heatherdean

Introduction [1] Over the past several decades, theological education has undergone significant changes due to declining enrollment and more recently a global pandemic. In response there have been seminary mergers with undergraduate institutions, widespread use of hybrid and on-line models of education, and closures. While changing winds have affected all seminaries, the ones who have […]

[1] Just days after the election, with the board of directors on campus for their fall meeting, then LSTC President, James Nieman, scraped his prepared board report.  Instead, he shared five significant potential threats he saw to in the rhetoric of the U.S. President elect. He also gave theological responses to those. Nieman clearly stated, […]

[1] Artificial Intelligence is a highly contested topic. Many conversations in social, political, and academic contexts eventually turn to the implications of AI on job prospects, college success, and more.[i] [2] While discussing this topic can often feel overwhelming, the role of synthetic thinking produced by AI requires us to analyze the broader implications felt […]

[1] As Executive Director of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU), I have a job description, but I have a vocation too. It is a calling that transcends the tasks of administration to touch the spiritual, intellectual, and moral life of our communities. To lead NECU is to be a steward of 28 […]

The Journal of Lutheran Ethics is meant to be a bridge between congregations and the academy.  This issue in particular is a good time to discuss the connection between our NECU schools and our ELCA churches.  The following discussion questions can be used to lead a conversation on this relationship.  Luther was both a pastor […]

[1] Martin Luther was a pastor, a husband, and a father.  He was, also, a university professor.  He was a tireless advocate for education for girls as well as boys, for the working poor as well as for the wealthy elite.  He insisted to both parents and princes that they must provide education for all […]

[1] Robert Graetz’s memoir echoes through the years, from mid-1950’s Alabama, to the present. And we would do well to note the resonances in 2025, the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. [2] Graetz wrote his memoir in his early 60s, reflecting on the tumultuous events that had happened 35 years prior. He could’ve […]

[1] As Lutheranism in North America undergoes a discernible identity crisis and rediscovery, no one has seen the developments of the Lutheran church like Lowell Almen, who served over 20 years as the Secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Almen, ordained into the American Lutheran Church in 1967, oversaw the changing demographics of the Lutheran […]

In this edition we include two book reviews that are primarily reflections on ministry and history. Thomas Johnston’s review of Lowell Almen’s book, A Dream Eclipsed: A Fractured Quest for Greater Lutheran Unity, explores the history and trajectory of the formation of the ELCA from the perspective of a central figure in contemporary Lutheranism. Almen […]

Introduction [1] For many years, I’ve been doing training about safe and healthy relationships in our ELCA churches. Often when I ask, “Who taught you about safe and healthy relationships?” I hear a lot of stammering “…uh…my parents, kinda…my teacher in health class…TV…the internet?”  This was my experience as well, although we didn’t have the […]