October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
[1] Whether or not it’s true that change is the only constant in the universe, change has been the constant theme behind the scenes for the Journal of Lutheran Ethics in the past 10 months. As most JLE reader’s now know, editor Victor Thasiah has resigned his position with the ELCA’s churchwide office to teach […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
[1] Sez You! [2] This well-known playground rejoinder (or am I the only one reading JLE who knows Brooklynese?) doesn’t characterize ecclesiastical disagreements. But it does get at the root of what they are often about. To put it in more refined terms befitting this journal: Who can exercise authority, and how is it properly […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
See Part II of this article by Susan Wilds McArver Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] The decision by American Lutheran churches to ordain women, made in stages through joint study and church convention, used modern […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] My concern is to sort out the kinds of authority that exist in the church. The Questions [2] Three basic, interlocking questions need to be considered. What is the nature […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
[1] Welcome to the continuation of the excellent papers presented at the Association of Teaching Theologians. The papers posted this month, still heeding the call to address the theme of authority, are threefold: [2] Darrell Jodock, in Rethinking Authority in the Church Today addresses the nature of authority, the nature of authority in the church, […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. How It Is [1] The Christian historian Papias of Hierapolis surprises us when he lays down a principle (which turns out to be quite conventional) of assigning higher value to oral […]
October 2011 (Volume 11 Issue 6)
Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. Exordium A poem inspired by Genesis 4, the story of humanity’s first child. It’s entitled “Without You.”1 Back before the dawn, east of envy, error or wrong, that’s where I wish […]
See also Paul R. Hinlicky’s Luther and the Beloved Community:A Path for Christian Theology after Christendom by Bo Kristian Holm [1] I am grateful to Bo Holm for his careful and insightful elaboration of my recent book on Luther. Taking the book on its own terms, he grasps its leading intentions very well and in […]
[1] E.W. Mueller (1908–1993) was for many years the Secretary of Church in Town and Country for the National Lutheran Council. The NLC was a cooperative venture among Lutherans during the mid-20th century. At a time when Lutherans were split in several different denominational organizations, the NLC provided cooperative programming of benefit to the churches. […]
[1] For 40 years, Stanley Hauerwas has been a force to be reckoned with in Christian ethics. Yet too often that reckoning fails to occur, either because pejorative categories impede vigorous debate, or because shared convictions are left unexamined. As an example of the former, notice how “sectarian” is never a reflective conclusion earned by […]
