Articles

After establishing that the Earth is entering a new period, the Anthropocene, Rasmussen uses the legacy of the Reformation, along with the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to explore how humans need to enter a new Reformation in which we truly recognize the planet as sacred and treat it as such.

​Rasmussen writes that scientists have concluded that we have entered a new geological age due to human activity. We are now having a bigger impact on the natural environment than ever before, changing mountains, oceans, even the atmosphere itself. What should the moral or ethical response be when so-called natural disasters are the result of humans, particularly when the people who create the problems are not the people who suffer the worst effects?

As global​ climate change​ increases in its rate and effects, an energetic and faithful conversation about the related ethical issues also grows in urgency. This issue of Journal of​ Lutheran Ethics offers two presentations by Larry Rasmussen to the 2014 Lutheran Ethicists Gathering that explore this challenge. Dr. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of […]

Love thy neighbor. We all know that verse, but what does it mean in terms of the global economy? For instance, how do we love our neighbors in the Global South if we do not know, or ignore, how our economic choices impact them every day? Furthermore, in an age of environmental harm, how do we redefine who our neighbor is? Moe-Lobeda explores these questions while envisioning the possibility of a moral economy.

​We very often associate capitalism with the modern Occupy Wall Street movement, or Marx writing in the 19th century. However, Hansen argues Luther himself witnessed the emergence of capitalism in Europe. What did he have to say from a theological perspective about markets and debt?

A persistent and unfortunate reality in our world today is that, in relative terms, the rich get richer even as the poor get poorer. Is this just the inevitable and tragic nature of life or are there certain economic, market and other forces that combine to produce such a result, namely, marginalization? In the wake […]

in the air and waters. [2] The moral problem is not mainly that we seek “bad things,” though, of course, there are plenty of examples of people grasping for products they shouldn’t have at all, not even in moderation. Instead, the main problem is seeking too much of the many good things in life. In […]

(Review: Theologians in Their Own Words. Edited by Derek R. Nelson, Joshua M Moritz, and Ted Peters.) [1] Teacher, social activist and womanist author bell hooks writes, “When professors bring narratives of their experiences into classroom discussions it eliminates the possibility that we can function as all-knowing, silent interrogators. It is often productive if professors […]

[1] Christian minjung theologies arose in the 1970s and 1980s in South Korea. They were articulated by a small group of Protestant pastors and intellectuals who became part and parcel of the late 20th century minjung movement—a cultural phenomenon led by artists, students, labor organizers, and intellectuals—that included a retrieval of traditional artistic forms, a […]

The Dilemma [1] In my last congregational ministry, prior to my election as a synod bishop, the congregation I served was standing on the brink of a crisis faced by hundreds of ELCA congregations now. We were a vibrant, growing, intergenerational, mission-driven, middle-class, white, English-speaking faith community, living and working in a mission field that […]