Articles

 In this issue we would like to point those who lead Congregational Discussion with 2 resources that include study guides and questions.  [1]  For those interested in learning more about the original Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed, the ELCA has created a study guide for congregations.  This can be found here. [2]  In […]

[1] Can salvation by faith alone provide a basis for Christian unity in churches being fractured by ethical debates? Even with the recent ecumenical agreements with the Orthodox on the filioque, discussions of ecumenism seem moot for denominations that are struggling to maintain internal unity in the face of fractious debates over social issues, especially […]

[1] 2025 marked 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea (325 CE), where bishops gathered—including from Bichvinta in what is now occupied Abkhazia to articulate the Church’s faith. Yet, in the last century, neither together nor separately did the Christian churches, East or West, protect humanity from the Holocaust and the Gulag. Today, the occupying […]

[1] Esteemed readers of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, this edition offers a fascinating biographical examination of New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan’s 2024 examination of Paul’s as a Pharisaic Jewish teacher whose messianic message resonates today. Crossan links the prevalent violence of first-century Roman civilization to modern ecological and societal issues, presenting Jesus’ execution […]

[1] Why would you want to take a deep dive into seeing and understanding the Pharisaic Paul of the New Testament? I will tell you up front that John Dominic Crossan’s Paul the Pharisee: A Vision Beyond the Violence of Civilization is that deep dive and you will want to take your time, and even […]

How should Christians think about AI? In this episode, we talk about the role and challenges of AI and faith.    

[1] Esteemed readers of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, in this volume we shall explore a recent morally significant theological examination of the Lutheran approach to child abuse. Child abuse is a pressing social problem with severe long-lasting effects that has commonly been recognized as a major public health crisis in our society. The Journal […]

[1] In November of 2025, the ELCA approved a social message on child protection which calls for a number of reforms and greater theological engagement with the topic of child abuse. One of the resources cited in the social message is Here We Stand: A Lutheran Response to Child Abuse. This book is a collection […]

[1] To describe the concerns raised by artificial intelligence (AI) would require us to speak of a broad swath of concerns: the environment, energy supply, human rights, privacy, employment, the future of the arts, and scholarship. While those who aim to profit financially from AI focus on its potential, which does indeed seem remarkable, other […]

[1] “If we open up ChatGPT or a system like it and look inside, you just see millions of numbers flipping around a few hundred times a second, and we just have no idea what any of it means….We built the computers, but then we just gave the faintest outline of a blueprint and kind […]