Denise Rector

In this edition of the JLE we take a look at the social statements that the ELCA has produced in its 30 years of existence. In the first article, Christopher Suehr examines whether there is a common thread connecting the different social statements. He finds such a thread in the way the concept of dignity is used or implied in the different statements. After analyzing the different meanings of the term in the different documents he comes to the conclusion that they do share a stable understanding of dignity that gives them a certain ethical coherence. That stable underlying understanding of dignity is that dignity is a relational category, one that creatures are endowed with by virtue of their relationship with God as their creator. For that reason dignity is assumed to be universal and inalienable. What is not clear in the way dignity is used in the different ELCA Social Statements, however, is whether they assume that there are different degrees of dignity among different kinds of creatures and if so then what would be the criteria to decide.

We often talk about inherent human “dignity”–but what does that mean? Does the ELCA have a consistent definition? Suehr examines each of the ELCA social statements to thoroughly analyze how often they use the term and concept of dignity and what they mean by it. This piece is particularly timely as it comes during the draft period for the upcoming social statement on women and justice.

In 2010, a controversy erupted over the draft of a new social statement on genetics, as some people in farming communities claimed the document labeled using genetically engineered crops as sinful. Glenna and Stofferahn use this case study as a jumping off point to dive into what libertarianism looks like the United States today, particularly in an agrarian context. Can this political stance on the common good be compatible with Christianity?

Editor’s Note: The Journal of Lutheran Ethics welcomes Dr. Nancy Arnison as our new Book Review Editor. [1] A publishing bonanza has accompanied the 500th anniversary of Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” issued in Wittenberg in October, 2017. This issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics surveys a diverse sampling of these new resources. While future issues […]

When people think of the period of the Reformation, they often picture the destruction of religious art. However, the Lutheran tradition did not take that path. Hoeferkamp Segovia examines Martin Luther’s theological relationship with religious art and explores what it means for us 500 years later.

Martin Luther wore many hats, but ultimately he was a teacher of the Bible. However, this work was not purely academic, nor was it easy. Rivera traces Luther’s intellectual and spiritual journey in Biblical exegesis and the freedom he found therein.

[1] On the occasion of the 500th observance of the Reformation, it is appropriate to look back and reconsider some of the themes and strategies that gave wings to the movement. In this issue of JLE we will focus on two such themes and emphases, namely the role of Anfechtung in Luther’s wrestling with the […]

[1] For Armed Forces members, “…caught in some of life’s worst heart-rending situations…the practice of the Christian ethic does not operate with the certitude of moral perfection but rather with the assurance of God with us with grace for the way” write the authors of this thoughtful, compact, far-reaching new book (pages 9, 130). Wollom […]

[1] I came to this book as a preacher with a fully awakened understanding that the Earth is in crisis and a partially awakened sense that the Church’s way of speaking about Creation (Dr. Schade argues for capitalizing the word) is in need of reform. What I was looking for in Schade’s book was some […]

In this issue of the JLE we continue to explore the role of sanctification in the thought of Luther vis-à-vis that of John Wesley. The original setting of these papers was the January 2017 meeting of the Lutheran Ethicists Gathering which included an actual dialogue between Methodist and Lutheran ethicists. In the first article, Svend Andersen, professor at the Department of Theology in the University of Aarhus, Denmark, compares and contrasts Wesley’s explicit elaboration of sanctification as moral perfection with Luther’s more implicit understanding of sanctification especially as it finds expression in his discussions of the role of love in the life of the believer and the work of the Holy Spirit in the economy of salvation. In the second article on this issue, Mathew Riegel, bishop of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, offers an erudite exploration of the place of justification and sanctification in the thought of Luther.