Articles

Eliot Spitzer and Barack Obama reveal sharply divergent attitudes toward human community. Which one do Americans really want … or understand? [1] Don’t get me wrong. What Eliot Spitzer did is reprehensible. But my first reaction to the scandal was not, “throw the bum out.” [2] The former New York governor climbed the political ladder […]

[1] The fall of yet another politician on grounds of marital infidelity is nothing new, but it is always news. It is also tiresome and upsetting, for we would like to think that our elected officials are decent people whose character would not allow this kind of conduct. It prompts some thoughts about personal morality […]

[1] After they’ve read his compelling spiritual autobiography, I ask my students the obvious question: “What is Augustine confessing?” To a person they reply: “His sins.” To be sure, Augustine recounts his sins in vivid detail. But Gilbert Meilaender offers a second answer: “His love of God.” Moreover, Augustine confesses from a nature that is […]

[1] Gilbert Meilaender begins his engaging reflections on The Way that Leads There by quoting a child’s grave marker: Dear Jesus You know that I love you Take me to yourself (1). With these simple words Meilaender leads readers into a profound discussion of the moral life. The marker, he notes, expresses a human neediness […]

[1] On the first page of Meilaender’s book, The Way that Leads There, he dedicates the work to Jonathan, Charlotte, Miriam, and Veronika, and just beneath their names he offers a quotation from Augustine-Ibi vacabinums et videbimus, videbimus et amabimus, amabimus et laudabimus[1]–“We shall be still and see, shall see and love, shall love and […]

[1] Gilbert Meilander has let us in on his sustained and even quite personal conversation with Augustine. It is a genuine dialogue in which the views of the two parties concerning the Christian life are sharpened by the exchange. We read in the Preface that Augustine is cast as the teacher to whom the author […]

1] Abstract: Proleptic ethics begins by projecting a vision of a preferred future; then it seeks creative opportunities to actualize the vision. Grounded in God’s eschatological promise of transformation and new creation, proleptic ethics projects a vision of a just, sustainable, and healthy society. This approach is contrasted with the ethical task according to stop […]

[1] At the onset, a disclaimer: these are reflections for a half-hour, not so much comprehensive as suggestive, investigative, provocative ¼ characterized as much by musing and wrestling as by research, especially from one on the theological side of the equation: [2] “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and […]

With What Should the ELCA Grapple in the Study Process that Forms the Process Leading to a Social Statement? [1] It is an article of faith–among scientists no less than among Christians– that the natural world is intelligible. While science cannot explain why this may be so, believers construe the regularity and intelligibility of the […]

Life-Extension: Past, Present, and Future [1] At the beginning of the 20th century, the average life expectancy in the United States was 48 years. One hundred years later, it is 78. This change came from public health gains: sanitation, diet, immunization, antibiotics. Americans did not decide in 1900 to pursue 30 more years on Earth. […]