Articles

[1] Raised in a parsonage in Michelsdorf in Germany, situated in the hills of Silesia – the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Silesian pastors, I was immersed in the Christian faith and its proclamation. My paternal, non-theological grandparents had died before I was born. My paternal uncles and aunts appeared only rarely in my life. […]

[1] What do I think about the first successful (albeit short-lived) cloning of human embryos for the purpose of deriving stem cells? Readers with a low tolerance for ambivalence are advised to ‘quit’ now because my answer will neither condemn nor celebrate the news from Worcester. At the risk of making matters worse I must […]

[1] Upon hearing that both houses of Congress approved legislation to allow the use of the Capitol Rotunda for their prayer session, the ubiquitous-and by now frenetic-Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS), complained: “If members of Congress want a religious service, they can go to their houses […]

[1] On a recent flight to Pittsburgh, several professors from a near-by university sat behind me discussing the danger of mixing religion and politics, particularly if the mixing is done by the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, whom my fellow academicians compared to Islamicists like Osama Ben Laden. That outrageous and false comparison […]

[1] Osama bin Laden and his mentor Sayyid Qutb are fundamentalists. So are Jerry Falwell and, in a slightly more complicated (because also pentecostalist), Pat Robertson. [2] Bin Laden & Co. are Muslims, who would rather kill you than let you connect them in any way with Protestant fundamentalists. Jerry Falwell & Co. are Christians, […]

Excerpted from: Piety, Politics, and Ethics: Reformation Studies in Honor of George Wolfgang Forell, Carter Lindberg, Editor (Copyright © 1984 by Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc., Kirksville, Missouri) Used with Permission. [1] Being asked to contribute to a Festschrift always presents one with the problem of relating one’s contribution to the opus of the individual […]

Preached in Christ Chapel, Gustavus Adolphus College on November 9, 2001 Exodus 3:13-20 [1] Well, the Federal Reserve has cut the prime rate by another half-percent. . . . Things are looking up for the New York Stock Exchange; a few days ago, I heard, it closed at its highest level since September 11. Inflation […]

Copyright © LET’S TALK. Used with permission. From Let’s Talk, Volume 6, Issue 2 [1] Comparing our two moral traditions is probably a dangerous undertaking for a Roman Catholic (or for a Lutheran, for that matter). I shall therefore begin with words from a mentor, James Gustafson. In his important work, Protestant and Roman Catholic […]

Copyright © 1995 WORD & WORLD, Luther Seminary. Used with permission. From Word & World, Volume XV, Number 3, pp. 272-278. [1] Luther’s teaching and practice of vocation has impacted women’s lives dramatically, but history’s jury is at odds over the results. Should we praise the doctor and his doctrine or vilify them? Is Lutheran […]

[1] Stem cell technologies represent a promising new area of medical research. The prospective benefits are astounding, with experiments demonstrating possibilities that just five years ago were science fiction. The current quest is for pluripotent1 stem cells that can generate any type of tissue needed by medical therapy. One exciting mouse experiment injected bone marrow […]