Articles

Globalization affects all aspects of our lives, from the products available at the supermarket to the music we hear on the radio. Church is not immune to this, nor should it be. However, Rajashekar points to how theological education has not effectively embraced the gifts of globalization. Instead, the pattern has been to continue to see white male theology as universally applicable and correct, and theology coming from the global South as relevant only in its own context. Rajashekar explores how this power imbalance influences the theology being produced as well as how students of theology are being educated in the all over the world.

Lloyd Steffen and Dennis R. Cooley. The Ethics of Death: Religious and Philosophical Perspectives in Dialogue. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 325pp.

Olson’s concern with the last twenty-five years of critical work on Paul’s identity as a Christ-believing hellenistic, diasporan Jew is its potential to shift the Lutheran paradigm of the proper boundaries of Christian praxis for Jews. Olson notes that this desire was expressed in the papers of the 2014 Helsinki consultation on “Continuity in the Body of the Messiah”. Christ-believing Jews wish “to express election and covenant-based Torah practice in the church” as part of their Christian witnesss. Such commitment to God’s earlier and continuing covenant is not foreign to Paul’s thinking about Jews, “… to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah (Rom 9:4-5)”. Thus, Mattison explores the question of would or could the Pharisaic, diasporan Paul have kept the Law while an apostle to the Gentiles? What would be the criterion for keeping the Law?

Peter Tomson reckoned Paul’s theology of justification able to coexist with his Law (Torah) observance. Recent exegetical work based on the view that Paul remained within Judaism make reconsideration of Tomson’s position timely. Olson examines five theological criteria in Stephen Westerholm’s Lutheran Paul, arguing that Paul so defined might also consistently observe the Jewish Sabbath and dietary laws. If so, the ‘Third Use’ of the Law is relevant for all Christians.

In this edition of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, the perennial issue of whether Christians are called to “keep the law” is explored. While Jon Olson’s article and Robin Mattison’s response center on the Apostle Paul, his Jewish heritage and the extent to which he continued to observe the Sabbath and observe the dietary laws […]

Brattston acknowledges that Christians have an obligation to care for the poor because of Scripture. However, he points to the first two hundred years of Christian community, before debates of doctrine created a splintered church, as a further sign that all Christians share these forebears and therefore should listen to their counsel to care for the poor. In the spirit of the early church fathers, Brattston urges Christians to pray for justice and contact their political representatives to enact policies that will support sustainable and sufficient standards of living.

​Eric Trozzo, Rupturing Eschatology: Divine Glory and the Silence of the Cross. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).​

Shiela E. McGinn, Lai Lang, Elizabeth Ngan, Ahida Calderon-Pilarski, eds. By Bread Alone: The Bible through the Eyes of the Hungry. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 257 pages, $29.00

Excerpted from the official statement of the Conference of International Black Lutherans’ second meeting, “A Message from Bulawayo,” this piece discusses the complex social, economic, and political forces that create the crisis of poverty worldwide. Though the message was published in 1997, its contents are still frighteningly relevant today. ​

As Christians, we are called to serve the poor. However, how do we do so justly and effectively? Green notes that by identifying the poor as “other”–as something outside of “us”–we do a disservice to the community and often do not help those in need. Christians should stand in solidarity with those in poverty as members of the body of Christ.​