasion (Shanker). How should […]

[1] More than twenty years have gone by since I was paired with the first seminarian who arrived at New Hope Lutheran Church in Jamaica, New York, to begin a year of internship under my supervision. The year was 1985. Not so clear to either of us at the time was the fact that the […]

An Ecumenical Problem [1] The question of the two kingdoms is one of the most pressing and delicate in contemporary religious and theological thought. No other aspect of Luther’s theology has been so fiercely attacked as this doctrine. Where Luther drew a clear line between spiritual and temporal authority, and expressly emphasised that under no […]

Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 34, pp. 321-337. Used with permission. [1] The facet of his thought commonly referred to as the doctrine of the two kingdoms has provoked some of the most intractable confusion and bitter controversy in post-war continental Luther scholarship, and the ripples of this debate which reached these shores […]

[1] Whoever is worried that Lutheranism as a living tradition is at risk should take heart from the publication of The Promise of Lutheran Ethics. Even before one assays its substance, the book is remarkable. It is a collection of seven thoughtfully drawn essays by eight disparate writers, introduced by two short reflections by the […]

[1] To judge by the current volume, the enterprise of “Lutheran ethics” is alive and well. Indeed, it’s a growth industry. The exhaustive bibliography provided by co-editor John Stumme lists some 45 books and articles on the subject by recognizably Lutheran scholars in the first 50 years of the present century (1900-1949), 115 in the […]

[1] Fifty years ago, the United Lutheran church commissioned some theologians, including Joseph Sittler, William Lazareth, and George Forell, to contribute to a three volume set entitled Christian Social Responsibility. Like them, the authors of this new collection of essays have been commissioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – through its Church Council […]

onoring African American Elders: A Ministry in the Soul Community. Anne Streaty Wimberly, editor. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997, 185 pages, a Preface, References, and Index. [1] Honoring African American Elders: A Ministry in the Soul Community, I found to be an interesting book. The title in essence captures the editor’s intent to cause the […]

Setting the Table: The Retrieval of Civil Society [1] It is no accident that Habermas revised his sociological theory in the early 1990s by attending more closely to civil society. Already before the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern European dissidents were focusing on the renewal of civil society, even in the […]