Articles

Luther and Conscience

Copyright © 1994, Word & World, Luther Seminary.Word & World, Supplement Series 2, pp. 57-65. First published in The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Bulletin 55/1 (1975) pp. 3-11, and delivered first at the 1974 Martin Luther Colloquium. Used with permission. [1] It is part of the conventional wisdom that the reformation was based upon […]

Luther and Christian Liberty

Copyright © 1994, Word & World, Luther Seminary. Word & World, Supplement Series 2, pp. 48-56. First published in the Lutheran Theological Seminary Bulletin 68/1 (Winter 1988), pp. 3-11. Dr. Forell delivered it in lecture form at the October, 1987, “Luther Symposium” at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Used with permission. A Focus of Controversy [1] While Luther […]

Faith and Science: An Interview

JLE conducted an internet interview with James Houck, a participant in a consultation held by the ELCA January 25-26, 2002 on faith and science. Houck, an active Lutheran, has been instrumental in the ELCA in bringing resolutions concerning faith and science to synod assemblies and ELCA Church Council. [1] JLE: Tell us about your backgrounds […]

An Interview with George Forell: September 6, 2001

[1] JLE: Why don’t you begin by telling us about your own involvement with Luther and Luther studies. [2] Forell: I could start by saying that I wasn’t really aware that I was a Lutheran when I transferred from Germany to Austria, because I was “evangelisch.” “Evangelisch” meant Lutheran where I came from, because we […]

Introduction to an Interview with George Forell, September 6, 2001

[1] George W. Forell has been one of the theological giants of the Lutheran churches in America for over half a century. During this time, he has been a major figure in helping to interpret Luther, and particularly a Lutheran understanding of Ethics, to generations of students and scholars alike. His influence on the self-understanding […]

ACT’s “Therapeutic Cloning” — Help or Hype?

[1] Our heated summer-time debates over human embryonic stem cell research were all but forgotten until we were jolted over the sleepy Thanksgiving weekend by an announcement from researchers at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a small biotech company in Massachusetts. On TV screens, in the pages of “U.S. News & World Report,” and online in […]

Beginning the Journey

[1] “Beginning the Journey” was the title given by the students at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg this spring as a request to the faculty for gathering information. The information they wanted to know specifically dealt with topics that concerned homosexuality and human sexuality. They believed they needed to know this information to prepare […]

The Ethics of Therapeutic Cloning

[1] The recent announcement by Advance Cell Technology seems to confirm what most people thought was sadly inevitable when almost five years ago a sheep named Dolly was created with cloning techniques. Cloning humans would be attempted, and it was. This effort – unremarkable as it was in its so-called success – is given the […]

The Ethics of Martin Luther

Luther did not base his doctrine of the two kingdoms or the two governments on his own speculative thinking. He felt that in this matter too his position was wholly determined by Scripture. He distinguishes two types of statements. One type is characterized by Jesus’ statements in the Sermon on the Mount and the apostles’ […]

The Divine Command

What is the role of the law in the Christian life? This has been and remains today an issue that lies close to the heart of Christian ethics, as may be seen, for example, in the recent conversations between Lutheran and Reformed theologians in America. Superior biblical exegesis and improvements in historical research have facilitated […]