Articles

What are America’s Obligations to Iraq after an Unjust War?

[1] A recent development in the just war tradition has been to identify a third stage of war: the time after hostilities cease. The requirements of justice do not stop at the moment of a ceasefire, but continue through activities such as repatriation of captured soldiers, war crimes trials, and reparations. Such obligations have long […]

Some Thoughts on U.S. Responsibility in Iraq

[1] The issue addressed to the symposium concerns the nature of U.S. obligations to Iraq. The language of obligation suggests the editors of JLE have in mind a moral question, and, indeed, there is a moral question here, although it is of a certain sort. More precisely, the question of U.S. obligation to Iraq is […]

Our Moral Obligation to Iraq? We Need to Know What the Iraqis Think

[1] One striking feature of the continuing U.S. debate about the Iraq War is that the Iraqi civilian victims are absent from the discussion. We-the U.S. voting public-simply don’t know very much about what they want, and particularly what they want from us. We occasionally hear the cries of victims in news reports, and often […]

Four Global Challenges

This article is the seventh chapter of Professor Simpson’s War, Peace, and God: Rethinking the Just-War Tradition, available from Augsburg Fortress Press. It is reprinted in JLE by permission. Four Global Challenges [1] In this final chapter I introduce four global challenges as we ponder God’s preferential future for earthly peace. First, we will look […]

Introduction to the Symposium, “What does the United States owe Iraq?”

[1] Journal of Lutheran Ethics asked persons who had written earlier in JLE on Iraq to write once again in light of current circumstances. JLE asked them to address the question: “What does the United States owe Iraq? What obligations does the U.S. have toward Iraq?” [2] Six writers take up the challenge. They all […]

Jus Post Bellum—Seeking Peace in Iraq

[1] On January 26, 2007 Bishop Mark S. Hanson called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to conversation on Iraq: “Our country is engaged in a divisive debate about the nature and the direction of this war… As the war in Iraq escalates and the way to a lasting peace seems unclear, how shall […]

What it Means to Be “Disabled”: Theological and Ethical Reflections

[1] As someone who teaches and writes about disability and theology, I have been increasingly intrigued by the assumptions that people make about my own disability status. On the one hand, people who have not met me but yet are familiar with my work often assume that I have a disability-or, perhaps, am closely related […]

Wrestle A Blessing

[1] A biblical image that comes to mind when I think of raising a child with special needs, is that of Jacob wrestling a blessing from God in Genesis 32:22-32. In the story Jacob was returning to his homeland after being gone for many years. He had left home because he had tricked his brother […]

Living in Paradox: Female Identity in Early and Medieval Christianity

[1] Gender and sexuality present two of the most basic and intimate forms of difference, differences that inescapably pervade familial and social relationships. For this reason, how people conceive of differences between male and female affects their fundamental perception of the world and their place in it. In the history of Christianity, women generally have […]

In the midst of things we cannot understand…

[1] Her eyes were red and puffy and dried out from all the tears she had shed. Her head was swimming from all the information and terminology she had heard these last few days. She asked the nurse in the clinic, “Do you have somebody who can come and help me understand what I’m supposed […]