Denise Rector

[1] Twenty years ago, bioengineers fiddled with plastic and wires and transducers while building gizmos. Today, a bioengineer is more likely to be tinkering with cells and chromosomes and genes while deciphering the stuff of life. [2] Gregory Stock’s book “Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future” preaches the promise of bioengineering-longer life and health spans, […]

The author argues that the U.S. and its partners have rightly arrived at war on Iraq as a just and necessary last resort. The potential problems with the just-war case are notable, particularly concerning the after-effects of the war, but they do not incurably undermine the case for going to war. Instead, both supporters and […]

This article comes from a new casebook on environmental ethics co-authored with James Martin Schramm and forthcoming from Orbis Books in 2004. [1] Two primary visions of the future vie with each other to control the direction of U.S. energy policy. Developmentalists such as President Bush and Vice President Cheney advocate increasing the supply of […]

[1] Three specific problems in the Bush administration’s policies warrant further analysis: 1) the renewed commitment to nuclear energy, 2) the exploration for oil in ANWR, and 3) the administration’s dismissal of global warming. The renewed commitment to nuclear energy is highly risky, even if, as the administration claims, technological advances have made an already […]

[1] We Christians claim that our Christ is cosmic. We use the word to indicate “the entire universe, this earth and all else.” Likewise, the word can be our shorthand for “all of creation, both humankind and other-kind.” If we have a cosmic Christ, what does that mean for our calling to love our neighbor? […]

The energy alternatives available to energy policy-makers are too numerous to consider in detail. Below is a list of the major alternatives, notes on each, and a summary assessment. 1) Conservation or energy efficiency, while technically not a source of energy, is an alternative that avoids the increased use of other sources. a. Forms: more […]

[1] Basic to a theological formulation about any issues is the question of what informs theology. Many of us have a similar answer worthy of continual study and reflection. We work from our faith traditions in the Bible, from our heritage of experience within our Christian religious community, our own experience within our historical contexts, […]

What does this mean? Luther asks this of each of the Ten Commandments, each petition of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Creed in order to reveal the implications of our articles of faith. We ask this question of Easter Sunday in the context of pastoral care. What does it mean to us that our Lord […]

This essay is slightly revised from a paper delivered at a meeting of the Faith and Order Commission, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, St. Louis, Missouri, October 11, 2002. [1] According to current statistics, there are over 65 million Lutherans in the world. Most of these (61.7 million) are members of […]

Previous: Justification for Violence in Islam, Part IX: Quietist Authoritarianism and Activist Radicalism [83] Historical development of Islam as a power-faith tradition with its ideology firmly based on creating the ethical order that embodied divine will on earth provided a detailed and thoroughly developed vision of peace with justice. The basis for such a commitment […]