November 2, 2020
[1] Ronald F. Thiemann died of pancreatic cancer November 29, 2012, at the age of 66. The Humble Sublime, accepted for publication on the day of his funeral, was published November 30, 2013. It includes a brief but rich factual biography composed by four of his Harvard colleagues. In the Foreword, his daughter, Laura Theimann Scales, adds further […]
[1] In June, I was officially hired to begin as the new editor of Journal of Lutheran Ethics. While, this August issue is designed and edited by our book editor, Nancy Arnison, I was asked to use this opportunity to introduce myself to the regular readers of JLE. I am privileged and delighted by […]
[1] Summer reading is often wide-ranging. We dip into genres outside our typical work to explore worlds beyond our everyday existence. This book review issue honors that summertime trend as it explores ethical dimensions in literature, science, Buddhism, and Womanist Sass. [2] Diane Yeager takes us into the world of secular literature through the […]
[1] In this issue our book and resource reviews are focused on climate change. In an interdisciplinary approach, ethicists review works prompted by science and produced by journalists and a natural historian. [2] Stewart Herman reviews and compares two recent books, The End of Ice by Dahr Jamail (2019) and The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells (2019). Herman brings […]
African American/African Diaspora, African Continent
May 26, 1951 – December 22, 2018 No matter what your trials are, or how big your mountain seems; The Lord is there to see you through; To go to all extremes. So if your cross seems hard to bear, and you know not what to do; The One who loves you most of all will […]
[1] Thank you to Cynthia Moe-Lobeda for this thoughtful reflection on Luther and neighbor love within the context of our current economic systems. I agree wholeheartedly with most of her emphases in this essay, and so my brief response here will highlight a couple of aspects of the essay that I think are particularly […]
[1] Dear colleagues and friends, the focus for this gathering is vitally important. Addressing harsh economic inequity and seeking to identify and undo the factors that cause it is – I will argue – critical to Christian witness, and therefore is at the heart of what it means to be church in the heritage of […]
[1] This June/July issue of the Journal ties up several threads. One of those is marked by the Resolution in loving memory of the Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Echols, who served for several years as JLE’s editor. As JLE’s “publisher” I claim a moment of privilege as part of that recognition to write a bit […]
October 9, 2019
Christian Living, Discipleship, and/or Spirituality
Introduction [1] When looking at Christian figures from the past, interpreters primarily choose three routes, what I think of as the evolutionary, conservative, and progressive. A more evolutionary approach views Christian history as a development to maturity, with the earliest years of the church akin to its childhood and adolescence, the Middle Ages as perhaps […]
September 11, 2019
Science, Biological, Medical (genetics, illness/mental illness, death)
[1] The recent announcement by Advance Cell Technology seems to confirm what most people thought was sadly inevitable when almost five years ago a sheep named Dolly was created with cloning techniques. Cloning humans would be attempted, and it was. This effort – unremarkable as it was in its so-called success – is given the […]
