Articles

[1] Working with the authors who contributed to this issue of JLE, has been an exercise that has renewed my spirit.  I admit my spirit needed renewing. The news of the Dobbs decision and the immediate consequences has felt like a forceful slap against women as persons deserving of the rights to moral autonomy and […]

[1] Let me begin by underscoring that this is a book to be bought and read. Mary Streufert is the Director for Justice for Women, ELCA at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In this volume she calls for “multigendered language and images for God … unhinging Christian language for God from almost entirely masculine […]

 [1] As we are launched into the Anthropocene era—the proposed new geologic period defined by climactic changes and mass extinction brought on by humans—Dianne Rayson takes us through an analysis of this event through the lens of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. She asks if the theology and ethics of the young pastor Bonhoeffer that were formed […]

[1] The books reviewed in this issue of JLE bring the insights of Luther and Bonhoeffer to contemporary struggles over gendered language for God and the crisis of climate change. In Language for God: A Lutheran Perspective, Mary Streufert offers reasons and resources for embracing multigendered images of God. Reviewer Allen Jorgenson finds that her […]

[1] The 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly authorized the development of an ELCA social statement on government, civic engagement and the relationship of church and state as a means to probe for shared convictions and establish this church’s comprehensive teaching. The ELCA task force has been at work since October of 2020 in forums of listening […]

[1] This issue of Journal of Lutheran Ethics suggests constructive ways of thinking of the relationship between piety and justice, faith and secular reasoning, church and state.  The following activities encourage the development of the virtues needed for such conversations as well as specific activities to help communities engage together on this topic.   Activity […]

Note: This a revision of a shorter (unpublished) edition of this paper that was orally presented at the conference: Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology (LEST) XIII, Dissenting Church: Exploring the Theological Power of Conflict and Disagreement, October 22, 2021. [1] Theological disagreement in the church is often seen as something to avoid at all costs […]

[1] In my experience as a scholar and teacher of American constitutional law, I have frequently resorted to our Lutheran tradition as a guide for understanding why we place emphasis on, and how we distinctively understand, concepts such as the rule of law and the separation of church and state.  In American constitutional classes, we […]

[1] Dr. Robert Benne, prominent Lutheran theologian and ethicist is the closest Lutheran theologian who actively utilizes the theology of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Christian Realism” within a Lutheran framework.[1] Dr. Benne has been a public theologian for the past 30 years and has explored different theological and ethical concepts, authored numerous books, and served as professor […]

[1] To say “I’m not political: I will remain neutral” is not neutral.  Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim. Silence helps the tormentor, never the tormented.”[i] We live in a time of violent civil unrest.  We live in a democracy, but democracy is fragile. We become discouraged and tempted to become […]